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Creating a great podcast starts with an interesting idea and a good name, but building a community of regular listeners also requires some legwork. When it comes to podcast promotion, a strong brand personality and visual identity will help you stand out and attract an audience. Armed with a strong podcast name, you can then set your sights on creating artwork for your podcast, putting out requests for listeners to review your show, and promoting it across your social media channels.
Create high-quality artwork for your podcast
When getting ready to promote a podcast, creating a catchy, professional-looking logo or artwork is essential. Getting seen will help you be heard. An interesting, professional-looking image will help draw attention to your show when potential listeners are looking through their podcast apps.
Here are some common guidelines to follow for creating cover art for your podcast:
Square .jpg or .png file that’s 512 KB or less
Between 1400x1400 pixels and 3000x3000 pixels
RGB color format
72 DPI
If you don’t have graphic design experience yourself, work with a professional to create the cover art. You can then use that art to create additional promo images for social media or email marketing.
Submit your RSS feed to the top podcast directories
Once you have a trailer and an episode or two published on your podcast website, you’re ready to submit your Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feed to the podcast directories. RSS feeds are how podcast aggregators and directories pick up your podcast content and podcast episode information, like show notes. On a Squarespace website, you can find the link for your RSS feed by adding an RSS block to your podcast landing page, then right click it and copy the link address.
You can also follow this format to get the link for your RSS feed, plugging in the correct URL for your blog page: https://yoursitename.com/blogname?format=rss
You can then submit your RSS link to the different podcast platforms. Many directories pull from the largest platforms, like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so make sure they’re on your list. To ensure your show is getting picked up, make sure it’s appearing in other directories, like Stitcher and Overcast. Head to a podcasting platform’s website to submit your podcast’s RSS feed. After a quick verification process, you’ll be able to publish your podcast.
Ask your listeners to leave a review
There’s a reason that podcasters frequently ask their listeners to rate and review their podcast. It’s a way for a podcast host to promote their show, while also involving their audience. While ratings and reviews won’t help you shoot up the charts of a podcast directory or rise in search engine results, they can help new audiences find your show.
Many podcast listeners look for a four- or five-star rating before they’ll press play on a new podcast. And positive reviews can tell potential listeners more about your show than what you’re able to convey in the title and summary. Plus, having an active community of devoted fans indicates that your podcast is a worthwhile investment of a new listener’s time.
Word-of-mouth recommendations also help, though you can’t track them as easily. This includes recommendations from any podcast guests you have. Being a guest on their show or them talking about your show to their own followers can be a strong cross-promotion strategy since you may share similar target audiences. People will likely trust a podcast recommendation from someone they know and be more willing to give an episode a listen.
Use social media to promote new episodes
Especially if your podcast is more than a passion project, then try some podcast marketing strategies on social media to announce the launch of your show, alert listeners when new episodes are released, and engage with your audience. Posting a trailer or soundbites of an episode along with an image or a short video can entice followers to listen and make for shareable content. And if your fans begin to share your posts, then your reach will grow even further.
There are two Squarespace tools that make it easier to advertise your podcasts in social media. With trendy, customizable templates, the Unfold app makes it easy to create professional-looking posts optimized for different social media platforms.
Unfold has templates for video and still image posts, plus story-style posts, which you can sync to music and customize to match your podcast’s brand. The app also lets you schedule posts so you can reach your audience consistently while focusing your attention on your other podcasting work.
With the Bio Sites tool, you can create a custom link-in-bio that acts as a hub for all of your podcast links, like a link to subscribe or links to your podcast website and latest episode. Drop the link into the website section of any social media bio so it’s always easy for your audience to find your most important links.