Tips & Tricks

Overview

Podcasting is one of the most effective mediums for creators - but it’s also one of the most challenging places to get started and grow an audience.

This is why it’s so important to turn new listeners into loyal fans.

For all its challenges, finding success as a Podcaster means that you get to create content about things you love for an intensely loyal and highly motivated audience. Your listeners spend hours and hours with you, and they really get to know you—they’re not just passively swiping through your posts in a feed.

This guide will help you build a foundation to start taking social media seriously as a strategy for growing your audience. We’ll talk about some of the basics that you should have in place before you even get started, how to siphon traffic from TikTok and Instagram to grow an audience on Twitch, as well as how to monetize your audience in new ways by going direct to your biggest fans.

Whether you’re just getting started or you’re already hosting full time, you need a way to collect fan contact info and create a direct connection to your listeners.



Why First Party Data? 

First party data means that you are in direct control of your fanbase and your data. It means fans have opted in to receiving messages from YOU, and you maintain ownership of that information.

Laylo was built as the platform where you’re able to connect directly with and manage your audience. While Laylo is hosting and analyzing the data, you’re able to cancel your account, download, and keep your audience any time.

Why Laylo?

Laylo is the world’s most powerful and customizable creator messaging platform — and takes seconds to set up. 

Creating your Laylo is easy—it’s completely free and only takes a few minutes. Check out Make a Creator Account to get started, and once you’re signed up, you can create your first Drop. This is the link that fans can sign up on to get notified about anything you’re releasing - content, merch, events, NFTs and more.

But the best part about Laylo is that they don’t require your followers to download or install anything. All your followers need to do is tap your link and choose how they want to join your list and hear from you - via SMS, Instagram DM, Facebook Messenger, Email or Discord.

Once you’ve made your Laylo and Drop link, you have a place to start experimenting with new ways for people to connect with you. You can message fans anytime and even segment those messages based on fan location, interests and more. Everything from sharing new episodes to announcing live events can be done from your dashboard.

How To Start Collecting Fan Contacts

Now that you’ve made your Laylo link, the next step is to actually launch it. It’s time to start getting your fans on your list!

This is easy on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and more. Simply add your Laylo Profile link to your social bios, or if you already have a Drop link ready, you can post that on your story or social bios.

On Instagram, we also recommend switching your podcast account to a Business Account in your settings if you haven’t already. This will enable you to integrate your Laylo account, use theInstagram DM tool, and get more insights and analytics about your posts.

Similarly, TikTok requires that you switch your account to a business account before you can put any link in your bio. The process is similar to Instagram, and TikTok has an official guide.

The “Trojan Horse” Approach To Growing An Engaged Audience 

In addition to your socials, you can add your Laylo profile link to your podcast page and YouTube page and tell fans to join to get exclusive updates on content, merch, events and any additional exciting news you have to share. We’ve seen creators get a ton of fans signed up by simply shouting out the link on their podcast and telling fans to join from the episode description.

Final Thoughts

Creating meaningful, direct relationships with your listeners is one of the most rewarding aspects of podcasting. Laylo is the perfect companion to your podcast and community; it’s a way to keep in touch with your fans while enabling them to connect with you and discover your other content. When paired with strategies that leverage other social networks and streams of monetization, your growth strategy will be unstoppable.

To see how others have used Laylo for their success stories, check out how The Sweetest Little Life is using Laylo to capture audiences and fans in an always-on capacity for future messaging; how Our Sleeved Podcast is using Laylo to drive audiences and fans to a live show in April; and how Buzzin With Marlowe is driving audience and fans to a coinciding merch drop.

6 tools to help podcasters boost their audiences

Nowadays, podcasters have countless online tools to help them grow their audience, from platforms to enhance branding and graphics to video streaming suites and transcription software. The podcast marketing process has never been easier.

Whether you are new to the podcasting industry and looking to expand your reach on social media or a seasoned podcaster wanting to elevate your brand, podcasters’ number of marketing tools is growing every day. These six tools will help you streamline the process of boosting your audience and reaching new potential fans.

1. Headliner (Headliner.app)
Videos are not only an excellent way to impress your social media followers but can help you to reach new audiences outside of your normal reach. The ‘algorithm’ loves video content. Since most social media mobile applications have introduced auto-play on videos, the need to create short, attention-grabbing videos have only grown in the past years. Until recently, podcasters would have to download and learn how to use a video editing suite. Suppose they wanted to make a video to promote their podcast.

Since 2018, however, Headliner has enabled podcasters to create ‘audiograms,’ which are simple videos made of audio highlights played over a static or moving image. You can add closed captions and animated graphics, as well as different layers of music and audio. Users can create, edit and export audiograms directly. Each Headliner user gets ten non-watermarked videos per month.

Best of all, LaunchpadOne has an integration with Headliner built in to the podcaster's dashboard. Check out our other blog post here for more details and instructions on getting started with Headliner!

2. Podcastpage (Podcastpage.io)
Not every podcaster has the time to maintain an entire website for their show. Podcastpage is a simple website builder designed specifically for podcasters, and you can have a simple yet dynamic and effective website for your podcast for just eight USD per month with no previous knowledge about website design or coding.

Podcastpage takes all of the guesswork out of building a landing page. They’ll even provide all of the necessary hosting and domain management for your website. You can completely customize the appearance and layout of your Podcastpage website. The platform offers a full suite of tools to impress your fans and attract new audiences.

3. Descript (descript.com)
One of the best ways to increase your SEO is to update episode transcriptions on your website or companion blog. Transcripts are full of keywords and phrases that help potential listeners find your podcast through search engines. If you are looking for an all-in-one platform for audio transcribing, editing, and mixing, Descript is the perfect tool.

Not every podcaster loves the process of transcribing and editing audio – and that’s okay! Descript transcribes your entire podcast in minutes. It has automatic speaker detection. And can systematically eliminate filler words like ‘uh,’ ‘like,’ and ‘you know,’ and much more. You can even export directly from Descript onto your preferred hosting platform.

The platform was founded in 2017, and the team is constantly updating its platform with new features and tips for growing your audience. So keep an eye out for news and updates.

4. Plink (plinkhq.com)
Plink is a fantastic way to let potential listeners and followers know where to find your podcast. Plink allows you to create smart links for podcast shows instead of linking directly to an app like Apple Podcasts. It gives you two options for sharing your podcast episodes:

• Share a link that opens a native app on your listener’s device
• Share a link that opens a “show” page that allows listeners to select their podcast app, and then your episode opens in that app

You can get access to your show’s link for free or upgrade for some additional features such as: customizing your link, edit your podcast app’s page, remove powered by, etc. With so many new podcast listening apps, your listeners may not be using the same app as you. Using Plink can help you to be available wherever your listener is. The easier you make it for people to listen, the more likely they are to tune in and become fans.

5. Canva (canva.com)
Many podcasters prefer to focus on making their audio sound its best, but this unfortunately often leaves much to be desired concerning podcasts’ visual marketing assets.

Created by Melanie Perkins in 2012, Canva is a graphic design and marketing platform that enables anyone to create aesthetically pleasing visuals for their online presence. While it’s existed for almost a decade, the Canva platform has started offering many more features geared specifically towards podcasters recently.  For example, Canva enabled audio uploads that can be added to graphics created on the platform. This is perfect for podcasters looking for a tool to create audiograms or trailers with elevated graphics.

Users can also schedule social media posts, create teams to co-edit graphics and utilize the platform’s vast photo and graphics libraries. If you want to make your podcast look more professional to attract new audiences, Canva is the place for you.

6. Audry (Audry.io)
We know that finding collaborators takes time and effort, and sometimes we just want to spend our energy making our podcast rather than conducting endless partner outreach campaigns.

Audry streamlines the process of finding new collaborators and enables you to hone in on the podcasters that not only have an investment in collaboration but are excited to network with other podcasters around the world. Audry helps you meet vetted podcasters, identify partners within your niche, and grow your audiences together. To find the most beneficial collaborations, you can narrow down your search by topic, location, episode duration, listens, and more.

Audry enables you to join forces with thousands of podcasters to grow your audiences together (for free)! Their community is always growing, and there’s no doubt that you will find the perfect partners.

The most important factor to the growth of your podcast is shareability. 

Shareability encapsulates everything from the quality of your content to its accessibility to the enthusiasm of your listeners to recommend it. When listeners connect with your show, they’re more likely to engage, share, and return - but it’s your job to keep your show top of mind and top of page.

As we know, podcasting is first and foremost an audio-focused industry; however, successful podcasts branch into video, social media, branding, merch, and more to expand their audience, listenership, and base loyalty. 

Video in particular opens many doors to new platforms, new shareable links, and therefore, new audiences that can expand from network to network. Here, we outline what types of videos may suit your podcast, where to share them, and the tools LaunchpadOne recommends to get started and get going.

WHAT TO SHARE

Depending on the format of your podcast, there are a number of potential ways to record, produce, and post videos from your show.

In-Person Recording

If you have a dedicated podcast setup in your home, in-person filming can really elevate the caliber of your podcast. With proper lighting, mics, and a camera setup, listeners can see the podcast in the making and the face behind the audio. These types of videos are most likely to be shared and engaged with.

Note: TikTok and Instagram Reels are vertical formats, so while recording horizontally is best practice (especially for YouTube), make sure the camera is placed with enough distance so you can crop accordingly. Alternatively, you could set up a phone to record vertically.
 

Remote Screen Recording

If the majority of your conversations or interviews with guests take place remotely, you can still produce meaningful videos from your episodes. You’ve already done most of the work: secured a guest, prepared a conversation, jumped on the computer and hit record - all you need is to capture the video portion!

Recommended Tool: Squadcast

Squadcast is a sophisticated remote recording software specifically designed for podcasts, and includes recording, audio editing, and production tools. It records and stores both audio and video, so it’s an excellent one-stop solution for podcasts and vodcasts.

Their basic plan starts at $20/month for 5 hours of recordings/month. Check out a short demo video here.

Static Image Video

If you’re lacking the bandwidth or means to produce remote or in-person videos, you can still distribute your podcast in a simpler, visually-interesting way. 

Whether you include your podcast artwork (recommended for brand recognition and continuity), a headshot of the hosts, or a picture of puppies, you can post your full episode audio with a static image and still get new exposure. As we mentioned, YouTube is a major source for listening to and discovering podcasts, regardless of what’s on the screen. 

This is also an applicable option for previous podcast episodes that can be repurposed and uploaded to YouTube.

Recommended Tool: Headliner 

Headliner is an online tool that can combine your audio with waveform visualizations and a library of images, videos, text, etc. It also has audio transcription capabilities for accessible subtitles and captions. Headliner is particularly valuable for social posts, from feeds to stories to TikToks and Reels, or for static image YouTube videos.

You can use Headliner for free for up to 5 videos/month, or upgrade to $8-$20/month memberships. 

WHERE TO SHARE

Once you have your videos produced and ready, there are several primary platforms to upload to to expand the reach and visibility of your podcast.

YouTube 

According to Edison Research, YouTube is the third most popular platform for consuming podcasts. 81% of the entire US population use YouTube, so podcasters should meet their users where they already are. 

Additionally, YouTube is an excellent resource for content discovery, meaning it recommends videos and content based on what a user has viewed before (most of us have been victim to a “YouTube hole” at one time or another). This can work to your advantage as your videos may end up on the screen of a new and curious viewer.

Here is a helpful video from Pod Sound School on getting your podcast set up and optimized for YouTube.

TikTok 

Ultimately, someone may be more likely to listen to 30 seconds of your Great British Baking Show recap than 65 minutes; at least, that 30 seconds can hook them in. Choose the best, funniest, or most insightful moments of your episodes to post to TikTok and generate those highly snackable and shareable clips. 

Whether you’re looking to target a new demographic or your existing audience, posting to TikTok hits a largely 16-34 year old audience. Take a look at the demographics of your existing audience and decide whether TikTok is a viable platform for your show.

As with YouTube, TikTok is based on content discovery and shareability, so it may pop up on the app organically based on a user’s interests.

Note that TikTok video dimensions are vertical 16x9.

Instagram Reels 

It’s no secret that Instagram’s algorithm is prioritizing and pushing Reels more than any other format on the platform. 

Not only will producing Reels provide additional content for your listeners, but because of Instagram’s emphasis on accounts that do use Reels, it’s also a fast track to grow your Instagram following and end up on new discovery pages. 

The best part is you can easily double dip by posting your video as both a Reel and a feed post! 

CONCLUSION

Video can hugely benefit a podcast’s growth, audience, and shareability. It also has an immeasurable effect: humanizing the hosts. Audiophiles or not, we are inherently visual people, and putting a face to the voice shows us the humans behind the mic and the people behind the stories. 

If you have any questions or tips similar to the above, feel free to contact us at contact@launchpadone.com.