At the beginning of our collaboration with this client, their objective was to establish an owned media channel that could assist them in developing a brand among their target audience. We aimed to help them enhance their podcast, which initially had no presence, and transform it into one of the top 20 marketing podcasts in the United States within just 4 months. Now, let me explain the approach we took to achieve this remarkable growth.

Building a podcast email list

Email lists with a straightforward call to action, encouraging recipients to listen to a podcast episode, prove to be highly effective in generating podcast downloads. Based on our observations with clients, these emails typically achieve a 40% open rate and a 5% click-through rate (CTR). Our role involves assisting clients in revitalizing their existing email lists and optimizing them to promote podcast episode engagement.

In addition, we take charge of managing the email correspondence on behalf of the clients and work towards expanding the subscriber base each month. This continuous growth makes the email list increasingly valuable to the clients, and it enables recipients to become accustomed to receiving educational content from them.

Consequently, we have successfully established a direct-response newsletter that consistently generates podcast downloads with each distribution. By appearing in the customers’ inboxes every week, we steadily build trust with the target audience, strengthening the relationship over time.

Overall, this tactic has proven to be a rapid and effective means of driving podcast engagement.

Podcast SEO

In addition to utilizing email lists, we also focused on podcast SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to further enhance the visibility of the podcast. Podcast SEO involves optimizing various elements, such as the show’s title, description, and show notes, to improve the chances of ranking for relevant keywords within podcasting apps.

By strategically optimizing these elements, we ensured that whenever someone searches for a keyword related to our client’s brand, they would appear in the search results within podcasting apps. For instance, if you were to search for “Etsy Business” on any podcasting app, you would see our client’s podcast show prominently displayed in the results.

By implementing effective podcast SEO strategies, we successfully positioned our client’s podcast to reach a wider audience and increase their discoverability within podcasting platforms.

Paid ads

For this particular client, our focus was not heavily centered on paid advertisements. Instead, we strategically utilized paid ads to target their specific audience and promote podcast clips effectively.

To achieve this, we implemented a strategy that involved exclusively targeting iOS devices. By doing so, we created a seamless download experience, ensuring that when users clicked on the provided link, the podcast would immediately begin downloading. We then worked backward, determining the desired number of monthly downloads and calculating the necessary investment required to achieve that goal.

Our approach involved investing in paid ads to boost the numbers, propelling the podcast into the top charts. Once it reached a prominent position, we strategically reduced our advertising expenditure. Instead, we capitalized on other channels such as email newsletters and podcasts themselves to maintain visibility and engagement.

By implementing this multifaceted approach, we were able to rapidly scale the client’s podcast and generate significant results in a short period.