How to Promote Your Podcast

Be consistent with your podcast content and continue to post on a regular schedule. A common podcast pitfall is only posting a few episodes and then falling off as the creator doesn't realize how much work is involved. Listeners are more likely to stay up to date with your podcast if they know it is dependable and consistent for them to reference.

When my team works on new website projects for financial advisors, our web strategist spends a lot of time helping clients understand their target market or niche, common questions and concerns that their web visitors may be asking.

This work translates to the podcast and understanding what the podcast audience may be. You can get episode and content ideas from considering your audience’s common questions and concerns.

Hosting your podcast

A common misconception when starting a podcast is that it will be hosted directly on your site. It is best to host the podcast on a credible hosting platform so you don't crowd your website database with podcast hosting. Once you’ve decided to create a podcast, you’ll need to first select a podcast hosting platform, such as:

• Libsyn
• Fusebox
• Blubrry
• Castos
• Buzzsprout

Work with a credible platform that can produce an RSS feed and help you make sure all of your episodes can be picked up smoothly by ApplePodcast, Spotify, etc. Below I describe how you can then use WordPress plugins and tools to integrate the podcast into your site.

Promoting a finance podcast on your site

To take full advantage of your new podcast content, incorporate it into your website presence. Once your podcast has been created, your website can play an amazing role in marketing the podcast and creating a foundation to direct podcast listeners to.

I get a lot of questions from clients about whether they should create a separate website for their podcast.

There are a few clients who have gone that route, especially once the podcast has grown to a large audience. Below is an example of a dedicated podcast website for the Stay Wealthy podcast. Taylor Schulte has done an incredible job cultivating his brand and audience further with a custom standalone website for his podcast. He is now one of the top five financial advisors in the U.S. and his podcast is top 10 in Forbes and top 50 on Apple.

Most of my clients start by promoting the podcast on their existing site. Building a second site requires costs in terms of design and development. Hosting and maintaining two sites will also increase your ongoing costs.

One advantage of promoting the podcast on your own site is that you can cross-promote your educational content. Not only are your podcast listeners getting the chance to see your business, but your website visitors can also learn about your podcast.

There are typically two approaches that I take for promoting the podcast on the site:

1. Create a custom finance podcast page

A custom page is a great way to highlight your podcast with a brief description and calls to action prompting the visitor to subscribe to the podcast. I recommend investing in a high-quality, custom layout for this page since it typically serves as the hub for all your marketing for the podcast.

You can also highlight your podcast on your website home page and direct visitors to this podcast page. This can be valuable since most visitors enter your website through the home page.

2. Post podcast episodes on your site

Another way that clients can promote a podcast is to publish each podcast episode as a custom post. This is set up like a blog, and it can be placed within an existing blog or resource area.

A benefit of this approach is that you can then take advantage of the podcast content by including a transcript or short description of each episode. This helps build up content on your site and can even support your content marketing plans.

The best approach for your site depends on a lot of factors, so I typically consult with clients on these ideas to figure out the best option given the site and podcast.

Regardless of how you implement your podcast material onto your website, be sure your content is easily accessible by your visitors. Create a clear button for visitors to listen to your podcast to maximize the listeners you are capturing from your website.

Integrating podcast features into WordPress

Once you decide how you’d like to feature the podcast on your site in terms of creating a dedicated page or promoting each episode as an individual post, you can use WordPress plugins.

When looking for a WordPress plugin, consider what podcast hosting company you are using because some plugins integrate very smoothly with certain podcast hosting platforms. Below is an example of a podcast page with episodes embedded on the page for Francis Financial.

Most WordPress plugins integrate with all the major hosting options for podcasts and offer tons of features. These are the three most common WordPress plugins that I recommend to clients:

• Seriously Simple Podcasting
• PowerPress
• Smart Podcast Player

These plugins help you add a nicely designed media player to a page or post and also add subscribe options for visitors, along with other features. Reach out to my team if you are considering a certain plugin and we can discuss what may work best for your site.

Mikel Bruce is the CEO of TinyFrog Technologies, a San Diego web design agency specializing in WordPress web design & development and secured hosting & maintenance. Founded in 2003, TinyFrog offers a conversion-based approach to web design and has built over 1,100 websites. TinyFrog also has extensive experience in designing and building websites for financial advisors.

Read more articles by Mikel Bruce