Podcast Launch Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide with Social Media Promotion
I’ve seen so many new podcasts launch with next to no promotion behind them.
Then they wonder why they didn’t receive as many downloads as they thought they should have.
They’ve told their friends and family, put a few graphics or videos out across social media, and they feel like that’s plenty.
But it lands a little softer than they anticipated.
There are also podcasters out there who are so nervous about putting their show out, that they don’t want to promote it.
And that’s all well and good if you’re just testing the waters, or you don’t really want anyone to know about your show until you feel like you’ve found your feet.
But I’m not talking to that podcaster here.
I’m talking to the podcaster who wants to make the most of their new podcast launch. The podcaster who wants to make sure they squeeze as much out of their launch as possible, without spending money on ads or other paid strategies.
This is purely a strategy for those of you who want to use social media, email marketing and good ol’ fashioned word of mouth to help promote their new podcast.
So, here’s the exact strategy I recommend to our clients, and we use ourselves here at Bamby Media.
The Pre-Launch Hype Machine (3 Weeks Out):
Fuel the Mystery Machine: Don't reveal your podcast's name just yet! Instead, pique your audience's curiosity on LinkedIn, X, and even industry community groups that you are a part of (Discord, Facebook, Reddit etc). Post captivating graphics or invite followers to guess the name to spark engagement.
Behind the Scenes Access: Share exclusive snippets! Offer glimpses into the recording process, guest interviews, or the creation of your podcast art. This humanises your brand and builds anticipation for the big reveal.
Landing Page For Your Podcast: If you're website-less, consider a simple landing page through your podcast hosting platform. This allows potential listeners to learn more and subscribe before launch day.
Unveiling the Masterpiece (2 Weeks Out):
The Big Name Drop: Make a splash by announcing your podcast's name! Create eye-catching visuals or short videos to generate excitement and introduce your brand.
What's Your Story?: In a nutshell, explain your podcast's purpose. Who is your target audience? What topics will you get into? What emotions or feelings are you hoping for? Aim to connect with your ideal listener on a personal level.
Community Engagement is King: Run interactive polls or contests to encourage audience participation. Offer a chance to be featured on the first episode or receive a 1:1 consultation with you in exchange for social media shares and follows.
Launch Party Hype: Announce a virtual launch party to build anticipation, even if it's a small online gathering. A party is always a good time, and it doesn’t have to be a big huge deal, it can just be family and friends but when you share glimpses of it on social media, you’re creating hype no matter the size.
Launch Week: Show Time!
Be Organised: Ensure you have high-quality graphics, video snippets and a trailer episode ready to be scheduled across social media platforms throughout the week. Consider peak engagement times for each platform that you’re planning to post to.
Trailer: Release a short, captivating trailer episode (ideally a few days before launch) that provides a concise overview of the show and what people can expect. We break down the different types of podcast trailers that you can do here.
Launch Day:
Big Announcement, Bigger Celebration: Share the first episode with an enthusiastic announcement across all your social media channels and email newsletter. Include an eye-catching graphic or video snippet to grab attention.
Story Time: Utilise stories on platforms like Instagram and TikTok to personally announce the launch with excitement and authenticity. This is the place to share your vulnerability around the any feelings you have about launching your show, and who you hope it helps.
Episode Release Strategy:
Day 1: Release both episodes one and two on launch day to give listeners a chance to binge. Your trailer episode will already be live from a few days beforehand.
Day 2: Follow with episode three the next day and episode
Day 3: Take a break from releasing anything on this day.
Day 4: Episode four should be released today and make sure to be reminding your audience on social media that you have episodes ready to binge.
Day 5: Take a break on day five to allow listeners to catch up and engage with existing episodes without feeling overwhelmed.
Day 6/7: Release at least one more episode before the end of launch week if you have enough episodes in the bank. This creates a really great slate of episodes for your listeners to enjoy, and they’ll be more likely to subscribe to your show if they’ve heard multiple episodes.
Tracking Your Numbers
Track your download numbers and chart rankings (particularly on Chartable) throughout the week. While vanity metrics are valuable for initial interest, remember that podcasting is a marathon, not a sprint.
Feedback
Throughout the launch week encourage feedback from listeners. Ask them for their thoughts and suggestions for future content to show you value their opinions and foster a sense of community.
Key Takeaways for Podcasters:
Planning is Power: Don't wing it! Organise and strategise your launch well in advance, including pre-recording episodes and scheduling social media content.
Hype it Up: Generate excitement with teasers, behind-the-scenes content, and interactive elements to build anticipation.
Consistency is King: Avoid listener drop-off (aka "podfade") by planning for consistent episode releases after your launch week. We like to suggest that you have at least 10 episodes recorded (and release 5) so that you’ve got a great backlog to give yourself the momentum you need.
Embrace the Journey: Enjoy the launch process, celebrate your accomplishment, and keep it going!
By following these steps and leveraging the power of social media, you can ensure your podcast launch is a fantastic success. Whatever that means for you. Remember, consistency is key to long-term growth, so keep those episodes coming and engage with your audience to build a loyal listener base. Now go forth and podcast!
Transcript:
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[00:00:00] Brianna: We are going through today how to launch your podcast. What should your runway look like? What have we seen that works? And what are some things that I think you should try to make sure that you are giving it the best chance of success once you get going? First thing we're going to do is we're going to talk about three weeks out.
[00:00:30] So three weeks out from the launch, the first thing I want you to do, it seems quite obvious, but it is start talking about the fact that you have a podcast coming out. So this can be on socials, it can be in your email newsletter, it can be via SMS to your friends and family, it can be on other people's podcasts.
[00:00:51] So if you're going to be a guest on other shows, then you would talk about your show coming. Okay. This would be in any forums that you're a part of or any communities that you're a part of. Things like if you're on Discord or Reddit or stuff like that, that you comment on things all the time, then this can be a really good place to let people know that you've got something coming as well.
[00:01:10] It's not enough to just be like, Hey guys, I've got this show coming. I hope you love it and you get really excited about it. They're not really going to get as excited about it as you would and that makes sense because it's your show not theirs. So you can't expect them to be super pumped about it. What you're trying to do at this stage is create mystery.
[00:01:32] So you start talking about the fact that you have this. thing coming, but don't tell people what the name of the show is yet. I want it to be more gamified if you can. So if you, and you could say that I've got something coming, not even say that it's a podcast to begin with, and you could gamify it and be like, Hey, What do you think is about to launch?
[00:01:53] And you could get people to comment on it. It would increase your engagement. You could do some graphics around it. [00:02:00] Uh, you could do them just within Canva, or you could recreate a reel perhaps, or something that you put on socials, somewhere where people can actually comment and get in on the conversation more so than I would probably not suggest doing it on like YouTube shorts or something like that, because the engagement on that isn't as You're not going to get the same sort of back and forth.
[00:02:18] So create mystery. Once you've done that bit, you've created a bit of mystery. Don't leave it too long before you give them more sort of clues. I guess videos of behind the scenes of you recording of going to guest interviews of, uh, you know, your Riverside sessions of your graphics being created. People are absolute suckers for behind the scenes content.
[00:02:40] And so if you manage to do that in the lead up to your podcast, you're going to have a lot of things that you can sort of spread to people, let them know about, to give them a bit of something to anticipate, to get excited about. I would definitely recommend some behind the scenes content that you share within that three week out kind of realm.
[00:02:59] Now, once it's been established that yes, it is a podcast, let's say you've created the mystery on like day one, and then day two, you're sort of doing some behind the scenes. You've got some graphics and things that maybe are showcasing maybe the thing that's coming. Then as you create the podcast on the podcast.
[00:03:18] So if you want to go and get further into that week, obviously people will have commented. A lot of people may have said what it is. Yes, it's a podcast. So you can announce a winner. Then you can do some sort of giveaway. But what you would also do is then start to get a little bit vulnerable. So vulnerability is really important because this is where you can start to go, especially if it's your first show.
[00:03:36] You can go look, guys, I've actually never done this before. Like I'm quite. nervous about how this is going to go. I've done a lot of work with my podcast producer, if you happen to have one. And I feel like it's, it's pretty solid, but these are the feelings that are coming up for me. So share your feelings, share your failings.
[00:03:56] And if you do that, then you're going to get people more [00:04:00] invested in the fact that you've got a show coming. Also in this third week, if you're planning on having a podcast landing page somewhere on your website where people can engage with the actual podcast itself, I would start, if you haven't already, building that.
[00:04:13] You can actually have that created very easily if you don't have a website. You can, if you have like a podcast host like Buzzsprout or, you know, Or there's a few of them that do it, actually, where you can have this page that has its own URL. You can just link it to that so that when the podcast is live, all the episodes are in there.
[00:04:31] That's like the simplest version of having a landing page, but it definitely doesn't do much as far as SEO or helping you actually rank on anything. So it's not something I would recommend, but if you don't have a website and you're like, ah, I'm not going to build a whole website just from a flippin podcast, then there is other things that you can do.
[00:04:50] But not really my recommendation. So now we've done three weeks out. We start talking about it on socials. If you've got an email newsletter, SMS your friends and family, let them know what's coming or get them to guess. Be on other podcasts, mention it on communities, create mystery around this show. Then you want to have proof.
[00:05:10] You want to have videos behind the scenes, things that people can engage with graphics, stuff that makes it like an anticipation. Then you want to actually announce it, and you can announce a winner if there's someone that guessed first. You could, it could be a giveaway, whatever you want. Then you want to get vulnerable.
[00:05:27] So you want to start talking about your feelings, the emotions, what's coming up for you, the things that have been going wrong, the things that have been going right. And then you also want to establish, if you can, some sort of landing page. What's that going to look like if you're going to have one?
[00:05:41] Because you do want to drive some traffic, uh, somewhere. Okay? That isn't just the podcast players. You want to have it be somewhere else that they can find out more about you, especially if your show is trying to get them to work with you in some capacity. Now, let's move on [00:06:00] to two weeks out from the launch.
[00:06:02] Alright, two weeks out, we want to officially announce the name. There should really be a bit of a hoo ha about this, so whether that's a reel, whether that's some sort of fancy graphic where the name is exploding from something, or, you know, just make it as fun as you can, because you only get a chance to launch your show once.
[00:06:23] When you announce the name, You want it to be just like a big party. So think about how you could talk about the show and announce the name in a way that is more creative than here's my graphic, here's, here's the show. What else? Come on, give me something. Then you want to explain a little bit about what the podcast is actually going to be about.
[00:06:45] So you give them the name of the podcast, but then you also give them the explanation, and this can't be some big, you know, huge, just bunch of text on like an Instagram post where there's this big explanation, no one's going to read all that, keep it simple, but I want you to get these things out. Who is it for?
[00:07:04] Why is it happening? Why you? And then the emotion around it. So what, how is it making you feel? How do you hope that it's going to make others feel? You must connect with the emotion of the person that you're trying to get to actually listen to your show. So really think about that. At this stage as well, it's really great to get the community involved and make them feel like they're a part of your launch.
[00:07:30] So this can be, again, you could shout out and do another giveaway. Okay. This could be in the form of, you know, the first five people to comment or like this post, which is announcing the name of the show, get a free 30 minute consult with me or get a shout out or in my first episode of the podcast, whatever it is, some sort of way to get the community to be like, Oh yeah, yes, I definitely want to be involved.
[00:07:59] Give them an [00:08:00] opportunity, give them a way that they can become involved with your actual podcast. The other thing you could do there, which I've seen some of our clients do is actually announce like a launch party. So part of the giveaway could be that they get to attend the launch party. The other thing that's cool about a launch party is no one needs to know how big it is either.
[00:08:22] So you could say, and I'm having a launch party, and it could actually just be you and your friends and your family. You know, that's it. It doesn't need to be some huge launch where a bunch of people are invited and you don't have to have it that the giveaway means that they can attend the party because maybe that will be super lame that you've got some random person coming to your family house to your house to attend your launch party but having hype is super fun and it doesn't have to be Like this huge deal, just make some sort of hype, even just the way I'm talking now, I get really excited just generally in life.
[00:09:01] And if you can have that kind of energy, when you're talking about your podcast, that's going to just convert so much better into actual listeners. So that's kind of what Two Weeks Out is about. You're just announcing the name of the show, you're announcing what it's for, like who it's for, why it's happening now, why it's you that's going to deliver it, the emotion around it, and then some sort of giveaway or think about a launch party, create hype, get it established, get people excited about the fact that this thing is coming and that it very well may be something that they will find really interesting.
[00:09:33] That's Two Weeks Out. Now let's move on. Make sure, first thing I want to say is Make sure you have some things ready to share in that launch week. So I want graphics of the podcast. I want guests. If you've got them coming up, do they have individual graphics? I want reels to showcase this is coming and it's almost there and it's behind the scenes and it's snippets from the [00:10:00] episodes.
[00:10:01] Oh, if you have the opportunity to create a trailer, or if you have a podcast production team or someone that can help you, a trailer of what's coming is a really good idea. I want you to share this stuff far and wide. Anywhere that you can think of that you should share this, share it. So, as all those places that we talked about in week three, I want you to do it again.
[00:10:21] And you should have also included in that second week, I should have included in the second week, Uh, talk about it again in your newsletter so that if you have a newsletter so that they're getting reminded in one week out, you've got all the graphics. You've got snippets of the actual episodes that are coming.
[00:10:38] If you've got a trailer that you can put together, doesn't have to be diary of a CEO level, just something that really showcases what it is that's coming. And if you. In saying that as well, you can also then announce your actual trailer episode. So I do a separate video on what the trailer episode is.
[00:10:57] The trailer episode essentially is like five minutes long. It depends on how many episodes you've already had edited and whether you can do certain styles of trailer, but you can keep it simple and just have it be an explanation of what the show is about. Go to my episode, which I'll link that talks about trailers specifically as to the kind of things that you can do with trailers.
[00:11:16] And this is the week to announce that that trailer is there for people to listen to. I like to have this kind of couple of days out. So within that last one week to go a couple of days out, the trailer kind of drops so that people have it there and they're ready to roll with it. Now the reason I say for the trailer episode for it to be just a couple of days out from the launch is if you have the trailer episode sitting there for too long before the rest of the episodes drop, it actually doesn't help your launch numbers.
[00:11:49] And we will go into that next bit. As far as the actual episodes dropping how to do that strategically in a moment. The last thing I want to say is make sure [00:12:00] that all the content is ready for the episodes that you're going to release within the first week. And we're about to go into what that actually looks like.
[00:12:10] So everything is in the back end of Buzzsprout or Omni Studio or Captivate or whoever you decide to host a show with. We recommend Captivate. One of our Favorite podcast hosts. If you have that already there, then you'll know that you're set and it's really important that you feel organized, that you don't feel flustered so that when you hit go and the launch day is upon you, when you've got episodes coming out, you know, that you've done the work, that the episodes are already in there.
[00:12:39] They're ready to rock. You've done your show notes for them. They've got good keywords in there. They've got episode graphics for individual, individual episodes. Have you ticked off every box that you could potentially, possibly, tick off? tick off. Is anything missing? And once you're like, yep, everything's set, and I've got a bunch of video snippets, and I've got graphics, and I've got a trailer that I've put together, and I've got a trailer episode that I'm dropping just a couple of days out, then you know, okay, I can relax.
[00:13:13] It's, it's actually a really good week to kind of get a little bit more relaxed. Now we're going to go into what actually happens. in that launch week. Oh, baby! This is a good time. This is a very fun time. Day of release. I want you to share the episode graphic. To the feed of any social channels that you have with a very excited comment to go with it So this should be a big announcement.
[00:13:41] This should be a big deal for the people They know it's coming because you've been announcing it. You've been talking about it You haven't been shoving it down their throats, but you have been talking about it enough that people will Even if they're tuning in irregularly, they know that this thing has been coming, so be excited about it.[00:14:00]
[00:14:00] I would try and drop that at a time that makes sense for you from within your insights on socials and also to your newsletter. What time is it most likely that you're going to get the best response from that? So just make sure that you check your actual insights into when you share the episode graphic.
[00:14:18] This doesn't have to be a graphic, it can be a video snippet if you have a video snippet. That you haven't already used. Yeah. Cool. If you can, I'd also create a carousel. If you're using socials like Instagram, TikTok even does that now too, doesn't it? Anyway, I don't use TikTok really. Yeah. So I'd share it as a carousel with like maybe an image is the first one and then the next ones would be video.
[00:14:41] And then I would also test that theory on other platforms. If you're sharing to LinkedIn, then I would suggest probably not doing it in that format. I would just share like an episode graphic and then maybe later on that day, an actual video reel. That's the big announcement. That's the big hoo ha. I'd also, if you're on socials, get in your stories, like Insta stories or TikTok stories and things like that, being excited, do a dance, whatever feels like exciting for you, whatever way you want to announce it in your stories, because people are going to connect to you differently on different platforms.
[00:15:15] in different places within the platform. Uh, and so, yeah, make sure you're kind of covering your bases there. And then within that sort of release day, the actual episodes that I want you to drop now, this depends on how many episodes you actually have ready. I always say to have as many ready as you can, because creating a bit of a binge is always a good thing.
[00:15:37] Uh, but I ideally want you to drop. So episode one is on day of release. And we also want, if we can, episode 2 on day of release. So now we've got trailer episode, episode 1 and episode 2 coming out on the actual day that everything's being released. Well, the trailer's a couple of days out. So that [00:16:00] there's a couple of episodes for people to connect with, but not all of them.
[00:16:04] You still want to be able to drip feed throughout the week so that there's other instances where you physically can talk about your episodes again without it being like weird or stale because you've got more episodes to share. So you've got more video snippets to share. You've got more things that you need to share.
[00:16:21] So then we do day two. Then we want to go with ep 3. Mm hmm. And similar format, just a video snippet. This is what's coming. If you missed it, if you missed the episodes from the last couple of days or from my announcements, here's the things. Okay, so episode 3. And then day 4, ep 4. And then we go day 5. We go no episode on day 5.
[00:16:52] This gives you a chance to talk about the fact that there's a bunch of episodes that people can connect with without you releasing another one. So that it gives people an opportunity to engage without being bombarded with more episodes at this point. Now I know this feels like, look, why don't I just release them all at once?
[00:17:09] But trust me, this is a really nice method to make sure that the download numbers, okay, are a bit more strategic in that week. Okay, and so then we also ask anyone have any feedback? Have you been listening? What have you liked? What would you like me to talk about next? Anything that's missing so far? I'm looking for feedback because it's my first time with a show, so help me help you.
[00:17:37] And so feedback is really good on that kind of rest day, I guess we could say. Do that there. Okay, and then the day It's up to you. I like to have at least one more episode in here in this launch week. Now, the other thing that you're doing through here, check your stats, check your [00:18:00] downloads, probably Day four, you should also check your ranking, your chart ranking.
[00:18:07] So that is on Chartable, and I would check that day of release. Screenshot whatever it says in Chartable. Just screenshot it. Don't have to share it, just screenshot it. Then day two, check it again. Day four, check it again. Day five. Yeah. Day six. I'd probably do that. Check it in screenshot it on repeat during the week.
[00:18:35] Now this, let me just make this really clear. This is a charts ranking for the free version. I think it's just Apple podcasts, so it's not going to capture everybody. It is a vanity metric. Okay. It doesn't mean as much as you think it does. Uh, it's all well and good to be like, Hey guys. I got to the top of whatever chart.
[00:18:59] I'm, you know, number five in health and wellness. It's a really good thing to shout out, to be excited about for yourself, to be in the rankings. We've kind of strategically made this happen a little bit by releasing a bunch of episodes in that first week. So it's not something necessarily that's going to continue.
[00:19:21] You might start to drop off when you go down to at one episode a week, your chart ranking, isn't going to continue to be high potentially, depending on the size of the show, depending on the size of your market, your social media, following your email list. There are so many things I could get into here about all of that and how it actually helps the growth.
[00:19:41] of your show, but just know that that chartable thing, it's a vanity metric. It's something that's fun to announce, but it doesn't mean a lot over the long term. Okay. It can be that if you're ranking highly, like we've had a couple of clients that they got a lot of downloads in their first week. you're Even [00:20:00] within their first couple of days, because they had other things, we knew how to grow them.
[00:20:04] We knew what their channels were doing, all that, that they would actually, they got into like Spotify Hot Pick of the Week and Apple Hot Pick. That actually happened from the strategy around it. Releasing multiple episodes, having it be bingeable within that first week, and then Apple and Spotify saw those metrics, saw those numbers and went, Oh, wow, this is a hot pick.
[00:20:27] This is a trend. People are really listening to it. So this can really work in your favor. This is why I want you to think about how much work you can do prior as in recording, getting your content sorted, having enough batched so that you can actually release as many as possible. that gives you a higher chance of being in the charts, of being a hot pick, but I don't want you to obsess about it.
[00:20:53] I don't want you to be like, Oh man, I'm not that high in the charts. Who cares? Like, honestly, over the long run, it doesn't make that much of a difference unless you're in the real top, top of the charts, not just within your category, but Overall, if you're getting quite high in the charts, then yes, you show up on the main news feed, like the main page, and you've definitely got access to a higher audience count there.
[00:21:20] Don't obsess. Just, I guess that's what I'm saying. Just don't obsess over your numbers and your rankings. The key to a successful launch is feeling like you've done it. Okay? Feeling like. It was an achievement that it's out there and that now what is the goal of you is to stay flippant, consistent. There is a thing called flippancy.
[00:21:47] Podfade. It's a very real thing that you hear people talk about. They get to like seven, eight episodes and then it's like, oh, I've run out of momentum now. I'm, I think I need a [00:22:00] nap. You know, when they just stop releasing their podcasts. Podfade is a real thing. I don't want you to end up there. So, Organize yourself, strategize, get your episodes sorted, do a proper launch plan, mark things out in your diary, and you're just going to be way more successful.
[00:22:19] You're just going to have such a better time as well. It's going to be way more, way more exciting and it's going to feel like more of a big deal. And if it's a big deal for you, then it's going to be a big deal for at least a portion of your audience as well. Keep that in mind. I hope this content was extremely helpful.
[00:22:38] Please let me know. Okay. Because I will absolutely do more of these breakdowns of things. If you feel like you want to learn from me is specifically in the podcasting space. Okay. That's it for me. Good luck with your launch. Let me know how you go. I hope you do some of these things. And I'll talk to you next time.
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