Lawyers Who Podcast - Part III
Getting Your Podcast To Your Audience
Hi All,
Welcome back to Part 3 of the Lawyers Who Podcast mini-series. This mini-series is devoted to you because we wanted to share what we’ve learned in the last year about the power of podcasting. When we started podcasting, we had no experience at all but we have been able to build it and grow over the last year, we have release more than 50 episodes, and have a loyal listener base.
In Part 1, Episode #46, we covered how to hone in on your niche, topic, and format. We also gave you some homework. Part 1 is definitely the place to start if you are considering starting your own podcast. In Part 2, Episode #48, we built on Part 1. We discussed choosing a name, the mechanics of getting started, buying your tech, and a life saving time saving hack that will make your entrance into podcasting so much easier.
In Part 3, we are going to talk about getting your podcast out into the world. We will cover podcast hosting, podcast directories, marketing, and social media. If you don’t know what half of these words even mean, then you are in good company, because we didn’t either.
Podcast Host
A podcast host is that place that you store and then distribute your episodes. Your podcast host will provide the RSS feed for your podcast. An RSS feed is really just a listing or a feed of all of your episodes.
Podcast Directory
A podcast directory is the place where you listen to the podcasts. For example, Apple Podcasts and Spotify are two of the most popular podcast directories out there.
Our podcast host is Buzzsprout. We have been using them since the very beginning and have been very happy with them. Their website is very user friendly and their fees made them totally accessible for us as we started out. Aside from just hosting your podcast they have tons of great features to help you with your audio quality, market your podcast, and monetize your podcast. If you are interested in learning more about all that Buzzsprout can offer you click the link below. Best of all, if you use this link to sign up you will get a $25 Amazon gift card from Buzzsprout after your second paid invoice and it helps support our show.
Once you know where your podcast will be hosted you still have to get it from the host to the podcast directories. We have our podcast listed in 18 different podcast directories. Although Apple Podcasts is the biggest chunk of our downloads, about half of our listeners listen through Apple Podcasts. The other half listen on a variety of other platforms. You want to make sure that you get your podcast listed in as many platforms as possible so that your listeners can find you on the app or site that they most often use.
One of the reasons we initially started using Buzzsprout is because they will help you get listed in most of the directories and then when you upload an episode to them they will automatically send it to all of the linked podcast directories. Other hosting platforms also do this, or some version of this, but when you are picking your host this is definitely something that is going to save you time and energy.
Now - you need listeners! Of course your mom and your law school bestie will listen. But you want to find people, in your ideal target audience, who you don’t necessarily know yet to be able to find you, listen, and keep coming back week after week. Before we released our first episode we started promoting the podcast on social media. We started the Lawyers Who Launch Instagram account. We are on LinkedIn. We also this blog. These are all great ways to get the news of your podcast out there and reach your ideal listeners. Building an audience is incredibly difficult and takes a lot of work and time. We aren’t huge, we don’t get millions of downloads every week, we are deep in the work of building our audience and our platform. But we are bigger than we were a year, a month, even a week ago.
One of the best ways that we started to develop our audience is through connecting with people on social media - primarily Instagram and linkedin. This is where we flex our networking muscles. We take the principles of networking - our networking philosophy of making a connection, establishing a relationship, and developing that relationship into one that is mutually beneficial and apply that to our social media strategy. We are not just looking for people to follow us, for people to listen to us, and for people to promote us. We are looking at what others are doing and we nurture relationships. We put out great content that we think others may find value in. We also share content put out there by other people in our space that we find valuable, making sure we are crediting appropriately and acknowledging the work of others.
We really work to be authentic to ourselves and to Lawyers Who Launch in every aspect of our business and our approach to growing our platform is no different. But there are some other practical steps we take when thinking about how to market ourselves successfully. One of the most basic things we have learned and applied is consistency. For example, every Monday you can rely on the audio clip, that we are able to easily generate through Buzzsprout in only a few minutes, on our Instagram feed.
Another big part of our strategy is our blog. In addition to our other weekly blog posts, we have a blog post for every podcast episode. Again through Buzzsprout we are able to generate an embedded player in the blog post for each episode so that if you find the blog first you can easily listen to the episode. You will see the episode that corresponds with this blog post at the bottom of the blog. Go ahead - you can listen right now. We also try to maximize our SEO or search engine optimization for the blog.
Consistent organic growth takes time. But if you make the commitment to produce great content and build an online presence, you will see growth. As you figure out what works for you and your topic, you will gain more traction.
Did you know that less than 20% of the podcasts started this year will make it to next year. (Credit to Slam Agency.) You can set yourself up to be in that top 20% by intentionally developing great content and the marketing plan to bring your content to your target audience.
Have a great day!
Haley & Amy
Please keep in mind that your jurisdiction will have rules of professional conduct that you must follow. This discussion does not focus on the any such rules, including the rules from the jurisdiction where we practice. Rather this is a discussion of tips we have found helpful in managing client expectations in our own experiences. This should not be taken as legal advice.
We make absolutely no guarantee, expressed or implied, that by following the advice you will make any money or improve current profit, as there are several factors and variables that come into play regarding any given business or career. Primarily, results will depend on the business model, the conditions of the marketplace, the experience of the individual, and situations and elements that are beyond your control. As with any business endeavor, you assume all risk related to investment and money based on your own discretion and at your own potential expense.
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