Promoting Your Podcast By Tapping Into A Pre-Existing Audience

It's the first question at the forefront of every new podcaster's mind: How do I build my audience?

In eight years of podcasting, the best answer I've heard is this: Tap into a pre-existing audience. Stand-up comedian Marc Maron launched his popular WTF podcast by interviewing celebrities that had larger fan bases than he did. Guests like Conan O'Brien, Robin Williams, and Chris Rock enabled him to grow his audience.

The hit podcast Serial found success by tapping into the audience for the hugely popular public radio show This American Life. The pilot episode for Serial was included in the RSS feed for the This American Life podcast, giving it exposure to thousands of subscribers.

Adam Carola had a legion of fans from his time as a co-host on the syndicated radio show Loveline and cable TV's The Man Show. When he launched a podcast, he was able to attract that fan base that he had spent years cultivating.

But what if you don't have a pre-existing fan base? What if you can't convince big name celebrities to come on your podcast? What if Ira Glass won't let you tap into his feed?

In this case, your goal is to tap into the popularity of your subject matter. For example, a podcast about Game of Thrones can tap into the HBO show's fan base, a podcast about the New England Patriots can take advantage of the team's fan base, or a podcast about entrepreneurship can attract fans of the self-starting lifestyle. This is why it's so important for podcasts to "own a niche."

From time to time, I'll come across a podcast with a description like this: "Tom and Harry offer humorous but sometimes serious takes on sports, beer, politics, movies and current events. No discussion topic is out of bounds for these outrageous guys."

This podcast doesn't own a niche; it's trying to cover everything, which is a recipe for failure.

Ironically, that's the same recipe that can lead to success for radio morning shows. Radio shows are designed to reach mass audiences by talking about the biggest pop culture topics under the sun. The appeal of radio morning shows is driven by the personalities, not the subject matter. For podcasts, however, the appeal is driven first by the subject matter. In other words, with podcasts, it's the topic that gets people to listen the first time; it's the hosts that get people to come back for more episodes.

When we launched The D Brief, we set out to tap into a pre-existing audience: Detroiters. When I moved to Detroit just over three years ago, I immediately noticed the pride that residents have in their city. The people here have an us-against-the-world sense of pride in their city that we hope to tap into.

This sense of geographic community is the same that local newspapers and television newscasts build their audience around. Will it work for podcasts as well? Only time will tell.

LISTEN: Hear the latest episode of The D Brief podcast.

More Glimpses Behind the Scenes:

1. Can Segments Make Podcasts Smart Speaker Friendly?
2. Covering Timely Events with an On-Demand Medium
3. Striking a Balance Between Informational and Conversational
4. The Art of Adding a Third Co-Host to Your Podcast
5. What Happens When You Have to Switch Podcast Co-Hosts?