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Growing Your Podcast and Engaging Your Audience Joe Casabona / @jcasabona / casabona.org

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Talking to no one sucks!

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@jcasabona How do we make sure we’re talking to someone?

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@jcasabona We need to build and engage our audience.

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@jcasabona Good Content First • Don’t just press Record. Plan your content • Be consistent with publishing - make sure listeners know what to expect • Define your show’s mission and stay true to it

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Planning Content • For solo shows, script or outline your episodes • For interview shows, do some research on your guests • Define the main takeaway for your listeners • Remember they’re probably a little distracted - don’t throw too much at them

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Consistency • Publish on a schedule • Same day and time (Tuesdays, 3:00am ET) • Same interval (Weekly, monthly, etc) • Have a backlog of episodes ready to go so you don’t fall behind

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@jcasabona Your website is your show’s best friend.

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Benefits • More control over content and design • If you want to change audio hosts, you can • Add features like a shop or forum

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@jcasabona Your Podcast Website • Each episode should have its own page • You should drive all traffic to those episode pages • This allows users to browse old episodes, interact, and subscribe using their podcast player of choice

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@jcasabona Your website has your episode’s canonical URL.

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Submitting Your Podcast • Apple Podcasts • Stitcher • Spotify • TuneIn • Google Podcasts (requires website!) • Pandora

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@jcasabona Engage with Your Audience

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@jcasabona How to Engage • Have Calls to Action in Your Show • Send you users to an online community like Facebook Groups, Slack, or forums • Read feedback, questions, and reviews on air

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@jcasabona Advice on Calls to Action • Much like a landing page, don’t put a lot of action on the listeners • Pick 1-2 things you definitely want them to do, and explicitly ask them do to it

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Good Calls to Action • Ask them to answer a question based on the episode • Ask for feedback on the episode • Ask them to share the show • Ask for a rating and review • Ask them to join your online community

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@jcasabona Format your show to draw listeners in.

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Good Show Format • 30-60 second teaser in the beginning • Intro • Bulk of the show (the content/interview/etc) • Outro with: • Reiterating main point • Thank Yous (to guests, listeners, sponsors) • Call to Action • Sign Off

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@jcasabona Collect Listener Emails (another good CTA)

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@jcasabona Why Collect Emails? • You can directly connect with listeners • You have an audience to market to • You can make them feel part of the process

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@jcasabona How can you collect emails? • Have an opt-in on your website with some episode bonuses • Allow them to sign up for email notifications • Offer feedback surveys to get them involved • Do a giveaway

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@jcasabona Streamlining Your Process

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@jcasabona How to Streamline • Document your process • Use a social media tool like Buffer or Social Pilot • Hire an editor and a transcriber • Batch process episodes - schedule 3-4 at once (if possible) • Use Automation when you can

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@jcasabona How I’m using Automation

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@jcasabona Editing • I drop all the parts of an episode in Dropbox • Editor gets notification • He puts them back into Dropbox • Transcriber get notification AND episode gets uploaded to audio host

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@jcasabona Content • Calendly for scheduling • This creates everything I need: calendar link, Zoom call, Evernote note • Transcriber looks for quotes and links (thanks to an Evernote note)

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@jcasabona Social Media • Upload CSV to Social Pilot for each week • Use Social Web Suite to schedule tweets when episode is published

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Great social media posts • Promote episode • Question of the week • 1-2 quotes • Behind the scenes post • CTA

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Joe Casabona Educator, Developer, Podcaster @jcasabona casabona.org/buffs/

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Special Offer! 50% Off my podcasting course Use WPBUFFS at checkout. Go to
 creatorcoureses.com/podcast