Learn how to podcast and blog to establish thought leadership, extend your brand and engage your target market

Quotes from your listeners are very powerful marketing tools. When you get an email or audio comment praising your show, ask for permission to use it in your marketing. There are a lot more ways to use testimonials other than just playing/reading them on your show. Here are 4 ways you can use listener testimonials to market your show:

1. List them on your site for visitors to see
2. Create a promo using a collection of audio testimonials submitted from your audience
3. Use them in your show description
4. Quote them in your media kit

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Did you know that the best advertising available in the media is free? The free exposure that comes from an article or interview mentioning your podcast is even more powerful than a full-page ad in a newspaper or a 30-second spot on TV. This kind of promotion is better because it is:

1. Free
2. Seen by a lot more people
3. More credible

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The growth of your audience will happen in increments. It’s something you have to stick to and do consistently. Little by little you’ll create little streams of traffic that will turn into an audience of oceanic proportions.

The best way to accomplish this is to create objectives and goals to accomplish each week and month.  Track your results. Do more of what works ditch what doesn’t work.

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The name of your podcast is likely the first exposure most listeners will have to your show. Your title usually only has a few seconds to do two things:

1. Give the potential listener an idea of what your show is about
2. Entice them to click to give it a try

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A great way to find listeners is to go where people who are interested in your topic are hanging out online. Give them a taste of what you’ve got. Command some attention and turn them into loyal listeners.

Whatever your podcast’s topic, chances are there are message boards dedicated to it. Get involved in these communities. Forums are great places for you to find loyal listeners. People who participate in them are often rabid about the topic being discussed.

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Your podcast should have a logo. When I say logo, I’m referring to the square image that appears in your listing in iTunes and other directories.

iTunes has stated that your podcast must have a logo in order to be considered for their featured listings. A logo will also make your podcast look more professional and catch more attention in the directories.

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Keywords are words and phrases that potential listeners and site visitors might search for to find content such as yours. Targeting the right keywords is extremely important to the success of your marketing campaign.

Using the right keywords in your podcast title, feed, description, episode titles, and show notes will greatly increase the amount of free, targeted traffic you get from the search engines.

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Podcasting meetups/associations have cropped up all over the place. Your local meetup is an excellent place to meet other podcasters and even do a little promotion. You can find promo exchange partners and other networking opportunities. Make sure you have your business cards with you when you attend.

A good place to look for the closest podcasting group is on Meetup.com.

Did you know that there’s information in your MP3 file that you can use to promote your podcast? MP3 files contain ID3 tags. This is the data that describes the album, artist, track #, etc. These tags can, and should, be used to include information about your podcast.

Always fill in the ID3 tags and be consistent.

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I’ve already mentioned FeedBurner as a great tool for podcasters. They offer a promotional feature called Headline Animator. This is a graphic that fades between the titles of your five most recent podcast episodes.

Headline Animator is a nice promotional tool to use in your signature for forums, blogs and email. You must have a free FeedBurner account to use this feature.

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