Yeah, Why bother promoting your podcast anyway?

I read this rather worrying article on life hacker. I say worrying because of a comment and instruction that followed the article and not the article itself. Even more so because the author of the agreed totally!  Arggh.

It advised on what not to do with you podcast. It followed an article that explained how to start podcasting.

The advice was that you should never share your show.  The comment author said that people hate being sold to. Even when what is being sold is free. Yeah, Why bother promoting your podcast anyway?

Hmm help!

Let’s pull that apart. Never share your show. People hate being sold to. If that were true how did we get the multi billion dollar (pound) advertising industry?

What of the many millions of products being sold to potential customers every second?

Of course it’s not the case – people love being sold to. What punters don’t like, perhaps, is over aggressive selling. I’d like to think that’s what the commenter was aiming at.

You want free?!Being pestered and bombarded with information you don’t need just clutters up life. I don’t have time. I clear out clutter once a month. Unsubscribe to mail lists that keep throwing needless emails out.

While setting up RSP’s Skills Mail I thought, once a month and that is it. Also, make each email useful to the audience.

There are whole industries that sell truckloads of things we don’t need, they just persuade us we do need it and tell us when we need to hear it.  Now that’s clever.  I bet you’ve bought something you don’t need?

What I think the commenter might have meant was don’t push meaningless reasons to listen to your podcast out there.

As well as a broadcasting career I was marketing manager for a number of radio stations. I have also been a breakfast producer, presenter and station manager. In each of these roles I sold the radio station, each in a different way.

If I hadn’t sold the station, and not just me but everyone else who worked there, we would have had less awareness and less listeners.

We were always telling people to tune in. In fact we were telling our community to tune in all the time. Bus backs, promotion staff, events, adverts in newspaper, book marks and even post it notes on the eyelets of newspapers.

The key elements to our promotion were always – where you can hear us, on what can you hear us, when you can listen and why you should listen.

I think podcast is no different. As long as you make it count. Always give me a reason to want to listen. Try to include at least three of these in your approach then you will be OK.  Tell me What, Where, When, How and Why?

You build a community via social media, blogging, guest blogging and by targeting your listener by understanding who they are, what they want and where they hang out.

Make sure you build your community, but tell that community to listen. Don’t wait for them to come to you. That is the sure fire way to failure and no listeners.

It doesn’t matter if you are a hobbyist or if podcasting for business you should always promote your show. Or why would you bother putting the effort in?

Always, think listener and what, where, when, how and why.

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