With more than three million shows and 180 million episodes, today’s podcast listeners are spoiled for choice. This is a stressful realization for most podcast creators — it’s getting harder and harder to stand out from the crowd.
That’s where podcast marketing comes into play: it’s the easiest way to sustainably grow your show. Whether you’re starting from nothing or already have a fairly large audience, you’ll need to know the basics of how to promote your show
This step-by-step guide covers everything you should know about podcast marketing, including the strategies, platforms, and promotion tips you need to build an audience. It also provides inspiration, practical tips, and case studies, plus podcast marketing services that may be helpful as you grow.
- What is Podcast Marketing?
- How Do I Create a Podcast Marketing Strategy?
- Effective Podcast Promotion Techniques
- Podcast Analytics and Measuring Success
- Top Marketing Podcasts for Inspiration
- Choosing Podcast Marketing Services and Agencies
- Case Studies in Finance Podcast Marketing
- Answering Your Questions
- The Bottom Line on Podcast Marketing
What is Podcast Marketing?
Podcast marketing is the art and science of growing your podcast online. This could mean adding more listeners, gaining more downloads, or generating engagement that ultimately results in sales.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
You can also use podcast marketing to:
- Grow your business. If your podcast is directly involved in your business, marketing your show is essentially marketing your business. This means more inbound leads, more passive networking, and many opportunities to build authority and engagement in your niche. Keep in mind that 54% of podcast listeners are more likely to consider buying from brands they hear about on podcast episodes.
- Build brand awareness. Podcast marketing will help you get seen by the people and decision-makers that matter to your business. For example, promoting your podcast on LinkedIn can give you more access to a professional network. Or maybe you use podcast marketing to share your company culture, insights and thought leadership. This makes it easy to build rapport with your listeners and earn their trust and loyalty with consistent, on-brand messaging.
- Add to your audience. Building your podcast audience means building a potential lead pool. It’s true some of your listeners may already be customers, but podcast marketing could convert them from one-time customers into raving brand ambassadors. Plus, you can use podcast marketing to improve your SEO and web presence. This will help drive more organic traffic and possibly convert cold leads into sold deals.
So what’s the catch? Success depends on the time, effort, and resources you feed it. The more you allocate, the better your results — and the more you can grow your podcast as a result.
How Do I Create A Podcast Marketing Strategy?
Some podcasters avoid marketing strategies altogether. Others prefer to throw spaghetti at the wall.
But frankly, the only way to be successful at podcast marketing is to create a plan that accounts for your specific needs.
Here’s how:
Define Your Audience
First, you need to decide who your audience is. Not necessarily who’s already listening, but who you intend to reach with your show.
A good way to do this is to create an audience persona, which helps you create a real-life person and better visualize who you’re speaking to. The more realistic you can make your persona, the more you shape your podcast topic and format to their needs.
Looking for help building audience personas? You can check out our guide to building a podcast with no audience.
Set Marketing Goals
How will you measure the success of your podcast? Downloads? Streams? Monetary income? It’ll be a good idea to write this down so you know what to aim for going forward.
Now it’s time to set objectives, which are the miniature steps required to reach your goal. Depending on your podcast, this might include:
- Audience engagement
- Lead generation methods
- Yearly podcast growth benchmarks
- Increase perceived authority in your industry
Establish a Brand Voice
No two podcasts sound exactly alike — and that’s what keeps listeners coming back for more. If your show offers something listeners can’t find anywhere else, then they’ll continue downloading episodes for as long as you meet their expectations.
Here are some tips for building a recognizable podcast brand:
- Bring on well-known, high-energy hosts alongside well-known, well-respected podcast guests. Do research in your industry to see who sticks out. Any up-and-coming professionals? What about hidden gems with great personal brands? Industry-specific trade magazines and even Reddit or Facebook groups are great places to gather useful information.
- Think about setting up a more unique format. For example, some shows rely on more narrative, investigative formats (like Serial) while others turn to video podcasts.
- Inject personality, even if that’s your own personal brand. Music and theme songs are a great way to add something memorable. If you’re recording a video podcast, you might use specific graphics for intros and outros.
💡Related: The Four Ways to Make Your Podcast Unique
Create Consistent Content
There’s no escaping algorithms these days, no matter what platform or content you’re producing. Whether you’re uploading to YouTube or creating shows for Spotify for Apple Podcasts, be prepared to upload regularly to ‘feed the beast’ and improve your rankings.
Consistency is important to both humans and robots. For example, even if listeners don’t keep track of your release schedule, regularly seeing new episodes will build trust and engagement. Consistency also boosts signal activity, which means you’re more likely to be shown to people searching for your topic (which boosts your discoverability overall).
Your best bet is releasing at least one episode per week, according to research from the Podcast Marketing Academy. If you’re struggling to do this, consider podcast production services. They can give you a helping hand with podcast production so you don’t have to worry about the nuts and bolts of editing.
Is it just not feasible for you to release more episodes? Instead, consider repurposing your content to maximize the value of what you already have. This could be blog posts, transcripts, email newsletters, and more — whatever makes sense for your podcast and audience.
Select the Right Podcast Platform
Once you have your episodes recorded, it will be time to find a podcast hosting platform. These will allow you to upload and host your show, distribute episodes to relevant platforms, and create a webpage for your audience.
However, not all podcast platforms are designed with the same level of care, and choosing the wrong one could be a significant setback for your show.
Thankfully, it’s hard to go wrong with one of these vetted providers:
Not sure how to pick one? You can refer to our guide on choosing a podcast hosting platform.
Effective Podcast Promotion Techniques
While podcast marketing focuses broadly on growth, podcast promotion focuses heavily on strategy. You can think of them as smaller objectives within your broader goal — they’re specifically designed to drive listener attention on specific platforms, ads, or campaigns.
You should know these are not about luck. They’re about being intentional.
With this in mind, here are some effective strategies to try:
Social Media Marketing
You can technically use any social media channel for marketing. However, only a few channels make sense for your specific niche, audience, and industry.
Surveys show that the world’s fastest-growing podcasts use the following platforms (in order of most to least common):
- X (Twitter)
- TikTok
Just getting started on the podcasting scene? Try sticking with the proven favorites: Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
What about creating engaging social content that doesn’t feel cheesy? This largely depends on your audience, but as a podcaster, audiograms are your friend.
Leveraging Video Content
Video podcasts are easily one of the fastest-growing content mediums. Scientifically speaking, it’s more engaging and memorable to audiences. There are numerous advantages to incorporating video into your podcast and marketing, from algorithmic benefits to increased discoverability. Transitioning to video is one of the best ways to encourage growth. The benefits speak for themselves:
- Better monetization (around $0.25 to $4 per 1,000 views on YouTube)
- Cross-promotion opportunities (think YouTube, Spotify, your website, and beyond)
- Easier content repurposing (video clips, audio clips, and transcripts, to name a few)
Of course, upgrading to video requires some additional investment, including cameras, background equipment, and video editing tools (if you don’t have them already). Alternatively, you could outsource production to a podcast production agency or use tools like Riverside or Adobe Podcast to record virtually using your webcam.
💡Related: Why Upgrade Your Podcast From Audio to Video
Email Marketing
Email provides a direct line of communication to your listeners, which is an excellent way to stay top-of-mind and leap over the gatekeeping algorithms of social media. It also helps listeners feel more like VIPs by queueing up exclusive content or behind-the-scenes clips.
Some tips:
- Try segmenting your email list based on listening behavior. This allows you to create different content for casual listeners versus superfans. For example, you might give patrons early access to episodes, then send a list of the best episodes to re-engage occasional listeners.
- Create a helpful onboarding sequence. New subscribers should receive automated emails (no more than four or five) over the course of a few weeks. You should take the opportunity to add your origin story, explain how to subscribe on different platforms and provide the three most popular episodes based on listener feedback.
- Time your emails strategically with your release schedule. If you release episodes on Tuesdays, for example, send a preview email Monday evening and a full episode announcement Tuesday morning. This will help to create anticipation and catch people when they’re most likely to listen.
SEO for Podcasting
Contrary to popular belief, search engine optimization isn’t dead. It just requires more finesse these days — and a few more tools to improve your discoverability.
Here are a few helpful tips to get you started:
- Make your content keyword-rich. For example, you should craft strategic episode titles and descriptions with primary keywords in the first one or two sentences. Then, write detailed episode descriptions of at least 200 words. For added effect, add timestamps with relevant keywords that apply to specific discussion points.
- Add the right tags to help your podcast get seen. You might research category-specific tags used by top podcasts in your industry (like ‘startup funding’). If relevant, you could also include location-based tags or specific niche lingo that your audience would understand. Don’t forget to update tags periodically based on trending topics or changing search patterns
- Make your podcast inherently searchable through both audio and text searches. This means setting up a podcast website, adding transcriptions with keywords to relevant episodes, listing featured guests, partners, and businesses, and adding social media handles and website links so your show is simple and easy to find.
Keep in mind SEO is an incredibly dense subject, and we’ve barely scratched the surface here. If you’re curious to learn more, you might want to subscribe to specific SEO-centered podcasts. We give some suggestions at the bottom of the guide.
Collaborations and Guest Appearances
What is the easiest way to get your show seen? Have lots of other people passionately promoting your show. The best method of doing this is by collaborating with other podcasters and hosting guest appearances with people who reciprocate for your show.
First, you have to find the right people and shows to collaborate with. You could build your own prospecting system using Excel or Google Sheets or purchase a paid system designed to capture and vet leads.
Once you’ve found a guest or podcast, reach out to them and be clear about your intentions. You can also go over technical requirements, explore each other’s services, and see if there’s a genuine fit before proceeding to collaboration.
The most important piece of the puzzle is promoting one another in a meaningful way. For example, you might:
- Create teaser clips for social media
- Share episode announcements in both audiences’ newsletters
- Develop custom promotional graphics for one another
- Plan joint social media live sessions
- Debut joint projects or events for one another
As you can see, collabs and guest appearances are virtually win-win situations. A rising tide lifts all ships, as they say.
Podcast Analytics and Measuring Success
You can’t manage what you can’t measure, as the saying goes. This is especially true of growing your podcast.
Here are some tips for maximizing your podcast’s reach and measuring success as you expand your show over time.
Tracking Key Metrics
You need to know how to measure your progress so it’s easier to understand what’s working (and what isn’t).
First, you familiarize yourself with common metrics you’re likely to see on your monthly reports:
- Downloads: The number of times your podcast episode has been downloaded to a device. Keep in mind these aren’t always 100% accurate, even if they come from the IAB (more details on this here).
- Listener Demographics: All essential data about your audience’s characteristics. This is important for understanding who’s actually listening, plus which advertisers might be interested, depending on the age, gender, and estimated financial bracket.
- Listener Retention: How long do listeners stay engaged with your episodes? This shows what percentage of your audience listens to each segment of an episode, as well as where they tend to drop off. For example, you might see 90% of listeners make it to the five-minute mark, but only 60% reach the 30-minute mark in each episode.
- Subscriber Growth Rate: The pace at which you’re gaining new subscribers over time, usually measured month-over-month or year-over-year. A healthy podcast usually sees some amount of growth, although keep in mind the average is around 7% per year.
Now, let’s explore how to use these going forward.
Using Analytics for Strategy Adjustments
Your podcast data tells a story. You just need to know how to piece it together.
Once you learn how to interpret and use data, it will be easy and simple to refine your content and marketing approaches.
For example, let’s say you’re looking for ways to monetize your podcast. You notice your audience has high engagement rates but isn’t quite big enough to attract the attention of advertisers. So you dig a little deeper into audience demographics to better understand what your listeners want. Now you know you can monetize beyond ads with patrons, sponsorships, and merchandise sales.
Of course, it’s much easier to leverage analytics for a strategy like this by acquiring an actual analytics platform. We recommend keeping it simple with:
- Google Analytics
- Spotify for Creators
- Apple Podcasts Connect
As mentioned earlier, key metrics will depend on what you want from your show. This could be income, leads, listener retention, or something else. Either way, you need to familiarize yourself with what you want. This is the best and only way to grow your podcast sustainably over time.
💡 Related: 10 Proven Podcast Growth Strategies
Top Marketing Podcasts for Inspiration
It’s one thing to read about the ins and outs of podcast marketing but quite another to listen to insights from podcasts within your industry. And yet, it’s one of the easiest ways to stay up-to-date on marketing trends without taking a course, buying a certificate, or hunting through news feeds or trending LinkedIn posts.
Here are some of the best podcasts to follow for marketing insights:
- Marketing Over Coffee: Best for General Marketing Tips
- Smart Passive Income: Best for Business Growth Ideas
- Retained Trust: Best for Learning from Business Builders
- Optimize Podcast: Best for SEO
💡Related: The Best Marketing Podcasts in 2025
Choosing Podcast Marketing Services and Agencies
Feeling overwhelmed by podcast marketing? It might make sense to acquire some podcast marketing services. Not only can they help with implementing new strategies, but they can also help with production and implementation — especially helpful if you’re producing a podcast on your own.
The Many Benefits of Using Professional Podcast Marketing Services
You can probably guess what these benefits look like: better strategy, faster growth, and hands-off promotion. But there are also some tangible benefits you can expect from your investment.
These include:
- Cutting between 4 and 12 hours of work per week. The average podcaster in 2023 spent around 3 hours and 15 minutes on podcast marketing every week. They also spent around 7 hours on production, resulting in a whopping 10 hours per week total. Now think: with professional podcast marketing services, you can take a minimum of 3.25 hours off your plate each week. If you delegate production and marketing services, you’ll save an additional two hours per workday to spend on other tasks.
- Filling in the gaps of your marketing knowledge. Surveys show that the number one challenge in podcasting is knowing which marketing strategies actually work (and which ones do not). With a podcast marketing service by your side, you can effectively sort the wheat from the chaff. You won’t waste time, effort, or money on services that don’t move the needle for your show.
- Saving thousands of dollars per year. The average podcaster spends ~$750 USD per month on production and marketing, although 60% of them never get more than 1,000 downloads per episode. Podcast marketing services can help to streamline your monthly spend so you can maximize your downloads and earn more money on various distribution networks.
Types of Podcast Marketing Services
There are several types of podcast marketing services worth considering for your show. The question is, which one is right for you?
Here are a few major types to consider up front:
- Production services: Anything associated with bringing your show to life. Professionals might assist with filming your show, editing video, adjusting audio, and performing other tasks. Production services are best for growing shows without time to produce their own content.
- Social media marketing services: Think social media collateral, audio clips, short-form video highlights, and more. Social media marketing services are best for growing your audience by delegating promotional tasks.
- Content creation and repurposing services: Some social media collateral may fall into this category, but most content creation firms specialize in transcriptions, blog posts, email newsletters, and other forms of repurposed content. Content creation and repurposing services are best for shows looking to boost their
- Content hosting and syndication services: As mentioned earlier, popular podcast hosts can help to syndicate your show across multiple distribution platforms. You should always have a content host with syndication services, regardless of your podcast’s size, income, goals, and audience.
There are several different ways to acquire podcast marketing services for your podcast. For one thing, you could hire a freelancer — they might be cheaper and more agile, but they probably won’t be spending 100% of their time on your business. This might be a problem if you’re worried about staying flexible.
Another option is to get an in-house expert, especially if your podcast is a core feature of your business. This is a great way to get a dedicated professional on your show without worrying about communication issues with freelancers. But an in-house pro is still one person, so if your production ramps up, it may be difficult for them to manage everything at once.
The most popular option is to partner with a podcast marketing agency: the best of both worlds for most growing shows. You’ll get multiple experts working on your show without the cost of a full-time employee or the possible issues of a full-time freelancer.
Curious if agencies are the right choice for your show?
Keep reading to learn more about finding a great podcast marketing agency.
What to Look for in a Podcast Marketing Agency
A good podcast marketing agency can help you delegate repetitive tasks. A great podcast marketing agency can help you sustainably grow your podcast.
The hard part is finding the perfect fit for your show.
Here’s a quick checklist to help narrow down your shortlist:
- Industry Experience
- Do they have a positive track record with similar podcasts?
- Are there great case studies and success stories?
- Do they understand your industry and ecosystem
- Do they have strong industry connections and relationships?
- Analytics and Reporting
- Do they offer detailed listening metrics?
- Would they be willing to offer a competitive analysis?
- Are they willing to help with audience demographics?
- Is there monthly/weekly growth tracking available?
- Are they capable of measuring the KPIs that matter to you?
- Marketing Services
- Are there options for content strategy?
- Do they offer press and PR outreach
- Will they assist with email marketing?
- Are they familiar with paid advertising management?
- What about cross-promotion strategies?
- Social Media Capabilities
- Do they offer the social media services you need (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc)?
- Will they help with content creation?
- Are they familiar with community management?
- Would they be willing to help with influencer partnerships?
- Cost Structure
- Does their pricing model match your needs (retainer, project-based, performance, etc)?
- Do they offer any budget flexibility?
- Are their additional fees transparent?
- Do they offer flexible contract terms?
- Technical Expertise
- Will they help with SEO optimization?
- Will they assist with distribution management?
- Do they know how to help with RSS feed optimization?
- Are there options for platform optimization?
- Quality of Team
- Will you get a dedicated account manager?
- Are there content specialists on staff?
- Do they employ experts with audio expertise?
- Do they work with marketing strategists?
How to use this chart: Fill out this checklist for each agency on your shortlist (or at least the top two or three). The podcast marketing service with the highest number of checked boxes may be the best overall fit for your podcasting needs.
Case Studies in Finance Podcast Marketing
It’s one thing to read about podcast marketing strategies but quite another to see them in action.
We’ve gathered some examples of successful finance and marketing podcasts so you can take a closer look at what strategies have the greatest impact.
Let’s get started.
Invest Like The Best
- Industry: Business and Finance
- Downloads: 10,000,000+
Invest Like The Best is a finance and business podcast specifically designed for investors and business leaders. They turned to the professionals at The Podcast Consultant to assist with audio/video editing and the podcast’s initial launching.
ILTB has reached 415 episodes and collected 10,000,000+ downloads since 2016. They have also expanded into additional shows to increase brand awareness and generate more leads for the Colossus.
“Beyond reliability, TPC understands our unique content type, and we trust their editing won’t “miss the message.” We have built a system with TPC that allows for a smooth production process start to finish. Whenever we need to adjust that process, we know we can hop on a call and adjust accordingly.” — Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Founder and Chairman @ Colossus Collective
World of DaaS
- Industry: Data and software
- Downloads: 250,000+
World of DaaS is a newer technology podcast designed for and by enthusiasts of the Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) industry. Host Auren Hoffman wanted to build an exclusive member community that would drive innovation and ideation in a fast-paced, high-octane industry.
Hoffman turned to The Podcast Consultant for both audio and video podcast production. The goal was to expand into new show formats without neglecting the unique style and tone of Hoffman’s content.
Today, World of DaaS has developed more than 185 episodes with over 250,000 lifetime downloads since 2022. Hoffman attributes his success to delegating tedious production work so he could spend more time working on value-driven content for his show.
“TPC has been incredibly reliable and communicative. Production is super smooth, and they’re always very responsive if we ever have questions or need to make last-minute changes. We know that all of our podcast editing will be uniform and polished and that they understand our brand and goals.” — Auren Hoffman, Host @ World of DaaS
For Your Innovation (FYI)
- Industry: Finance and investing
- Streams: 10,000,000+
- Marketing strategies: Content repurposing; social media collateral
For Your Innovation (known as FYI) is focused on recent developments across a wide variety of industries. The goal is to spotlight disruptive innovation and provide unique perspectives from both ARK Invest and the guests it hosts.
FYI turned to The Podcast Consultant for help generating assets for its promotional activities. This included:
- Show notes
- Transcripts
- Social media assets (audiograms, video clips, posts, and more)
As of 2025, FYI has published more than 250 episodes and collected 10+ million streams since 2018. They have also launched a secondary show known as ‘The Brainstorm’ to continue the conversation in a shorter-form show.
“The best thing about The Podcast Consultant is their reliability. There is never a doubt they will deliver a fantastic product on time. It makes it very easy to build a consistent and quality publication cadence.” — Brett Winton, Chief Futurist @ Ark Investment Management
Answering Your Questions
How long does it take to see results from podcast marketing efforts?
Organic growth typically takes 3-6 months to show significant results. Paid promotion can drive immediate traffic, but sustainable growth requires consistent effort over time.
Should I focus on growing my existing audience or attracting new listeners?
Balance both – nurture existing listeners to become advocates who share your show, while simultaneously implementing strategies to attract new audiences through SEO, collaborations, and targeted promotion.
How do I measure ROI on podcast marketing investments?
Track leading indicators (downloads, engagement, email signups) and lagging indicators (sales, leads, brand mentions). Set up attribution tracking to connect podcast activities to business outcomes.
How do I handle negative feedback or criticism about my podcast
Respond professionally to constructive criticism, ignore trolls, and use feedback to improve your content. Negative reviews can actually boost credibility when you respond thoughtfully.
The Bottom Line on Podcast Marketing
Podcast marketing is a necessity for successful shows — you just need to learn how to make it work for you. This could be hands-on learning, watching YouTube tutorials, or delegating more intimidating tasks to a trained team of experts.
Whatever your situation, don’t feel pressured to do everything at once. You can apply strategies gradually as your skills (and podcast) develop.
Still chomping at the bit to get your podcast launched? Book a free discovery call with The Podcast Consultant to get a better idea of where you’re at and where you could go.