Podcast Cross Promotion: Ensuring Success

Author: Janae Strickland-Nunn

Cross-promotion is a great way to promote your podcast on a small budget. It’s usually when you and another podcast promote each other's shows on your respective podcast. This is a great way to gain new listeners and promote your show. Here are some great reasons why you should consider cross-promotion

What you should do to prepare for cross-promotion 

Before you cross-promote you have to know your audience. Like REALLY know your audience. You need to know their pain points, what they like and don’t like. You have to make sure that the podcasts you look to partner with an audience that has needs that are like your audience. The object is to gain new listeners but you also want to make sure that they can relate to your content. 

What podcast would be relevant to your audience?

Next, you need to do your research to figure out what other content your listeners would also be relevant to your listeners. If your audience is middle-aged women who are interested in self-love, they may also want to listen to topics on building self-esteem. You would want to partner with another podcast that will offer content that you know is relevant to your audience. 

Now let’s talk leverage….what can you offer each other

There are many things that you can offer but you know the key is your audience. Now don’t fret if you don’t have huge listener numbers, just think about the character of your listeners. Are they loyal? Are they likely to join and become long term listeners? Your small group of loyal listeners can be another podcast’s greatest gift. 

Don’t just be greedy for a chance to gain more listeners. When cross-promoting there are things you want to look for in a podcast you are going to partner with. Think about the quality of their show and how it’s produced. Does it talk about subject matter your audience will be interested in? Also, think about how you are digesting their content, if you’re bored, your audience will be bored as well. 

Switch!!

Once you have agreed to cross-promote with a podcast, you need to discuss how you're going to promote each other. How will you promote each other’s podcasts in a way that is effective for your show? Will a shout out at the beginning of your show suffice? Or maybe you want to dedicate some time to interview each other on an episode? However you do it, make sure it is true to your show and it doesn’t veer from the format your audience is used to. 

Make sure you check the progress

Once everything is in place, you have to make sure that you’re tracking the progress of your cross-promotion. Whether this means just generally looking for the increased number of downloads or listens in your analytics or trying to send audiences from other podcasts to a landing page on your podcast’s site and tracking the amount of traffic, make sure you have some ability to show the value of the cross-promotion.