In February, during a creative session at DYT, someone floated the idea for a podcast. Our founder took to the concept like a duck to water. Then the world upended itself, and the podcast was shelved. Since then, we’ve been sitting on a whole stack of research on how to promote a podcast on Instagram. Why Instagram? Because as a creator-first community, ‘Gram is the place where we have the most followers.
It got us thinking that the same would be true for creators who have branched into Podcasts. So, the long and short of it is – we’re offering our research to you in the hopes that Instagram helps you gain more podcast listeners!
How to Promote A Podcast on Instagram?
When you’re building a brand or even a social media page, the first thing you do is identify your audience as they are your foundation for every other decision. The same logic applies to promoting a podcast on Instagram.
Find your audience framework
To do so, find the answer to these critical questions:
- What is your podcast about?
- What are the demographics of your audience, i.e., gender, age, and location?
- What do they value and care about?
- Where will they listen to the podcast?
- How does the podcast add value to them?
The answer to these gives you the general direction for all the promotional content you post on Insta.
Use it to make creatives
The benefit of the audience framework is that it helps you build a strong visual representation on Instagram. The stronger the visual element, the easier it gets for your followers to find and identify your podcast. Here’s how you use the framework to make creatives:
- If your podcast is on beauty and your listeners are mostly females, the colours and visual styling of the content should be pastel hues and bright aesthetics.
- On the other hand, if the podcast is on home styling, then light and airy feel are what you want in your creatives shared on Instagram.
- If the podcast is meant to promote your personal brand, then all the creatives should have a personal touch and imagery to reflect your persona.
- On the flip side, if the podcast is on the subject matter, then match the tone to the topic. For instance, a finance podcast will have a serious tone.
When making podcast creatives to share on Instagram, keep these tips in mind:
- The tone, colours, text, and animation, i.e., images and graphic styling, is consistent.
- Always have the logo or watermark on all the creatives.
- Make a cover art for your podcast and use it on the content you make for Instagram.
Plan and create your content
If you already have active podcast episodes or have planned them already, create content that you’ll share on Instagram for each of them. The trick is to have a content bank for a month. It ensures that you have the creatives ready as and when you roll-out the podcast episodes.
Here are some examples:
- If the podcast is a branch of your personal brand, then make content that has images of you, places you have visited things you love.
- If the podcast is on a specific subject matter, create content related to the topic. For instance, finance podcasts can show moolah or even cryptocurrency.
Keep in mind:
- Every content posted on the ‘Gram to amplify the podcast should connect to the episode, guest, or overall theme in some manner.
- For each podcast that features a guest, get a headshot of the guest. Use it to make creatives to announce the episode on your Instagram and that of the guest!
- Variety is key to promoting a podcast on Instagram. So, besides videos and images, add in other content. One easy way is to use the Wavve app, which converts audio into sound waves. It gives your content a tremendous graphical touch, and if you add in subtitles, your followers can get a sound bite even with the volume turned down low.
Create a publishing schedule
Once you have all the content down pat, create a publishing schedule. Make certain that it matches your podcast schedule! For instance, if you publish one podcast every ten days, then your Instagram content for that episode should be peppered over the 10 days.
Here’s how you create a schedule:
- The first few posts on Instagram should build anticipation for the episode.
- After the podcast episode is released, post snippets from it on social media for amplification.
- Lastly, publish follow-ups to get more reaction and engagement from the audience.
Keep in mind:
- Always share your creatives with the podcast episode guest, so that they can share it on their socials. Or better yet just tag the guest on your posts to make it easy from them to repost!
- Never underestimate the power of Instagram Stories. Save the creatives of each episode on your Instagram Stories Highlights. It gives your followers a feel of your podcast at a glance.
Harness the power of community
Never forget that the community you’ve built on Instagram is your best resource. If you genuinely want to get more ears for your podcast through the photo-sharing app, harness the power of your followers.
Here are some ways you can do it:
- Ask them to recommend guests for the podcast.
- Always encourage them to share feedback on live episodes.
- Find out what it is they like about your podcast and what they’re not-too-hot about? Use Instagram Stories stickers for this!
- Open the opportunity for your followers to ask questions during a podcast episode. The AMA sticker on Instagram Stories is an excellent way to create a question bank.
Keep in mind:
Your community is not limited to your followers. It includes the guest too because with one post they can introduce your podcast to a whole new bunch of people!
After they have been a part of an episode, thank them with a care pack. It is little gestures that go a long way and gives the guest something to share on Instagram with your handle tagged!
Promote A Podcast on Instagram: Not Rocket Science
When you have the basics in place (audience framework), the rest of the steps in how to promote a podcast on Instagram automatically fall into place. All it takes is some diligence and hard work on your part. And if you need inspiration, tune in to these podcasts.
