Podcast Marketing: Growing Your Audience in 2025

Ready to take your podcast to the next level? In this episode, we dive into cutting-edge strategies for podcast marketing in 2025. From harnessing the power of short-form video to engaging with your audience in new and meaningful ways, you’ll learn how to expand your reach, attract loyal listeners, and make your podcast stand out in a crowded market. Whether you're just starting or a seasoned podcaster, this episode is packed with actionable tips to help you grow your audience like never before. Don’t miss it!

Resources Mentioned:

• MailerLite for email marketing
• Buzzsprout for podcast hosting
• I didn't mention this in the episode but I use Alitu to edit my podcast
• If you don't have a podcast and would like to start one, I have a course for you called the Lean Podcast Launch Method.

Connect with me

Website: www.newschoolofmarketing.com
Facebook: @newschoolofmarketing
Facebook group: @newschoolofmarketing
Instagram: @bianca_mckenzie

Learn from me:

🟣 FREE MASTERCLASS: Sell more of your online course with Meta Ads
https://www.biancamckenzie.com/masterclass

🔵 AIMFUL ADS ACADEMY: Tools, resources & 1:1 support to attract more ideal clients and make more sales with proven, easy to follow Facebook & Instagram ad strategies for any budget. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/aimful-ads/

🟢 FACEBOOK ADS PREP SCHOOL: Find out what you need to know and do before spending money on ads. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/prep-school/

🟡 INVISIBLE AD FUNNEL PLAYBOOK: A practical step-by-step guide to making a big impact with a tiny budget. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/playbook

🟠 FUNNEL FUNDAMENTALS: Building effective sales funnels that drive conversions and grow your business. ...

Transcript

Welcome back to the new School of Marketing podcast. Before we dive in, I would love to pay my respect and acknowledgement to the Palawa people of Lutruwita, who are the traditional owners of the land on which my business operates.

I pay my respect to the elders, past and present.

Today, I want to talk about podcasting.

And I started my podcast in the middle of the pandemic. Pandemic when my daughter was, I don't know, two, two and a half, and we were literally locked at home.

It was pretty much the worst time I could have picked to start, but I'd wanted to do it for so long and I thought, you know what, if I don't do it right now, I won't do it at all.

So here we are, 193 episodes later, which is incredible.

And podcasting has, has come a long way, like, and there are so many opportunities, but there's also so much more competition.

And I really want to talk about strategies in this episode that can help you not just attract more listeners, but also build, like, a loyal, engaged community around your podcast.

So let's dive in, right, because we're close to the end of 2024.

First, let's talk about, you know, podcasting in 2025. Look, nobody knows what, what the future holds, but let's just have a chat about it.

Podcasts are super popular. There are millions of shows out there and there are so many diverse listeners. There's just so much out there. Right?

And what that means for podcasters is that niching down is important.

So instead of trying to appeal to everyone, I think we need to really focus on a specific topic or a specific audience and another one I see happening in the future.

And this is. This kind of goes for a lot of different things, to be honest, but really that demand for quality over quantity, like, I see that you as a listener, but also like listeners in general, they're looking for value packed episodes that either entertain, that educate, or that inspire.

And value packed doesn't mean that it needs to be long. I always aim to keep my episodes short because I know that my audience, you wonderful listeners, are on a mission.

You've got businesses to run, you've got Places to be, you've got things to do.

Unless the topic is like super meaty and it warrants a really long episode, I try to keep it short, actionable, go, go, go kind of thing.

So if you're not delivering on that, I think you need to rethink how you run your podcast.

Now let's talk about being discovered the first thing to do. And if you're a podcaster, you probably notice. But if you're not a podcaster and you're thinking of starting a podcast in 2025, you need to make sure that your podcast is listed on all the major directories on Apple, on Spotify, on Google, even though that's changing and even like the smaller platforms because you never know where your audience might be hanging out.

Plus, if you have a good podcast host, and I'll share mine in the show notes, my podcast is hosted with buzzsprout. If you have a good podcast host, it is super, super simple to share your podcast to all of the major platforms.

It's literally like almost like a one click button to make sure that your podcast gets shared everywhere.

Second, you need to think about SEO.

Using keywords in your podcast titles and in your podcast descriptions can really help new listeners find you. It's like a search engine, right? They would type it into Google and things like that and your podcast can pop up in the Google search results as well.

So think about using SEO. So for example, instead of making your episode like episode 10 marketing tips, try something like 10 proven marketing tips to grow your business. Like really think about, okay, if I was my audience and I wanted to know about a certain topic, what would I type in to Google or some of the search engines to find answers on that?

And also don't forget about your podcast cover art. I know most of us will like almost start there. Like think about that, you know that picture. But you want eye catching and professional looking visuals that really reflect what your show is about.

And it's like you only get like a tiny little square. It looks big when you're designing it or when the designers hand it over to you. But once it is, for example into Apple podcast, it looks tiny.

So it needs to be able, you need to be able to read it like when it's still small.

And obviously it needs to stand out and look professional.

Okay, talking about growing again. So one of the fastest ways to grow your audience is through collaboration.

So consider being a guest on other podcasts, especially podcasts that share your target audience. It's like a total win win. It's like when I go on other podcasts and I've been on like multiple lots of different podcasts, other business coaches, designers or design coaches, anyone who kind of shares a similar audience with me, I am happy to go on the podcast and share about Facebook ads or other marketing tips or like my journey.

So consider being a guest on other podcasts. And I take guests for my podcast too. So if you're interested in being a guest and we share an audience, feel free to reach out.

Because when you share the same audience, you bring value to their listeners and at the same time you get exposure to a new group of people.

The other thing you can do is partner with other podcasters for like cross promotions. I haven't done this myself mostly because I just get, you know, wrapped up in getting ahead with my podcast recordings and all of those kind of things.

So for instance, you could like swap trailer spots or promote each other's episodes on social media. So like, there's always things that if you share that kind of with someone else, you can reach a wider audience.

And don't underestimate the power of social media to amplify your podcasts.

So there are so many ways that you can do it. But repurpose your episodes. You can like make bite sized content.

Like my podcast hosting platform lets you get like a visual, like a little snapshot of of your episode. You can share that.

You can create audiograms, quotes, even like short video snippets from your podcast if you record on video as well. And Instagram, TikTok, they're really good places to share this kind of content.

Now remember, it's important to get engagement, don't just post and ghost, especially with the algorithms constantly changing. And I'm pretty sure at the moment Instagram might be going through one of them again.

So really try to interact with people like comments, dms, polls. Like if you do share on social media, go all in.

Don't just, you know, drop it and like never interact with anyone. That's the whole thing about social media. And I do recommend that if you choose a place platform that you go all in.

All right?

Building an audience isn't just about numbers, it's about loyalty.

So the other thing I want you to focus on is grow an email list so then you can share episodes, you can, you know, update people, you can share behind the scenes, other content, exclusive offers.

Email marketing is basically a direct line to your audience and it's much more reliable than social media algorithms.

So I'm always advocating for people to grow their email list.

And it really goes hand in hand with, like, building that loyalty. Not just listeners, like, just not. Not just numbers. You want people that are going to be on that ride with you, and ideally, you want them on your email list.

You can also strengthen your connection by, for example, hosting live Q&As or virtual meetups, or, you know, even starting, for example, a patreon for your super fans. People really love feeling that they're part of an exclusive community.

So these are all thoughts that you can think about. Like, if podcasting is like one of the things that you're going to go all in on, these are all ways that you can sort of deepen that relationship.

And finally, I also want to talk about paid strategies. Of course I want to talk about paid strategies. That's what I do. Right? So investing in ads on other podcast or on platforms can be a great way to reach new listeners.

So it doesn't have to be Facebook ads. You can use Facebook ads to promote your podcast. And I do it quite often, and I do it for all my clients as well, those that have podcasts.

But there's also podcast sponsorships, podcast like paid kind of opportunities. You can also collaborate with other brands for sponsorship. If you've listened to quite a few podcasts, you might actually hear about some of those, you know, brands that are actually sponsoring the podcast.

Often you'll hear this episode is brought to you by da da da da da. So you can do all of that. And not only does that monetize your podcast, but it also introduces your show to a wider audience through that other brand's channel.

So if there's something that is, like, really aligned and has the same listenership, I would firstly try to be a guest on that podcast. But some podcasts don't actually take guests, so sponsorship could be another option to sort of get, you know, an in on that audience.

Okay, well, like I said, we don't really know what the future holds. And I don't know, podcasting could, like, completely be out next year, but I think it'll keep growing.

I've just shared my top strategies for growing your podcast audience in 2025. So hopefully podcasting is not out.

But whether you're just starting out or, you know, you want to grow your current show, I hope these tips can help you get your reach up and build a loyal community of listeners.

Like I said, email marketing is still my number one tip. So try to really get people on your email list so that you can let them know about future episodes and other you know, opportunities to work with you and those kind of things.

I know we're close to the end of the year, but if you haven't already, start planning your podcasting schedule for the next year and then look at one of these strategies that you can work on.

Maybe it's optimizing your podcast SEO and you can actually go back into your episodes and make some updates as well. Or maybe if you have haven't already create an email list.

Please do that. That's like number one priority.

All right, thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the New School of Marketing podcast. I hope it was helpful and as always, I'm excited to share more marketing tips and strategies with you next week.

If you're ready to take your business to the next level with Facebook and Instagram advertising, make sure that you head to new school of marketing.com for practical free resources.

And if you want to grow your business but you don't want to spend all your time on slow and unpredictable organic social media, then the Aimful Ads Academy is for you.

It's the place to learn how to be seen by your audience, attract the right people as leads, and turn them into paying customers. With my proven 4ad stack method plus as part of the program, you have one on one access to me and I'm a marketing strategist with over 10 years experience in ads so that you don't have to navigate ads alone.

I'm here to help you be seen. I'm here to help you attract leads and get more paying customers.

And remember, make sure that you subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. I can't wait to keep this journey going with you. Until next time. Take care and market your business every day.