10 PROVEN Ways to Drive Traffic & Grow Your Podcast FASTER!

Hey friend!

You planned you prepped… you pressed record… you overcame all your fears. And you did it. YOU. HAVE. A. PODCAST. WOOOO!

So much YES. I am so proud of you, sis.

But…. now what?

How do we grow our new show, Stef? How do we scale the listener base? How can we do this without spending money on advertising or wasting HOURS on social?

If you know anything about me, you know I am alllll about free, easy, FAST organic traffic drivers.

This episode has got YOU COVERED. Inside I will go through 10 proven ways to grow your podcast, faster. Steps I personally take to make sure my show gets found, seen, and HEARD. And today, I’m gifting all my strategies to YOU.

It’s time to take this thang next level.

Enjoy!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00):
So I’ve been doing some research on how to just really scale up my podcast growth, get more listeners, get more eyeballs on the show because the show is what generates traffic. It’s what creates trust. And ultimately it’s what grows my business in every single area from course buyers to people who coach with me, to people who joined the Facebook group, they all come through this one place.

(00:24):
So I have got to be able to grow this podcast as quickly as possible, and I love to do it organically. So here are the 10 ways that I have doubled down. And I have discovered that are the most effective in getting more ears on your podcast, content and growing your podcast as fast as humanly possible.

(01:35):
Now if you’re here with me on this episode and you don’t have a podcast yet… Girl, this is the number one way. I am telling you, the number one way to grow an audience, get more people who are engaging with your brand, who are joining your groups, who are buying your stuff, your products, who are hiring you for coaching or taking your courses it is podcasting. Why?

(02:04):
Because it cultivates trust, because you’re consistent, because it shows that you’re trustworthy. It shows that you know how to solve and serve in a deeper capacity. And then it really converts like it just converts like gangbusters. You guys, there is nothing that I’ve ever done in my business that is more easy than this show.

(02:23):
And that has created more success financially, spiritually, emotionally, like all of it. It’s just so fulfilling to come here, record for a couple of minutes for you guys in my PJ’s share my heart and know that it’s going to resonate with you.

(02:40):
And some of you will be ready to work with me. It’s just liberating. So if you’ve been searching for a way to scale and grow in a more authentic way, in a fun way, podcasting is what’s up. Okay? And I have the best podcast course for online entrepreneurs for female entrepreneurs called Podcast Pro University, I’ve helped over 350 students start and launch successful shows just like you. And if they can do it so can you, Lola.

(03:09):
It’s got everything planning, launching, titling, content curation, how to edit, record, the equipment that you need, where to share your show, how to get on Apple podcast, how to make money podcasting, how to get great guests. If I’ve done it on my show, it’s in the course. So I’ve got you covered. Head to podcastprouniversity.com. Get in the course, lifetime access, my support, support from the girls. You are not going to regret this.

(03:35):
Let’s talk about growing and scaling your show. So I’ve got 10 quick tips for you. Let’s dive in tip. Tip number one is to repurpose. This simply means you guys are already sitting there recording an episode, right? So are you repurposing that content anywhere? And one of the easiest places for you to repurpose is onto YouTube. So the way that we do it is in Podbean, where I host there’s a little checkbox that says share to YouTube, share to Twitter, share wherever else. All of them are checked. Yes.

(04:13):
And it simply takes my podcast episode and it shares it automatically over onto all of those platforms. All my titles go with it, all my descriptions, all my juicy SEO. Yes, please. So be sure that you are repurposing because someone hanging out on YouTube that searches for how to start a podcast might find my podcast episode on YouTube versus someone on Twitter who searches for hashtag start a podcast, right?

(04:41):
So repurpose, and it’s a click of a button. You don’t have to redo this content or have to have video with it. Just simply share it over. You can totally upload audio files to YouTube. And if you’ve already got it, why not?

(04:57):
Number two, the second strategy I have is bonus episodes. The more content you put out that serves and solves, the more searchable you are, right? If I don’t have bonus episodes, I don’t have more SEO, more searchable titles, more keywords. That’s why I do that. That’s why I plug in short, easy snippets that have extra value as often as I can. The more episodes you put on your show, the faster you will grow.

(05:28):
Number three is something I like to call podcast swaps. So how many people do you know that have a podcast with a similar demographic or similar niche as you? Why not do a podcast swap with them so that you guys can cross promote to each other’s audiences. Now, if you’re in Podcast Pro University, you’ll notice the pinned post at the top of the group is exactly this, a thread for podcast pitching and doing reviews for each other’s shows.

(06:00):
So what you can do is pop into the group and be like, Hey, who wants to do a podcast swap with me? A podcast interview swap? My show’s on meal prep, so anybody in the fitness space, anybody in the busy mom fitness area, the health category, like I’d love to do a swap with you and get some swaps on the books, because this is such a fun way for you to be heard from a different audience and vice versa for someone else.

(06:26):
Number four is podcast pitching. So similar to podcasts swapping, which is really easy to secure with people who have similar sized shows as you, podcast pitching, as you are pitching up, you are requesting to be a guest on other people’s podcasts. This is a similar concept. It’s just simply you being a guest without them coming on your show as well.

(06:50):
And if you pitch 10, you will, for sure secure one. I have so many episodes on podcast pitching go back and you will see plenty of episodes on podcast pitching. But again, this is how your message gets heard on other people’s platforms. And if they have a similar niche as you, their listeners are gonna, if they like you come resonate with you and come check out your show and subscribe to your stuff. So that is an amazing way for you to grow your own podcast.

(07:20):
Number five is Pinterest. Pinterest is a little hidden gem that most people are not utilizing to its full capacity. I’ve been a Pinterest user for probably four or five years ever since I started blogging back when I had my circuit Brittany Spears breakdown here, and I thought it’d be a good idea to blog about how to style your mantle. This is not a drill. This is real life.

(07:45):
If you think you have lost it, gone off the deep end, you don’t know what you’re doing with your business, you are like Stef, I’m just a hot mess express. I’m all over the place. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I need clarity. Don’t worry. I started a blog on how to style your mantle in 2015. So nobody’s as bad as me, right? But what I did do that was so amazing is I got used to Pinterest. I got my little booty over onto that platform and I started sharing.

(08:17):
Pinterest has exploded my blog for me. We get 18,000 plus website views every single month at stefaniegass.com all from Pinterest. And I don’t even go over there. My VA is on Pinterest 30 minutes a week, if that. So if you want my super easy, like no brainer strategy for getting your stuff to really work for you on Pinterest, grab my masterclass. It’s only a hundred bucks. You guys it’s at pinterestmasterclass.gr8.com.

(08:51):
Why? Because you have to have the strategy and it’s so easy and it doesn’t take any time. And I just want all of you to have this in your pocket, instead of showing up on social for hours a day, show up on Pinterest, 30 minutes a week, set it and forget it. How does that sound girl? All right.

(09:10):
Number six. Strategy number six is to have SEO and keywords inside of your podcast titles. So if you have a title that says something like want to eat healthier, listen in. That’s a great, that’s a fine title. It’s a five out of 10. However, it really doesn’t have a keyword in there so we could extend it to add some search terms. Keywords are only – all it means is it’s a search term for people to find your stuff in the Apple podcast app or on the Google search bar.

(09:46):
So you could add some keywords into this one, like how to eat healthy using simple meal prep and easy, simple workouts. So you’ve just added a couple more phrases, like easy meal prep, or get started with meal prep. Like what would your person search add those easy, simple keyword plugs into your titles.

(10:09):
And you’re going to see the growth because people will search for that specific thing in Apple podcast, your episode will come up. It’s almost as if it’s a search engine right there within Apple podcasts. Okay? So don’t waste your titles. Use them, use them as if you were titling a blog episode.

(10:30):
Number seven. Tip number seven to scale and grow your podcast is to transcribe each episode and then share it into a blog post. Now, some people glaze over when they hear blog posts, they’re like what? I can’t blog. You’re not going to blog, sister-friends. You have a podcast.

(10:48):
What you’re going to do is you’re going to share your latest episode with a tiny description, whatever you typed up already in your host, Podbean or Libsyn, or wherever over into a blog that lives on your website, share the embed player, you know, where they can click and listen, put a graphic there and then add the full transcription.

(11:10):
Why would we do this? We do this because your transcription is completely searchable. Any word, key phrase, keyword that you used in your entire 15, 20, 30 minute episode now becomes a search term. What the what? Yes. And I use temi.com. It’s 25 cents a minute, not that expensive. It’s so much cheaper than multiple other ways that you could be advertising. So I guess I did say this with these were all freeways, but there is transcription in here.

(11:48):
However, this is such an easy thing for you guys do it takes my VA roughly 30 to 45 minutes per episode, to create and share the blog post, including the transcription. So this is something that you can do along with the fact that it’s evergreen like this isn’t a one hit wonder method. You’re not going to Instagram and sharing your snippet or sharing your headliner.

(12:15):
You’re literally posting a transcription that will live forever on the interwebs. And if somebody searches for step one of starting a podcast and that’s their specific sentence, and I said it inside of an episode, my blog will come up. They’ll click on the blog link and they’ll see my embeddable player come listen to the episode. And it automatically drives traffic straight over to The Mompreneur Mastermind Show. If you guys want to see an example of my blog post, you can go to stefaniegass.com/blog.

(12:49):
All right, let’s see what I’m on here. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. All right. Tip number eight is to do a giveaway or a contest. Now, what I like to do here is every time there’s a milestone on my podcast, we’ve hit the 10th episode. We’ve hit the 50th, the hundred. We have a thousand downloads, 50,000, a hundred thousand, 250, 300,000 downloads. I do a giveaway.

(13:13):
I find any and every excuse to do a giveaway girls. Why? Because when I do a giveaway, I ask my listeners to share a screenshot of the episode into their Instagram stories or to leave a written review and share that review onto their Instagram stories. Why does that drive traffic? Because if you are sharing for me, your warm market says, Oh, Lisa likes this podcast. Lisa said, these nice things about this podcast. I’m going to go check it out.

(13:44):
I’m also a mompreneur. So a giveaway or a contest as often as you can, is a great way to continue to bring new eyes and ears over to your stuff. Number nine, we got two more. Number nine is to do Facebook group, and then I’m going to air quote myself right now market research. So on Facebook, there’s so many groups that have your niche in them, correct?

(14:13):
So I could go to any work from home, mom, mompreneur, momboss, network, marketing, affiliate marketing freelancing group that exists on Facebook. And I could post in there a couple of times a week and say something like, Are any of you struggling with what your new blog post content should be? And then everybody comments below.

(14:35):
And then maybe I can say, awesome. Well, I have a new episode on this and I’d love to hear your feedback, or I’d love to get your thoughts on if these 20 ways helped you. Now a tip on this, to be careful that you’re not spamming and get removed from the episode is just think about how can you phrase things so that they are market research or so that it is a one-on-one answer.

(15:00):
Like, awesome, Oh, let me get into your inbox. I have some ideas for you. And then you share the episode a little bit time intensive, but if you have a VA or a community outreach manager, that’s something that you can also have them do.

(15:14):
Last tip for you guys on growing your organic growth for the show is to do monthly email roundups. So each month I send a roundup of the podcast episodes that we’ve had that month. That email roundup always boosts my traffic. Why? Because while we’re so focused on new growth, what about all the people in your community that missed it? They haven’t caught every episode.

(15:44):
So some of the easiest listens and downloads that you may be missing is your already existing community. And so this email Roundup, it gets people to binge listen. They see the email come through and it’s like, Oh my gosh, Stef had, you know, nine or 10 episodes this month. Oh, this one looks good. This one looks good. This one looks good. They head on over to the podcast and they’ve listened to 10 episodes before they’re done. They kind of binge listen and then get all those downloads in from my already warm market.

(16:16):
And then we do share that email roundup to my Facebook group as well because again, we need to also promote our episodes to warm market and not just focus on cold market, because those are the people who already trust you guys. And all we got to do there is move them from trust tier one, into trust tier two, for them to actually buy from you, work with you, hang out with you, get in the DMS with you. You know what I’m saying? Go from dating to a new a relationship.

(16:51):
So anyways, those are my 10 ways that we are actively utilizing to grow my podcast. And those are ways that I think you guys can all implement super easy, super quickly for a ridiculously low price. All of those 10 things. If you paid for my Pinterest masterclass, that’s a hundred bucks. Secondly, if you add Tailwind, which is what I use to manage my Pinterest, that’s another, I don’t know, 10 bucks a month. And then if you do a transcription of your episodes, that’s 25 cents a minute. So it would be like seven or eight bucks for a 30 minute episode.

(17:29):
Tell me that’s not a super cheap yet massively effective way to do organic traffic and marketing for your podcast. Sign me up. Yes, I’m all in. And I hope you are too. Again, if you’re going to join me in the Pinterest masterclass that is at Pinterestmasterclass.gr8.com, or if you got this far and you don’t have a podcast, that’d be really weird. But if that’s you let’s fix that, go to podcastprouniversity.com get registered. God bless. I’ll meet you guys here back real soon.