Back in 2013, pretty much all it took to make a podcast was buying a mic and hitting record, but you know that that's not the case any more. Running a successful podcast involves a lot of effort before you even get to the recording stage and it doesn't end when you've released the episode.
Once your episode is out in the world, you need to think about repurposing the audio content that you created and turning it into something new. This is what we also call podcast content remarketing.
But why add more work to your plate? What does remarketing your podcast content do for your podcast?
Sharing the ideas from your podcast in multiple ways with multiple audiences provides different pathways for people to find you. You catch your ideal audience where they are and deliver them content you've already recorded, but in a new format. All of these paths that you make then point back to your podcast and encourage people to tune in and subscribe, boosting your listenership.
This is a great strategy for popular episodes from your podcast that consistently rank highly but may date from a few months (or years) back, such as 'gateway' episodes on evergreen topics that help people to find you in the first place. Sure, you could re-release these episodes to bump them to the top of your new episodes list, but that risks putting off old subscribers who already know them and you can only do them a few times before your current subscribers get bored.
Instead, take one of these hit episodes and turn it into a blog post or an email. Share it with your online followers, complete with links to the original episode, and you've got a brand-new piece of content on a popular topic that signposts people to your podcast. And you didn't have to record a new episode or book a single new guest to make it.
You're a podcaster because you have insights that you want to share with your listeners to improve their lives. However, your listeners are busy people and they're probably listening to your episode whilst they're at the supermarket, doing the washing up or napping on the sofa. Plus, they listen to a lot of other podcasts too. All of this means that your insights risk getting lost in the noise.
You can help your listeners to really learn from--and apply--your message by giving them your content in a different format. This is the thinking behind Dr Rangan Chatterjee's 'Friday Five' email list that lists 5 lessons from his Feel Better, Live More podcast and the Podsheet exercises provided by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis that summarise the action steps from episodes of their Squiggly Careers podcast.
Gather up the best lessons from your podcast and give them to your audience in a new way that they can come back to time after time and have on-hand, wherever they are.
And if your podcast insights span multiple episodes and several topics, consider grouping them together by themes in an informative mini-guide that you can sell or give away to listeners.
The podcast market is getting bigger by the day. Podcast fans choose from multiple podcasts on the same topic and they can be pretty fickle.
Remarketing your podcast content helps you to stand out from the crowd and to grow your authority. It's a signal to your audience that you take your podcast seriously and you care about their listening experience.
You're also enabling a community to build around your podcast, reaching people exactly where they are and reminding them of the value that you deliver. When you give your listeners that warm feeling of belonging, you'll keep people coming back to you, episode after episode.
Look out for my upcoming on turning your podcast show notes into a blog post, the easy way.