In a follow up to Episode 5 (5 Steps to Launching Your Podcast), we are covering the 5 steps we recommend taking after you launch your podcast. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but we summarized what we know is most important to set your show up for growth and success for the long haul. If you want your show to be thriving and active a year from now, prioritize these steps after launching, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
In this episode Tiff and Christine walk you through their top 5 steps to growing your podcast or YouTube channel after you launch it.
“What is way more valuable than our ideas is the feedback we are getting from the people who are actually listening.”
Christine Baird
Topics covered:
- (0:30) Step #1: Engage with your audience on social platforms
- (1:45) Step #2: Go on a podcast tour
- (9:14) Step #3: Re-share fan love from a place of gratitude
- (11:45) Step #4: Look at your analytics to gauge popular content
- (13:59) Step #5: Keep going
Follow the Podcast on Social!
Links mentioned:
- Tiff Tyler
- Christine Baird
- Aspiring Podcast Hosts & Producers – check out the Think Like a Producer Membership Group
Subscribe to the Podcast!
Many thanks to our production team
- Worthfull Media for audio editing
- Mosaico Productions for video editing
- Amela Subašić for artwork
Transcription of this episode:
(auto-generated, please forgive typos)
Christine (00:04):
Welcome to Think Like a Producer podcast. I’m your co-host Christine Baird.
Tiff (00:09):
And I’m your co-host Tiff Tyler. Being in the podcast industry, being in the content creation industry. This is what we learned, and this is how you can get out of your own way and get started.
Christine (00:20):
You name it. We’ve probably done it. This podcast is about bringing all the wisdom to you. Tune in weekly, to learn how to think like a producer.
Tiff (00:33):
All right, five steps after launching your show. All right, welcome to this episode of think like a producer today, such a good day, we’re going to talk about the five steps of what you can do after launching your show. We already talked about the five steps to get your show launched, but of course, now the show is going, what do I do? I have my show. I made the commitment. I got past all the fear. Now. What so exciting. So exciting. Number one, just going straight off into it. Engage with the people that are on your social media platforms. Of course, Apple podcast is a little bit different. You can read reviews and ratings, but if you’re posting on your Instagram, Hey, the show is out. You’re starting to release some clips, some quotes, maybe like we do on our think like a producer account on your YouTube channel.
Tiff (01:21):
You started to post a couple of videos, engage with your people, ask questions, answer comments, engage, engage, engage the number one thing you can do, because like we know we’ve seen it in marketing advertising. You have to say the same thing like nine to 11 times before anyone even knows what you’re talking about. Uh, we, this is kind of funny. Uh, one of the entrepreneurs that we work with together, he’s had a show for like half a decade. And a lot of people didn’t know still after millions of followers that he had a podcast. It’s not because he didn’t engage or didn’t answer comments. It’s just because like, we all know most people don’t see everything that you post. So the it’s really important to not only post and let people know the show is there between gauge to talk to your audience, to talk about how exciting it is to talk about the show. As much as you can. It’s launched, it’s your baby. It’s out in the world. Don’t be afraid to let people know. All right, Christine, what is step number two?
Christine (02:17):
This is one that I tell everyone of my clients and friends who ask. And I don’t know that it’s always obvious. So I hope this will be helpful. It’s to actually go on what I call a podcast tour. And that means you make a very conscious strategic effort to get booked as a guest on other podcasts in your space. And you might be saying, I don’t know any connections to podcasts team. I’m the only person I know who podcasts, but take this concept and think a little bigger about it. You could do an IG Live tour. You could do a guest blog post tour, anything that you can do. And I know that you’re connected to other people in your space. I know you are sit down, make a list who are all the people who are kind of doing similar work to me or tangential or adjacent kind of work.
Christine (03:06):
And they have audiences that would be interested in my topic and my show. And I could add a lot of value by guest appearing on that person’s platform. And it literally, you might need to like scroll through your phone contacts or scrub through your Instagram friends, like jog your memory and think bigger than you normally would, because you will be surprised when you do this outreach about how many people actually will be excited to have you as a guest, because they didn’t even know that you were doing this thing. Or they’ve been looking for some new, fresh faces and people to put in front of their audience and they are excited. So I call it a podcast to her, but it could be a podcast tour. It could be a series of like Facebook, Instagram lives. It could be if you’re really into writing and you have a lot of contacts who are bloggers or have, um, editorial positions on different platforms that publish work in your industry, those are all excellent, excellent places for you to guest appear.
Christine (04:02):
And most importantly, when you’ve kind of given your best value and shared wonderful things in they’re thinking you and saying, Hey, where can we follow you? What are you up to? The number one thing you say is, Oh, I’ve got a brand new podcast out and this is what it’s about. And this is what we talk about. And here’s where you can find it. That’s a key piece of this tour as I call it like a mini publicity tour. Now, if you have a ton of contacts and you already know like, Oh yeah, I could get booked on five awesome podcasts in my industry tomorrow. Yes. 100% do it. Um, but even if you’re kind of starting small and you’re like, Oh gosh, I mean, I have one friend who kind of has a lot of followers and they do talk about some of the stuff I talk about.
Christine (04:43):
That’s an amazing place to start because if you listen to some of our early episodes about how to kind of get in front of new audiences, that person, that you have that connection to, if you have a really great conversation with them where you’re offering a ton of value in serving their audience and making them look good that at the end of that guest interview, just like you would with a guest who came in your show, you can say like, well, this was amazing. Is there anyone else that you know who this would be a good fit? Like I would love to do more of this. So it goes both ways, whether you’re appearing as a guest on someone’s show or someone’s is appearing a guest on your show that after the interview time is the really rich time to make those connections. So I’m calling it, marketing your show to a new audience, but think creatively about this and really play to your strengths.
Christine (05:31):
Look at your network, see where the opportunities are. It’s okay to take baby steps. And you might only start out by reaching out to three people. But one of those people might reply with either a yes or they might have a great new connection for you. So it’ll probably be pretty organic. I mean, if you wanted to, you could really go down the rabbit hole and send a ton of cold emails out to a ton of people you don’t know. And a ton of publications, you have no connection to, as you know, your response rate will be far less than if you do reach out to people, you know, but the point here is that you want to market the show to new audiences that are interested in your topic and already kind of have an established rapport with someone that can invite you onto their platform.
Christine (06:15):
That’s the quickest way to get new subscribers to your show, because ideally if you’re guest appearing on a podcast that audience already enjoys podcasting because they’re listening to a podcast, that’s how they’re meeting you. So it’s a really natural transition for them to be like, Oh, I really liked her. I’m going to go check out her show. Um, that’s the ideal Instagram live or Facebook live is second and can still be awesome. You might just happen to catch people on those platforms that day. And then it’s just a little extra effort for them to go find your show. But also don’t, let’s count out like guest posting on blogs, um, journals like industry publications, maybe even you might have a friend who has an awesome email list and you might be able to do a guest post for their email list. So think creatively market, your show to audiences that are already existing that want your information and the best place to start is the people, you know, okay. Tiff, I know that there’s a piece to video that I wouldn’t dare to speak on because you don’t actually know, but what’s sort of the video equivalent. If someone’s trying to really market their YouTube channel to a new audience,
Tiff (07:21):
You definitely want to subscribe to people who are similar subscribes. A friends, Christine said, you might be the only person, you know, who’s podcasting possibly, but the way podcasting is growing, most likely you got a cousin or a best friend from high school or someone from college who also has a podcast and understands what it’s like to market and want to share and grow this podcast. So subscribing and supporting other people only leads to more support from those people, right? It’s kind of like this, um, back and forth of, uh, what I want to say of support really overall. I guess there’s no other way to say it, but you just want to support as many as people as possible on those videos, adding comments to other people’s channels, right? You want to treat people how you want to be treated. So any other podcasts that you’re a fan of any other videos that are similar, especially in your space, you can not only add a comment and engage with the person who posted it.
Tiff (08:11):
But now you’ve got a full audience of people who liked the topic that you’re talking about, who may not be looking at your videos, but now you have an opportunity to engage, to answer questions or to talk, or just to maybe continue the conversation with people. And then it’s very possible that you’ll kind of bring some audience people over to your channel just because you’re engaged in the community. That’s already like, wants to talk about your particular topic. What I mean is like, if there is a podcast channel for us, it would be people who are talking about the five tips to launch a podcast or other people who are talking about audio versus video. Other topics that we’ve covered me, like as our YouTube marketer, engaging in those audiences, talking to people and just continue the conversation. Now, overall, I will say the goal is not to always necessarily sell people, to get them over to your channel.
Tiff (09:00):
Everything we’re talking about, you want to come from as an organic and authentic place is possible. And what I mean is doing things without expectations. Um, so if you do spend a lot of time, you know, engaging in someone else’s audience, don’t expect that everyone’s going to come over and follow and support. You can genuinely just hang out and be there and get to know the people who like this person and what their wants and what their needs are, and that can help influence further episodes that you record. So that’s why I say on the YouTube side, I say on any social channel post, what you’re going to post. But like I said, for, you know, number one, add comments, be like really engaged with the audience by could just, it doesn’t have to just be your audience. It can be other people’s audiences too.
Tiff (09:45):
And then step three is once people actually start to engage and they’re around and they’re, they’re sharing your podcast, they’re sharing your posts, reshare from a place of gratitude. Thank people for the reviews that they’re giving you. Like this is sort of where it becomes a community so much more than you just being a host of a show or talking about a particular topic. You’re growing your community of people with this continuous love and support for our think like a producer account. We had some really cool Lake diehard fans in the very beginning who followed us and who shared our stuff. And of course it came from my mom and my brother and, you know, a cousin or two, you know, but being able to reshare that and show the support, it, it only helps. Um, and I will say as like a bonus tip for Instagram, use hashtags in all of these posts for us, I always put hashtag podcast, hashtag business, hashtag producer.
Tiff (10:38):
You don’t see them in all of the posts because typically I make them pretty small because I don’t want our Instagram stories and everything to be filled with hashtags, but I do want it to get in front of the people who are looking for this particular topic. So think about that even on YouTube now that she can use hashtags, making sure that you’re getting in front of the audience who wants to see your content. So that’s what I’d say is step number three, we want to show gratitude. We want to reshare. We want to support people and we’re already kind of at step three. And I want to make sure that you guys understand that this is all, you know, this is me very exciting, but this can all be done in a certain amount of time. If you’re spending maybe half an hour engaging with a new audience on your Instagram and then half an hour resharing or going through, um, some of the people who were ready, supported you and showing that gratitude, you could spend an hour a day, maybe two hours a day in your first week or first month of launch.
Tiff (11:29):
Just engaging with people, but not making that your whole entire day. Because like we know you’ve got more podcasts to record. You have more marketing videos to cut. You have some Photoshop to do for some of the images and texts that you’re going to share. So there is going to be a balance between kind of producing, consuming, and marketing this podcast. Once it’s officially launched Christine, step four
Christine (11:54):
Is actually something Tiff and I have done consistently. Since we launched our show, we’re actually in about month three of our shows. So we’re literally telling you what we’re doing right now. The five steps we’ve taken after we’ve launched our show. And like to said their work in progress, we are taking balanced amounts of time. We haven’t just like stopped our lives to do all of this, but we’re incorporating it. Okay. So step number four is every single week before we record a new episode, we go into our analytics for our show and we look at what is the most popular content? What are people responding to the most? What’s getting the most downloads, the most views. What are we getting the most questions on? So we’re very much open to feedback we ask for it constantly. We replied to every single DM we get on Instagram, every comment, every bit of feedback we can possibly get.
Christine (12:44):
We are taking that into account when we plan our new content. Because as we’ve said in past episodes, we have great ideas about where we think this podcast could go or what we think people want to know, but what is way more valuable than our ideas is the feedback we’re actually getting from the people who are actually listening and watching and sharing and asking questions. That’s the goldmine that we are now reaching into and saying, okay, what podcast actually performed the best this last month? What what’s the, when people actually clicked play on the most, because that’s helping us understand what people want more of. So let’s kind of tweak our content going forward to be more in that department or bucket or topic. And then, you know, the next month of course, we’re going to see like, okay, what, how do people respond? Like, should we try something new?
Christine (13:34):
Should we keep going? So really being in relationship with your analytics, with the feedback, people give you taking a look at it very consistently weekly, if not daily, kind of, depending on your output and how engaged your audience is. And that’s been super fun for us for one, cause it’s awesome to kind of see how people are taking in our content, but it’s also just very strategic. And that is the early stages of letting your audience kind of co-create the show with you? Of course, like I said, we’ve only really been doing this about three months. So of course we’re very much in a building phase and things will evolve. But even in this early stage, we’re being really mindful of the feedback we’re getting. We’re looking at our numbers, we’re kind of taking every possible bit of feedback we can and saying, okay, let’s let this kind of direct the next chapter so that we can see what truly the best way to serve our audiences. K Tiff, what’s number five,
Tiff (14:30):
Keep going. I think there’s like this a bit of adrenaline rush, you know, even when you’re about to launch the show, you’re letting people know people start to listen and give you feedback. I know whenever my mom tells us like, Oh, I just listened to an episode. I’m just like, Oh, it’s so cool. And she’s sharing it with her colleagues and stuff at work. It’s, it’s a really great feeling. Um, and hopefully feeling less week after week after week after week, but you know, realistically other things are happening, you know, uh, this show is just one piece of your world. There’s so many other things there’s family that could be kids. Uh, you might be working, uh, in addition to this or have other parts of your business. So your podcasts keeping that momentum and the consistency of it. So that can actually take some work to, to keep the kind of, what do I want to say?
Tiff (15:16):
The gears turning the boat rowing. I don’t know where I’m going with this, Christine, but I just want to say that it’s important to keep going. Um, and some things that I would say for me in particular, I said this so many times on the podcast and I will probably say this until like, I can’t speak anymore. I would not have done this podcast without Christine. The idea of having accountability and collaboration is so important to me and truthfully, you know, I’ve done blog videos. I’ve started in stopped so many things, not because I wasn’t, you know, I didn’t like the idea, but there really was this sort of momentum drain when I’m doing things typically by myself, that’s the kind of person I am when I’m working with a team when I’m working in collaboration. When I know someone’s counting on me, usually it kind of wakes up the momentum a little bit more.
Tiff (16:00):
I have a bit more motivation, inspiration. When Christine and I meet, uh, every weekend. Just talk before we even get started on these podcasts, it’s very motivating for me to continue to push past certain boundaries that or limits that I might’ve think that I have for myself. Um, another idea is systems, uh, something I really love, and this is a book like this is a whole idea that someone else came up with, but it’s called eat that frog, doing the thing that maybe is a part of your podcast or a part of your production. That’s the hardest thing or the thing that’s the most tedious in the beginning of the day or in the beginning of the week, whatever that looks like for you. For me, I’ve been editing since I was 14. It’s been like 15 years and still, it’s a very tedious task for me to do.
Tiff (16:45):
I have a bit more of a system when it comes to our podcast and editing these videos. But I know that for me in the beginning of the day, if I’m editing for three, four hour block, the rest of the day just feels like such a weight off. And for you, that could be coming up with ideas and writing in the beginning of the day. It doesn’t have to be the thing that you don’t like to do. It could just be the thing that’s the most tedious. Um, so maybe for you, that’s even going back and doing some of the social media stuff in the beginning of the day, if you feel like you’re not really a social media person, but you want to continue to market and let people know what’s going on. So I give that as some feedback. I know we’ll have a link in the show notes and in the YouTube description to eat the frog, but it’s just a really cool concept that I think I learned working with you, Christine, on our original team that I learned that phrase while I was doing my own research, um, and shared that I think in one of our team meetings, just like that concept of eat the frog.
Tiff (17:37):
I really love that since I’ve learned it. And another thing about kind of this keep going and keeping that momentum and that motivation, inspiration, um, is to really just not be tied to the way you thought it was going to go. When you launched your show, I’m a planner. I usually don’t like to do things without a plan. I’m not a very like spontaneously person. Like someone calls me the same day as, as they want to go do something like my whole world is like, no, like I had the whole day planned out. I know exactly what I’m doing today. Maybe we can do that next week. I’m saying all that to say, um, you know, I had an idea of what our podcast was going to be like, what our marketing strategy was going to be like, what our YouTube channel was going to be like.
Tiff (18:17):
And we ran into some bumps into the road and some things were a little more delayed than other things. And so if everything does not go according to plan, after you launched your podcast and you have some catching up to do, or you have to shift or change some things, just give yourself that grace and coming from two podcast producers, uh, who have been not only through that for our own podcasts, when we’ve launched other people’s podcasts or done other people’s video production that you, you get to be as human in your production as you do in the rest of the things in your life. So don’t be too married to the way to, to the way that things are going, if everything’s going great. Awesome. If everything’s not going so well, just knowing that you can continuously make this show and the system and the accountability or the collaboration or whichever way you’re doing this show, you can continually grow it and change it as you go. The show is launched. Your baby is out in the world and it’s going to change. It’s going to grow and it’s okay that you change and grow with it. So please step five, keep going. Don’t give up on yourself. Um, give yourself some grace with all the hard work that you’re doing and this message that you’re sharing with everyone that everything will be perfect. You won’t always feel like super motivated every day, but it’s important to keep going in, to not give up on yourself and your podcast. That was my little spiel, Christine.
Christine (19:38):
I love that. And I’ll just add my, my amen to it. I think that’s the big lesson. You could look at us and be like, Oh, Tiff and Christine, they’ve had no issues. They’re doing everything perfectly. They’re such veterans. I’m just pretending, like you’re saying this, you might not, but we want to just be here as proof along the journey with you, that keeping going is actually one of the most important things to do after you launch a show, because no matter who you are, how experienced you are, you could be way more veteran than us. And you’ll have bumps. You’ll have unexpected twists and turns. Things will be happening. We’re like, Oh, it’s okay. You’re in great company. This is normal. Take every single one of those as a lesson, as an opportunity to learn and innovate and have fun and keep going, because truly the best is yet to come.
Christine (20:28):
I don’t think I’ve ever met a podcast host in my life who has said my first episodes were the best and it just got worse as I went like that. Just, just not the way things go. So it’s going to keep getting better. But the key here is to keep going and have fun with it and manage your time. Well, so you’re not getting burned out. Um, and of course, subscribing to think like a producer, because truthfully, we want to be your biggest cheerleaders and coaches and in your corner. It’s why we have the show. We’re really passionate about supporting you in this. So as always, if you enjoyed the episode, leave us a rating on Apple podcasts, definitely subscribe to the YouTube channel, subscribe to the show, give us questions, send us feedback, hit us up on Instagram, or shoot us an email. Think like a [email protected]. Like these are the reasons that we keep going is to serve you. So thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. And we will see you on the next episode.
Christine (21:31):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Think Like a Producer. This has been a Worthfull Media production. Massive thanks to our team who makes the show possible. Worthfull Media for audio editing, Jorge and Veronica from Mosaico Productions for video editing and effects and Amela Subasic for our amazing artwork and graphics.
Tiff (21:54):
If you want to learn more about how to market, monetize, and grow your podcast, we have a membership group where you can get more access to us and feedback on your show. As a special bonus, you get free access to Christine’s DIY, do it yourself, podcast course when you join the group. Check the link in the show notes for more information.
Leave a Reply