Morgan Franklin: I think that there's a really big
misconception in podcasting and personal branding and business
in general, that social media is the only way to grow. If you
don't have a big following or audience on social media,
nothing else is going to work. And this simply is not true when
I look at my own monthly revenue and my clients that pay me every
month and have a standing contract. Do you know how I met
100% of those clients? It wasn't social media. It wasn't a cute
little video that I made on Tiktok. It was in person and
virtual networking. It was talking to people and sending
those follow up messages and introducing myself and getting
out of my comfort zone to tell people what I do. 100% of my
monthly revenue from ongoing clients in 2024 came from
networking of some kind. But what does this have to do with
podcasting, and specifically growing your podcast. I'm
telling you this to remind you that there is more than one way
to skin a cat. If you can grow a business without social media,
you can definitely grow a podcast audience without social
media, and in this episode, I'm gonna tell you exactly how to do
it. Hello and welcome to podcast for profit. My name is Morgan
Franklin. I'm a Podcast Producer, strategist and
educator. This podcast will help you create and grow a podcast
that cuts through the noise of social media and speaks directly
to your target audience. If you're ready to create a podcast
that will align you with the experts in your industry,
position yourself as a trusted leader and create another source
of revenue for your business. You're in the right place. Let's
do an exercise together. I want to take just a moment. We're
gonna breathe in and hold it and breathe out and think about how
you find a podcast. That's it. Let's say that you have a long
road trip, or you're about to start cleaning your entire
house, or, like me, you have about 200 hours of mindless
labor left on your Halloween costume, whatever it is, you
need to find a new podcast. How would you go about finding this
podcast to listen to? Seriously, how would you find this podcast?
Normally, as podcast listeners, we're going through a cycle of a
few different things. The first one being we've asked around,
and whether that's on social media or through our work or
school week, we're asking the people around us, Hey, have you
listened to any good podcasts? And we're writing those titles
down, or we're trying to save them on our nose, or struggling
to remember them later. If you're like me, I'm always
trying to remember what was that podcast that podcast that
somebody told me about? It's either that or we've had a
suggestion forced upon us, right? I am definitely that
friend. I am so annoying I cannot like something just a
normal amount. I'm either 1,000% obsessed over this thing or I
have never heard what you're trying to tell me about. In my
experience, a lot of podcast recommendations, and first time
podcast listeners come from word of mouth from your friend
telling you, hey, you should listen to this podcast. There is
truly no better advertising than a referral, and that is true for
most professional settings, and it's definitely true for
podcasting. I know in this episode specifically, we're
talking about how to market and grow your podcast off social
media. So I'm sorry to bring this up, but I want to remind
you to share your reviews. Anytime anyone says anything
nice about your podcast, put it on full display on your social
media, on your website, wherever you can. We trust consumers more
than we trust the Creator, so make sure you're always showing
off your fans and followers and plus, it makes them feel so
good, like you know how it feels to be recognized by the people
that you love their work. So give your listeners that same
opportunity. Okay, but let's say that you've asked around and you
called your friend that listens to literally every podcast, and
no one has any recommendations for you. The next most common
way, at least, for me, to find a new podcast to listen to is in
app. I open Apple podcasts, I open Spotify, I open good pod,
whatever it may be, and I'm searching for a topic, or I'm
looking around on the charts to see what looks good and what I
might want to listen to. So let's stop right there, because
this is something too many podcasters are just glossing
right over. And if I'm going to be honest, I did in the
beginning too. We think that we can just promote our way out of
being unsearchable on a podcast app. And that simply is not
true, let's say, and this is an easy example for me, because one
of my podcasts is in this category. So I can speak to it.
You have a podcast about nursing homes, long term care, senior
living and how to pay for care over the age of 65 riveting
stuff. I know if that's what your podcast is about, someone
better be able to type in senior living and your. Podcasts pop up
in the first four podcasts, they better be able to type in long
term care, and your podcast is right there. If your podcast is
for quilters, let's say your listener better be able to type
in quilting, and your podcast is the first one to pop up. I have
a whole episode about this, and I'll link it for you in the
episode description, but it is episode 19 of this podcast, and
it's called podcast SEO, your guide to higher rankings. As
some of you might know if you've listened to the podcast before,
I worked in SEO as my first job straight out of college, so I'm
very familiar with it, but you know, over the past year, I've
learned a lot of things that are specifically pertinent to these
apps that you need to know that is not just standard SEO. So
definitely give that episode a listen if you are trying to grow
organically on either Google or in the apps. But since we're
here, here are a few things I'd start on today if I wanted
someone to open Spotify and type in podcasting, for example, and
this show pop up, which, by the way, it does not to brag, but I
do know what I'm talking about. The first thing is, you're gonna
want to look at the title of your podcast. Does this podcast
name have any words in it that anyone would be searching for. I
know I've said this before, and I'll say it again. SEO does not
reward creativity, but God, I wish it did. The next thing is,
do the names of your episodes have anything to do with what
you're talking about? Are there any words in the titles of your
episodes that have anything to do with what your listener might
be typing in that search bar, because you have two
opportunities here. You have the ability to rank for your show
and the name of your show, and then also for your episodes. So
you need to be showing up at one or both of these after that, I
need you to go back and transcribe every single episode,
and I know that this is not going to be fun. It's not fun to
do it every week. It's not fun to do a backlog. And you might
be thinking, well, Morgan Apple podcasts and Spotify will
transcribe my episodes. And while that might be true, the
rest of the hosts are not doing that, and I can speak from
personal experience, when I forget to transcribe an episode,
it will impact the rankings that I have and the searchability for
that episode on both Apple podcasts and Spotify, which both
tell me that they are transcribing my episodes. But
why are the episodes not ranking that I don't transcribe? Riddle
me this. So anyway, I do not trust Apple podcasts or Spotify.
Do your own transcriptions. Lastly, for our purposes, here,
like I said, I have an entire episode about podcast SEO linked
for you in the episode description. But please, please,
please write episode descriptions that are as
detailed and keyword specific as possible. If this episode, let's
say, is for quilters about finding that perfect holiday
fabric, I want every single word that could possibly be about,
that that someone would be searching for in that episode
description. And of course, the episode description is what the
episode is about. That is what you attach when you are
uploading your file and the name of your episode, the episode
description is what is going along with that. Having
visibility on podcasting apps is one of the most critical ways
that any podcaster will grow and build visibility for their
podcast. If you need help with this, please feel free to send
me an email or send me a message on my website. My email is
Morgan at morganfranklin dot media, or my website is in the
episode description. I have hourly coaching options. I would
love to help you out with this. All right, so let's say we
called our friend who loves podcasts. They have no
recommendations for us. They can't tell us anything. We
search Spotify and Apple podcasts, we have nothing. So
what's next? For me, it is searching on Google. It's seeing
what other people have to say or what other kind of
recommendations are out there. Now, could this lead us into the
social media space? Absolutely, it could. But honestly, for me,
most of the time I'm looking at articles. I'm looking at list of
podcast recommendations online. I want to know what other people
have to say and what their rankings on these different
podcasts, and what their full, complete thought is. But how can
you take advantage of this, especially as a new podcaster,
especially as a podcaster that might not have a lot of clout on
social media or anywhere else like you're probably not going
to be featured in any blogs. So how can you take advantage of
this? Send an email. Send a message on LinkedIn or Instagram
or wherever you have to do it. Get scrappy with it. You have no
idea how many blogs and different news sources, and I'll
say news sources and quotes. I've sent a message to saying,
hey. Hey, I saw you haven't updated your list of podcasts
for podcasters Since 2021 My name is Morgan. I'm Podcast
Producer. This is why you should feature my podcast on your
revised list or updated list. Does it work every time? No, of
course not. But has it worked? Yes, yes. It has. Reaching out
and having that connection with someone is so powerful. Then the
next time they need a source, who are they calling? They're
calling you in the same vein as joining a website like
connectively, which was formerly Help a Reporter Out or harrow or
quoted and make sure that you fill out all of the information
to become a contributor for news and websites. Let me tell you
how this works. We'll stick with the quilting example. But let's
say that cosmopolitan is looking for someone that can speak to
quilting in 2025 they are most likely going to go to one of
those two websites to put out an open call to contributors with
their list of questions. And that is when you are going to
come in and make your pitch and say, Hey, I'm Morgan from Sir
quilts, a lot podcast, blah, blah, blah, and make sure it is
featured in the article. So your podcast is featured in the
article. So when someone sees, oh, they're talking about quilts
and cosmopolitan, that's so cool, they'll see, oh, oh my
gosh. She also has a podcast about quilting. That's awesome.
I'm going to follow her. I'm going to listen to her podcast.
So yes, promoting your podcast on social media is important for
visibility and social proof, of course, but in my experience,
meeting people and getting to know them and telling them about
my podcast has been one of the most consistently effective ways
to grow my audience. Get business cards made, have your
podcast information and your information on one side and a QR
code for them to scan on the other side that goes directly to
your podcast. And make sure that you listen to episode eight of
this podcast. Again, I will have it linked in the episode
description. How to pitch your podcast to anyone in 30 seconds.
This is a major hurdle for a lot of podcasters. When they start
talking about their podcast face to face, they just can't quite
communicate the podcast well enough to convert that person
that they've just had a conversation with into a
listener. And that is totally understandable, so make sure
that you have mastered the art of quickly being able to tell
someone Hey. This is what my podcast is about. This is why
you should listen. This is where you can listen. And most
importantly, if you're trying to meet people face to face, be in
the places where you can meet the people who would actually be
interested in your podcast. Let's say I have a podcast about
Dungeons and Dragons. It's not gonna do me a ton of good if I
go to a store about book scrapping, for example, and I'm
passing out my cards. I'm talking about my podcast. While
there might be a little bit of overlap in these two kinds of
consumers, what would be great is if I went to a gaming store
and started talking about my podcast, that would be much more
effective and much more aligned to my target audience. So
remember, put yourself in the situation with the people who
are the most likely to be listening to this podcast I
produce anywhere from four to six interview style podcast
episodes per month, and I've met hundreds of people through
interviewing and getting to know people through podcasts. Never
underestimate the power of growing your podcasts through
your guests and through the community that both you are
surrounded with and your guests are surrounded by. Your guests
should have such an amazing experience on your podcast that
they want to tell their audience about you, about your show and,
of course, about the episode that they did with you as
podcasters. I know we're busy. I know it is so hard just to put
out an episode a week, and we forget to message people or to
follow up, but this really should be a top priority, making
that guest experience something that they will want to talk
about. Make sure that you're giving them customized
promotional material, and you're supporting their business, and
you're making them feel welcome and seen. This is everything for
the majority of us. I think that we do somewhat become aware of
podcasts through social media, but it's one of those scenarios
that I explained in this episode that will actually bring us to
subscribe and listen to the podcast and become a fan. So
don't put all your eggs in the social media basket, and
definitely don't let having a small social media presence hold
you back from creating a podcast, because that's not
usually how people will find the podcast. Anyways, I'll tag all
of the episodes that I talked about during this episode in
the. Episode description. Wow, that is a lot of episodes. You
can shop my podcast template store for a beautiful guest
questionnaire. If you want to really uplevel that experience
of sending guests their questions with a beautifully
crafted PDF that's customizable in Canva. I'll have that linked
for you. And as always, I can't wait to listen to your podcast.
Hey, thank you so much for joining me on this episode. If
you enjoyed the podcast and you'd like to hear more episodes
like this one, go ahead and subscribe to the show. New
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the information they need to start making money on their podcast.