How to Launch Your Podcast Strategy/Advice

Key Points

A lot of our clients ask about launch strategy and we have known people who get stuck on “analysis paralysis” over how to optimally launch a new show. Because our goal for you is to use the show to connect with clients, referral partners & strategic partners through the show, we find the “launch” is less important – or at least, you shouldn’t delay launching in order to make sure every “i” is dotted and every “t” is crossed. In other words, we are in this for the long term benefit to you.

Having said that, before launching, we will make sure you have your artwork in place, we will enter in the proper details for the audio hosting, and we suggest launching with 3-5 episodes already recorded and posted. That will ensure anyone who discovers the show and likes it can continue listening to more episodes. People who listen to podcasts regularly tend to listen to a lot of content: when they listen to podcasts, 86% of weekly podcast listeners listen to over an hour and up to 15 hours of episodes. So you want to have enough at launch for the more active listeners to get their fill.

The successful pieces of a launch are downloads, subscribers, and reviews. Write a few emails to your list teasing the show and even ask for guest and topic suggestions (see indirect ask email template above). When the show goes live you want to write an email giving them a reason to subscribe, download and review the show. Getting the most of these in a 72 hour period is key to increasing ranking. Asking hosts of other shows to be on your show helps because they will spread the word about your show and may even ask you to be on their show.

Our goal for you is to use the show to connect with clients, referral partners & strategic partners so find the “launch” is less important but you might as well get the word out. Also, if you get into the rankings (you can check on itunes) take a screenshot for social proof purposes that you can use for later use and to put in emails to high profile guests. Take a screenshot while you can because most people will drop quickly in the rankings since promotion mode is not sustainable.

Here are a few screenshots Jeremy was able to grab in the rankings when he decided to promote his show to the email list and we watched it climb in the rankings. The key is the guests he had on produced the results to move the business forward and not the ranking.

Launch E-mail Template

The two successful pieces of a launch:

1. Share the episode with your network
2. Get more referrals for great guests for the podcast.

When the show goes live, you can use the message below to your network via social media and/or email with the link back to the episode on your website. 

You will also see one sentence asking for recommendations for more guests with specific criteria of what you’re looking for.

Here is an email template:

Template E-mail to send your colleagues and network, friends, family, and list to share the episode and get more guests:

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Subject: Any help is appreciated…

Body of Email:

We need your help because we launched our podcast and we would love for you to check it out, share it, and send your thoughts our way.

Here is the link to our latest episode: (link to the episode)

Thank you for all your help and support. 

Also, we are always looking for great guests that we should feature for the podcast. So if you have suggestions, please email us.

Here is what we are looking for in a guest: (fill in details)
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