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Don't Go Viral. Go Local

Today I’m going to share with you why you should take a more local approach to your podcast marketing.

Yes, the internet allows you to find fans all over the world.

But if you’re an unknown podcast with a small following, reaching everyone is a near-impossible task.

Instead, I suggest you go for a much more local approach.

I’m talking about local newspapers, and local Facebook pages/groups.

Facebook

I come from a small village called Ullapool, population of 1,500.

The first podcast marketing strategy I tried was messaging the “What’s On Ullapool” Facebook page to tell them I’ve launched a podcast and ask if they’d be willing to share it.

I messaged them with the text they could use: “Locals Eilidh and Kieran have launched a podcast looking at spooky Scottish history. Check out Generally Spooky History if you’re interested.” I also included a picture of the logo.

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This works great for the moderator because coming up with content is hard work. If you can hand them a relevant pre-written post with a ready-to-go image, it’s a win-win for both of you.

Was it a viral sensation? Of course not. But the first few dozen listeners trickled in to check us out.

Was it scary? Sure was! I felt weirdly nervous knowing my school friends were going to see I had a podcast. And I’m not regularly in contact with any of them anymore!

But if you’re not pushing out of your comfort zone, you’re not going to make new progress.

Local Newspapers

Now let’s repeat the process with a local newspaper. I have since left my hometown and landed in the busy metropolis of Inverness, population 50,000, when I started my podcast. They have a local paper like so many small towns do and they’re always crying out for local news.

We contacted our local paper and arranged a phone interview. I’ll be honest: It was awkward. The journalist didn’t really know what a podcast was…

But!

We got featured, and a few more listener found their way to us.

We also managed to do this when we covered a famous Edinburgh story, Burke & Hare, we contacted a local Edinburgh news outlet and got an article featured on their website.

Summary

We probably got around 100-200 people listening to the podcast across all three of those experiments, and it only took around 2 hours total.

Don’t go viral. Go local.

Community Wins

If you have a win you want to share, hit reply!

How I Can Help You

1) I can add you to my best podcast lists. Just email your podcast, description, and category

2) I have a page of ​Recommended Tools​. These are the tools I use to grow my podcast. I focus on tools that improve quality and save time.