Most podcasters all but take for granted the weekly episode release cadence that seems to be the default setting for the medium.
There are a lot of benefits to weekly communication with your audience, and in my experience, shows that release weekly episodes often gain traction more quickly than those that publish less frequently.
But there’s also at least one glaring downside to releasing more content, more often. Namely, it makes you a lazy and uncreative marketer.
More Episodes Lead to Lazy Marketing
The turn around time between episodes when you’re releasing them weekly is so short that many podcasters are left with a schedule where they might have one or two days a week where they’re actively promoting their most recent episode before they need to turn around and focus all of their time and energy on getting the next one ready to publish.
This often results in a cursory blasting of links to the episode across their social media channels, maybe a couple of graphics or audiograms, but little more.
If you’ve followed this strategy yourself, you can probably guess how effective this strategy is…
With another episode coming out next week, however, it’s easy to attribute the lack of traction either to the quality of that episode, or to people being ungrateful jerks for not appreciating the effort and genius that went into creating it and then move your attention to doing better with the upcoming episode.
In reality, it’s far more likely that the marketing strategy and execution were not at the same level as the episode. Ironically, while publishing more frequently improves the quality of the episodes themselves, it stunts the growth of your marketing skills.
The Benefit of Releasing Fewer Episodes
When you release fewer episodes, let’s say only one every other week, you have more time to fill in your promotion schedule before you release the next one, and less content to fill it with.
This means you have to get creative.
Instead of a day or two of simply blasting links back to the podcast across your social channels, you have more time to take truly great content from your podcast and repurpose it into marketing material in formats native to each of the platforms you’re promoting on.
You’re able to take a less spammy, more generous approach to your marketing as you have the time and bandwidth to focus on conversations around the topic of your latest episode in relevant communities.
You may in fact be forced to seek out and find those relevant communities when it becomes clear that you’ve exhausted any gains that are to be had from your own social feeds. Rather than preaching to the converted, you end up seeking out the uninitiated and converting them.
In the second half of the content promotion cycle, you might shift your focus away from your most recently released episode and start to tease the upcoming episode, releasing content and building excitement for what’s to come. This can work wonders.
Learning to get creative when it comes to your marketing is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. Often the only thing standing in the way of doing so is the lack of time and the steady stream of new content waiting in the queue to be promoted.
Finding the Balance
I’m not saying you should absolutely slow down your release schedule to a bi-weekly basis as opposed to weekly. As I said, there are certainly benefits to a weekly cycle.
But it might be worth experimenting with for a defined period of time in order to better understand how you can become more creative in your marketing and squeeze more out of each episode.
Set a trial period of a month or two. Time it to coincide with the summer or a major holiday that listeners might expect you to slow down and take a break anyway if you want.
Over that stretch, experiment with how you can get more marketing material out of less content, and then get it in front of more new people who have never heard of you before.
Document and build up systems around your process for content repurposing and promotional systems. You’re going to need them when you move back to weekly publishing schedule and have less time to get everything done.
Setting limitations is one of the best methods of kickstarting creativity. Force them on yourself when it comes to promoting your podcast, and watch your marketing improve.
Every Sunday I send out an exclusive article on how to use podcasting to build an audience and grow your business.
No opt-in, no freebie no bribe. But hopefully a new perspective, encouragement, and maybe even some occasional wisdom. It’s something I’m proud to create and I’d be honoured to share it with you.
Jeremy travels full-time, loves long-distance cycle touring, and will always look back on the day he finally saved up enough money to buy the Millennium Falcon Lego set as one of his proudest achievements. He believes that the way to grow sustainable businesses is by leading with heart, vulnerability, and helping your people be and become their best selves.
- Why Wouldn’t They Just Google It? - March 14, 2021
- Before You Can Market Your Podcast, You Need To Create A Marketable Podcast - March 11, 2021
- Podcast Promotion & Marketing Are Different (Here’s How to Use Each Effectively) - March 10, 2021
