Your internal podcasts are now live, a milestone to celebrate. Now what? How do you get your employees to start streaming that wonderful first episode or start following your series?

That’s where Promotion comes in.

In this short guide, we show you 10 steps to ensure your business podcast turns into a positive habit for your workforce.

 

1. Launch your podcast the right way

You’ve come up with a great idea for a show, and maybe you’ve recorded an episode or two (or maybe even a whole season of episodes…why not?).

Your first step is to launch it. But to launch with a bang and not a whimper, follow these suggestions:

• Get your CEO or another C-level leader to announce your new streaming app. This could be at a company meeting, or an email to all employees. A message from the top executive will get your podcast on everybody’s radar screen in a hurry.
• Send a follow-up email. In this follow-up, explain the benefits, share an audio or video promotional clip, or maybe ‘behind the scenes’ footage.
• Create a launch event, even if it’s virtual. Nothing excites employees more than free food and swag. Have a podcast episode or two created before your launch event. Hold an app activation drive where people can get hands-on help getting set up. Pro tip: record the launch event and launch it as a podcast episode.
• Create an audience advisory group for your program. Consider having two teams - one that is executive level to ensure your program stays aligned with leadership and the other that is audience level to ensure you are gaining feedback from active listeners.
• Set up a Slack, Teams or Yammer channel for each show so that hosts can talk about upcoming episodes and give employees a place to engage more deeply with hosts and the information shared.

 

2. Cross-promote your new show or program

Sell the unknown through the known.To create awareness, take advantage of existing channels where people are spending time to drop links or create pathways to your content.

Here are a few ways to promote your new streaming network and content to your workforce:

• Create a teaser episode. On your show, add a "teaser" episode as a bonus, then ask people to follow the show. Remember: you won’t get them to subscribe unless you ask.
• Solicit followers. Don’t forget to tell your audience to follow your shows. This is the best way to ensure they get notifications when new episodes are published.
• Create a promotional interstitial. Podcast sponsorship ads are common on public podcasts. Why not create one to promote your other content? Record it as if you were recording any advertisement, and place it in the beginning or middle of your episodes. Avoid placing it at the end since most audience members bail around the 90% mark.
• Hold a contest. Offer some sort of giveaway or an employee perk for the first X number of listeners or the first Y number of shares. Think about it as a loyalty program where users earn something for early participation.

 

3. Establish new discovery points for shows and episodes

You’re proud of your new podcasts, your intro music, and show art. But the real goal of your streaming network is to make sure content is actually consumed. Here are some best practices for creating points of discovery or access to your content as soon as it’s published:

• Use the news channel for promotion. uStudio’s in-app news channel is a great way to announce new content or shows. All of your audience is automatically subscribed to this channel so they’ll be notified anytime there’s a new episode.
• Embed links and QR codes in apps your audience uses for shows and episodes across other systems your audience uses. For example, sales enablement leaders may want to add links to new episodes or shows right inside of Salesforce.com since that’s where the audience is spending a lot of time.
• Establish a regular release cadence. The best way to turn your podcast into a habit is by establishing - and keeping - a consistent publishing schedule. Keep your content fresh so that when your audience comes back, they’ll see new content. Be careful not to let them down once they’ve made your podcast a habit!

 

4. Gamify promotion

Gamification has proven to be an effective feature in end user adoption of software applications. You can use gamification to promote your podcast as well.

Reward employees for the number of episodes or minutes they listened to your podcast. Create an office leaderboard, with prizes for the most points accumulated.

When employees walk by the dry erase board and see who’s in the running, it’ll get their competitive juices flowing.

 

5. Recruit internal streaming ‘Ambassadors’

If you created an initial audience advisory group, you might already have your group of podcast ambassadors. Or after the first month or two after launch, your analytics can show you who your most engaged listeners are.

Recruit them as ambassadors to spread the word about your podcast to their colleagues in the breakroom, on Teams, or in daily stand ups. Maybe even ask one or two of them to be guests on a new episode about why they are using the app and what benefits they’re getting from it.

Frequently reward your ambassadors, as they can become your most valuable promotional assets.

 

6. Interview influential employees as guests

Employees love to see or hear their favorite colleagues talk about relevant topics. Often they’re more attractive podcast guests than relying exclusively on company executives.

 

7. Interview fascinating external guests

Could you get Amanda Gorman or Marc Andreesen as a guest? Find a high profile, popular thought leader in your industry and interview them. Good content always attracts listeners.

 

8. Add an audience Q&A segment to episodes

User participation is a great way to boost listenership. Note the popularity of call-in radio shows, or live Twitch streams with the ongoing comment ticker on the sidebar.

You can ask employees to send questions, suggestions or critiques to a podcast ‘user comments’ inbox that you read aloud in follow-on episodes as part of a Q&A from the crowd segment on all episodes.

 

9. Send your podcast as an internal newsletter

A great compliment to your regularly scheduled, consistently produced show is a regularly scheduled, consistently sent podcast newsletter. All the major podcasters, social media apps, and software companies update their users via email. Email is not dead, it just has powerful company now 😉

 

10. Make analytics your best friend

To keep employees listening week after week, you need to deliver more of what they want. To do that, measure podcast usage with uStudio’s analytics to continually make improvements. Don’t forget to look at the Feedback tab on your admin dashboard to get rich comments as sell as user thumbs up/down on your content.

The ability to track show and episode appeal will help you to determine what type of content performs, what’s most popular amongst your employees, and what falls flat.

With the above tips in mind, your private podcast is bound to be a massive success!