According to Nielsen Data, 55% of U.S. consumers have listened to a podcast. Destination podcasts are a great opportunity to give value to current and future visitors by providing a travel guide. However, while exciting episodes and fun hosts can help promote a destination, podcasts often need marketing, especially in their infancy. Here are six ways to market your destination podcast.

1. Create a Landing Page

A dedicated podcast landing page on your website is a great way to direct listeners and improve your discoverability. The landing page should include recent episodes, an option to subscribe and inspirational content. To increase traffic to your website and share the podcast, use a page link in promotional materials.

For each podcast episode, use the transcript to write a corresponding blog post. Transcripts enable Google to index and populate search results. Keep your blog posts engaging and readable with the following features:

• main takeaways
• bullet points
• shortened paragraphs
• sub-headings
• images

Including these details can improve SEO rankings, which will help more people discover the podcast organically.

The Destination Marketing Podcast saw high organic traffic as a result of including podcast transcriptions on its website. About 58% of website clicks were from organic search to the podcast transcriptions, which led to more people finding the podcast through keyword searches pertaining to unique episodes. 

2. Promote on Social Media

Many travelers turn to Instagram to discover travel tips. About 38% of adults use social media to help plan their trips. Travel accounts can help future visitors plan where to go, where to stay and what to do. Destinations can connect with the consumer on these platforms, where consumers are ready to receive new information. By promoting your podcast on organic social media, you can share your expertise with an enthusiastic audience already searching for content like yours.

In order to promote on social media successfully, you need to get creative! Instead of using a link, post a 30-second episode teaser with captions to satisfy the craving for short, consumable content. Instead of using text, use clips and quote images to facilitate sharing and saving. The content should be engaging enough to create a conversation among listeners. This discussion can take place on the Facebook page, TikTok comments, or Instagram DMs. Effective use of social media can grow your subscriber base and listenership.

3. Repurpose Content For YouTube

Destinations should convert their podcast content to a YouTube video in order to reap SEO benefits. Video content is 50x more likely to achieve organic page ranks in Google when compared with plain text results. On YouTube, consumers can search for your video and share it, which helps new listeners discover your content. When publishing your video to YouTube, use an optimized title and description. Take advantage of the closed captioning and automatically generated transcripts, which can
improve accessibility.

4. Encourage Reviews

Listener reviews are essential to growing your listenership. On Apple Podcasts, positive reviews in the first eight weeks of launching can get your podcast into the New & Noteworthy section, pushing discovery with new listeners.. Succeeding on Apple Podcasts is essential because it is responsible for almost 70% of a podcast’s listens. Positive reviews can also improve your rankings in Google. High ratings signal to potential listeners that the podcast has interesting and high-quality content.
To encourage reviews, ask listeners to leave a review if they enjoyed the podcast. Use giveaways to incentivize more reviews and new subscribers.

5. Invest in Paid Advertising

To promote the podcast in a fast and effective manner, utilize paid advertisements on Google and social media. A Destination Marketing Podcast Network participant, The Hola Laredo Podcast, saw an increase in total listens by 657% in one month after using Facebook and Instagram ads. These ads can target two groups of people — potential visitors and current visitors. For the consumer who is ready to plan their trip, ads can recommend podcasts about an interesting destination. For the visitor who is already in town, ads can promote podcasts that can give information about nearby attractions. Along with paid social advertising, market the podcast through collaborations and ads on other podcasts or hosting apps, which will boost your podcast to the top of the category list.

Paid search ads can capture people searching for keywords relevant to the area. Include the podcast in the ad copy or extensions to provide visitors with resources to learn about the destination. Display ad campaigns can increase awareness by targeting specific personas. These campaigns can create brand recognition and generate interest about the podcast.

6. Collaborate with Other Podcasters

Partnering with relevant shows can help your podcast gain more exposure. Ask podcasters within your podcast network or industry to be a guest on your podcast or offer to go on theirs. This collaboration enables you to promote your podcast to another audience. After hosting a guest or appearing as a guest, promote the episode on social media.

By incorporating a combination of these marketing tactics, you can grow your listenership, which will increase interest in your destination.