If you’re a healthcare professional (HCP) with a cause, a point of view, or key learnings you think the medical community needs to know about, you’re probably looking for a way to reach as big of an audience as possible. A great way to get your voice heard is through podcasting. Podcasts are extremely popular, and they’re accessible by everyone with a phone (which, as you know, is most of the population in North America). Creating a podcast is a great way to grow your audience, stretch your reach, and to solidify yourself as a key figure in your healthcare niche, whatever that may be. There is no set route you have to take in creating a podcast. You can do it solo or with a co-host, you can interview guests every episode or you can talk on your own, you can cover the same topic over a series of recordings or feature a new one every episode — the way you build your podcast is up to you. The key to creating an engaging show is to make sure that you stay true to the values you set for yourself when first embarking on this journey. If you like what you’re doing and if you’re happy with it, that will shine through in every episode and your listeners will love the show for it.
There is, of course, more to podcasting than just loving your content and recording enough episodes. You need to market your podcast and get it into the earbuds of as many people as possible. But how are you supposed to do that? Well, we can’t give you a magic word to say and turn your podcast into a hit, but we have plenty of experience in launching successful podcasts, so we can give you some tips on how to effectively market your medical podcast to the world. Here are six to get you started.
1. Get set up on a podcast hosting service
In order for your podcast to be noticed, downloaded, and listened to, you’ll have to add it to at least one (but ideally multiple) hosting services. These are the services you probably use yourself, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or — as you’ve undoubtedly heard in your own time listening to shows — “wherever you get your podcasts.” Your show needs to be accessible to everyone, and the only way to do that is to get it a place to live on these hosting services. Plus, there are distribution services through which you can upload your podcast to multiple platforms, so instead of going to each spot for every episode, you simply upload to the distributor which then transfers the show to every host service of your choosing.
2. Ensure there is a visual component to your podcast
You know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but you probably still do. It’s the same with podcasts. We know that podcasts are made to be listened to, but it’s a good idea to create a nice show logo in order to catch a prospective listener’s eye. If you’re in the podcast app of your choice and you see an ugly, poorly designed show logo, odds are you probably won’t click it to see more. Your podcast’s first impression comes in the form of its logo or cover art, so you better make it pretty.
The other visual component of your podcast can be video. Many users like to watch their podcasts, so if you have the capacity to film your episodes, you’ll increase your chances of attracting and keeping the attention of more people. This isn’t as important as a good logo, but it will certainly help to grow your show.
3. Use YouTube’s podcast service in addition to its video hosting service
That’s right, YouTube isn’t just for videos anymore, it has a podcast service, too. As we said earlier, you want to get your podcast on multiple hosting services if you can, so make sure you add YouTube to that list. Plus, if you do end up filming your episodes, you can put the video recordings on YouTube as videos as well.
4. Use social media and use it a lot!
You’re probably only going to have one or two episodes out every week or month, but that doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax when you’re not recording. Use the time between episode releases to engage with your listeners and followers and to attract new eyes and ears to your show. Post episode highlights on social media, show your followers behind the scenes shots from your recording days — give your audience whatever you think will be interesting to them, and use every post to remind them to either catch up on old episodes or to get ready for new ones that are coming soon.
5. Post show notes in an accessible place like a website
This is important for any type of podcast, but especially so for a medical show. You’re going to be referencing books, papers, talks, and more in your podcast, and if you do your job right, your listeners will want to learn more about the things you’ve touched on. Be sure to share a link with every episode that will take your audience somewhere (ideally your show’s website) that they can access all of those materials.
6. Utilize your host's networks!
Share, share, share your podcast as much as possible! Share the show with your family, your friends, your coworkers, everyone. Post it on your personal social media, your business social media, and anywhere else you can access. You need to get as many people listening and/or watching your show as possible, and the first people who are going to give you a shot are the ones closest to you. Soon enough, your audience will grow from only people you know to true, dedicated listeners.
If you’re keen to start your own medical podcast, get a quote from our team at CTC to see how you can get started. We will be so thrilled to help you out on this journey!
