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How do you get a new podcast found? · Business Podcasting: Production Strategy

• 0:00
  [Synthetic version of Lam Hoang's voice]
• 0:07
  This is Business Podcasting: Production Strategy, produced by WorkHacker.
• 0:13
  I'm your host, Lam Hoang, co-founder of WorkHacker.
• 0:16
  You're hearing a synthetic version of my voice.
• 0:19
  Each episode I take one question about making a podcast for your business,
• 0:23
  tell you what I would do and how solid the evidence is.
• 0:32
  Today's question: how do you get a new podcast found?
• 0:36
  Almost nine in ten business podcast listeners say they're
• 0:40
  likely to listen to a show someone they know recommends.
• 0:43
  That's what a few hundred of them told the trade group
• 0:46
  Sounds Profitable, in a 2024 survey of American adults.
• 0:50
  So how does a new show get found?
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  Mostly through people, not the podcast apps.
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  I think it starts with the people who already know you.
• 1:00
  Then the people they tell.
• 1:02
  After that come the listeners of shows like yours.
• 1:05
  Be in the apps, so people can look up your name.
• 1:08
  Just don't count on their charts to bring you strangers.
• 1:11
  Give every route a month before you judge it.
• 1:14
  Plan for a year, not a launch week.
• 1:16
  No study compares these routes for a new show.
• 1:19
  Already have clients, a list or a sales team?
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  They're most of your plan.
• 1:24
  No audience yet?
• 1:25
  Borrow one from shows your future listeners already hear.
• 1:29
  Making a show for affluent listeners who'd rather listen than watch?
• 1:32
  The apps matter more for them.
• 1:34
  Here's what you'll leave with.
• 1:36
  Where new listeners come from, and why anyone passes a show on.
• 1:40
  Then whose audience to borrow and what the charts still do.
• 1:44
  Last, how long it takes and how you'll know.
• 1:48
  First: where do people actually find podcasts?
• 1:51
  Often outside the podcast apps.
• 1:54
  Sounds Profitable asked American listeners in the
• 1:56
  middle of 2025 where they'd found their favorite show.
• 2:00
  Four in ten named YouTube.
• 2:02
  People could name more than one place.
• 2:04
  Those who found theirs on social media mostly saw a post from someone they follow.
• 2:09
  Fewer than one in twenty named a trailer, or an ad on another podcast.
• 2:14
  The report came out in June 2026, sponsored by a branded podcast agency.
• 2:19
  The episode on video set a rule for YouTube.
• 2:22
  Be on YouTube whatever you decide about a camera,
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  and cut clips only as doors into the episode.
• 2:28
  But the survey behind that four in ten asked about favorites, not first listens.
• 2:34
  So what makes someone try a show they've never heard?
• 2:37
  One answer comes from The Podcast Study 2026, first released in September.
• 2:42
  It asked American podcast consumers under fifty-five who listen at least monthly.
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  Three podcast publishers paid for it.
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  Forty-five percent said recognizing or liking the
• 2:53
  host can influence them to try a new podcast.
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  That nearly matches the pull of seeing several clips on social media.
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  Both are stated answers, not tracked behavior.
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  For a business, that's a head start.
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  Your clients already know the host.
• 3:08
  Second: what makes someone pass a show on?
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  Recommendations are common.
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  Nearly two-thirds of listeners in that 2025 survey said friends,
• 3:17
  family or colleagues recommend shows to them.
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  About seven in ten of those said they're likely to act on it.
• 3:23
  Likely isn't the same as done.
• 3:26
  So what earns a recommendation?
• 3:28
  Steve Pratt co-founded a branded-podcast studio,
• 3:31
  and he'd rather earn attention than grab it or buy it.
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  If people take a chance on your show and they're
• 3:37
  glad they did, he calls that earned attention.
• 3:40
  Being great and generous over time gets you talked about, he argued in 2023.
• 3:45
  What earns it for a business show?
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  Start with the basics: the title, the art and proper descriptions.
• 3:52
  Then two things matter most.
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  Positioning and structure.
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  That's what kind of content you serve, and how each episode is built.
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  Get those clear, and people know what they're in for.
• 4:03
  A podcast is a series, after all.
• 4:06
  People want good content they can predict and enjoy,
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  so a consistent structure brings them back.
• 4:12
  Picture a payroll firm's show.
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  Each month, it answers one question owners ask.
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  Every episode runs the same way, from the problem to what to do.
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  A client hears the one on hiring a first employee.
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  She knows exactly who needs it, so she sends it to a friend who's opening a shop.
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  That's a made-up case.
• 4:31
  Nobody has measured whether structure gets a show found.
• 4:34
  As of October 2026, Apple's page for creators
• 4:38
  asks for more than ratings and reviews.
• 4:41
  It asks you to get listeners to share an episode with someone who'll enjoy it.
• 4:45
  So when you ask for help, ask for that.
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  One episode, sent to one person.
• 4:50
  And what does someone do with a recommendation?
• 4:52
  Arielle Nissenblatt runs a podcast recommendation newsletter,
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  and in 2026 she surveyed its readers.
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  When a show caught their eye, the most common move wasn't clicking the link.
• 5:03
  It was opening their app and searching for the show.
• 5:06
  That's sixty-two readers, and she says it isn't statistically significant.
• 5:10
  Still, a recommendation can end in a search for your show's name.
• 5:14
  The episode on choosing a name had a rule for that.
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  Someone who hears it once should be able to find it.
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  Third: what if few people know you yet?
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  Then borrow listeners from shows like yours.
• 5:26
  One podcast network compared its promos on other shows in 2023.
• 5:30
  In the ones it could track,
• 5:31
  guest spots converted roughly five percent of the audience.
• 5:35
  That's several times its trailer and ad swaps.
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  It never said what counted as a conversion, so treat it as one story.
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  And if you have a budget?
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  Here the teachers split.
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  One of them wouldn't buy attention at all.
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  He sells a book on earning it.
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  In 2021, an audience lead at the studio he co-founded made the case for paying.
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  He called paid promos on other podcasts one of
• 5:59
  the most effective ways to market a new show.
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  His studio sold those promos.
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  The promo itself should sell what the listener gets, not the brand.
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  One attribution company's 2022 data compared where promos run.
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  An episode dropped into another show's feed converted
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  about seven times better than a promo at the end.
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  One at the start did nearly two and a half times better.
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  It didn't say how it measured, or what converting meant.
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  So pick one show the listener you want already hears,
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  and offer a guest spot or an episode swap.
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  Being a guest instead of making your own show gets its own episode.
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  Fourth: what can the podcast apps still do for you?
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  Less than the launch checklists suggest.
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  Apple's creator page in October 2026 also says its
• 6:46
  charts mix listening and follows with completion rates.
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  It doesn't publish the weights.
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  The charts show what's popular now, not the biggest shows.
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  And they can't be bought.
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  Apple's own advice for climbing them?
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  Make an incredible show.
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  How do I find shows myself?
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  I play the most popular shows in the genre I want, which for me is startups.
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  I'm not out hunting for new ones.
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  And a new show isn't among the popular ones yet.
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  A launch burst can show up on a chart that tracks the latest listening.
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  But Apple says positions there can shift quickly.
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  Whether a burst like that keeps listeners is untested.
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  So I wouldn't build the plan around launch week.
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  Then there's Apple's New section.
• 7:28
  In October 2026 the trade newsletter Podnews reported that
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  Home and New now show each listener an algorithmic view.
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  Before, editors picked shows for each country.
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  Podnews's sources are unnamed.
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  And Apple says its approach hasn't changed.
• 7:45
  You can still pitch Apple's editors.
• 7:48
  For one group, browsing still counts.
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  For affluent listeners who prefer audio, browsing Apple's app is still a key way in.
• 7:56
  The release on that 2025 survey says it's
• 7:58
  especially true of news and technology shows.
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  It gives no number.
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  If those are your listeners, get your show's page and category right.
• 8:07
  In October 2026, Spotify's page says your category
• 8:11
  chart follows the first category in your feed.
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  So choose that first category on purpose.
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  Last: how long do you give it, and how will you know what's working?
• 8:21
  The episode on starting a podcast already covered part of this.
• 8:25
  Launch day is the start, not the plan.
• 8:28
  And at six months, judge the show on its job.
• 8:31
  Finding listeners runs on two other clocks.
• 8:34
  Give each route a month, and the whole effort a year.
• 8:37
  Why a month?
• 8:38
  There's 2022 data on when promo downloads arrive.
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  Of the downloads a first promo on another show brought, two-thirds came in week one.
• 8:48
  Ninety-five percent came within thirty days.
• 8:51
  Those are downloads, not listeners who stayed.
• 8:54
  Why a year?
• 8:55
  Sounds Profitable's Discovery Playbook calls discovery
• 8:58
  a twelve-month system, not a twelve-week push.
• 9:01
  That's June 2026 advice, not a measured result.
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  And the agency that sponsored it sells growth work.
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  Listeners take time, too.
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  In The Podcast Study, more than half of those asked
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  said they grew to love their favorite show over time.
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  So which route worked?
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  Ask new listeners how they found you, not only new clients.
• 9:22
  Ask about a month after you try a route.
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  Expect gaps, though.
• 9:26
  That survey of sixty-two newsletter readers also asked
• 9:30
  whether they'd found a show they now listen to through it.
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  About a third said yes.
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  Nearly half couldn't recall.
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  It's small and not statistically significant,
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  but its reading is plain: people don't always remember how.
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  So read the answers as a lead for your next route, not proof.
• 9:49
  Put together, the answer is people before apps.
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  Start with the ones who already know you.
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  Give them episodes worth passing on.
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  Few of those yet?
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  Borrow from shows like yours.
• 10:01
  Keep the show easy to find by name, but don't plan around launch week.
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  Then give each route a month, and the effort a year.
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  This week, pick one episode and the one listener it's for.
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  Which route reaches people like them?
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  Run it for a month, then ask every new listener where they heard of the show.
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  A free prompt for your own AI to check your listing
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  and launch plan comes with the written version.
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  And that's it for today's question.
• 10:28
  Know someone with the same question?
• 10:30
  Send them this episode.
• 10:31
  Thanks for listening.
• 10:32
  The written version is on workhacker.com, with every source.
• 10:36
  And if you want a podcast like this for your business, WorkHacker makes them.
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  See you next time.