We know that you know how abundant audio content is today. If you’re here, you likely understand the importance of self-promotion in ensuring your content gets the recognition it deserves.
Enter: a promotional calendar. This tool is key for organizing and maximizing your promotional efforts.
We also know how precious your time and resources are. So, this guide is equal parts valuable insights and practical tips on creating a promotional calendar in a manner that is most efficient for independent audio creators.
Let’s start by being practical.
Tune into your time and resources
When creating a promotional calendar for yourself, it’s essential to consider the time and resources at your disposal. Let’s imagine you’re an audio creator with a busy schedule balancing work, family commitments, and personal obligations. Evaluate your current commitments and identify a realistic amount of time you can dedicate to promotional activities, without compromising the quality of your content.
For example, you may find that allocating two hours each weekday evening and/or four hours on weekends for promotion is feasible. This approach allows you to maintain a balance while ensuring consistent efforts toward expanding your reach.
How much time to set aside for promotion
While the exact time you need for promotion may vary based on individual circumstances, it’s crucial to prioritize this aspect of your content creation process. To set yourself up for success, aim to dedicate at least 20% of your overall hours spent creating audio to promotional activities.
That means if you spend 30 hours per week creating content, allocate approximately six hours each week to promotion.
Recordical recommends: Mark blocks of time for promotion in your calendar, ideally the same one where you keep track of your recording sessions.
To create an impactful promotion calendar, let’s start by focusing on the elements of audience growth. We’ll put a practical spin on it and break down what each of these includes so you can enter specific tasks related to audience growth in your calendar. Furthermore, we’ll tell you how much time to allocate to these tasks.
The tasks and time related to promotion
Create valuable content
A valuable content ecosystem around your content can go a long way in promoting yourself. Dedicate specific time slots for content creation and optimization within your promotion calendar. The tasks for this include:
- Implementing SEO strategies to ensure your content is discoverable and relevant. These include:
- Conducting keyword research to include those keywords in your content.
- Making metadata more concise. Also, remember to use those keywords in your metadata.
- Adding images, if and where relevant, to your content.
- Creating repurposed content from your podcast such as blogs based on show notes and behind-the-scenes TikToks or Instagram Reels.
Allocating time to creation and optimization
Allocate blocks of time each week to focus solely on creating and enhancing your audio content. Use this time to brainstorm ideas, record content, edit and refine your work, and optimize it for discoverability.
We recommend setting aside 30% of your allocated promotion time for all tasks under content creation and optimization. This sets the foundation for the rest of your promotion. For instance, if you’re spending six hours on promotion every week, about two hours should be spent on these tasks.
Optimize social media discoverability
Being present and consistent on social media only does so much. Devote daily or weekly time slots to manage your social media accounts, share updates, and promote your content. Additionally, explore platforms beyond social media, such as newsletters or blogs, to further amplify your message and reach.
The tasks for this include:
- Exploring other platforms relevant to your niche, such as podcast directories, audiobook platforms, or streaming services, to expand your reach and gain new listeners
- Managing your social media account to ensure everything is up-to-date
Recordical recommends: Read more on how to grow your audience to learn about connecting with your audience and building a community.
Allocating time to discoverability
We recommend setting aside 20% of your allocated promotion time for all tasks related to social media presence and promotion. For instance, if you’re spending six hours on all things related to promotion, about one and a half hours should be spent on building your social media presence and reach.
Engage with your audience
Note how we set this apart from merely being present on social media. It’s important to set aside regular intervals throughout the week to engage with your audience. respond to comments, messages, and feedback from your audience. The tasks for this include:
- Responding to comments
- Asking for feedback on new projects
- Participating in relevant online communities or forums
- Sharing content you listened to that you think your audience would enjoy
Doing these things can make your audience feel valued, and thus, go a long way in cultivating loyal listener relationships.
Allocating time to engaging
As with social media discoverability, we recommend setting aside 20% of your allocated promotion time for all tasks related to audience engagement. That means if you’re spending six hours on general promotion, about one and a half hours should be spent on engaging with your audience.
Leverage collaborations
The best support for independent creators are other independent creators. Your community understands your goals, challenges, and content. That’s why it’s essential to set time aside to find and connect with potential collaborators or partners within the audio space.
Tasks related to this include:
- Connecting with guests that appear on streams or podcasts similar to yours.
- Finding creators you can partner with to cross-promote your respective content.
- Finding creators who create content your audience would enjoy.
Recordical recommends: Follow this guide to learn how to build a community around your content.
Allocating time for collaboration
We recommend setting aside 30% of your allocated promotion time to forge partnerships and collaborations. For instance, if you’re spending six hours on promotion every week, about two hours should be spent on these tasks.
By assigning dedicated time slots for these basics, you ensure that promotion remains a consistent and integral part of your audio content creation process. As you put these new processes to work, be sure to check in with yourself from time to time to see if your systems are still working for you.
Metrics for promotional success and when to measure
Establishing clear metrics for success is crucial to assess the impact of your promotional activities. Choose key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your goals and measure them consistently. Consider the following metrics:
- Website traffic: Monitor the number of visitors to your website or landing pages, tracking the source of their visits and their engagement levels.
- Social media engagement: Measure the reach, likes, comments, shares, and click-through rates on your social media platforms.
- Subscriber growth: Track the growth of your subscriber base, whether it’s for newsletters, podcasts, or other audio channels.
- Conversion rates: Measure the effectiveness of your promotional efforts by assessing the conversion rates, such as the number of listeners who become patrons, customers, or supporters.
- Collaboration projects: Keep track of how often you collaborate with another creator, be it by inviting them as a guest or doing a promotional swap with them.
While the frequency of measurement depends on individual circumstances, measuring your metrics on a monthly basis is a good place to start. This allows you to track progress, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your promotion calendar effectively.
Additionally, we recommend quarterly reviews. Every three months, conduct a more comprehensive assessment of your promotional efforts. Identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement. Celebrate milestones and successes, and identify any adjustments needed to align with your long-term goals.
Start with this calendar template
Hubspot has a stellar template to create a social media promotion calendar. It’s free and you can customize it for different promotional tasks. Download it here.
All this to say
By considering time and resource constraints, dedicating sufficient time to promotion, incorporating the elements of audience growth, establishing a regular check-in system, and defining metrics for success, you can develop a promotion calendar effectively.
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