Welcome back after my little summer break!

In this week's episode, I'm talking about launching your podcast.

If you're ready to launch then you will have done all your planning and prep beforehand.

if you're listening to this and you're not quite ready to launch then take a look at some of my previous episodes to help you on your way.

Once you have a launch date, work backwards to plan your marketing campaign.

Plan a mixture of posts :

- audiograms/video clips of you have them.

- Record a video (if you're comfortable) announcing your podcast or go live on Instagram or Facebook.

- Use your podcast branding and design some graphics in Canva

- Pick some quotes from your episodes that will resonate with your audience.

I'd recommend using a social media scheduler to do this. I use a mixture of Meta Business suite for Instagram & FaceBook and Buffer.

Email List - if you have one, utilise it! Keep your audience up to date.

Basically, tell everyone about your upcoming podcast!

Launching with 3 episodes and a trailer:

I've done some research on this and there are some valuable points for and against it.

You could launch with your trailer (released before) and 3 episodes. This way once people are listening and they love it, they can binge a few episodes. This is how I chose to launch this podcast.

Top tip: Don't forget to do is promote the episodes that are launched altogether. You could tease some of the clips as part of your pre-launch promotion.

OR you can launch with a trailer and 1 episode. I did this for my first podcast, The Virtually Inspiring podcast.

Throw a virtual launch party! I've not done this but know a few people who have done this.

It can be a great way to get everyone excited about the podcast.

If you have phone numbers then you can create a Whatsapp group and get everyone involved this way.

Shout out to HR Directors Cut as this was their strategy.

Make sure you keep up engaging with your audience throughout, reply to comments/ DMs/Emails

If you have any questions or would like some help with your podcast, book a podcast enquiry call.

Can I ask a favour?

If you enjoyed the episode, I'd love it if you could leave me a review.

You can leave one here

Thanks so much!

I'd love to connect with you on social!

You can find me on:

LinkedIn | Website

Want to start a podcast, but not sure where to start? Download my free Podcast Playbook Get clear on your ideas!

Need some extra support? Book a 90-minute Podcast Strategy Session

Struggling with your podcast promotion? Grab my Easy-Peasy Podcast Promotion Checklist here!

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Welcome to podcasting one on one with me your host

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Rachel. This podcast is for female business owners and

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solopreneurs that are looking to start a podcast that add to your

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own already awesome offering. I'll give you helpful advice

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that you can take away and use in your podcasting journey. I

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hope to answer those tricky questions that just keep you

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from starting. Once a month, I'll be joined by other female

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podcasters. They'll share their journey with you and offer tips

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and advice they discovered along the way. Let's get started.

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Hi, and welcome back after my little summer break, I hope you

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guys have had a good summer too, it felt really good to just

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switch off and not really do a lot. And obviously do a lot for

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the kids and having a lovely holiday. But workwise I felt it

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really refreshing just to kind of put it to one side for the

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summer and try and enjoy being on holiday. But I'm excited to

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get back and get into this episode, which is all about

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launching your podcast.

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If you're ready to launch, then you will have done all your

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planning and prep beforehand. If you're listening to this, and

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you're not quite ready to launch, then I have done some

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episodes that will help you get there. For example, there's

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episode two, which is what's stopping you from starting your

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podcast? Episode Seven, how do I plan my podcast episodes 910.

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And 11 talks about recording editing and publishing your

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podcast. So have a little look back through my previous

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episodes and see if there's any there that can help you. also

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listen to some of our amazing, some of my amazing guests. You

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know, they really know what it's like to set up a podcast and the

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insights are really, really helpful. So I'd recommend just

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having a little listen to those. Okay, so launching. Once you

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have a launch date, I would recommend that you work

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backwards to plan your marketing campaign, I would say at least

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two weeks, ideally four weeks to when you want to launch,

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you would have your episodes pre recorded that you want to launch

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with. So you would need to plan a mixture of posts for social

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media. So audio grammes video clips of them of the episodes,

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you know video clips, if you have them, if you're doing a

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video podcast as well. Or if you fancy just perhaps maybe

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recording your first couple of episodes, then you could use

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that for extra visual content, I would put them into a trailer as

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well and have a have a trailer that will the audiograms can act

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as a trailer.

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Record a video, if you're comfortable doing that, and

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that's in your podcasts or go live on Instagram or Facebook.

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If you have a Facebook group, this would be a really great

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place to go live. And to tell them all about your upcoming

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podcast, you need to decide on your podcast branding and design

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some graphics, I mean, I use Canva Canva is a very popular,

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easy to use tool. You can either get it on the free version, as I

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said before, or you can get a pro version for a very

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reasonable price price of I think it's about 99 pounds for

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the year. Well worth it in my opinion. I'll put a link to

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Canva in the show notes as well. If you have not heard of it,

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listen to the episodes, pick some quotes that will resonate

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with your audience. These are really great to share.

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To get everybody interested in what you have to say.

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I would also recommend that you schedule these

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these posts.

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This just makes it easier to plan. So you're looking for

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weeks ahead. Yeah, a lot of social media plans, you can plan

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more than that ahead. So you can make sure they're scheduled. I

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use a mixture of meta business suites, friends Instagram or

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Facebook and buffer. I use the free version of buffer you can

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have three channels on there. I found that when I want to paste

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Instagram from buffer, it doesn't always work. So I've had

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some posts not be posted. So I actually prefer to use the metta

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business suite. Or you can also this makes it easier as well

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because you can do the mentions. So if you've got guests coming

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on or you want to mention a company or anything

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that, you can do that on the meta suite. Whereas with Buffer,

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it doesn't do anyone mentions, I think it's just starting to do

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business page mentions, but it doesn't do anything else. So you

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have to go back in and amend your post. I mean, you have to

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do that for LinkedIn if that's what you if you've got to

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recommend a guest. But for if you're listening, I would love

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for you to update that because that would be super handy. If

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you could do mentions and scheduled to LinkedIn, meta, you

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can access to a browser. Also, there's a there's an app for it

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now, which can be really handy. If you're on the go, you should

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have access to this when you did your business page, or it'll

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just come up in the menu options.

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If you have an email list, utilise it, keep your audience

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up to date, tease them with the trailers and information on

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guests or the topics that you're going to be talking about. I

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mean, like, basically tell everybody that you're having a

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podcast that you like your upcoming podcast. I mean, I

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Facebook wise, I do have a Facebook page for my podcast.

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But it's kind of mainly as a shopfront. Really, because I

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haven't linked with my Instagram. I mean, LinkedIn is

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where I'm mainly hanging out. But it's beneficial to use

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Facebook, if you don't already, it's a great way to let family

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and friends know as well, you can post it to your to your

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personal page, if you have a personal account. You know, you

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never know who might want to listen or be interested in what

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you have to say. And I think that it's really important to

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just to tell everybody about it.

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So I mentioned this a little bit before about launching with

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three or four episodes. So I've done a bit of research on this.

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And I mean, there are some valuable points for and against

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it. So you could launch your trailer launch with your

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trailer, which you would release before as a teaser, and three

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episodes. This is a way like once people are listening and

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they love it. Obviously, they can binge a few episodes, that

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would be handy to help solidify your audience and what you have

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to say. And this is how I chose to launch this podcast. That's

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what I did. I then went into week of promotions for my

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podcast. So every week I promote my podcast and let people know

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what an episode is out on what it's about and try and create

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some other social media posts to create engagement around the

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subject that I'm talking about. What you mustn't forget to do,

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which I nearly did is promote the episodes that are launched

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altogether. So if you're launching a with with three

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episodes, just make sure you promote all three of those

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episodes because it's easy to then get into the weekly

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promotion of your podcasts. But then you haven't promoted all

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three episodes. So I would just make sure you tease clips of all

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three episodes as part of your pre launch promotion. Or you can

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launch with a trailer and one episode. And when I did my first

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podcast, this is what I did. I didn't know at that time that

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there was a recommendation to launch with more than one

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episode. So I did a trailer.

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I don't even know if I did a trailer actually thinking about

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it. I think I just did an audiogram for it. And I when I

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discovered those, I absolutely loved them. So I did an

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audiogram which is kind of like a trailer. And then I released

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an episode. And then I would then I you know, did weekly and

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then it changed to monthly.

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And I think it just depends on what I mean there is research,

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like I said for and against, before and against, but for for

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both these kinds of strategies. So I think it's up to you really

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what you would like to do whether it's possible for you to

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get those episodes recorded, prior to launching, you know,

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depending on your timescale, to just have a little think about

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that.

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There is a way to help create some excitement is throwing a

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virtual launch party. Now I've not done this, but I do know a

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few people that have done this, it could be a really great way

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to get everyone excited about the podcast and listening. You

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could do it in your Facebook group, you could create an

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Eventbrite link and make it easy for people to join. You don't

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have to charge for it. depending on you know, maybe where you are

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with your business where you are with your audience. You know,

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things like that. So but that's something to think about and it

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could work really well.

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If you have people's phone numbers, then you could do a

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launch and create a WhatsApp group. I want to give a little

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shout out to the HR Director's Cut podcast with my wonderful

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friend Lisa Tomlinson, Victoria bond and Kate Madison Greenwell.

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And they did this for their kind of launch party got all their I

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think it was family and friends as well and close colleagues to

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get involved and to like listen to the episode live. Their

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episode comes out on a Friday at eight o'clock.

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I think and encourage everyone to get a glass of wine, have a

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listen and then do a review. And they are also doing a wonderful

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thing with their reviews is for every review that they get,

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they're going to plant a tree, which I think is a really a

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really lovely thing to do and a great way to encourage people to

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give you reviews. So that was a way that they did it. And I

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think that worked really well for them. So this is something

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that you could consider as well.

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You just need to make sure that you keep engaging with your

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audience throughout. You know, your your podcast promotion, and

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then when you start, you know, getting into the swing of

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things. Make sure you reply to your comments, DMS, emails, all

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of those things, this is key to getting your audience keeping

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them engaged, if they're reaching out to you reach out to

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them.

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Right. So there we are. That's my advice and some tips there

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for you if you're looking to launch a podcast, I hope this

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episode has helped and you've got something from it. If you

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have any questions, please get in touch. I love to hear from

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you. I offer a free 30 minute session. If you're thinking

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about starting a podcast or you have a podcast already and you

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have any questions, then please booking a call and we can have a

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chat about those things. Thanks for listening. Bye.

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Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed today's episode,

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please like share and subscribe. Your support means so much to

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me. If there's a question or topic you'd like covering then

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I'd love to hear from you. Find the podcast on Instagram at

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Reggie Botfield and drop me a DM till next time bye