How you can effectively use LinkedIn for free to boost your marketing and grow your podcast audience

Polls are a great tool that you can utilise to optimise how you use LinkedIn for free to boost your marketing.

The key is to know the purpose of your poll and consider what you’ll do to follow-up with your voters afterwards.

For example, let’s say I wanted to raise awareness for my 30-day content plan.

I could create a poll on the final day of the month saying, ‘I can’t believe it’s the 1^st November tomorrow, hands up who’s created and scheduled next month’s posts?’, with options for people to vote for options such as ‘yes I have!’, ‘not yet’, and ‘I’ll be winging it again this month’.

Then I know that anyone who hasn’t voted ‘yes’ is my target audience.

So, when the poll ends I can do one of two things:

1. I can posts about downloading my 30-day plan and tag my voters into the post saying something like ‘as per your vote I thought this might be useful for you’.
2. Or I could send them a private DM, as per your vote, I thought you might like to receive my helpful 30-day planner. This allows you to get your foot in the door in a proactive friendly way without sounding too cold and sales'y!

Using LinkedIn searches

Reaching out to 2^nd and even 3^rd connections on LinkedIn is a great way to build your audience.

The number of 2^nd connections you have is, of course, based upon how many connections that you have, so the first step is to build your network.

You can use LinkedIn searches to find those working locally in your industry, searching for different keywords and seeing who your current connections are interacting with.

Then, once you’ve asked to connect with them, leave a great 300-character note to introduce yourself, and a voice note once you’ve connected to build that link.

Check out their contact details and follow up later with a link to your services or podcast episodes, mentioning particular products or episodes that might interest them based on their background and industry.

Using LinkedIn hashtag searches

Another great way to locate your target audience is to find the people who are posting about your industry.

If you’re looking for businesses in Leeds, West Yorkshire you might search for #leeds, #leedsbusinesses, #yorkshirebusinesses then follow the businesses using the relevant hashtags, check out their posts, business page and staff.

Planning ahead is key here; if you already know what you’re about to launch, whether it’s a new podcast episode topic or a promotion, you can start searching for people in the preceding month who’ll be interested in what’s coming up.

Then in your short connecting note, you can mention that you have some great things in the pipeline suited to them, give them some details, and that they should follow or connect with you for more.

Searching relevant hashtags will also show you what’s trending in this area and who’s active.

Comment on their posts to get noticed and become a known quantity; I wouldn’t recommend dropping your links there, as you’ll be seen as hijacking someone’s post for your own means but do comment and connect with people then send them your links.

LinkedIn posts

Posting regularly is a great way to use LinkedIn for free to boost your marketing.

If you’re a podcaster, you could write a post asking your audience who they’d like to listen to on your podcast and why, and get them to tag them in the comments, or ask them to think of a friend who’d love to hear your content and tag them.

I’ve spoken to Phil Fraser about his LinkedIn marketing strategy for his podcast, and there are loads of ways that you can use LinkedIn for free to boost your marketing in this area.

Phil founded his podcast to raise awareness for his Leeds-based business coaching and Angel investor profile, and it’s now a big part of his general marketing strategy.

The podcast is integrated across his platforms, being posted to YouTube and other social media platforms as well as emailing links to his database of contacts.

Phil always posts a preview/teaser for each upcoming podcast the day before it drops, then posts when it’s launched each week, and then posts again the next day with snippets of the key points.

All these posts raise awareness of the podcast, increasing subscriber and listener numbers.

But what else can you do to keep your podcast marketing fresh and use LinkedIn for free to boost your marketing?

How to use LinkedIn for free to boost your marketing for your podcast

1. You can use LinkedIn’s free creator mode, which offers a featured section where you can showcase podcast episodes or promotional graphics, making it easy for visitors to access your content.
2. You also establish authority in your industry by writing blogs and LinkedIn articles on the topics described in your podcast.
3. Then you can include backlinks to your podcast too; this coupled with the longform content will tick a lot of boxes for organic SEO.
4. Join and participate in relevant LinkedIn groups related to your industry, podcasting, or businesses in your local areas.
5. Share insights and podcast episodes and engage with group members to build relationships.
6. Write guest follow-up posts after interviewing someone on your podcast, thanking them and sharing key takeaways, linking back to the episode.
7. You could share another LinkedIn post with the same link again in the next couple of months, or sooner if anything topical to the podcast has arisen in the news or locally since.
8. It’s also good practice to ask your podcast guest to like and share your posts to their connections too.
9. Make sure you’re sharing your content across all your social platforms and tag their handles on all those platforms as well.
10. They might even write a blog about their experience on their podcast with links to the episode and your website, creating valuable backlinks for you.
11.  By integrating some of these strategies, you, or any podcast host, can effectively use LinkedIn for free to boost your marketing, enhancing your podcast outreach while fostering a community around your content.

And remember, consistency and engagement will be key to seeing long-term results so keep chipping away at it!

Let’s talk about how to use LinkedIn for free to boost your marketing

If you’re keen to find out more about how you can use the free version of LinkedIn to increase the reach of your marketing, you’re in the right place.

You can book a POWER HOUR call for just £197 to get your ideas flowing, talk all things marketing strategy, and come away with tonnes of ideas to implement.

If it’s LinkedIn tips and know-how you’re specifically interested in, you’re in the right place. Get in contact to register your interest for out bespoke LinkedIn training with expert Lisa here.

Or if you fancy a more general chat to see how we might be able to help, you can book a free 15-minute intro call through our Calendly link here.

We’re also looking for new clients to work with as marketing partners for their business, taking a lot of the specialised thinking out of your hands.

Whatever your aims are, we’d love to help, so get in contact today and why not start off by asking how to use LinkedIn for free to boost your marketing?