Let me ask you a question…
As a marketer, what is the most personal thing you can for your audience?
One may say, “writing compelling, cornerstone content.”
But to some who really want to expand their reach and establish a more intimate connection with their audience, they answer podcasting.
They say that podcasting the new blogging and the new marketing for 2016 and beyond.
But like blogging, podcasters are presented with the challenge of cutting through the noise and getting a big-time exposure.
So how do they unleash the potential of their podcasts to go viral without tapping into other marketing strategies that don’t guarantee results?
I leveraged a powerful method to promote my recently launched Uncensored Growth podcast on iTunes which got me the following results in as little as 10 days:
- Ranked #1 on iTunes in multiple countries
- 6,300+ downloads
- 446 email subscribers
- 50+ 5-star reviews in multiple countries
Want to know the exact method I used for this campaign?
Read my story…
First Of All… Why Did I Start A Podcast?
Instead of merely producing written and video content, I decided that starting podcast would be a great marketing strategy that would help me get more personal with my audience.
I believe you’ll agree with me when I say that listening to somebody’s voice speaking to you retains your attention more than simply reading an article. It’s impossible to skim through a podcast episode without missing a lot of valuable information.
Living in the Netherlands, I ride a bicycle a lot and at the same time tune in to my favorite podcast. I find the whole experience convenient. Most of all, I feel very connected with the person speaking even if he doesn’t know me.
My Main Goal – To Rank In iTunes
In order to get the word out and for people to listen to my podcast, I knew it had to rank in Apple iTunes.
As we all know, iTunes is the number one tool that many people use to listen to podcasts.
To achieve my main goal of ranking in iTunes, I had to meet 2 objectives:
- Get lots of podcast downloads.
- Get more positive reviews.
I admit that it is quite challenging to achieve those two objectives as there are tons of podcasts in my niche competing for my audience’s attention.
To outrank existing podcasts that have been out there for years, I knew I had to make a smart move.
I did something that others weren’t doing…
The Powerful Method That Helped My Podcast Rank
I promoted my podcast by running a contest using UpViral’s marketing system.
In that contest, I would be giving away enticing prizes that people would love to get their hands on.
What is UpViral and why did I choose it as the ultimate means to promote my podcast?
UpViral is a viral marketing platform. Its rock solid, reliable system lets any campaign you are running “go viral” by helping you give people a good reason to share it to others for months to years.
The process of running a contest using UpViral goes this way:
1. You create an opt-in page or lead page in which an interested participant would type in his email address.
2. Each participant would be sent to a Thank You page where he will be given a unique invite link. This invite link will be used to invite their friends to join the contest by entering their email address as well.
3. You offer a valuable prize to encourage participants to share your campaign. If they get more people to sign-up through their unique invite link, they get more entries to win your prize.
4. New participants who have been referred through your invite link will also get their own unique invite links after entering their email address. To win the prize, they should repeat the same process of sharing your campaign multiple times.
5. You follow-up with your contest participants by sending them an email. Doing this will remind them to share your campaign.
As your contest gets shared again and again, you create a viral loop that never stops.
Why?
Because if at least one person shares your campaign, he brings in more leads that have the potential to become your customers.
Deciding On The Prizes Of The Contest
I chose to give away 4 unique prizes:
Grand Prize: Lifetime access to UpViral
2nd Prize: 25 Copies of Viral Hacking Masterclass Course
3rd Prize: 5 best marketing book ever written delivered to your doorstep
4th Prize (For everyone who enters the contest): A free copy of The Definitive Guide to Facebook Retargeting
What was the reason behind choosing these specific prizes?
First of all, I wanted to give something that would provide IMMENSE VALUE to people who joined my contest. All my prizes served one major purpose: To help entrepreneurs grow their business like never before.
Second, I made sure that my prizes were EXCLUSIVE. They were not available elsewhere. The only way people would be able to get them was to join my contest.
Designing The Opt-In Page
I created 3 opt-in pages and did an A/B test (also known as split test) on them to find out which version had the best conversions.
UpViral allowed me to design multiple opt-in pages in which I used different texts and images. Then it automatically split tested my opt-in pages to give me the best one (the WINNER).
This ensured that my opt-in page attracted more visitors.
Here are my 3 opt-in pages which UpViral split tested:
Opt-in page 1:
Opt-in page 2:
Opt-in page 3:
Here is a screenshot of the split test results for the best opt-in page:
Based on the results, Opt-in page 1 was the Winner.
It had a total of 5,755 visitors, 398 leads, and a conversion rate of 7%.
About the conversion rate of 7%, you may be wondering why it’s low…
The reason for this low conversion was because we made it a requirement for people to leave a review on iTunes first which was something that not everyone was willing to do.
We knew this would hurt our conversion rate but we did it anyway since our primary aim was to get more subscribers and reviews on iTunes – and not simply getting email subscribers.
The Sign-Up Process:
In order for people to join the contest, I required them to follow a two-step process on my winner opt-in form:
1. Subscribe and leave a review on iTunes
Before entering their email address, I required interested participants to subscribe to my Uncensored Growth podcast and leave a review.
This step was highly important to help me achieve my main goal of ranking my podcast in iTunes.
As you can see, I added a button that would lead people directly to iTunes.
Beneath the button is a link to a quick guide that would explain a step-by-step process on how to leave a review on the actual podcast. This was for those who had no idea on how to leave a review but were interested to join the contest.
2. Enter email address
This step was a no-brainer. After subscribing to iTunes and leaving a review, people would sign-up for the contest by entering their email address.
Designing The Thank You Page
After the opt-in page, I created the Thank You page using a similar approach as the lead page.
I had 2 versions of the Thank You page which Upviral automatically split tested to see which performed better.
One version featured a video of me explaining the mechanics of the contest and the prizes to be won.
Except for the video, both Thank You pages required participants to share the campaign and have their friends sign-up through their unique invite link.
Social buttons were also provided so they could share the campaign directly to their social media platforms.
I also added a button for those who wanted to share the campaign to their friends via email.
For every friend that a participant referred through his invite link, he got more than 20 additional entries. If he invites 5 friends, he gets a total of over 100 entries to WIN the contest.
Here are the 2 Thank You pages which UpViral automatically split tested:
Thank You page 1 (with the explainer video):
Thank You page 2 (without the video):
Here is a screenshot of the split test results:
As you can see, Thank You page 1 (with the video) was the Winner. Getting the most engagement, it had 540 total visitors and 163 total social button clicks.
Promoting The Contest Via Facebook Ads
I needed a quick traction for my contest to get more people to view and sign-up for it. In addition to promoting the contest to email subscribers on my email list, I did a Facebook ad campaign.
I chose 3 images for the Facebook ad and had them split tested to select the version that got more engagement. This was to ensure that I displayed the best image possible before the ad went live.
Below is the screenshot of the final Facebook ad which I chose for the UpViral contest:
Basically, I chose the version of me holding my phone which featured the Uncensored Growth podcast. This was the best way to increase brand exposure and get the word out at the same time.
Follow-Up Email
I sent out a follow-up email to every person who successfully referred a friend to the campaign through his unique invite link.
The email subject read “Woohoo – congrats :)” with the message that revealed the total number of entries the person got so far by referring his friends.
I also added the invite link and social sharing buttons to encourage the recipient to share the campaign once more to get more entries for higher chances of winning.
Here’s the screenshot of the email message I sent out:
How Did The Campaign Go? Was It A Success?
Within 10 days of running the contest, I had a total of 7,140 visitors and 450 leads.
Most of the traffic and leads I got came from referred visitors.
This meant that people who signed up for my contest were really interested in the prizes I was giving away. They shared my campaign multiple times.
Out of the 5,817 referred visitors, I got 264 leads which was more than the number of leads from direct visitors.
Going back to my main goal, I am much delighted to say that my Uncensored Growth podcast on iTunes had over 6,300 downloads and a total of 50+ 5-star reviews spread out across multiple countries with excellent testimonials.
In the process, I collected 450 leads which I could then turn into sales soon.
Above all, I ranked #1 in iTunes in various countries!
Below is a screenshot that shows my podcast getting 17 5-star reviews from one country.
Was my campaign to promote my podcast a SUCCESS?
Definitely!
After witnessing the potential of UpViral’s system to make any campaign go viral within such a short period of time, I would absolutely recommend this reliable system to any entrepreneur who wants to gain online traction.
There is no other clever way to rank your podcast on iTunes, grow your listeners and get hundreds to thousands of leads ALL AT ONCE than UpViral’s platform.
Over to you…
Are you ready to successfully launch your podcast using UpViral?
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