Your association communications podcast is an important resource for association’s training and communications. We’ve put together a list of ideas to help you promote your association podcast. These tips will ensure its success, as well as aid in overcoming potential challenges in adopting podcasting as a new platform.
- Share the podcast on association member sign-in pages and the association intranet
Whether you use a simple sign-in page or an expansive association member intranet and database, there are certain places that your members log on to daily. These high-traffic sites are ideal spots to post notices and links to your association podcast. Ensure that it updates as your episodes update, and change the images/wording to make it unique and enticing to keep your members engaged.
- Feature members on your association communications podcast
Use your association podcast as a way to highlight association member success stories. Seek input from those most knowledgeable in the association about the podcast topic. Consider interviewing members, having them help with content and other ways they can be involved. By including your members in the content you’re producing, you’re creating the feeling of a more communal project. More members will tune in to hear friends and colleagues being featured, and may be interested in getting featured themselves. members enjoy hearing from different voices in different roles and it shows that the culture is collaborative and their contributions appreciated. association member involvement can really bring the project to life and create deeper engagement.
- Promote through holidays or sales-based events
Depending on your association, you might have several yearly special events planned like holiday parties, quarterly sales meetings or new product launches. Use these events to promote your podcast (or vice versa). Inform your staff that they can find more information about these events via the podcast. You can also use the podcast to update your association about progress on goals or follow up from events.
- Post physical signage around the workplace
Get creative with signs and posters. Put them in high-traffic areas like break rooms, hallways, and the like.* Each sign should have a call to action involving your association communications podcast. These CTAs can be to check out the latest episode, learn how to be featured, or something unique to your content that will drive interest (such as an upcoming association contest).
*We suggest you be as tasteful as possible, but if you want to hang signs on the inside of bathroom stalls and restroom doors, that’s up to you. They are high-traffic areas, after all.
- Make QR codes
Most phones now come equipped with QR code readers, enabling you to implement QR codes into your physical signs or promotional material. Enable the code to take them to your association communications podcast page, or even to the specific episode. Your members can quickly scan the QR code to listen. It helps break down the roadblocks and steps between the association member learning about the content and directly accessing it. This increases the likelihood of them interacting with your association communications podcast.
- Create discussions during association meetings based on the association podcasts
Your private podcasts are resources and should be utilized as such. Highlight the information from the latest episode during meetings. Make it clear to those attending that the prerequisite information can be found in your podcasting content.
- Enable push notifications in your association’s podcasting app
Your association communications podcast app does more than just play and pause your podcast. It can also notify your members when new episodes of your association podcasts are live. By enabling push notifications, your members are alerted the moment a new episode is published and available. You not only make your members aware that new content is live, but make them more likely to listen as the notifications appear right on their mobile device.
- Send out the podcast in newsletters
Newsletters allow you to send alerts for upcoming events, deadlines, and recaps so that your members can be kept up to speed. If you have an existing newsletter, you can integrate the podcast. Or, you can consider sending newsletters specifically about the podcast. Inserting content from your association communications podcast into a newsletter does multiple things. First, it delivers the content straight to the association member, once again decreasing the steps they’d have to take to get to the content itself. Second, it allows you to frame your association podcast as the resource that it is. This also reiterates how the content discussed/mentioned in the newsletter is explored more thoroughly in your podcast.
- Use podcasts as a primary association training tool, then scale out
You can use your association podcasts as a method of training, meaning that it’s a mandatory tool as part of your onboarding and training program. You can get new hires immediately accustomed to accessing information via your association podcast. Once the routine has been established, you can scale outward and start instituting association communications podcasts for other communications and continuing education purposes. As your members will already be familiar with the platform, accessing the content fits into their already developed member events.
- Offer reward prizes for engagement and promote them on the podcast
Reward your members for consuming your association podcasts. Reinforce by bringing up podcast points in your meetings or commenting on a particular episode and encouraging those who discuss. Some examples of rewards can be association swag, gift cards, highlights in future episodes and shout outs from association executives. Get even more creative with your rewards. You might even consider integrating it with existing systems for association member development and reviews. Inspire your team to understand that important content comes in the form of your podcasts.
- Set leaders to champion spreading the word to other members
Even in the modern age, word of mouth is still the most powerful way to spread awareness. Find people in your team that can act as “leaders” or “champions” of your association podcast. These might be different representatives from various departments. Or, it could be members who are big podcast fans who you get involved to share their passion. Part of their role can be to represent the podcast and bring awareness to it to the members around them. If your leaders and high performers are discussing content from the podcast, chances are your other members will consider the podcast important and will engage with it.
- Calendar events in your calendaring system with the link to the podcast
Introduce updates to your association communications podcast as a scheduled event on the calendar. A good solution could be to have a schedule for your podcast releases that will fit into a Google Calendar reminder. This will automatically remind your members to look to the latest episode that you release. You can even include a podcast link in the Google Calendar notes to make it even easier for your members to access.
- Make meetings into viewing/listening “parties”
When you release new content for your association podcasts, plan meeting content around your podcast and consider playing snippets of the podcast. This once again highlights how important your association communications podcast is, and reinforces the need to interact and engage with the content to your members. Using video podcast episodes can be extremely engaging (instead of or as part of PowerPoint/Keynote presentations). However, both audio and video can be used for this method.
- Integrate with current communication tools such as your community platform
Your association podcast is part of your overall communications plan and works well with other means of communication, especially your association community system. Integrate your association communications podcast into your community system, and ensure that your members never miss another episode. Much like enabling push notifications and placing notices in high-traffic areas such as association member login screens and break rooms, this brings more attention to your content. It also acts to once again decrease the actions needed to get to your content.
- Create goals based on the podcast
Goals help your association move forward. By making goals based around your association podcast, you create something for your members to aim for. Perhaps it’s an action that needs to be taken after they’ve listened to the episode, or prepping notes for a discussion to be had about the content in the episode, or something that’s specific and unique to the needs of your association. Regardless, a target to aim ties in the purpose of the podcast and provides measurable actions
As far as resources go, your association communications podcast can be one of the most strategic ones at your disposal. It offers a unique way to interact with your members. With these methods, you can ensure that you reach as many of them as possible and keep your association informed.
