FOR PODCASTERS
How to light a video podcast set
A practical UK guide to video podcast lighting: key, fill and practical lights, two-person desks, backgrounds, flicker under 50 Hz mains and a look that stays…
A practical guide to growing a podcast audience in the UK: discoverability, YouTube, clips, guests, a website and a mailing list, and what to skip.
To grow a podcast audience, make the show easy to find and easy to choose, then put it everywhere your listeners already are. That means a clear show name, cover art that reads at thumbnail size and episode titles that say what each one is about. Add YouTube alongside Apple Podcasts and Spotify, cut short clips from every episode, trade guest appearances with similar shows, and build a mailing list so your growth doesn’t depend on one algorithm.
Picture a Monday morning a few months from now. Your analytics show towns and names you don’t recognise: people who found the show through a clip, a guest or an ad, then worked their way through the back catalogue. The comments come from strangers who already sound like regulars. Growth stops being a guess and becomes something you can see.
The good news is that the audience exists. The harder truth is that a good show doesn’t market itself. This guide sets out what genuinely moves the numbers for an independent UK podcast, whether you host it for its own sake or to build the brand of your business, and what is rarely worth the effort.
Podcast listening in the UK is no longer niche. Ofcom reports that 27% of UK adults now listen to podcasts each week, and monthly listening has more than doubled since 2019 to 39%.
The difficulty is habit. Most listeners already have a short list of shows they follow, and a new show is competing with established favourites for the same hour of their week. A new show has to earn a place on that list, which means being found somewhere else first: in search, on social media, through a guest or through a friend. Growth comes from opening as many of those doors as you can keep up with, not from waiting for an app to notice you.
Two of Ofcom’s findings shape everything else in this guide. First, the phone is the main way people access podcasts for 64% of listeners, so your show is mostly judged on a small screen. Second, video now matters: 68% of podcast listeners say they listen to podcasts that also have video, and 44% find podcasts with video more engaging.
That doesn’t mean every show must be filmed. It does mean a podcast that only exists as an audio file in two apps is missing a large share of the places people now discover shows.
Before you promote anything, check the basics a new listener sees in the first few seconds.
For most shows, yes. YouTube treats a podcast as a playlist of full episodes, and when you add podcast features to it the show can be recommended to people with similar interests, carry a podcast badge, appear on youtube.com/podcasts and be included in YouTube Music.
If you don’t film, you can still take part. YouTube can pull episodes from your RSS feed and turn each one into a static image video made from your show art, and the UK is one of the places where RSS delivery is available. It’s a sensible first step, though a static image rarely competes with filmed shows for attention.
An hour-long episode is hard to share. A 40-second moment isn’t. The shows that grow steadily tend to treat each recording as the source of a week’s worth of content:
Pick the one or two platforms your listeners actually use and post consistently there, rather than a little everywhere. Our guide to podcast clips for social media covers choosing and cutting the moments.
Every guest has an audience of their own. Make it easy for them to share the episode: send a ready-made clip, a square graphic with their name and photo, and a short line they can copy. Guests who are given good material share far more often than guests who are sent a link.
Appearing on other people’s shows works the same way in reverse. Look for podcasts that serve the same listener from a different angle, offer a specific topic rather than a general chat, and mention your own show naturally. Promo swaps, where two hosts read a short recommendation for each other’s show, are free and often surprisingly effective between podcasts of a similar size.
You need somewhere you control. Apple’s RSS specification includes a link tag for the website associated with a podcast, and that site is where press, sponsors and future guests go to check you out. A good podcast or personal brand website lists every episode with show notes, explains who the host is and makes it easy to subscribe and get in touch. Show notes pages also give search engines something to index, which audio alone can’t.
A mailing list protects you from algorithm changes. In the UK you generally need specific consent before sending marketing emails to individuals, and every email must give people a way to unsubscribe, so use a proper sign-up form rather than adding contacts by hand.
Sometimes, but later than most people think. Paid social ads can put a strong clip in front of people who match your listener, and they work best when that clip already performs well organically. Ads make a good show grow faster; they don’t make a weak first impression better.
Start small, promote your best-performing clip or your trailer, and judge results on new followers and listens rather than clicks. Timing helps too: a launch, a new season or a live show gives a campaign a clear start and finish. Our guide on how to advertise a podcast compares Meta, YouTube and Google, and our advertising for podcasters service runs campaigns this way.
Look past total downloads. The more useful questions are which episodes bring in new followers, where listeners drop off, which clips send people to the full episode and whether guests share. Review every quarter, do more of what works and stop what doesn’t. Growth is usually slow for the first year and then compounds, which is why consistency beats bursts of effort.
We want Monday mornings to bring new names, people finishing episode after episode. Our team started out working for one person, co-founder Jack Cartwright, a USA Today bestselling author who needed his social media, videos, ads and website to pull in one direction. We bring that joined-up approach to shows: advertising for podcasters that puts proven clips and trailers in front of the right listeners, alongside the rest of our marketing for podcasters. A clear brief, scope and fee are agreed before any creative work begins.
Longer than most people hope. Expect slow growth at first while you settle on a format and build a back catalogue that new listeners can work through. Consistency matters more than any single tactic: a regular release schedule, clips from every episode and steady guest sharing tend to compound over time, while bursts of activity followed by gaps rarely do.
Apple Podcasts and Spotify remain essential, and YouTube has become a major place where people find and watch podcasts. Submitting your RSS feed to all three covers most listeners. If you film your show, publish full episodes on YouTube as a podcast playlist rather than relying on the static image version.
Use the words people would naturally search for, but keep the name clear and short. Apple uses the title for search and warns that a long list of keywords added to game search can get a show removed. Put descriptive detail in episode titles and the show description instead.
They are one of the most reliable free ways to grow, because you reach people who already listen to podcasts on your subject. They work best between shows of a similar size and audience, with a specific topic for each appearance and a clear mention of where to find your show.
Be wary of anything that promises downloads or chart positions, because those numbers don’t tell you whether real listeners are staying. Paid social ads that promote a proven clip to a well-defined audience can work. Judge any paid promotion on new followers and repeat listening rather than raw plays.
A practical UK guide to video podcast lighting: key, fill and practical lights, two-person desks, backgrounds, flicker under 50 Hz mains and a look that stays…
How to promote a podcast on Instagram in the UK: Reels from every episode, Stories on release day, guest collabs, trial reels and posting between seasons.
How to write podcast show notes that persuade people to press play and help episodes get found in search, with a simple template, timestamps and transcripts.
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