Exposing Big Podcast Marketing Secrets
This will upset my clients
Hey team,
Callum here.
Hope you’re rocking it!
Ok…
So today I’m going to upset all my clients.
Probably also my team.
But I love spilling marketing secrets.
You might have noticed - everywhere you look in 2025 there’s a podcast.
The reason?
Podcasts are now big money.
Consumers listen to them for 1 to 2 hours every week.
Uninterrupted.
No other form of media comes close in trust building and attention.
Advertisers recognise the value of this.
Companies like Athletic Greens and BetterHelp have built their entire business from podcast advertising.
Spotify paid Joe Rogan $100 million+ for his audience.
You get the idea!
All this means…
The price of you listening to someone's podcast is extremely high.
Millions are being spent on getting your attention.
And for the last 3 years…
I've been right in the middle of it.
My systems and processes get millions of views and listens every month for big podcasters.
So today I thought f**k it!
I’m going to share what’s working.
These are my 5 favourite podcast growth systems:
1/ The Thumbnail Lab
Diary of a CEO has thumbnail optimisation down to a science.
Most podcasts run 1 thumbnail on their YouTube videos.
More advanced podcasts will test 3 to 5 variations on publication using Thumbnailtest.com or YouTube’s in built testing.
The Diary of a CEO?
Runs 100s of thumbnails before the episode is even published.
They test hundreds of variations as Facebook ads, tweaking every element - the text, font, colours, images, and facial expressions.
The goal?
Find the most shocking, provocative, can’t-help-but-click combination.
Humans are hardwired to seek out novelty, quick fixes, and info that might help us.
This process helps them win the click every time.
What’s smarter?
They can run test before an episode is recorded to pre-validate the most interesting topics to cover.
We know that the first KPI YouTube uses to determine the quality of content is the ‘Click through rate’.
The Thumbnail Lab ensures that the CTR is as high as possible.
2/ The Reactive Episode (Break the internet)
One of my favourite strategies to run with my podcast clients is the ‘reactive episode’.
Humans love to be the first to know about news events.
The first to get information.
Chris Williamson is brilliant at this.
When the story of the Trump assassination broke?
He dropped everything to get an in depth episode out within days.
These episodes are a must listen for audiences who want to be first, to hear instant reactions and opinions.
To discuss what’s happening in the comments.
The topics are part of the mainstream news cycle and so they can help your podcast break out of it’s niche into the wider news cycle.
These episodes always rank in the top 10 episodes of all time for my podcast clients.
There’s so little competition.
TV News channels spend a maximum of 5 to 10 minutes on a story.
We’re going DEEP.
A 1 to 2 hour piece of media.
You can win with speed and depth.
3/ The Content Waterfall System ⛲
Just as we know in marketing…
You need to interact with a brand multiple times before purchase.
The same is true in Podcasting.
We run the Content Waterfall System.
Lex Fridman is brilliant at this
His 2-5 hour conversation with Elon Musk becomes:
10x YouTube segments
20x clips for IG reels and TikTok
5x cuts for Facebook
30x viral tweet clips and threads
Newsletter recaps and roundups
On Monday I might see a clip on instagram.
“Wow - Elon is on Lex’s Podcast”
Tuesday I see a Twitter thread on X
“Oh yeah I must watch that”
Wednesday a thumbnail pops up on my YouTube.
Thursday I listen to the full length episode on Spotfiy.
We’re hitting our audience at multiple touchpoints.
Little reminders to listen to the long form when the time is right.
More advanced Podcasts?
They’re running multiple accounts per social platform.
They’re paying affiliate channels on a pay per results basis for views.
This tactic was first pioneered by Andrew Tate.
Whilst controversial, it works!
4/ The Trailer Playbook
The Podcast trailer is another tactic pioneered by the Diary of a CEO.
It’s driven over 9M+ YouTube subs and over 500 million views.
Each one is crafted with this 4-part framework:
The Hook - A pattern interrupting statement you can’t ignore
The Lesson - An insight that makes you think “Wow. I got value.”
The Emotional Rollercoaster - A heart-wrenching journey through highs and lows to get you to really feel something
Cliffhangers - Open loops that tease more value you need to hear
These trailers?
Secure the viewer once they’ve clicked on an episode.
And more importantly?
Make them stick around to close the loops opened by the cliffhangers.
This drives huge AVERAGE VIEW DURATION on YouTube.
When combined with the high CLICK THROUGH RATE from their thumbnails?
It’s a magic combination for driving organic growth on YouTube.
5/ The Collaboration Checklist 🤝
When I first started working with big podcasts?
I thought they just picked their friends as guests.
Turns out that’s a recipe for disaster.
Top shows need to be extremely selective about which guests make the cut.
And what they’re going to talk about.
With my shows, we’ve come up with 3 key criteria.
Each guest should have:
1M+ social followers for cross-promotion
The key to growth on interview based shows?
Reaching a massive new audience with each podcast episode.
The easiest way to do that?
Make sure each guest is bringing us the opportunity to hit over 1 million people on their social channels.
When we tease and promote the episode?
We are hitting 1 million potential new listeners and a percent of them will convert to long term subscribers.
This is super effective in growing the audience.
But what takes it to the next level?
Agreeing an exclusive story or new piece of information to reveal in the interview
Chances are that the audience knows the guest pretty well.
They might have heard them on other podcasts.
So how can we make it super compelling for them to tune in?
We agree on a new piece of information or exclusive story that they can break on the Podcast.
We don’t want to be a ‘nice to listen’ episode.
We want to be a ‘must listen’ episode.
Another way of thinking about this is knowing what the ‘Hook’ is for your episode before you press record.
The more you pre-validate the episodes title and topic?
The better chance of success.
The third element of our guest checklist?
A best-selling book to prove their ideas are in demand
We love to prioritise best selling authors on informational podcasts.
If someone has written a best selling book?
They’ve probably really thought through their ideas and concepts.
This makes them more articulate.
More compelling to listen to.
That will help drive those high listen through rates.
Beginner guests find it hard to articulate their ideas.
They might not have that many concepts.
Those concepts haven’t already been validated by the market.
If James Clear’s book on Habits has sold millions of copies?
He’s probably got some compelling ideas to be shared in a podcast format.
Don’t make the mistake of booking “experts” who haven’t validated their ideas.
A best selling book is usually an indication of a good guest.
So there you have it.
What do you think of these bad boys? Did I miss any?
What are you running that’s working?
Let me know in the replies.
Chat soon,
Callum
Maybe you need more help than you get in these emails?
Here’s how I can help:
Reply to this email and I’ll answer your question
Create Social First Podcasts with my Agency 7xContent
Listen to my other Podcasts with Creators
Follow my socials for daily tips