Do you operate your own radio station, with the belief you broadcast some of the best tunes around, yet the size of your audience doesn’t reflect this?
Fear not, as your station is certainly not in uncharted territory. Growing your station’s listenership isn’t a trivial task. A common goal of any radio station is to deliver content that resonates with your listeners. However, it cannot be your only strategy to reliably attract more people to lock in to your station. In all likelihood, it’s going to require something more.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss the various ways you can promote your station with the aim of increasing its reach amongst your target audience. Hopefully, by the end of it you’ll have your station’s answer as to how to get more listeners!
Let’s dive into it!
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For smaller stations or stations that are just starting out it can be a trap to replicate content that is already sufficiently broadcast elsewhere. No matter where you reside in the world, there are likely large and established stations that play the genre(s) of music you may have been considering broadcasting yourself. To compete against them is going to be a mammoth task. Instead, your station should consider finding a niche, which isn’t catered to already.
If, for example, you like to broadcast hip hop music, we’re not saying you shouldn’t broadcast hip hop music. Instead, we’re recommending that there be something different in how you broadcast hip hop music, whether that be broadcasting certain hip hop sub genres (under represented by the mainstream), live mixing hip hop tracks or broadcasting the works of local hip hop artists.
Finally, your niche should be something you’re passionate about, so that enthusiasm can be noticed by potential listeners. Not only are listeners looking for certain audio content where they can’t get anywhere else, they also what the providers of this music to share their passion for it.
Create a social media presence
In this day and age, having a presence on social media is essential for your station. Combined, Facebook, Instagram and X (formally Twitter) have billions of users. Any prospective listener for your station will likely have at least one account with the aforementioned social media platforms. So it is imperative your station also has accounts with these platforms to meet potential listeners where they are.
Use social media to describe what your station is about, so future listeners know whether your station is right for them. You could post about your weekly schedule, any new residents or hosts who have joined recently and any upcoming physical events you may have planned.
Lastly, radio is an audio-only experience, whilst social media is a multimedia one. Posting images and/or videos about your station, allows listeners (both existing and potential) to gain further insight about you. They can put host names to faces as well as see where the music they so enjoy is broadcast from.
Utilise SEO for your station’s website
Search engine optimisation or SEO is about helping search engines understand your station’s content, so your station’s website appears as high as possible in the list of results the search engine provides to a given user.
Most people don’t navigate beyond the first page of results when browsing the internet. The higher your website ranks, the greater chance a prospective listener will visit your website, which in turn increases the likelihood they will join your station’s audience.
For a more detailed explanation on radio SEO and how best to utilise it for your station, check out our blog post.
Cross promote with other stations
Cross promotion is a marketing method, where consumers of a product or service are targeted for the promotion of a separate product or service. In the context of radio, this would be your station promoting the shows of another station, whilst they reciprocate and do the same for your station’s shows.
Examples of cross promotion with other stations are numerous. Some are quite natural e.g. where your station and another host the same resident. So fans of the particular resident will be inclined to tune into both stations to hear more from their favourite. Other examples are more purposeful, such as another station and yours hosting a gig together.
Give your audience as many listening platforms as possible
Having a website is a good starting place for any online radio station, but to really grow your audience your station’s broadcast should be accessible on as many platforms as possible.
Mobile apps
The first type of platform we would strongly advise you to consider is mobile apps. As of 2022, there were more than eight billion mobile devices in use across the world. The number has likely only increased, so giving both your existing and potential listeners a mobile home to enjoy your station is critical.
When going the mobile route, there are a few options your station will need to consider. For a complete explanation on all the mobile options, visit our blog post on the subject. One such option is an aggregator app – where the streams of multiple stations are accessible from a single application. We provide our own radio aggregator app at no additional cost on all of our plans here at Radio Cult.
Internet radio directories
The second type of platform we would recommend is internet radio directories. These directories, as the name suggests, are a single location where listeners can tune into the streams of countless internet radio stations.
Some of these directories have large user bases of people already interested in radio, so it's a great place for prospective listeners to find your station. Lastly, the more popular radio directories offer mobile apps, so having your station submitted to them provides yet another mobile location for your station.
For a list of the most popular internet radio directories, refer to this blog post.
Make use of archival platforms
Archiving your stations past broadcasts is another potential way to get more listeners. The two archival platforms we would recommend your station use are Mixcloud and Soundcloud. Both are audio streaming services where anyone can upload and promote their own music.
Both platforms have many millions of monthly users. Though these user bases are a fraction of the social media giants, this is somewhat of a red herring. Yes there’s far less users, but each user by the very fact of being active on the respective archival platform demonstrates their passion for independent music. So you know when your station uploads music on to these services its likely to be meet by far more receptive users than any other platform with an equal or larger user base.
With Radio Cult, we make this entire process of uploading your station’s past broadcasts easy. You can record the audio of any event you broadcast with us at a click of button. We integrate directly with both platforms. So, once the audio has been automatically recorded, your only a couple of clicks away from being able to upload the recording to Mixcloud and Soundcloud.
Invite guests
Inviting guests on to your station’s broadcasts can be a great way to enhance your listenership. Ideally, you want a guest who already has a large following, as this increases the likelihood your audience size gets a boost from some section of the guest’s following. Additionally you could consider frequently having on new guests (regardless of their following size), just to increase the likelihood a person related to the guest becomes a new listener of yours.
Host physical events
The final potential way to grow your station’s audience we’ll discuss is hosting physical events, such as gigs. These events can be a solo endeavour by your station on they can be run in collaboration with other organisations. Either approach has cost and benefits to them. But with both, the aim is to expose your station to people who you know have an appreciation for live music, but who weren’t currently aware of you prior to the promotion and hosting of the event.
To wrap up
We’ve discussed multiple potential methods of how a station can grow its audience and we’re hopeful that some combination of them are your station’s answers as to how to get more listeners.
Some of these suggestions do require a significant investment of money. But many require no (or very little) money to get going, simply an investment of your time. So if you want your audience size to reflect your belief that you play the best music around then start implementing these methods now!
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How do you attract radio listeners?
There are multiple ways to attract listeners to your radio station. This blog post covers many such as collaborating with other stations, inviting on guests, hosting in-person events and more. Read this blog post in to find out more about them.
How can I promote my radio?
Similar to the previous question, there are many ways to promote a radio station. That said, some common methods include:
- Having a social media presence,
- Utilising SEO for your station’s website,
- Using archival platforms such as Mixcloud & Soundcloud, and
- Submitting your station to internet radio directories.
Read this blog post to find out more.
How to get people to listen to radio?
Much like the previous two questions, there are myriad ways to get people to listen to your radio station. After reading this blog post fully, you should have a better understanding of some of them.
However, the essential point to get across is operating a station which has a well-defined niche. There’s not much point replicating what's already broadcast from a larger and more established station. Further, whatever niche you want to carve out for your station, it at the very least should be something you’re passionate about!