Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience 

Despite the many hundreds of ways listeners can consume podcasts these days, Apple Podcasts/iTunes is still comfortably the biggest platform in the world. Over 60% of podcast listening happens there. 

We know from our own data that when listeners want to find new content to listen to, around 40% of them take to searching their podcast listening app first. 

Looking at those two stats, it isn’t hard to conclude that if you were listed by Apple as a “featured” podcast, you’d likely pick up a few new listeners.  

In fact, we know this ourselves first hand. In August 2017, one of our shows – Hostile Worlds – was featured on the front page of iTunes and Apple Podcasts. We’ll link to the article where we break down our listening numbers from that period in the Further Reading section. 

Type: Big task

Time Required: Months of planning - 10 minutes to submit your podcast

Podcast Level: 4 episodes or more

How to Do It

It’s important to stress that there’s no way to guarantee getting featured there. You need to show Apple you’ll be publishing content that they reckon is feature-worthy. It’s also important to stress that said episode is not yet published. 

Apple will consider featuring a podcast on their front page if it’s something topical or noteworthy. For example, if a show is going to have a famous guest on their show. This person must be widely famous – “someone your mum has heard of” – and not just “niche famous”. This might be an author or musician with a new book or album. Apple sells these products, so they like to help market them.

A famous guest could also be a sports star ahead of a big final, or an actor around the time of a movie premier. 

It doesn’t need to be due to a guest though. It might be because your episode will focus on a major event or news story. That was the case with Hostile Worlds, and the Cassini Mission to Saturn.

Apple Submission Form

You’ll find the Apple submission form at thepodcasthost.com/appleform

They’re looking for at least 2 weeks lead time here, prior to the publishing of your noteworthy episode. They’d also like to know how you’re going to promote and market this episode on their platform. This might include things like linking to your show in Apple on your episode post, and tagging them in social media posts around the episode. 

Task List: 

• Plan an episode that Apple may be interested in featuring
• Fill out the submission form at least 2 weeks prior to the episode going live
• Let Apple know how you’ll be promoting and marketing the episode on their platform

Further Reading: 

• Apple Submission Form
• Podcast Discovery Stats
• How Many Downloads Did We Get on the Front Page of iTunes/Apple Podcasts?

Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience 

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