How to Leverage Old Podcast Episodes for New Downloads

Are you maximizing promotion of your older episodes to get new podcast downloads today? This is an easy (and FREE) way to increase podcast episode downloads.

Are you leveraging your older episodes by shouting about them from the rooftops?

I’m talking about the episodes that you recorded, painstakingly edited, published, and announced on social media…and then left to sit in your feed.

If you’re not, you should be. Putting all that time and energy into an episode and then letting it languish in the archives isn’t doing you—or your listeners—any good!

Whether you’re a new podcaster with just a few episodes, or an experienced podcast host with a big archive, this is a promotional strategy you should be leveraging with each and every episode, all year round.

Why You Should Be Promoting Older Podcast Episodes

Before starting to write this post, I went to the Instagram and Facebook pages of three podcasts/podcasters who had recently contacted me about being featured on the blog. Only one had mentioned an older episode in the last three weeks, and they had only done it once.

These are seriously missed opportunities to get listeners to download your older episodes.

When you mention/promote previous episodes, you’ll accomplish a few things:

You alert newer listeners & followers to an episode they may not have listened to yet (they might have discovered your show at episode 25 and only listened to your most recent episodes) 
You’ll see a bump in downloads because some of those listeners will go download an older episode (or two…or three, which is what I usually end up doing) 
If you interviewed a guest on an episode, your continued promotion of their episode will show them how much you value their time (and might get them to re-share the episode to their followers) 
You’ll keep your social media feed full with podcast-relevant posts (instead of funny gifs and other stuff you share just to have something to post about)

The more you can get new listeners to download older episodes, the more likely they will be to subscribe to your podcast (a number that also matters), and the to engage with you elsewhere online (your website, your social feed, your newsletter). If you’re trying to get podcast sponsors, these other factors are just as important as download numbers.

How to Promote Older Podcast Episodes

Here are four super easy ways you can promote your older podcast episodes. These methods won’t cost you a penny, and they’re super quick to implement. Bonus points if you do all of them for each of your older episodes!

1. Make a mention in your most recent episode

The easiest way to promote older episodes is in the audio of your most recent episodes. There are often easy ways to connect your current episode to one you did in the past.

If your podcast has a very focused topic, or is a “how-to” type show, you should be consistently throwing out previous episode numbers to your listeners. (The Death, Sex & Money podcast does an exceptional job of referencing listeners back to older episodes.)

Here’s an example of how to do it:

“In this interview I recorded with Dr. Sally, she talked about the benefits of yoga. If you want to learn more about my own yoga routine, or how it helped me overcome my anxiety, go check out episode 22.”

2. Record a follow-up episode

Your follow-up episode should provide new information, building on what has already been presented in the first episode. You can invite a guest back, connect current events to the old episode, or simply talk about what you’ve learned since recording that episode.

At the beginning of the NEW episode (and in the show notes), be sure to reference the ORIGINAL episode, and encourage listeners to go back and listen to that episode if they haven’t already.  

Here’s an example of how to do it:

“Today’s episode is an update on my journey to pay off my mortgage. I explained my debt problem and my mortgage payoff goal in episode 13 (over a year ago!) and I’m excited to talk about it again today. If you haven’t listened to episode 13 (or you forgot the details), go back and listen to that episode first.”

Try to make the old episode intriguing enough to get the listener to go download it. It’s not enough to say “This is a follow-up episode to number 13.”

3. Schedule a weekly social post about an old episode

Pick a day of the week and make that the day you shout out an older episode (it’s like your own version of #TBT).

If you have a big archive of episodes, you have a built-in opportunity to do a “A Year Ago on the Podcast” type campaign.

Here’s an example of how to do it:

Every month, schedule 30 minutes to go through your podcast episodes from the same month the previous year. If you published one episode per week, you have four episodes to promote this month.

Your social media post would say something like, “#AYearAgoToday I published this interview with my step-father about how becoming a dad changed his life (episode 33). It’s one of my favorite episodes to date. If you haven’t listened, I recommend you download it today!”

It doesn’t matter how you choose to do this step, but I highly recommend that you schedule it in every month.

4. Connect current events & holidays to older content

Each of your old episodes has a theme or topic that can be relevant to a current season, event, or holiday. Stay abreast of what’s going on in the world, and promote old episodes that coincide with what’s happening today.

If you haven’t already downloaded my free Podcast Episode Planning Guide, you should grab it now, as it’s a great tool for finding obscure holidays or events throughout the year. This way, your promotions of older posts won’t seem like they’re coming out of nowhere.

Here’s an example of how to do it:

You discover that it’s about to be National Teacher’s Week, and you have an older episode about a teacher who changed your life.

On the first day of the week, write a social media post about the episode and use the hashtag for National Teacher’s Week (look it up to be sure you’re using the official hashtag, which will get you the most exposure on social media).

Two days later, make a similar post (again, using the hashtag).

There’s nothing wrong with posting about the same thing more than once, as long as you make the post slightly different. Even your most loyal followers and listeners won’t see every post you make on social media. Users who have already seen the first post will scroll by; those who haven’t seen it might read and download the episode.

(For even MORE exposure, share the post with—or tag—your friends and family members who are teachers.)

Go Promote Some Old Episodes Now!

My dear podcasting friend: you worked HARD on those episodes! Don’t let them just sit there, hoping that someone will eventually hear your brilliance!

Get going on your podcast promotional strategy today, and be sure it includes a rotation of promoting some of your older episodes.