Podcasting is the latest trend growing within the content marketing space. Brands see it as an opportunity to build a connection with their audience.
The New York Times reports that in 2019 the number of people who had listened to at least one podcast in their lives increased by 20 million. Companies are using this audio platform to tell their brand stories, showcase products, and spotlight industry experts.
Ready to start your own podcast? Check out these seven WordPress podcasting plugins.
1. PowerPress
Podcasting is your chance to create engaging content for your brand fans and the Buzzsprout team agrees:
“Podcasts are a great way to build a genuine connection with your audience. Instead of the fractured connection you make through social media, podcasts allow you to engage your audience with unique long-form content.â€
Developed by podcasters for podcasters, the PowerPress plugin offers multiple audio/video player options, subscribe to podcast page embeds, and podcasting SEO settings. It fully supports Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and several other podcasting directories.
If you’re a podcast beginner, this plugin is perfect for you. The setup process only takes three easy steps. Then, once you become a professional, you can switch to Advanced mode to tap into other features, like category casting, custom podcast channels, and custom taxonomy.
2. Seriously Simple Podcasting
Research shows that 82.4% of people listen to podcasts for more than 7 hours each week. With all your episodes available on your WordPress site, listeners can tune in to your podcast without any interruptions.
The Seriously Simple Podcasting plugin helps you create and manage your podcast in WordPress. With one-click imports, you can easily add all of your podcast content to your site. You also can choose the specific players and shortcodes to enhance the listening experience.
You’ll have the convenience of managing multiple shows all in one place. Then, you could create your very own podcast network. SEO management for your podcast becomes simpler too. You can link between your podcasts, blog posts, and other content on your website.
3. Podlove Podcast Publisher
Consistency is an important part of podcasting. You’ll want to establish a regular schedule to publish your podcast episodes to keep your listeners engaged.
“Ideally, you should be posting a new podcast every week. With the proliferation of content online, if you’re not posting regularly—you’re actively losing relevancy…[Choose] a weekly syndication day and stick to it weekly,†writes Forbes contributor Paul Potratz.
Podlove Podcast Publisher provides your listeners with a top-notch listening experience. This WordPress podcast plugin comes with multi-format publishing. That way, you can create individual feeds for specific audiences without adding more steps to the publishing process.
The tool also includes a flexible template system, which lets you publish your podcast the way you want with the option to change the style later.
4. Amazon Polly
Podcasting opens doors to reaching new audiences. Studies show that podcasting spans over 100 different languages across the world. So, it’s to your benefit to translate your podcast episodes into multiple languages.
Amazon Polly is a text-to-speech service that uses advanced deep learning technologies. It transforms text into speech with a human voice.
The WordPress podcast plugin integrates with Amazon Alexa to listen to your podcasts on Alexa-enabled devices, and you can use Amazon CloudFront to provide a more reliable experience for your listeners. Pronunciation lexicons also make it possible to customize the pronunciation of words.
More importantly, the plugin supports several languages, including Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. New Amazon Polly customers can synthesize up to 5 million characters for free each month for the first 12 months.
5. Podcast Subscribe Buttons
Promotion plays an integral role in podcasting, too. You want to find creative ways to gain more listeners, like interviewing experts or adding subscribe buttons to your WordPress website.
“An expert guest will not only have intelligent and interesting things to share on your pod for your listeners, but they will also most likely be bringing in plenty of their own followers,†states Jon Clark, managing partner at Moving Traffic Media.
Podcast Subscribe Buttons includes more than 40 podcast-specific subscribe buttons. You can place them anywhere on your website. You also can display subscribe links on external podcast platforms, direct links to RSS feeds, or URI links to open directly in an external application.
To create a new subscribe button, you would simply find the podcast plugin menu in your WordPress dashboard, adjust the default settings and links, and add the shortcode to a page on your site.
6. iTunes Podcast Review Manager
Podcast reviews give potential listeners an inside peek into what your podcast offers. You’ll want to encourage your current listeners to leave honest feedback. Then, you can use those reviews to improve your podcast and get more listeners.
iTunes Podcast Review Manager collects all of your international podcast reviews from iTunes and then displays them in a table format. No more manually checking for new reviews; instead, you get notified by email about new reviews.
The WordPress plugin will gather the latest 500 reviews per country and up to 10,000 total reviews. You can easily sort your podcast reviews by date, author, title, and content. There’s also the option to export your reviews to a downloadable CSV file.
7. Captivate Sync
Captivate Sync is your one-stop-shop for publishing and managing podcasts from your WordPress dashboard. This tool syncs your existing shows automatically, includes each episode’s podcast player, and allows you to add your episodes to your desired page.
After installation, the quick setup involves a built-in authentication, giving you access to all the Captivate Sync’s features. For example, you’ll have podcast analytics to understand your audience, from download averages to unique listeners to daily trends.
Captivate Sync ultimately becomes your checklist for managing your podcast. A checklist keeps your podcast on track, from recording to publishing to promotion.
Start Podcasting Today with These WordPress Podcast Plugins
Podcasting helps you connect with your audience. Take advantage of this audio medium to increase your brand exposure, gain new followers, and promote your products.
Set your podcast website up for success. Learn more about HostGator’s managed WordPress hosting.
Shayla Price creates and promotes content. She lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology, and social responsibility. Originally from Louisiana, Shayla champions access to remote work opportunities. Connect with her on Twitter at @shaylaprice.
Great resource! I’m bookmarketing this one.
Great information. Very helpful !!
Podlove is most useful plugin for Pod-casting among all of these.