Growing a top UK
football podcast
%209.png)
Heroes & Humans of Football is a weekly autobiographical podcast series about the game's most interesting characters. In 2024, Sia provided marketing and communication strategy and support to grow the podcast's downloads, name, and reputation.
The result? 150,000+ podcast downloads a month, extensive social media growth, and a reputation as one of the most high-quality football podcasts out there.
Scope of work
1) Marketing & growth strategy
-
Setting, analysing, and reporting on targets across podcast downloads and social media
-
Overseeing a consistent brand identity with designer
2) Identifying advertisements, sponsorships, and growth opportunities
-
Organising paid-for advertisements across relevant podcasts
-
Arranging in-podcast promotion swaps with key podcasts, e.g. Freakonomics
-
Set up the brand's Patreon account & strategy
3) Building brand awareness
-
Social media management across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
-
Pitching new episodes to Apple and Spotify
-
Press releases and pitching
4) Content creation & social media management
-
Producing weekly assets for every podcast - show notes, website updates, social media posts & Patreon assets
-
All email marketing and newsletter activity
-
Social media management & managing a video editor
Results
A worldwide audience
-
Avg. 20% monthly increase in new listener growth (new episode downloads in first seven days)
-
Avg. 10% monthly increase in total podcast listens
-
Consistently in top 15 UK & Ireland sports podcasts charts
-
Weeks as the Number 1 sports podcast in Argentina & Estonia
Social media growth
-
Grew Instagram followers from 4k to 65k in six months
-
Average 14 million Instagram reels views per month
-
500k+ extra views and listens in first month on YouTube
-
Qualified for TikTok Rewards programme
Raised brand awareness
-
Feature spot in Apple Podcast's 'New and Noteworthy'
-
Built loyal Patreon community
-
Press coverage in podcast media (e.g. PodNews) and relevant outlets (e.g. Swedish press coverage for Sven-Göran tribute episode)
-
Tripled clicks on Google search and improved average CTR by 159%
Example: The Rise & Fall of Jose Mourinho
A mini campaign to promote the launch of a two-part series on the infamous José Mourinho.
-
38% increase in podcast listeners
-
6 organic videos with 7+ million views across Instagram and TikTok
-
Teaser campaign, trailers, and updated assets for Apple and Spotify
- Produced all the marketing assets (show notes, social media marketing, email marketing, extra subscriber-only behind-the-scenes content)
-
Engagement with 25+ social media influencers
