Podcast Marketing Strategies for Your Summer Break

Four Podcast Marketing Strategies I’m Using This Summer

So this is the last episode of Season 5 of the Friendly Podcast Guide, and while I won’t be putting out new episodes for a couple of months, I am absolutely not going quiet. Here are the four things I’ll be doing this summer to keep growing my podcast audience and my business, without recording a single new episode.

1. Pinterest: My Favorite Long-Term Podcast Marketing Strategy

If you’ve been around the Friendly Podcast Guide for any amount of time, you know I am a Pinterest evangelist. And honestly? Pinterest is one of the main reasons I can take a seasonal break without stressing about losing downloads or income.

Pinterest is a search engine, not a social media platform, and that distinction matters. When someone pins content about your podcast, it lives there and keeps getting found for months, sometimes years. That’s what makes it one of the most powerful sustainable podcasting strategies out there. You do the work once, and it keeps paying off.

This summer I’m trying something a little different: instead of my usual workflow of creating a week’s worth of pins and scheduling them out, I’m going to try batching an entire month of pins in one two-hour sitting. That way, when I’m on family trips or just enjoying my break, I’m not scrambling to create content as soon as I get back.

I’m also going to look back at pins that performed really well over the past few months and replicate those, because if podcasters are clicking on them, I want to make more of the same! And here’s the best part: I don’t need brand new episodes to create new pins. I’m going back through all of Season 5 (and maybe even some of Season 4!) to create pins for episodes that are already published. They’re evergreen, they’re helpful, and they deserve more traffic.

If you want to learn more about how to grow a podcast without social media using Pinterest, I have an entire episode dedicated to it, I’ll link it below!

2. Podcast Guesting to Grow Your Podcast Audience

One of my favorite ways to keep growing a podcast in 2026, especially during an off-season, is podcast guesting. I’ll keep reaching out to podcast hosts who are a great fit for me and my expertise — particularly around Pinterest for podcasters and business owners, and showing up on their shows.

Here’s what I love about doing this during a seasonal break: I have more breathing room in my workday to actually fit these opportunities in. And even if the episodes don’t air until fall, that’s totally fine. They’ll be done, I won’t have to think about them, and I won’t be trying to record guest appearances on top of my own production schedule.

Podcast guesting is genuinely one of the most effective podcast tips for women who want to grow their audience without doing more of everything. You’re tapping into someone else’s community and getting introduced to listeners who already love podcasts,  they just haven’t found yours yet.

I have a full episode on how to be a podcast guest and find shows that are actually worth your time,  linked in the resources below!

3. Guest Speaking in Podcast Communities

This one is newer for me, and I’ve been loving it. I’ve had the chance to be a guest speaker in online podcast communities talking all about Pinterest, answering questions, sharing strategies, helping podcasters see what’s possible when they add Pinterest to their toolkit.

In June, I get to be a guest speaker and co-host for a Pod Ground meetup, and I am so excited about it! Pod Ground is a free community for podcasters, and their meetups are free too, so come join me! I’ll link the event in the resources section.

And if you run a podcast community and want me to come talk Pinterest with your people, please reach out! You can find me on Threads or just reply to one of my emails. I genuinely love helping women podcasters discover how powerful Pinterest can be, even if you’ve never worked with me or bought any of my offers. It’s just such a good tool, and not enough podcasters know about it yet.

4. Threads: My Favorite Place to Show Up Online

Last but definitely not least…Threads! If you haven’t spent much time there, Threads is basically Instagram’s version of Twitter, and it’s my favorite place to hang out online. (Pinterest doesn’t count as social media in my head, it’s a search engine, so Threads wins that title easily.)

I’ll be scheduling out my Threads content in advance, just like usual. It takes me about 20 minutes for a week’s worth of posts, and I’m going to experiment with scheduling even further out this summer. It’s a great way to stay visible, keep the conversation going, and yes, even make sales, without it taking over your life.

Come find me over there and say hi!

You Don’t Have to Choose Between Rest and Growth

This is really what it comes down to. Sustainable podcasting isn’t about grinding through every season without ever coming up for air. It’s about building systems, like Pinterest, podcast guesting, and batched content, that work for you even when you’re not working.

If you have a friend who’s been thinking about taking a summer break but is scared it’ll tank her momentum, will you send her this episode? I think it’ll give her some hope that her podcast and her business can keep thriving, even if she puts down the mic for a while.

I’ll see you in the fall! 🎙️

Links & Resources

• Listen to my Pinterest for Podcasters episode
• Listen to my How to Be a Podcast Guest episode
• Join Pod Ground (free community for podcasters)
• June Pod Ground Meetup with Andi
• Find me on Threads
• Find me on Pinterest

Unedited Episode Transcript

I am gonna miss you, but like my fourth grade teacher said on the last day of school, this isn’t goodbye. This is just see you later. This is the last episode of season five, and while I won’t be putting out any episodes for the next couple of months, I’m still gonna be promoting my podcast and my business.

Hey, I’m Andy Smiley, and I’m obsessed with helping you grow your podcast without letting it rule your life. I share strategies that actually work, the stuff I wish someone would’ve told me sooner. And conversations with the smartest podcasters I know. One of the best things I did to make sure that my podcast doesn’t take over my life is take seasonal breaks.

But taking a break from putting out episodes doesn’t mean that I stop making money, and it doesn’t mean that the friendly podcast guides. Stops getting downloads. Here are the four things I’ll be doing this summer to make that happen. First. Pinterest, I know that I talk about Pinterest so much, but truly Pinterest is one of the main reasons that I can take a seasonal break without worrying about losing out on downloads and losing out on making money.

During this seasonal break, I’m gonna try something a little bit different. I’m gonna try batching an entire month’s worth of pins in like one, two hour sitting. Like I’m just gonna buckle down and do it all so that when I’m taking like my family trips, when I’m gonna be gone for a week, I don’t have to think about it.

And I don’t have to do it as soon as I get back either because my normal workflow is creating a week’s worth of pins and scheduling them out, and then doing that again the next week.

And I’m gonna try doing a month’s worth instead and seeing how it goes. Another thing that I’m gonna be doing is looking at pins that have done really well in the past couple of months and replicating those because if people that are looking for help with their podcast like those pins, then I wanna make more that are similar so that they keep getting clicked and people keep finding my episodes.

And you might be asking yourself, Andy, what content are you even going to be? Creating pins for if you’re not creating new episodes. Dear listener, what I’m going to be doing is going back and creating content for all of my episodes of season five. And this is what I do every seasonal break. I just go back and create content, um, for the episodes that have already come out because all of the episodes that I’ve created for season five are awesome, honestly, and they’re still relevant. They’re evergreen content so that I can keep creating pins about it. And truly I’m considering going back to season four and creating content for some of season four as well.

’cause there are still some really good episodes in there that I know can be really helpful for podcasters. If you wanna learn more about Pinterest, I have an entire episode all about why it’s so awesome for podcasters. I’ll link it in the show notes. Another thing that I’m gonna be doing , to make sure that my podcast keeps getting downloads and to make sure that I’m still making money, is podcast guesting.

I’m gonna keep reaching out to podcast hosts that are a good fit for me and for my show, and ask if I can be on their show to talk about Pinterest and to help more podcasters and business owners learn about how awesome Pinterest is, and hopefully use it in their marketing as well.

I really like, um, being a guest on podcasts when I’m not creating my own episodes because I have a little bit more breathing room in my workday to fit podcast guesting opportunities in. And so, even though I know that probably most of the episodes that I record during a seasonal break probably won’t come out until the fall when I start creating episodes again. It’s just so nice to have them already done. I don’t have to think about them. I don’t have to try and record them while also trying to record my own episodes. It just makes things a little bit easier if you wanna learn more about how to be a podcast guest. I have an entire episode that walks you through the steps of how to be a podcast guest and to find podcasts that are gonna be a good fit for you. And make sure that you’re not wasting your time being a guest on a show that isn’t going to bring results for you. More podcast downloads more money.

I’ll link the episode in the show notes. One thing that I’ve been doing more recently that I’ve really enjoyed is, um. I’ve been able to be a guest speaker for online podcast communities talking about Pinterest, answering Pinterest questions because I know Pinterest is a newer idea for podcasters and it has been so much fun.

So I am planning on doing a couple more, um, like community guest speaker. I don’t know what to call it. Let’s go with that. Opportunities In June, I get to be a guest speaker slash cohost for a pod ground meetup, and I’m really excited about that one. I think I have the link for it, so I’ll put it in the show notes.

Um, and you should come, I’m pretty sure, I know that Pod ground is free. You can join Pod Ground. I’m on there already. It’s a great community for podcasters. Um, and the meetups are free as well. So you can come join me, ask all of your questions,

and not only do you get to meet me, you get to meet a bunch of other podcasters who are all awesome. I’ve been to a couple of other meetups for Pod Ground, and they’ve been really, really fun.

Also, if you have a podcast community that you want me to come and talk about Pinterest to your community, please reach out. Let me know. Um, the best ways to reach me are threads or just reply to one of my emails and we’ll set it up because I absolutely love helping podcasters with their Pinterest.

Even if you don’t even like work with me, you don’t even buy any of my offers. Pinterest is just such an amazing tool for podcasters, and I want as many podcasters, especially women podcasters, to know about it because it is, it’s just such an amazing tool that not enough podcasters know about.

The other place that I’m gonna be hanging out during my seasonal break is threads. I really, really like threads. It’s just a good place to hang out. It’s a fun place to be. Um, so I will continue to be scheduling out my threads there. Um. If you haven’t heard of threads before, it’s like Instagram’s version of Twitter and I really love it.

I check in at least once a day, but I actually schedule out all of my threads, um, in advance. It usually takes me about 20 minutes. For a week’s worth of threads, but truly kind of like Pinterest, I’m gonna try scheduling out more than one week in advance. I don’t know if I could do a whole month. I actually don’t know how far out you can schedule in threads, but maybe I try it and see how it goes.

Um, but yeah, I’ll schedule out threads as well, so come and hang out with me there. Really like my favorite social media platform. Um, just ’cause I don’t consider Pinterest a social media platform. In my head it’s a search engine. So Threads is my favorite. So Pinterest doesn’t have to get offended. As a recap, this is the last episode of season five, but I won’t be falling off the map entirely.

I’ll still be creating pins for Pinterest. Being a guest on other people’s podcasts, being a guest speaker at podcast communities and using threads to make sales and keep up with all of you. Do. You have a friend who wants to take a break this summer, but is worried

it’ll ruin the momentum that she has with her podcast and her business. Will you email her this episode? I’m sure it will give her some hope that her podcast in business can be successful even if she takes a break.

Thanks for being here, and I’ll see you in the fall.