Chapter 9: Growing Your Podcast Listener Numbers
You need to do everything you can to grow your podcast listener numbers. We will discuss some of the best methods to do this in this chapter. It is not going to be easy, but with the right amount of determination you can grow your podcast audience significantly.
It is essential that you are consistent with your podcasting. This means that you must always provide value to your listeners and that you publish a new podcast on a regular basis. The frequency of publishing is up to you – it can be weekly, fortnightly or even every day if you have the time and content to do this. Just be consistent.
As you grow your listener base they will get used to your podcast publishing schedule. They will be very disappointed if you miss a week for example. So you need to get organized for podcast creation as we discussed in an earlier chapter and give your listeners what they want when they expect it.
Let’s assume that you are going to publish a new podcast once a week. Choose the same day to publish. So if you launch a new podcast every Friday then your listeners will get into the habit of tuning into your podcast channel every Friday and expect a new podcast to be there for them.
Some listeners will arrange their lives around your podcast day. They will download your podcast and listen to it while they are doing something else such as driving to work. So don’t let them down! If you start missing Friday’s then they will soon give up on your channel and look elsewhere.
We strongly recommend that you record a number of podcasts in advance so that publishing every week is a lot easier for you. So for example you could record 4 podcasts over a weekend and that is you covered for the upcoming month ahead.
You need good Reviews and Ratings
You are not going to encourage new listeners if you don’t have any good reviews or ratings for your podcasts. Even worse than this is to have a number of negative reviews on your podcast channel. People have become accustomed to look for reviews before they act. They do not want to be the first to try something even when it is free.
You have to provide sufficient evidence to a new listener that listening to your podcasts is going to be a good use of their time. Positive reviews and ratings are the best way to do this. So ask your listeners to provide a review and rating for your podcasts at every opportunity.
What happens if you receive a negative review? Well the first thing to do is to see if the review is justified. If it is then you need to learn from it and thank the reviewer for their comments and explain that you will take their suggestions on board.
Sometimes negative reviews are part of a smear campaign from competitors. If you suspect this then contact the podcast directory administrator and ask for the comments to be removed. Unfortunately some people will go to any lengths to try and sabotage their competitors.
When you have a really large listener base there is always a chance that you will receive some negative reviews. You need to be strong when this happens and respond swiftly to the comments. It is impossible to please all of the people all of the time.
If your reviews are mainly positive then nobody is going to mind a few negative reviews. Take a look at your podcast statistics and if you see that your podcasts are being streamed and downloaded in significant numbers then remind yourself that you are on the right track. Don’t be disheartened by the minority.
Ask your friends and family to leave the first few positive reviews to get you started. You need something for potential listeners to see.
Promote your Podcasts
Most successful marketers spend about 20% of their time on creating content and the remaining 80% on promotion. You need to do this as well. Just because you built it doesn’t mean that they will come. Consistent promotion of your podcasts is the best strategy.
The first step is to really know who your target audience is. When you know this you can find out where they hang out. If your audience is younger then they will probably use Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit etc and if they are older then try Facebook, Pinterest and forums for example. So if your audience are going to be on Facebook you can use Facebook Ads to reach out to them. Facebook has a great retargeting system which means that if a person shows an initial interest they get “cooked” and then you can retarget them again.
A retargeted individual is warm. They have already discovered you and your brand and it is much easier to convert them than it is with cold leads. You can use an incentive to convert both cold and warm leads and get them onto your email list. Once they have subscribed, tell them about your podcasts.
Podcast Contests
Once you have a good number of listeners to your podcasts you can hold a contest. Some examples could be:
The best post about your podcasts on Facebook
The best review left
The best tagline idea for your podcast show
Think about what you want to achieve here. Do you want more people to leave a post on Facebook about your podcast so that you can increase your reach? Or do you want to get more good reviews on your channel?
Always give the contest winner a good prize for participating. If you have created your own products then you could give the winner access to this for free. You can get some branded items that are useful (e.g. USB sticks) and give these away to the runners up for example. Always name the winner on one of your podcasts and reach out to them and ask if they want to be interviewed. Tell them that they can have a 60 second slot to promote their business if they want to.