How to Grow Your Podcast Audience – PCI 380

Speaker 0 00:00:00 And if you're not listening to podcasts yourself, you need to,

Speaker 1 00:00:03 I can't imagine starting a podcast without actually listening to 'em. But people do

Speaker 0 00:00:06 It. And, and you're going to know how intimate this conversation is because this is a one-to-one, one-to-one, but yet one to many medium. So enhancing that audio quality so you sound good in their ears so you don't drive 'em crazy. Now, you can't change your voice. I don't consider I have a voice for a radio, but you know, somehow it's worked. Good sound is, is, is really, really critical. And they will forgive you if you ever do bad video, but they will not forgive you for bad audio.

Speaker 1 00:00:40 Clear and confident is the way to go. That's how you sound professional. Even if you don't have what is quote unquote, a professional budget.

Speaker 2 00:00:47 You are listening to Podcast Insider hosted by Mike Dell, Todd Cochran, and McKenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow and thrive through podcasting. With all the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting, welcome. Let's dive in.

Speaker 0 00:01:10 I'm Todd Cochran, CEO and co-founder of Blueberry Podcasting.

Speaker 1 00:01:13 And I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist here at Blueberry.

Speaker 0 00:01:16 One of the most common questions we get is, how do I grow my podcast? Oh, I hear that 10 times a week

Speaker 1 00:01:24 And it's never gonna stop. Take our word for it. Growing a podcast can be done. And here is how

Speaker 0 00:01:33 To grow your audience quickly and effectively, especially in 2024. We're going to give you some strategies here. And I vowed, this is my, I'm working on my 20th year in podcasting. And one thing

Speaker 1 00:01:47 That's amazing, by the way, just gonna interrupt you and say, congratulations on that

Speaker 0 00:01:53 . It's like, oh my God. But one thing is clear in, in 2004, we did not have to deliver high quality content because it was, it like 16 bits or something because we couldn't afford to deliver the media.

Speaker 1 00:02:09 It was 16 bit and like 16 people , right?

Speaker 0 00:02:12 And there was, well there was more than 16 people, but there was no blueberry podcasting and it was expensive. But now that, that has kind of all went by the wayside, and this is something that's super important here, ladies and gentlemen, you have to deliver high quality content, and I kind of call it sustained superior content. You have to consistently provide valuable content tailored to your audience's interest, giving them value. The key is giving them value each and every episode. 'cause if you give them value, they're gonna come back. So, so each episode builds upon the success of the previous one. And think about what you can bring to them within the content that brings them the, the a value. And it could be engaging topics, insightful interviews or unique perspectives. And, and I think the thing that I like, that I keep harping upon is imagine, let's say, okay, you look at your podcast stats and let's say it's a hundred listens per episode.

Speaker 0 00:03:25 Let's say it's a thousand or 1500 or whatever the number is. Let's say it's 10,000. Go on Google to their image search and say, show me a picture of 150 people. Print that picture out. Put it somewhere where you can see it. And remember, and think about instead of walking up and pulling up the mic, think about that you are now walking onto a stage and you are going to be presenting your podcast live in front of these 150 people. I can guarantee you, if you think it in that mindset, you're gonna spend more time on the preparation to delivering that episode than you would if you had just sit down and talk into the mic. So delivering high quality content is critical. And if you keep that mindset that this huge audience is in front of you, even if it's just a hundred people, that's a huge audience.

Speaker 0 00:04:30 Not many of us get to go talk, I get to go speak at podcasting events. And a typical session is a 50 to 75 people. So if you're reaching a hundred, you're reaching more than I reach at a podcast conference session and I prepare two or three days do that presentation in front of those 75 people. So again, consider the value of your audience's time and to deliver them that high quality content. If you do that one thing, and we're gonna give you more here, I guarantee you're gonna grow your audience by leaps and bounds, deliver high quality content, keep that top of mind.

Speaker 1 00:05:16 There's a reason. It's number one on the list. Number two though, enhance your audio quality as time goes on. People are less likely and less forgiving nowadays for bad audio simply because we, we have something in our ears at all hours of the day. And that you have the ability to have good audio, you just have to be responsible for getting it done.

Speaker 0 00:05:40 And it goes back to delivering the high quality content. You are tapped. And if you're not listening to podcasts yourself, you need to,

Speaker 1 00:05:49 I can't imagine starting a podcast without actually listening to one, but people do it.

Speaker 0 00:05:52 And you're going to know how intimate this conversation is because this is a one-to-one, one-to-one, but yet one-to-many medium. So enhancing that audio quality so you sound good in their ears so you don't drive 'em crazy. Now you can't change your voice. I don't consider I have a voice for a radio, but you know, somehow it's worked. Good sound is, is is really, really critical. And they will forgive you if you ever do bad video, but they will not forgive you for bad audio.

Speaker 1 00:06:26 Clear and confident is the way to go. That's how you sound professional, even if you don't have what is, quote unquote a professional budget.

Speaker 0 00:06:33 Exactly. And also less editing. Less editing when you have done significant prep for your episode in delivering that high quality content. Less editing means more time to do things that you love besides working on your podcast.

Speaker 1 00:06:49 So one of those things, if you are, you're doing this good job prepping beforehand, one of the things that you can do instead of editing the episode is edit clips from the episode to utilize on social media. That is gonna bring people in for sure. Yes, we all say just get on social media, create an audience, build from there. But one of the ways to do that is hashtags are becoming less relevant but are still useful and share snippets of your episodes. People love it. There is like soundbites, clips, whatever that's gonna draw them in for sure.

Speaker 0 00:07:28 You can do shorts now on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, where else can you do shorts on on x? I don't know if you can do shorts on X probably.

Speaker 1 00:07:37 No, but you can still do video and audio. So yeah,

Speaker 0 00:07:40 So these, and, and be honest with you, we're all, everyone's doing a little TikTok. I know 90% of you listen to this or listening, doing TikTok or, or watching TikTok. So do a short for your TikTok. There's, there's lots of ways here to garner interest to grow your show. And I think a short is probably one of the most effective things going right now because everyone has 30 seconds to listen to a short, which may drive someone to say, Hmm, who is this? Where can I find out more? And make sure you share where you can find out more at the end of that clip so that they know where to come find you.

Speaker 1 00:08:22 I think one of the most crucial parts of that is post consistently because I, I don't even know what the numbers are nowadays, but there's a certain number of times that you need to see something or hear something, whether it's the same ad or like the same clip over and over or different ones before someone actually goes to listen or download or watch or whatever it is to take the action. And so you have to be in their feed without annoying them. .

Speaker 0 00:08:51 Yeah. And make sure that that clip brings value. Mm-Hmm, again and bringing value. Don't throw a clip on there where it's chaos in your podcast episode. That happens sometimes. But make sure that whatever you're bringing is something that makes people again go, Hmm. Drives that curiosity to, to click through to see and follow and subscribe to the show.

Speaker 1 00:09:13 Yeah. Tailor that content to each platform too, because that will, that can sometimes make the difference. Okay, so moving on from social, one of the other things that we'd tell people to do is to invite notable guests on if that is something that you have access to or want to get started down that road of reaching out to people that have a, a good reputation online. There is no doubt that sometimes the right guests can change your show.

Speaker 0 00:09:44 Next thing is, and this is like the most critical, consistent publishing schedule listeners build you yes, you into their lives. And if you're gonna miss an episode or you're gonna be going on vacation, make sure you tell 'em in advance and I'm gonna be out next week and there will be not an episode or record one in advance and make sure it's plugged in there. They get it on time. So consistent publishing is the thing. If you don't do this, if your podcast is coming out on Tuesday, make sure it comes out on Tuesday at the same time. You may record it on Sunday or Friday or whatever, but make sure it comes out the same time because your listener is gonna either listen to car at the gym, wherever they may be. They built you into a segment of their time and you don't wanna miss that segment 'cause they will replace you.

Speaker 1 00:10:37 Yeah. This is one of the things that you are just so, so in control of a lot of it, whether it's social or what can just be kind of a throw it out there and see what happens. And this one is just no doubt something that you can, you can know is going to work for you.

Speaker 0 00:10:55 And definitely my pet peeve is have a dedicated website for your podcast with episode transcriptions and show notes to improve search engine visibility. Again, writing titles that people are actually searching for that relates to your content is critical. If you write a title that no, you gotta think about Google and how you use Google today. When you go search for information, you need to think you, you record for your audience, you write for Google, it's as simple as that. So the title may be a little bit, you just gotta get something that is where if you've talked about how to make toothpicks, then you better the title of that episode. Better be How to make Toothpicks. And that's oversimplification. No,

Speaker 1 00:11:40 But it doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to be relevant,

Speaker 0 00:11:44 Relevant and, and back that up with the first paragraph of how this episode is the best episode ever on how to make toothpicks and some basically some metadata writing to back up that title and chat, GBT and all that stuff is real helpful now in writing a supporting paragraph that you can edit to help you back up your title so that you get that good SEO optimization for your website. But again, if you just have a website, great show notes and great title that will help yourself over the long term more than anything as well.

Speaker 1 00:12:24 Something else long term is email marketing. So if you are building this audience at the same time, you should be building an email list through your website, your social, any way that you are in touch with them. Try and do that. You can use this to notify your subscribers of new episodes. Provide additional, additional value. The possibilities are endless here of what to do.

Speaker 0 00:12:48 And don't put a whole bunch of popups on your website that irritates a lot of people.

Speaker 1 00:12:54 ,

Speaker 0 00:12:57 Leverage guest appearances. So I do this a lot. I appear on other shows and it taps into their audience and I can share stories and it's not necessarily going on there to promote, promote, promote. Because when I go into a show and as, as a guest, again, the goal is to deliver value. So deliver value to the audience. And that's not an advertisement for blueberry, but if they like what I've said in added value, when I'm on my way out and I give my information on where they can find me and where I, where I'm at, those that appreciate that will come back to blueberry or come back to my personal website and, and follow and see what's going on. So this is a way to really kind of grow your, your stature in the space by being on other shows.

Speaker 1 00:13:47 Something else that you can do is constantly, or not constantly, but consistently ask for ratings, reviews and feedback in your episodes. This can be really helpful at the beginning of starting your show as well. When you're just getting your footing and deciding this is, this part's going well, this part could be improved, that type of stuff. But really engaging with your audience on a regular basis helps convert those listeners that you have into advocates for your podcast. Those are the ones that are, that are gonna tell others about your show. They're gonna be your word of mouth marketing.

Speaker 0 00:14:20 One of the best things that I've found and that I've been ecstatic about over the last couple of years is stuff that we're doing and then now in the podcasting 2.0 realm and getting a boost. And basically all that is, is it's essentially a, a donation to the show and it's also contains a message. And that donation amount may not be a lot because it's sent in Satoshi. Go look at podcasting 2.0 on the blueberry website to get the full rundown of that, but that's a new type of engagement that I've absolutely fallen in love with and get more engagement that way than I've ever got in getting emails or social mentions or stuff like that, which is all real valuable, don't get me wrong. And those reviews are great as well and that feedback, but it's just an additional outlet to help you stay motivated. And when you're motivated, it comes through in your voice and your audience appreciates it. And guess what? They stick with you.

Speaker 1 00:15:16 You know, something a little that I hadn't really thought about until now for literacy listener interaction is also a lot of people, if they're doing anything live, can interact with their viewers like in the moment. And I think that really has like a lasting effect on the viewer that really can turn them from a listener into an advocate very quickly.

Speaker 0 00:15:37 That's one of the reasons why I started doing live. I was lonely all those years ago and I wanted someone to at least to say Hi, I am out here listening. And that was just the single digit numbers of folks that were coming in those early days and live that were actually tuning in from Australia really made all the difference in the world.

Speaker 1 00:15:56 Well that leads us into our next one, which is monitor your analytics and your feedback so regularly, but not obsessively. Check your podcast statistics and take a look at any audience feedback you have overall, and then just figure out what content is working and what's not.

Speaker 0 00:16:15 If you have our Thrive plan, and I just showed this to a customer of ours today, you can actually compare five episodes and see how they paced. In other words, what was the uptake by the audience, how quick it was. And you'll be able to see which episodes were quicker on the uptake than others. That may give you an indication of things that you may wanna focus on from a a content standpoint. There's all kinds of little tells within the stats. You just gotta get in there, play around a little bit. Again, don't get too obsessed, but there might be a takeaway or two that you get each time.

Speaker 1 00:16:48 The same is experimenting with different social media platforms. Don't obsess over them. That's . Easier said than done, but you're gonna find your audience is probably more likely on different platforms. You could post on all of them and see what sticks, but you're not gonna spend equal amounts of time on each one. So figure out where they are most active.

Speaker 0 00:17:11 My tribe hangs out on X and on Facebook and then probably your tribe. Mackenzie doesn't hang out on X at all. They're probably on Instagram again, I'm, I'm just guessing. But yeah,

Speaker 1 00:17:22 I mean it's changed over the years of which ones that I'm on on a regular basis. But you know, some of 'em, like I I am not a person that is going to be found on Facebook and LinkedIn. It's just not gonna happen . So if, if people are trying to reach me there I am not that, I am not that audience member. So

Speaker 0 00:17:42 Nothing you can do is advertise if your budget allows. And again, you don't have to spend a lot, but if you are gonna spend money, you can take a little time to learn where to advertise. And I would advertise on the platform where you're, where people are hanging out. We've done a little advertising on Facebook, a little bit on X, a little bit on I think Instagram. We've done a little bit on LinkedIn. And again, it doesn't take a lot of money to get some exposure, but what you're retargeting there is not existing listeners you wanna go after new ones. So think about that in your strategy. And again, the advertising strategy is the message is this is the value I'm going to give you by listening to my show. We don't wanna advertise, the people are already listening. You wanna a, you wanna be trying to reach out and find those folks that, that are not.

Speaker 1 00:18:35 And wrapping up this episode, kind of going back to what value are you providing is within networking as well. So you're building relationships with other podcasters and relevant industry figures, but you have to be providing value just the same that they are to you. It is a symbiotic relationship there. And one of the ways that we really encourage people to do that is just finding online communities and going to podcasting events. Whether that is just like a general podcast show, for instance, we are at podcast probably the week that this episode is airing. And then just, if you're doing a show about crime scene investigation, then go to a show about that because someone's gonna care about your podcast. It's really that simple.

Speaker 0 00:19:21 Now the beauty is, and this is, this is relevant for those of you that are listening at this given time. And this is again being recorded in January of 2024. Right now it is the absolute best time to be in podcasting. And here's why. We have, obviously the economy's a little tight, not as many people are producing podcasts. And the audience though is craving our content. And we're seeing across the board shows are seeing upticks in growth unlike they have seen in many, many years. And the reason is those that are actively podcasting and putting out great consistent content are getting audiences that they may not have reached before because there is literally less competition in the space right now. So this is, in my opinion, an opportunity that may not last forever, but at this point in time in history, it is the best time to be growing a show and doubling down in your efforts and really being focused in 2024, I believe will be the year that we will see breakout shows, shows that are popular today, like Rogan and others came in at a time of period that we are in right now in the past.

Speaker 0 00:20:41 And then they found success and grew massive shows. So don't think that if you've been in this for a while, that there's no chance for you. No, no, no, no, no. This is, this is the marathon and right now we have the wind in our back and we have a three degree grade down and it's gonna be the easiest marathon you're gonna run for the next year. So do not miss this opportunity at this given point to grow your show. And if you follow these things that we've talked about today and take one, maybe one thing from each of the topics, I guarantee you're gonna grow your audience. There's no reason you shouldn't.

Speaker 1 00:21:21 It takes valuable time and effort, but it is a worthwhile way to, uh, grow your show with all of these strategies.

Speaker 0 00:21:30 Thanks for listening. And of course please subscribe if you're not already to us on your favorite podcast app. And if you don't have a great podcast app. Podcast apps.com.

Speaker 1 00:21:39 Thanks everyone.

Speaker 2 00:21:41 Thanks for joining us. Come back next week and in the meantime, head to podcast insider.com for more information to subscribe, share, and read our show notes to check out our latest suite of services and learn how blueberry can help you leverage your podcast. Visit blueberry.com. That's blueberry without the ease. We couldn't afford the ease.