A lot of people are excited about podcasting. How do you grow your podcast
audience? Disclaimer here. I am NOT an expert on SEO. I'm not an expert on all
the technical background stuff that you can do to grow a podcast. What I do know
is that I've been podcasting for over 10 years now. I started in 2007 with Live On
Purpose radio. That was before podcasting was even a thing. And I've learned a few
things along the way about podcasting. Let's start with the
psychological element here. Since I'm a psychologist, we're going to go there, okay?
Why are you doing a podcast? Why? Who is it for? This is a really great question
for you to consider. I know a lot of people who start a podcast for
themselves. It's to position themselves as an expert or to market something that
they're selling. Okay. Well, that's fine and that's legitimate.
But just notice if that's your reason. If it's for you, it's going to be hard to
sell it. And buy sell it, I mean get other people engaged in it, making it relevant
to them. If it's for you. So be clear about that.
What if your podcast is for others? Okay. That's a little shift that's going to make
it a little easier to sell. And people will want to sign up for it if it's
really for them. Now, there's a few characteristics that I think make a
podcast more compelling. And the first obvious component there is that it needs
to be relevant. What is it that this podcast answers for the audience?
Remember it's for them. You make it relevant to them and they're going to be
much more likely to not only enjoy the podcasts themselves but to share it with
other people people with whom it would also be
relevant. So that's one of those elements. Relevance. The next thing that I want to
talk about is consistency. There's a term in the industry called pod fading. And
this happens a lot when a podcast starts and there's several episodes in them.
Where does it go? It disappears into the poda-sphere somewhere. Pod fading happens
I think because people get excited about a new idea. Or they heard that podcasting
would be a great way to get their idea out and they're not really committed to
the process of the work that is required to do a consistent podcast over time. I
shared with you that I've been doing mine for over 10 years. A weekly podcast
that requires some commitment. It has to show up on my calendar as something that
is important to me. And I love doing it. I think if you don't love it, it's going to
be really hard to sustain it. I've chosen to do my podcast in an interview format.
So, I interview authors and influencers and speakers about their inspiring
content or their story. And that's easier for me to sustain because I'm not
putting myself out there as the hero. I'm illuminating my guests as the hero.
That makes it very relevant to them and then they want to share it with other
people. That's just a little clue as to one of the things you could do to grow
your podcast audience. Consistency is probably one of the most important
factors because that establishes in your audience's mind that you are here to
serve them for the long run. And now a little word about responsiveness.
responsiveness in my mind means that we tune in to our audience. We get some
feedback from them about what it is they want. Here's an example. My podcast, Live
On Purpose radio used to be an hour long. It was an hour long
interview with a little break in the middle. And I think we had some breaks in
the other parts of the show too. That came from my history in doing live radio.
I did live talk radio for about a year and a half before I started my podcast.
And that was the format we had on the live show. Well when I went to podcasting,
I just carried over the same format. I got some feedback from my listeners that
they would really value having a podcast that was a little shorter in duration
that they could listen to on their commute or during their workout. So, I
changed it to a half-hour format. You don't have to be stuck on whatever it is
that you think is the best way to do this. Be open and responsive to the
feedback that you get from your audience and that will help to make the podcast
more relevant and compelling to them. Why are all these things so important? When
it comes right down to it, it's not you that's going to grow your audience.
It's your audience. So, the more you can tune in to them in the ways that we've
talked about here, the more likely it is that they are going to talk about or
share your podcast with others and that's how it grows. It's not you that's
going to grow this audience. It's your audience that's going to grow
your audience. That's just a few ideas. I know that there's a lot of other great
ideas out there. If you have a podcast and we've got a good idea that you'd
like to share, put it down there in the comments, let's have a discussion.