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April 15, 2024

How to get more listeners to your podcast (that you actually want!)

How to get more listeners to your podcast (that you actually want!)

Boosting Your Podcast Listeners - Effective Growth Strategies

If you’re wrenching your hair out over your stagnating podcast audience, parked stubbornly south of the 100-listeners per episode mark....

Give me your ears!

Not literally, keep those; you’ll need them for what you're about to hear.

The pain of the plateau

I get it; the deflation hits hard when your buffer audience wouldn’t fill a dinghy, let alone that elusive cruise liner you dream of sipping Negronis on after a good hour in the hot tub.

But I'm going to share two key bits of insight with you.


1: How you need to reframe your current audience stats.

2: What you can do to increase them if you're still seeking dopamine.


By the time we’re done, you’ll have a noggin brimming with tactics tailored to your individual podcast challenges.


Because, let’s face it, moulding a prosperous podcast it’s not about rolling dice, it’s about strategy.


Want to get more of a handle on your podcast strategy so you can enjoy more new ideal listeners who are actually going to enjoy what you're putting out?

Contact me!

https://www.podmastery.co/contact/

Timestamped summary:

00:00 Recommend using one of two website platforms.

05:23 Grow podcast with targeted ad investment.

08:25 Targeted, precise traffic without any wasted efforts.

Mentioned in this episode:

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This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
Transcript
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One of the things that surfaces from the audits that I carry out for clients



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is Neal, how do I grow my podcast's



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audience?



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Usually these people are a little bit disappointed with the numbers that they see in



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their feed, in their stats. Usually sub 100 per



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episode after 30 days. Putting aside for a moment the fact



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that actually if you've got 100 people. Listening to your episode



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within 30 days, that's pretty excellent.



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Think about it from this point of view. If you hired out a



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village hall for the day to do a talk on something you're passionate



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about, and you saw 100 people turn up



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to listen to you give this talk, wouldn't you feel quite proud of that?



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Yet, weirdly, when our podcast is



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published. Globally for a worldwide audience,



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somehow we see that as slightly less than



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putting. That thought to the side for a moment. Because it doesn't matter what I



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say. About that, you are still going to. Be wanting those dopamine hits



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of oh, I really would love to see my episode listens



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grow. Fair enough. So what we're going to talk about



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now is the challenges of growing an. Audience when it comes



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to publishing a podcast and



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some ideas that you might. Want to be looking at in order to grow that



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organic audience. If you've got a bit of budget. For marketing, we



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can cover that too. But this is predominantly going to be for those people



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that want to get the biggest bang for their lack of buck.



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So first of all, before we even. Think about growing an audience, we need to



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understand who our audience is. There's no point trying to get more.



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People listening to this thing if we don't know



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who it's for in the first place. To that end, we need to think.



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About defining our target listener. Who



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are they? What challenges do they face? How do you



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help them? What will they get from listening to your podcast?



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Are you offering transformation? Are you offering a course?



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Is your podcast something that they're going to get something from



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episode to episode? Or is it simply a guide? Is



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it a refresher of something they already know but just need you for the



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mentoring and accountability? All of these questions are very



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important. For you to ask of yourself before. You



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start thinking about growing your audience. You also want to get some



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listener. Feedback from those that you already have listening. Now, I can



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recommend surveys for this. You could offer a voucher, maybe



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for Amazon 50 pound gift voucher. Ask for feedback directly



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within the episodes themselves. If your



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podcast is hosted via its own website, which I highly recommend,



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you could stick some sort of voice note tool on there



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podcast page and podpage offer these built into their own



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systems. So if you don't have a podcast. Website, I highly



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recommend you use one of those two platforms.



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So before we go into some of the actual specific ways that you can grow



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your podcast on the cheap or for free,



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let's talk about the psychology of growth when



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it comes to anything product related. Take for



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example, a new restaurant has opened in a town.



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Nobody knows about it yet. Most companies, when they're doing



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something like this, they want to bring new footfall into their place of



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work, into their business. They will advertise to let



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those customers know they exist. They'll buy their first



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customers. And that's largely what you have to do with the podcast. You



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have to buy your first listeners. If you've got



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to a point where you've plateaued with your organic audience and maybe you're reaching,



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I don't know, between. 70 and 120 listeners per episode,



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maybe. You need to think about how you. Can strategically



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buy a new base level of listeners. You've already got



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those 70 to 120 listeners turning up every single



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episode. That's fine, that's great, you've got those. But how are you going to



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get new listeners coming in? There are a number of ways you can do



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this. You can do the content marketing approach where



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essentially you're setting up your social. Media channels for your show and



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you're promoting. So we're talking lots of posts, different



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kinds of content, audiograms, video



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clips, quote cards, transcript



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segments, threads, you name it. There's lots of



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ways that you can use social media to promote your podcast



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episodes. Blogs are obviously a great idea as well. And



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certainly if you can get a. Blog post published on a high domain.



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Authority website, that's great traffic for your podcast



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website. You can organize to go on other podcasts and promote what



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you do on those shows. You could do a feed drop. That's



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where another podcast allows you to.



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Publish an episode in their feed. This can sometimes be a



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financial arrangement. Or it can just be a swap. One week you



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promote their podcast in. Your feed, the next week they promote. Your podcast



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in their feed. I think we need to manage your. Expectations on how



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effective this can be. You might generate a 2%



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conversion or below. In terms of that, it's probably gonna. Be a handful of



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listeners, but if. It'S something that you feel like trying,



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by all means give that a go.



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But the truth is, in order to grow your podcast, you're probably



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going to need to invest at least a little bit of money into it. One



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of my favorite methods of growing a small podcast and getting



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a slightly bigger audience each time is Facebook ads. They can be extremely



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effective to get you some extra traffic to podcast apps. Specific landing



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pages in which people listen, maybe follow your show,



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in which case. I would be thinking about a follow. Campaign where you can get



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people signed. Up to your newsletter using again, Facebook lead



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generation forms. This can be a really, really good. Method honestly for



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growing more followers more. Quickly, which can definitely help



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with the. Search ranking of your podcast within Apple Podcasts and



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Spotify LinkedIn ads. The same



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LinkedIn I find to be a little bit less effective unless you are



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literally doing a b two B. Podcast, however, great



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targeting similar strategy you. Could use in app



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podcast ads. So we're talking the likes of Acast



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or Spotify. Pocketcasts take ads as well.



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These are great because rather than having to cross a hurdle of someone scrolling



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a social media feed, then they got to take the decision to click on the



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button that will take them to your podcast within an app. Theyre already in the



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app, theyre already. In the modality of listening to



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podcasts. So the conversion rates are going to. Be much higher because youre



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asking them not to go to another app, youre. Just asking them



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to go to another podcast. That can be extremely effective



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for growing your listener traffic. Another thing you can



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try is PR. This is where you create a story



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around a specific episode and then get. That distributed



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to various different publications with the promise of



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either a link to your podcast episode or if you're really lucky,



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they might even embed a player for you. There are lots of different services



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that offer this. PR fire is one. I'm also a big fan of a



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company called Whitepress. Whitepress allows you to get targeted



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publications. That will embed your stories



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within various highly specific blogs and



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websites around the world. This could be a great way of. You getting



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slightly more affordable campaigns published for your



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podcast. If you've got a bit more budget, well, there is



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something a little bit more effective that you can try. You



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can work with podnost podcasting. We have agreements with third



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party providers where we can actually embed your podcast



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in highly relevant blogs and websites around. The world, similar to



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whitepress, but even more targeted to the point



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of actually picking the genders, the age



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and the. Earning brackets of the people visiting these



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websites. If that's something that will be of. Interest to you, then



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please do reach out to me and we could talk. About how we can help



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you to. Grow your podcast audience in a highly



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targeted and relevant way. Absolutely



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no wasted traffic. We don't use bots, you can guarantee



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where people are listening, how old they are, what gender they



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are, if you have a very gender specific product and what their earning



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bracket is. If you're offering courses, this could be a great solution for



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you. I hope that helps. And if you need any more information, you know where



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I am. Do reach out to me. The podmaster is a Podnos



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podcasting production. Find out more about us at Podnos



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Co. Uk. That's podknows



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dot co dot uk.