So, you’ve created good podcast content, done your editing, and had your show distributed to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and other listening platforms. You’ve gone through the tedious process of recording, editing, and getting your podcast out there; but why is no one listening to your podcast?
“How can I grow my audience?” is a very common question among podcasters and other creators alike. This is why we put together some tips and tools on how to retain existing audiences and get more podcast listeners to grow a podcast audience
1. Get a proper hosting platform
I’ve seen quite a number of people try to get their shows out their on their own without going through hosting providers; and it’s great that they’ve got the technical skills to do so. Despite the “fun” part of doing this once or twice, it can get incredibly tiring in the long run, especially when you plan to do podcasting consistently.
So when we say “Get a proper hosting platform,” it’s not because we providing hosting services that we say this. In fact, we provide hosting platforms because we know exactly how important hosting platforms are. No, not Soundcloud…it’s a great streaming site especially for indie creators, but you may want to look into platforms that would actually lessen your workload.
Your podcast hosting service platform is your partner-in-crime. They can streamline and make podcasting easier and faster for you– or they can be absolutely useless. A good hosting will help you free up time so that you can provide more value to your listeners by creating better content, looking for podcast collaborators, promoting your show, and engaging with your audience. Better yet, be equipped with tools that can help you really GROW your show.
There are lots of hosting sites out there that focus on creative tools alone. Find a down-to-earth hosting provider that focuses on podcaster experience and growth. Firstory constantly improves and builds tools that are centered around podcast creator experiences and user-relations. Some examples of exclusive (and free) tools like FLink, cross-platform comment feature, voice messages, built-in music library, and automatically-generated podcast website, are a few of the amazing things Firstory Podcast Hosting can provide. Get a podcast hosting that cares for both big and small creators alike.
2. Leverage social media
Guess what most people are doing on their phones first thing in the morning, in the subway during transit, in school, at work, at home, and before bed? Yep, they’re scrolling through social media. Know your target audience and use social media to promote your niche. Does your podcast talk about the struggles of parenthood and raising children? You may want your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even YouTube content to appeal to new moms and dads.
Plan your content, make your feed look visually appealing, and use multi-link tools to easily promote your show. If you’re using Linktree, Lnk.Bio, Linkin.Bio, and other bio link tools to promote, good– but scrap that. These tools are great, but they’re not made for podcasts. Firstory’s FLink is made for podcasters and allows you to have all these features in addition to podcast-specific functions. Get a side-by-side comparison here. (It even has a private show feature). You can also gain free data and click stats on Firstory Studio. Current figures to date show that FLink users enjoy a 20% conversion rate while saving time on the tedious process of maintaining other link tools, freeing up time for things that matter more to them.
Improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and rank higher in podcast search recommendations. Firstory provides users with automatically-generated personal websites and tags to help shows get discovered (no coding needed!). Couple this up with social media’s power, and you’ve got yourself a podcast-promoting powerhouse!
3. Find podcast guests and collaborate with others
One way to keep your podcast interesting is to have guests come on your show. Welcome friends, experts, influencers, and even other podcasters who might appeal to your niche (you can even invite listeners to guest!). Sure, you can always choose to be a one-man-show; but inviting guests over can do more than just enrich your podcast content.
Guests and collaborators are among the easiest, most-effective ways to get free advertisement and exposure for your show. As your listeners get to know more about these guests that you bring over, your guests’ personal circle and audiences will likewise know more about you!
Encourage your collaborators to share and promote the episodes they are on by providing them with tools they can use, such as: A tagged tweet about them, Instagram stories mentioning them, a link to the episode, photos taken from the recording session, behind-the-scenes content, or whatever they can use to help spread the word to their following. This can help you quickly increase the reach and scope of your listeners.
4. Interact with your audience
Audience engagement is very important with all types of content creation; yes, even podcasters need to interact with audiences. You can do this through social media like Instagram stories and Twitter polls. Using survey forms on relatively formal mediums like email and websites is an option. Better yet, gather audience comments, reviews, and ratings directly from Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other listening platforms using Firstory’s comment link tool. Everyone will be able to leave their feedback as long as they have a browser; and I bet if they are listening to your show, they must have one!
As your podcast grows, so does your audience, and vice versa. Eventually, you’ll need a way to gather, respond, and manage all your audience feedback across platforms (it’s also best practice to do this before reaching that point). Firstory can help podcasters gather all feedback across platforms into one place. Stats to date show that current users enjoy a 67.51% engagement rate and 27.44% re-comment rate from the interaction facilitated by this feature.
Apart from comments, why not use the voicemail function to receive voice messages from audiences? This way, podcasting becomes a two-way interaction, almost like a conversation. To top it off, you can even add in these audio messages into your future episodes! People like to get involved, so it may be nice to use these functions.
5. Take action from stats and comments
Simply knowing what your audience wants and thinks is not enough. Your listeners need to know that you care and value their input. Once in a while (or periodically), you may choose to feature some key comments or hold Q&A sessions with your listeners! Constantly encourage listeners to interact through comments, reviews, and social media.
Most importantly, make sure to take the time to go through their feedback and consider their suggestions. Your podcast comments and interaction are qualitative data that can enhance the understanding and insights you have acquired from the quantitative data through your dashboard statistics.
That being said, understand your podcast data and statistics. Which episodes had the most downloads? Which segments were creating the most buzz? What are the similarities of episodes that did well in reviews and ratings? If you’re a Firstory user, you can also use the Benchmark measure to understand how you’re doing as opposed to other podcasts as a whole and within your category.
Analyze these sets of information and consider what appeals to your listeners the most. Adjust your podcast style and content accordingly and let your listeners know that you value their listening experiences!
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