Why “recommendability” is the best and most effective way to grow your podcast
Almost a year ago, Tom Webster, previously with Edison Research, brought up what I believe is the most intriguing point of conversation around podcasting growth. He said that when your audience stops growing, it’s almost certain that people have stopped recommending your podcast. “Now, there can be any number of sub-reasons why this is so, but I submit that they all roll up into one: your podcast is not easily recommendable.” he wrote.
With that point, I started having more in depth conversations with long-time podcasting experts about what makes a podcast worthy of a recommendation. Worthy of me, the listener, taking a moment to press three or so buttons, and send a friend a podcast recommendation they might listen to and subsequently subscribe to.
In the past year, I’ve learned that making a podcast worthy of a recommendation, should be the top priority for anyone looking to grow their show, so I’ve come up with five reasons why podcast creators should focus on this before spending any more time or money on PR, promotion, or advertising.
By the way, to learn how you can make your show recommendable with proven strategies from a podcasting veteran, check out our BIPOC Podcast Creators webinar by podcast Hall of Fame member, Evo Terra. The recording is available for replay in case you miss it.
FIVE REASONS WHY YOU MUST MAKE YOUR PODCAST RECOMMENDABLE
Reason 1. Because you don’t want to waste your money.
Simply look at the amount of people who spend thousands of dollars per month trying to grow their audience through advertising or social media promos. If you asked them what their retention rate is, after each promo campaign, I’m not sure we’d be convinced that their money was well spent. What good is it to drop a couple grand on a pre-roll campaign if the audience you garner from it doesn’t stay, and doesn’t share your show with other people?
Reason 2. Because your reputation matters.
As storytellers, and creatives, we want people to associate our work with good value, and if our podcast is not ready to deliver on this promise of value, listeners will lose faith in our ability to entertain or educate them. They’ll simply find something better.
Reason 3. Because your listeners’ time matters.
There are endless choices of where your audience could get information or entertainment, and you’re not entitled to their time simply because you decided to make a podcast. As antiquated as this next statement might seem, I guard my time the way some people guard their sex lives. And if you want me, the listener, to give you my time, you need to earn it with some damn good foreplay… I mean content, ahem.
Reason 4. Because long-term steady growth is better than short-lived spikes in downloads.
Sure, you might get a lucky spike in downloads from cross promotions, guesting and other strategies that work, but the amount of labor that goes into these strategies needs to deliver long-term results to make them worthwhile. Except you can’t get long-term results from these strategies if you don’t have a show that can retain a long-term loyal following. So yeah, plan your promotion, invest in it, but don’t get too far into that until your show is truly recommendable.
Reason 5. Because you have to remember why you started the podcast in the first place.
This is where a lot of podcast creators go wrong. when the excitement wars off, they forget why their show mattered in the first place. They forget why they created it and lose sight of their vision. It’s easy to get sidetracked, especially when you’re constantly bombarded by random advice on twitter about what your show should sound like. I say stop listening to everyone, and bring in a few key experts in your category to help you find the edge that your show is missing. It’s amazing how refreshed and re-energized you’ll feel after you get your podcast back on track.
These are the five reasons for making you podcast’s recommendabilty a priority. To learn how you can make your show recommendable with proven strategies from a podcasting veteran, check out our BIPOC Podcast Creators webinar by podcast Hall of Fame member, Evo Terra. The recording is available for replay, in case you miss it.