629: Answering your podcast growth questions. (audience Q&A episode)

Speaker A: What's up, pod pals? It's your buddy Adam, and you are listening to Podcasting Business School. It's the show where I teach podcasters simple strategies to help you grow your audience and turn your podcast content into new clients. I tell you, we got a little series of podcast growth tips. This is an audience Q and A episode. I have to shout you guys out. You're doing a great job with sending in these questions. I love sharing your audio clips, I really do. These are fun episodes. I want to keep doing them. I will put a little info in the show notes. If you want to submit a question, an audience clip, you get to shout out your show too. It's a great little ad bonus for you. I'll put that in the show notes. We got four questions all around. Uh, podcast growth. Uh, we're gonna dive into those in a second, but I gotta tell you, last week we launched my school community and we are off and running. I'm very excited about this. Uh, we are building each and every week. We're building momentum. I'm actually recording this prior to launching, so I don't know how many of you are in there now. I know in pre launch we're at about 70, uh, before we even open the doors, which I'm thrilled with. But I do have the content schedule for the next several weeks and I would love to have you hit the link in the episode notes here and use that link. If you guys are already on the school platform, I would prefer for you to not join via school because if you decide to join one of my paid tiers, school takes 30%. If you use the link in my episode notes, school, uh, does not take any of that money. So I, uh, would really appreciate that. Uh, but let's, uh, look at what we've got coming up in the school community. Uh, each week I'm doing training on Wednesdays and we're rotating between monetization and growth topics. So let's see, on July 8th, uh, that'll be tomorrow when you're listening to this on the 7th on the day it comes out, we're, uh, doing a training on podcast promo intro swaps. On the 15th of July, we're talking about affiliate income. On the 22nd of July, we're talking about podcast addict ads. That's a topic I've never covered on the podcast. On July 29, I'm talking about one to one client journey strategies and evolving those offers into recurring income streams. Uh, I've already got August mapped out. We got workshops, we're interacting every day inside of the discussion thread. If, uh, you are a podcaster that is eager for some mentorship, for some help, you want to be a part of an active podcasting community, I would love for you to join my free community on Skool. Use the link in the episode notes. And if you want to get access to more training and more coaching from me and more courses and things like that, there are some pretty sweet paid tier upgrades. Hit that link in the show notes and, uh, just take it from there. So with this episode, we have first up, my pod pal, Tracy. And Tracy, uh, has a question about using the quiz feature on YouTube and Spotify. Let's see what a question is. Hey, Adam.

Speaker B: Um, it's, uh, Rockstar Tracy here, the host of Trauma, uh, Rock Stars podcast. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Um, quick question for you is. I have been trying to incorporate some fun interactive quizzes for my audience, um, to get in touch with their energy deposits and levels and their nervous system. And I also noticed on YouTube now and um, on the other hosting platform that I host, my other episodes, my audio episodes, there's an opportunity within the studio part of the episode where you can attach a quiz to that. I'm not familiar with using that and it sounds pretty interesting. Interesting. And I don't know if it, if you attach the quiz and it goes within the episode itself or if it tags at the end of it, but I want to know if you've used this feature and if it's effective because I, uh, am really trying to get my audience to interact more and be part of this community and I want to hear from them more. And I think by creating these for every episode may be beneficial, but I like to know your experience, so thank you.

Speaker A: Great question, Tracy. So, thoughts on using a quiz? I think you're talking about Spotify in addition to YouTube there. Uh, so I haven't heard of anybody like, killing it with these features. As far as engagement goes, I know Spotify is really encouraging people to put quizzes and stuff within the episodes and where it pops up, like kind of where the show notes are. As far as I can tell, I've messed around with it a little bit. Nothing earth shattering like a, uh, few votes here and there. I think it's just new, it's kind of different. Uh, people aren't used to looking for it. Um, I'm not against it, but honestly, I think if you really want to connect with your audience, what I would recommend is start hosting a live workshop or live training. That's free at least once a month and really try to drive to that single call to action in your podcast. And if you have a newsletter, I would do it. There's like, I, I love doing those, those free trainings that I, uh, do at the end of the month. And it gets me in front of you all. We get to connect. A lot of those people become like power users, uh, people that refer other people to the show. Like if you, I feel like a quiz is still kind of an arm's length away type of engagement. If you want to engage with them, give them a platform where you can really have an interaction. And I like seeing people eyeball to eyeball and we can get on, zoom, teach a little bit, dive into their questions. Uh, so that's what I'd recommend. So I know, uh, it's not exactly what you asked about, but if what you really want to get to is audience engagement and interacting with your people, I would do some sort of live training and just spend a month building up to that and use that as your call to action and it's going to build your email list. And these people can potentially turn into clients. So, uh, I think those are all good things. Okay, next up, uh, we have a question from Tamara.

Speaker C: Hi, this is Tamara Basinger from Equestrian Fitness for the Long Ride. One of my goals is to expand my audience to a broader range of riding disciplines, maybe by guesting as a niche expert on larger horse related podcasts. So here's my question for Adam. How do I get invitations to be a guest when those other podcast hosts don't know me from well?

Speaker A: Adam, Tamara, great question. So how do we get on bigger shows as a guest? Um, this is a tough pill to swallow for some people because, like, we know that we'd be a great guest for these shows, we'd be a great fit, but it's just really hard to crack that nut. It's hard to get in there. They have gatekeepers, they have people that protect that calendar. Uh, you will get ghosted. You will not hear from these people. So the real key step is we gotta take a long play strategy and try to add value to them first. So what does that look like? There's a few different ways we could do this. Uh, the ultimate one for me is invite them on your show first. Invite them on your show first. Make friends, build a relationship. And then usually that can lead to being a guest on their show. This is the only strategy that I use now. Another couple of ways that you can do this would be add value on social media. Maybe you can do a, uh, plug for their podcast and an Instagram story and tag them. Maybe you do a positive review of their podcast or do like an Instagram reel where you're talking about their show and just pump them up a little bit. Maybe you're writing your newsletter and do a feature of their show in your newsletter, and then you reach out and say, hey, I featured you my newsletter. Just wanted to let you know I really appreciate what you're doing. Just try to get a conversation started and add value first. Now, here's the cool thing. Once you get connected and you're a guest on one of these big shows, we want to look at who else they have interviewed, uh, on their show, who are they connected to, uh, what other podcasts have they been on, Whether people have been on their podcasts, and we will ask them for a warm introduction. So, uh, you know, you have a great interview and whether they're on your show or you're on their show and you say, hey, I noticed that you interviewed so and so. I would love to be connected to them. I would love to have them on my show. Would you be willing to make a warm introduction? Getting a warm introduction is huge. It cuts through all the tape and it cuts through all the clutter and all of the defense mechanisms in their email inbox and all the people protecting their schedule. So that's, again, it's a longer play, but it's so much more effective than a cold dm, um, pitching to be on their show. We, we get so many of these just as regular podcasters, the giant podcasters get a hundred times more. So we have to be different. Uh, so if you really want to optimize it, you look at when are they seemingly going on that promotional tour. Maybe they're releasing a book or something like that, or they're selling something and they're doing a lot of promo. Invite them on your show. That's a great opportunity. Build a relationship, add value. Continue to add value. Uh, and, you know, hopefully they will invite you on. What usually happens for me is I will invite somebody on the show, make friends. About half the time, they just instantly say, hey, you should come on my show. The other half the time, I have to keep adding value. I stay in their world, I stay relevant. I will tag them on social media, I will check in, I will drop them a DM on Instagram saying, hey, I loved your latest episode. I really think that was great. Uh, I, I talk about this a lot on my show. But you added Some different flavors to it or whatever. And I just kind of casually bring up my show a little bit or what I like to talk about, and then just keep dripping positivity until they submit to my will. And most times, uh, it happens. So I know that's not the quick fix strategy that you're probably looking for that a lot of you would like to have as far as, you know, cracking that code. But the. You don't. There's just. That just doesn't exist unless you want to pay to be on their show. That's a, that's a, uh, like a Disney, Disney fast, um, pass. I've got young kids. We used to get that little fast pass thing you pay extra for. You go to the front of the line. That's, uh, an opportunity. But if you want to do this on a small or zero budget, we got to take the longer path. And adding value first is the way to go. Uh, all right, y', all, my voice is barely hanging in. I've done a lot of recording, uh, today, but we're going to power through this next one up is from Progress. So Progress, take it away.

Speaker D: Hi, Adam. This is Progress to Adam Vincent from Life's Essence with Adam. I'm a Nigerian podcaster. Okay, so here's my question for Adam. My first question is how can I make my podcast Life's Essence with Tuatham, um, more visible and also to reach out to a larger audience. I just have 44 followers so far and have been podcasting for close to two years now. So how can I make my podcast more visible and reach out to a larger audience? And the second question is, which other platform is best that I can also host my podcast or share my podcast? Episodes aside? Spotify. I look forward to your response and thank you for this opportunity.

Speaker A: Progress. Great to hear from you. Thanks for sending in the question all the way from, uh, Nigeria. Two questions. So we're answering both. Uh, first question, how can I make my podcast more visible? I've got 1, 2, 3, 4 things for you to consider. Uh, the first one is podcast SEO, uh, organic discovery. Leveraging things like the name of your show, the podcast host description and keywords, and the name of each and individual episode. So I'm gonna give you some homework. I want you to listen to episode number 608 of this show where I talk about the SEO strategy to help me get over 1 million downloads as a podcaster. It's episode 608. Uh, next up, uh, my 72 hour marketing rule. So that means we are Going to do effort based marketing. We're going to promote our episode, uh, within 72 hours of an episode being live. I want to promote it five times, usually three to five. So three to five unique ways. So creating an a, uh, maybe a Instagram reel, uh, maybe a newsletter mention, a carousel post. Just creating three to five unique assets and promoting those on social media or via email. That is my 72 hour marketing rule for each episode. Uh, the third strategy to help you increase uh, your visibility would be to be a guest on one to four podcasts per month. One to four a month progress. That's what I want. If you want to learn about my podcast guesting strategy, then check out episode number 618. 618 of podcasting business school. And then the fourth thing to increase visibility is incorporate uh, paid marketing. My favorite paid marketing strategy is the overcast FM banner M ads and you can read all about that and the episode about uh, low budget marketing strategies to grow your podcast. Episode number 615. So I gave you three episodes to listen to. 608. 615, 618. And check those out for some extra tips and strategies. Second, uh, question you asked, what platforms should I make sure my podcast is on? I think the big three are Spotify, Apple and YouTube. Now if you only host in Spotify, it's not going to get blasted to those other ones. If you host in like Libsyn or Buzzsprout or Captivate, then they will make you connect to Apple and Spotify, you are going to have to at least connect your rss feed to YouTube. So with YouTube, my show is actually on YouTube. I talk about how I'm not on YouTube, I don't do video content, but my audio RSS feed is connected to YouTube and every audio episode loads up into a YouTube channel as an audio only podcast. So I think those are the three that you really need to make sure that you are on. So if you are on Spotify, you need to connect that, that RSS feed to Apple through Apple Podcast Connect. And you need to connect it to YouTube, uh, as an RSS feed connected to YouTube and those are pretty easy just to Google, um, and get some simple instructions and get those connected. So great questions, progress. We've got one more question coming up from Jennifer. Here we go.

Speaker C: Hi, my name is Jennifer Sterling Campbell and I'm from the Overcome Depression podcast for Christians struggling with faith. And my question is with my title as the example, is it too long? Overcome Depression podcast for Christians struggling with faith I've tried to implement some of the suggestions you've offered by making it more specific. Also, is the word overcome having it as the first word not helpful? Should I have depression or some variant of the word depression as the first word and try to create a name based on that for rebranding? That is my question. Appreciate you, Adam.

Speaker A: Thank you, Jennifer. Great question. This would be a great example. I talk about names and naming strategy a lot and I do think sometimes my audience members overdo it a little bit. And I do think your name is a little bit long. So let's fix it. Uh, uh, so I, I really like if we are using my perfect podcast naming protocol, I like to knock it out in three to five words if we can. All right. And we are in that 7 to 8 to 9 word episode title. Uh, so this, this is something that I think we can fix pretty easily right now. Imagine your ideal listener in Spotify. They're looking for a podcast like yours. They're not going to put the word overcome in the search bar. They're probably gonna put depression or Christian in there. Uh, those are two great keywords. So we want to lead with one of those two. All right, when I read the name of the show, I want to know what it's about, I want to know who it's for, and I want to see one to two keywords. And I think we can knock this out in three words. Jennifer, Here we go. Here's what I'd like to see. Christians overcoming depression. Three word name. Uh, we lead with the keyword Christians, which is a great keyword. Great keyword. Have had tremendous success with that. Religion based podcasts are the most downloaded podcast, even more than comedy, uh, and news. Uh, so lead with that huge keyword, Christians overcoming depression. So what is it about? It's about Christians overcoming depression. Who is it for? It's for Christians. Uh, and two keywords, Christians and depression. I like this a lot. Now the key next step is we have to make sure that this name is not already being used. I didn't search it before I made my notes, but that is something that you want to search and go on Apple, go on Spotify, even go on YouTube and search that exact name and make sure that someone isn't already doing it. Now if they have it trademarked or not. Like, I don't even care if people don't have it trademarked. I don't want to use it anyway because it's, it's confusing for your audience. So we never want to use a name that's already being used, whether it's trademarked or not. Um, we don't even want to get into that mess because it will confuse your audience. You don't want to do all this marketing and even like paid marketing and things like that. And then people end up on the wrong show just because it's the same name as yours. So I like the name Christians Overcoming Depression. It's shorter now. We don't have the word struggling with faith in there, but I feel like we can add that in in the host description. We can add that in with episode titles to kind of add that extra nuance to it. I think the three word title of Christians Overcoming Depression is really going to knock it out of the park. So that is what I would suggest. Give it a shot, give it a try, and let me know if your downloads absolutely explode. Uh, all right, so those are four questions. Great questions submitted by you all. I love doing this. Now, uh, this is something we're going to be doing in the school community, like daily. The thing about this community that I'm building on school is I am in there every day, like matching energy. If you need help, join. You can join at the free level. You're going to get help. You can join at one of the paid tiers, you're going to get even more help. But don't, like, don't come in there. Like that Facebook group you signed up for five years ago and never went back and it's all dusty and, and you never go in there and you don't care about it. Like, if you really need help, if that is the issue, if you need mentorship, if you have questions, if you want to talk about monetization, if you want to talk about growing your show and you want to be in a community of like minded podcasters. My goal is to make this school community the best one for podcasters on the entire platform. We're well on our way. We are growing fast. All right? We're going to put quality individuals in there. I'm not letting everybody in. I, uh, look at your profile. If it seems like you're somebody that's going to be in there promoting something or praying on podcasters, I will not let those people in. All right? This is my baby. I'm very excited about it. Would love to have you in there so you can fire away with questions like this on the daily. And we interact. I match your energy and I help you out. So hit the link in the episode notes. Join my podcasting business school community on school, you can start for free. And, uh, I hope to see you in there. So, Pod pals, that is it for this Q and A episode. I'm going to send you off into the world, wishing you health, happiness, and many downloads. I will see you on the next episode.