How to Grow a Podcast From 50 Listens Per Episode – PCI 441

Welcome to Podcast Insider. I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist at Blueberry. I'm Mike Donald, VP of customer relations here at Blueberry. Today, we're talking about how to grow your podcast when you're just starting out, maybe 50 listens per episode. Yeah. From building listener loyalty to simple strategies that actually work, we've got tips that you can put to use today.

You're listening to Podcast Insider, a weekly podcast bringing insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow, and thrive through podcasting with the support of your team here at We Very Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in. This is something that we get asked on a regular basis from from all types of creators. So I figured this would be, you know, helpful to a lot of people out there. But one of the first things that we wanted to talk about is

social media. Double down on one social platform. You know, putting yourself across all of them is gonna spread yourself way too thin. Yeah. I mean, you know, promoting

your show, there's a lot of lot into it. You know? Like, in my particular case, I focus mostly on Facebook because my target audience are Facebookers and, you know, sometimes on x. And that's really it for what I do for my particular show, and it makes it easier so I don't have to go to Instagram and TikTok and YouTube and, you know, all the places to, you know, to share or to, you know, send a clip to or whatever. You know? I I I picked just a couple, and and seems to work okay.

We recommend that you use, quotes, you know, something that was that you can see other people really enjoying, some kind of takeaway. You can do audiograms and clips. The Blueberry podcast AI will do all of that for you. They'll figure out the clips for you. And then it's I would recommend, like, maybe you have a presence on more than one social media platform, but not, like, burn yourself out on every single one of them. You know, say,

like, yeah. You might have a Facebook group where people are there, but you don't necessarily need to be there that much. Just say, like, hey. Here's a new episode. Because maybe you just, like, don't have a huge following there. However, on, you know, x, you might. So that's where you spend the majority of your time. So take a just go wherever you're probably most comfortable with.

Yeah. And and one of the things that, you know, a lot of people will do is they'll go into a Facebook group, and, unfortunately, podcast related Facebook groups are notorious for this. They'll go in and say, hey. I got a new episode. Well, most podcasters don't really wanna see you you promote your podcast on a podcast related group. So do it in your niche. Don't go you know, like, if you're doing a podcast about dogs, go to the dog groups, not the podcast group because you know?

And and don't just go in there and say, hey. I got a podcast episode here. You know? Say you know, answer questions, participate otherwise. Get, you know, get them to know you. Actually, be helpful. Yeah. Because so many people just you know, they get turned I I hate it when, you know, I go into a group and all there is is a bunch of self promotion Yeah. And, you know, no real interaction.

You know? Well, you have to you have to, like, establish yourself as someone who knows what you're talking about, and then people start to like you. And then they're like, hey. Do you have a podcast? Or, like, hey. Do you have any other information about this since you seem to know so much about this or, like, be interested in this in the first place?

So you're nice trick. Kinda lead them there. And that a nice trick is to like, if, say, someone and let's talk dogs. You know? Someone has a question about something to do with a dog, and you did an episode about that. It might not even be the most current episode. Hey. I did an episode about that two months ago. Here's the link to it. You know, something like that. It has to be a authentic hook. You know, you everything else, like, people are gonna

be able to tell. We can all we're all on social media so often that people can tell authenticity a mile away a lot of the time. Speaking of authenticity and, and whatever, you'll notice Mackenzie glitching a little bit. When she's talking today, she's got Internet issues. So Yeah. We're still going on. But, if she glitches a little bit, that's what's going on. It happens to the best of us and to the worst of us. For sure. Anyway, another another thing is, you know, ask for word-of-mouth,

you know, right in your show. Oh, hey. Mhmm. If you like something, you know, say say, you know, we're talking here and and you say, you know, hey. This little section that Mackenzie and Mike did about, you know, rating and reviewing rather than whatever, that's, you know, that's interesting. Tell somebody that, you know, this tell somebody else that, you like that section or you like this episode or whatever. Don't

just say rate and review. Well, ratings and reviews, they're great for social proof, but they're not gonna get you more listeners. You know? Yeah. People have to find the rating and review

by finding your show first. Well it's exactly what I was gonna say is, yeah, if I'm already led to this show and then I look at the ratings and reviews and it's more just continuing to say, you know, like, the the good information that I already heard before, then, yeah, I'm gonna take those reviews at face value. But you have to be able to like, people have to be able to find those reviews in the first place. Those reviews don't really mean much if people still aren't finding

the show. Right. And don't rely on the apps to surface your show. I mean Yeah. There's, you know, reportedly 4,000,000 possible shows out there of which, you know, only a certain number of them are actively producing,

but still don't, you know, don't rely on Apple search or, you know, Spotify search or whatever to find your show if they don't know the name of your show. So word-of-mouth is the best way. You know? Hey. You know? Tell a friend. Tell a coworker. Tell family members or, you know, whatever. You know? That that's that's the way to get the word out. And then once they show up on on whatever app they're looking at and they see some ratings and reviews, well, that just helps them decide to to listen.

I will say my my sister and some cousins of ours have had a group chat for a decade now, and there are a lot of podcasts being sent to one another in that chat. A lot. Yeah. And that's And and that's what gets us hooked on to new shows is each other. See. And next on the list here is nail your podcast title and description. Okay. So we'll see how well I nail naming this one. What what did I already name it? Let me go how to grow a podcast from 50 listens per episode.

So how you're gonna do that is nail the title episode and description. Yeah. It it depends a little bit on the directory that, you know, your show is being shown in, whether that's Apple, Spotify, podcast addict, whatever it is. But I think probably still at the top of the list of what you want to hit

is just traditional SEO. That one's probably gonna work the the best for people. Here's a bad example for this episode. Episode four forty one, Mike and Mackenzie talk about growing your show. That would be a terrible title. Yeah. I don't like that one. I don't like that one at all. Yeah. The one that you pick much better. Yes.

Yes. If there is someone that you interviewed that is gonna be good for SEO, like their name, you know, if you're interviewing going, like, a lot of people will put Todd's name in an interview because Todd Cochran at this point, he's been doing this twenty years. His name is online. So that will bring up some some stuff for people, you know, put you in the good search results and discoverability. But overall, just follow the parameters of of whatever directory it is that you're part

of, and you'll be fine. That and just making sure that you actually have, like, enough of a description that it'll show up online as well, that it'll show up in search engines. But, also, don't spam it. I I remember, like, even in show titles, you know, the overall show, like this podcast insider, you notice it's Mhmm. Podcast insider. It's not podcast insider, featuring Todd Cochran, blah blah blah blah blah blah. Just like in the you know, Joe

Rogan blah blah blah in the title. You just We don't even put buy blueberry in the title. Right. You know? Because it's not worth it. Yes. You wanna keep that you know? And the episode titles, you you say what it's about. Don't say all these other things that isn't really relevant. You know? We we do put the episode number in the title kinda at the end, or we used to. I don't know if

we still do. Well, it's it goes out on the, like, the the blog post, like, the when I actually published the episode on podcastinsider.com, but I don't put the number in the title for Apple. No. We have an option within PowerPress to put in a title that you want Apple to have for this episode, and I never put it in there because it doesn't matter. Right. Right. So, you know, your episode number is cool for you. Maybe not such a

good thing for the title. And if you put it in there, put it at the end of the title, not at the beginning. Or the beginning of the description. Yeah. Something like that. But, you know, it's it's only important to the podcaster, not the listeners.

Yes. But that does kinda lead us into the next one, collaborate with other small podcasters. Whether that is doing, like, a guest swap where you go on each other's shows or you promote their you know, with the trailer in your intro or something like that. That's very common on all of NPR shows I know is, like, you know, whenever a new show is coming out, they just play the episode on the feed of an already popular show, because they know it'll still get ears and

eyes. So there's a lot of different ways that you can do that. There's another, another thing that isn't done a lot, but I think is a cool idea, is say you you like, in our case, we you know, we we're a podcast about podcasting. Mhmm. And Dave Jackson does one called School of Podcasting, and Daniel Lewis does another one and, you know, so on and so forth. If you're really in close with somebody, another podcaster in your genre,

say, hey. Let's do a feed drop. And what that is is, say, one of our episodes would be also added to Dave Vaxon's, and not that he would do that, but, you know, some some niches, that works. And Yeah. Also amongst networks, Wondery is really into that. So they'll they'll have a new show, and they wanna promote it. They'll put it in every show in the network as as a special episode. And, you know Yep. That may or may not work in your case. It's it's just something to think about.

But even if people don't wanna listen to that episode, they're still gonna hear the title. Yeah. They're still gonna know that it exists. Yeah. That's the beauty of podcast listening. You can choose what you hit play on. Yeah. So Yeah. There you go. So you're not gonna be forcing anybody to listen to somebody else's show on yours or vice versa. So, anyway, just, you know, keep that in

mind. You know? I there's lots of shows that that I'm subscribed to, and I look at the title, and I say, I don't wanna listen to that one, and I just get it out of there. You know? And not everyone wants to listen or watch every single time. You know? People people during the day have different wants and needs, and, this is gonna this is the way that you can repurpose your content is to reach people in each of those different ways.

So you can do something like a YouTube short of an episode. You can do, newsletter stuff that is related to your show. You can do audio and video podcasting. You can just have a really, you know, really heavy presence on social media, whatever. It's all vaguely the same content just in whatever medium that people are getting it. You know, and it's it's like we always say, you know, it's okay to be everywhere. But, you know, also know that being everywhere

takes extra work. And as we said before, you know, kind of focus on one or two places rather than all the places. But if you've got the time, being in all the places don't hurt either. No. It does not. It definitely does not. Just make sure you're doing it good, not, you know, just half assing everything, you know, which can happen. You know? I I I know in my case, you'd all go real hot and heavy on one thing and then get tired of it and go real hot and heavy on another thing and get tired

of it. And, you know, trying to do it all is is a lot of work. A lot of the time your body knows before your brain knows. Yeah. Exactly. Your body will figure out you're doing too much before your brain will sometimes. Yeah. Another thing is, mailing lists. I know they're annoying to some people. You know, hey. Join my mailing list or, you know, having the most annoying thing is having a email list pop up before you even have a chance to look at the website. I hate that. But in your

show itself, say, you know, hey. I do have an email sign up. It's over here on my website, and, you know, you'll get some, you know, some sort of free something

or you get a little behind the scenes or, you know, or just extra information or get the show notes sent to you or, you know, whatever you wanna send out in that mailing list. But collect some emails, you know, get to know your audience a little better. I mean, I have a real life example of this. A friend of mine, she actually listens to the show. I just watched the stuff on social media for, this podcast, The Basement Yard, and they're going on tour.

I think they're recording live episodes whenever they do their shows, but it's basically just it's like a comedy show. But she's on their mailing list and got the email saying, coming to Columbus. Tickets go on sale at such and such time, blah blah blah blah. So now we're gonna go because it's gonna you know, that's just how that works. If you if people like your stuff, they're not gonna be mad. Yeah. I got the same sort of thing on a show I watch,

on YouTube. It happens to be, not a podcast necessarily. But, you know, he he put up his you know, I'm going on tour. You know? It it was a comedy thing, and he's gonna be here in Traverse City, and, wife and I got tickets. So Yeah. You know, I would have never known that had I not signed up for his little, side email thing because he really doesn't say it on his show much. It's as simple as that. Okay. So this one's saying,

talk to your listeners. If you only have 50 listeners, talk to them specifically. Like, that is, you know, a small enough group that you could call out and remember some names of those exact people. A lot of the time audiences do really wanna, like, email or DM the host of a show. Like, they love it. And I think that is reciprocated

on the other on the other side as well. So ask them, do you like these episodes? Do you think they should be longer or shorter? Do you think this one sucked? Was this one really funny? Like, was this actually helpful to talking about, like, whatever science thing? Yeah. All all of those things. Regardless of how show you're ever like, how big your show ever gets, those 50 people are technically, like, an early adopter.

So so think of it that way. And I was watching a video this morning talking about, like, trying to build up your social media saying, like, if you have, you know, 250 videos, that's a sold out movie theater. If you have 500, that's a conference. If you have 2,000, that's a concert. If you have 50,000, that's a stadium. Like, you have these people. Use them wisely. You know, be kind to them, and they'll be kind to you.

Right. Yep. And, you know, that yeah. I always tell people when they, you know, call about stats, hey. My stats are really low, and you look at the number and, you know, they have two or 300 downloads per episode. And I said, 202 or 300 people. Imagine the size of the room you'd have to have to to to get them all in one room, and then you gotta entertain them for an hour. Does that seem like a small number? It isn't. It's not a small task.

So And then the last little bit here is, you know, improve just 1% each episode, and you will be growing your audience. You know, it's not much more than that. You know? Do a couple of these things. You know, try try to, you know, keep track of it in stats. You know? You got you got stats. You can see how many downloads per episode. And as long as that number stays the same or goes up just a little bit, you're above average. Well, one of my friends, he's a big Costco lover.

And whenever I, you know, whenever I see him, I'm like, oh, I like your shoes.

Or, oh, this this food's really good. Where'd you get it? Blah blah blah. And he's like, Costco. It's the Kirkland brand, and the Kirkland brand is 1% better. That's, like, their thing is they are trying to be 1% better of whatever they are replicating or doing on their own. Yeah. And and eventually, it's like, yeah. No. I I'm okay buying, you know, store brand of everything as long as they are making the same the equivalent. And that 1% better is what they strive for, and it's highly working.

It is going very well for Costco right now. So if you just keep the same mindset, I think it's, that's an obtainable goal Yeah. For each episode. Don't don't overdo it. You know? You you you're not gonna grow like a hockey stick in most cases. Now you might have an episode that breaks out, and that always keeps listeners too. But, you know, for the most part, podcasts just grow slowly over time, keep consistent, and and, you know, try to improve 1% per episode.

That's it for today's episode on growing your podcast from the ground up. Thanks for joining us. If you found any of those helpful, be sure to follow us and subscribe to Podcast Insider so that you don't miss any episodes in the future. Yep. And if you're using Blueberry, thanks for being part of our podcasting community. We'll catch you next time. Thanks, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Come back next week.

And in the meantime, head to podcastinsider.com for more information, to subscribe, share, and read our show notes. To check out the latest suite of services and learn how Blueberry can help you leverage your podcast, visit blueberry.com. That's Blueberry without the e's because we can't afford them.