The Role That Listener Retention Plays in Your Podcast’s Success [Organic Growth Series] [ep. 81]
Click play to learn the role listener retention plays in your podcast's success:
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Here’s what to expect from this episode:
You can bring in new listeners all day every day, but are you doing enough to KEEP them around?
Today we're continuing our Organic Growth Series by looking at the importance of listener retention and how much that impacts your podcast's growth (because it definitely does). Tune in to hear my own first-hand experience of what happens when you don't prioritize nurturing your audience, some key indicators that make listeners actually stick around, and how you can build a community around your podcast.
If you have a podcast, I bet you're already doing a great job of nurturing your audience. But today, I want to challenge you to think about how you could do that even more.
(And don't forget to tune in next week because I've got a GREAT interview for you featuring a special guest all about having an effective podcast marketing strategy.)
TOPICS COVERED:
The importance of listener retention
Key indicators that make listeners stick around
A first-hand experience of the consequences of not nurturing your audience
How to build a community around your podcast
Resources mentioned:
Listen to the Series:
TODAY'S FEATURED PODCASTER:
Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach in Colorado. Her role includes teaching over 500 students in her school, leading professional development, and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology. She also manages the school-wide tech tools to help them run efficiently. She loves inspiring her students further by hosting after-school clubs and collaborating on district-wide STEM events.
With over a decade of experience and an M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, she helps teachers in her school and worldwide navigate best practices, strategies, and tools out there. When Naomi isn't traveling or hanging out with her little pup, she's obsessed with researching and creating resources to help you navigate STEM & Tech in your classroom. Of course, with an added bit of style!
Whether you teach STEM as a specials class or as a teacher who loves implementing innovative practices, Naomi is here to help! She truly believes that any teacher can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can't wait to connect with you and be your guide!
Connect with Naomi on Instagram @naomimeredith_ and naomimeredith.com.
Connect with Sara:
Related episodes:
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Sara Whittaker 0:01
Your Podcast is a powerful tool that serves your audience and your business. But how do you manage it all bring in new listeners and convert those listeners into customers. That's what this show is all about. Welcome to podcasting for educators. I'm Sara Whittaker, classroom teacher turn podcast manager, and I'm here to help you get the most out of your show, all while making an impact on other educators. Hey there and welcome back to another episode of podcasting for educators. Before we get in to today's content, I wanted to let you know of another podcast you might love if you're enjoying this one. It's called routine your dream and it's hosted by my friend Chynell Moore. Chynell is a business growth coach for TPT sellers and her show teaches you all about how to take your business to the next level. I'm going to play a quick trailer of routine your dream so that you can decide if it's something you'd like to tune into.
Chynell Moore 0:55
You're listening to the routine your dream podcast with your host me Chynell, I sincerely believe that success is hidden in your daily routine. So let's routine that dream of yours and watch your life and business unfold exactly as you dreamed shall we? Let's go.
Sara Whittaker 1:23
You can listen to routine your dream on Apple podcast, Spotify, or any other listening apps. Or for more great business tips connect with Chynell on her Instagram, at routine your dream podcast. This is Episode Four in our series all about organic podcast growth. If you missed the first few episodes, let me give you a quick recap. In Episode 78, I had guest Nina Gibson come on to talk all about holistic SEO. In Episode 79, I shared five visibility strategies that you can use to bring in new listeners. And last week in Episode 80, Kate all joined us to talk about the powerful ways that Pinterest can grow your podcast and what to focus on, on that platform in 2023. Now, this series is all about growth. So that's about bringing in new listeners, right? Well, yes, that's definitely true. But it also involves something else very important. And that is nurturing your current listeners, because you can bring in new listeners all day every day, but the key is actually keeping them around. So today we're going to look at the importance of listener retention, and how much that impacts your podcast growth, I want you to think about what makes you want to keep coming back to your favorite podcasts. So when I sat down to think about this, some key indicators that I thought of that really tend to make a listener stick around are, of course technical things like good audio quality, nobody wants to listen to like really, really crappy audio. So if you're somebody out there who podcasts in your car, and there's traffic in the background in every single episode, it might be time to bring it inside and start improving your audio quality. But another big thing is consistency. I've talked a lot on this show about how podcasts become a part of people's routines. And if somebody's building your show into their routine, they need to rely on it at the same time each week. So you definitely want to make sure that you're being consistent, that is part of nurturing your audience. And then another big thing that makes people continue to come back week after week is that they're getting something out of listening to your episodes. And this is going to depend on the type of show that you have. But usually I break this into three categories. It's likely that somebody's coming to your show, to be entertained, to get information or to be inspired. And often it's a combination of those things. But whether it's a true crime podcast or an educational podcast, those listeners are coming to the show for a specific reason. And they want to walk away with something. So that might be that they're turning on your podcast to be entertained during a long road trip. Or it might be that they're coming to your podcast to learn some new classroom management strategies. All of these things are part of nurturing your listeners. And I am going to go more specifically into this idea of nurturing your podcast listeners in just a second. But as I sat down to outline this episode and experience that I had popped into my head right away a couple of years ago I was and I'm sure that this will shock absolutely nobody. I was listening to a podcast. And it was actually my first time listening to that specific podcast and I was binging several of her current episodes. It's and this podcast host, her messaging really, really resonated with me. She was a former teacher, which, of course, was another strong connection point for me. And I'm listening to these episodes. And as I'm listening to the most recent ones that had aired, I heard that she was promoting a group coaching program that she was opening doors to. And it was marketed as a small group coaching program. And it sounded absolutely perfect for where I was in my business at the time, I was a little hesitant to join, because at that time, it would be the biggest investment that I had ever made in my business. And so as I'm sitting there, kind of trying to decide if I wanted to go ahead and do this thing, I heard her say in her podcast episode that if we had questions about the program, we could send her a message. So I did exactly that. And to my surprise, she immediately responded through voice message, we had a really great conversation I quote unquote, applied to the program, she said, I would be a perfect fit for it. So I ended up purchasing write that in there that night, same day that I had discovered this podcast. And I was so excited for it, it got me really excited about this next level that I wanted to reach in my business. And this program came with one live call a week that included hotseat coaching. And that was honestly one of my biggest reasons for signing up in the first place, because you get that kind of one on one support. And that one on one feedback. And so the program started, it was the first or second week that we had a call and we got on the call, and the person who hosted this program, she got right on the call, and she was clearly in a rush. And the very first thing she said to us was, I have a million things to do today, I have a hard stop at three o'clock or whatever time it was like, let's go, let's get started. And I am all about respecting boundaries and time. But she had this rushed tone on most of our calls. And it really, really rubbed me the wrong way. Even when each person in the group did get their turn of being in the hot seat, it was so quick and honestly, just disappointing. Like it almost seemed like it was an inconvenience at times that this call was happening. And there were several other things that went on that I'm not going to get into because we would be here all day. But ultimately, I really regretted doing this program because I didn't feel nurtured at all. I didn't get that small group intimate vibe. In fact, it ended up being a lot more people than it seemed like it was going to be and I didn't feel like I was getting any kind of really real feedback, I felt like I was just a number in the group. And I didn't really feel like I was given what was promised in all of the marketing for this program. And you know, if you've ever been in this kind of situation, you know what happens at this point, you start to feel resentful. And then at least that's how I felt. And so then I'm not giving it my all on my hand either. And eventually, I just stopped showing up to these calls. I was still paying for the program. I didn't ask for my money back or anything like that. But I didn't really continue participating because I didn't feel valued. And I'm sure we've all felt this way before. And it's a really crappy feeling, especially when you're paying a lot of money for something. Luckily, I mean, there definitely were perks of it mostly being that I walked away with some really great relationships with other people in the program. And that alone made it worth it. But still. So in this case, she did not retain me as a participant in this program, and definitely not a future customer for other offers that she might have. Maybe you've had a similar experience with something you've thought maybe you've seen a really great Facebook ad for something, or you've seen a really great Instagram reel for something and it made you want to purchase. And then it wasn't really what you expected it to be. So I'm telling you this story, because these are the kinds of things we want to think about with our podcast. We want to always show up for our people who are also showing up for us. We know that people have so many options, everybody's limited on time. So when somebody is listening to our show that I just like, that is just such a great honor. And we want to make sure that we are respecting their time and delivering on what we say we're going to deliver on so Let's talk a little bit more about why nurturing your audience is so important. I created a little acronym to help us remember the kind of top three things that I want you to walk away with in today's episode. And for any of my friends who were in middle school or high school in the late 90s to early 2000s, you're going to appreciate this because the acronym is T RL. So number one, nurturing your audience is so important because of trust. So the T stands for trust, when we're bringing value in to our episodes, and we're giving our listeners a reason to come back, we are building that trust with them. The R stands for referrals. When you build that trust, your listeners are more likely to refer your show to other people. And word of mouth is still and probably always will be in the top three ways that people find out about a new podcast. So there's that piece of bringing in new listeners to our show, one of the golden tickets there is utilizing your current listeners, because when you are really providing this great content for people, they are naturally going to go and tell their friends and their family and anybody else who might benefit from your show, they're going to tell them about it organically, because they're going to be so excited about it that they're going to want other people to also listen. Okay, so TRL, this T stands for trust, the R stands for referrals. And L stands for long term impact. Because the more people that we can reach the more people that we can bring into our show the greater impact that we're going to be making on our audience and on our business. So the more people you're going to be able to support. And then also, of course, the more people that are going to be entered into your business world into your email list into your paid offers and all of that good stuff. So TRL trust referrals and long term impact. Those are the top three reasons why nurturing your audience is so so important. So let's quick talk about how we can actually do this nurturing, how can we make sure that we are showing our listeners that we really care about them. And as a result, retaining them week after week. The first thing I'm going to say here is that we need to stop choosing topics based on what you think we'll do well, I know that we all do this, I know I have done it plenty of times, I still do it from time to time, it's something I'm working on, we get these great ideas that pop into our head, and we know that we need to do an episode about them. And a lot of times, that's great. And I'm not saying to stop doing that completely, I definitely want you to act on that intuition of what you think people will love. But we can't do all of our planning that way, you really need to make sure that you are looking at your numbers. So your download data, I really want you to be doing that at the end of every single month. I've done past episodes, I'll link it in the show notes about specifically which numbers you should be looking at at the end of each month. But one of those numbers is your 90 day download number for each episode. And here's why that number is so important. Because that number that 90 Day download number, so maybe you have an episode that goes live, you're tracking, you know, okay, how many downloads Did it have, after a week, how many downloads that I have, after 30 days, how many downloads that I have, after 90 days, if you're seeing any outliers, if you're seeing any episodes that have really gained some traction after 90 days? Well, that's telling you that those are the episodes that probably a lot of like, if you're gaining any new listeners, they're skimming through, and they are looking for past episodes that you've done, that are intriguing to them and that they want to listen to. So those are the episodes that that are really popping out at people. So those are the topics that you're going to want to pull from to create some new episodes. Another great way, of course, to make sure that you are giving your people what they want is to be doing some sort of audience survey, I say to do it two times a year like a formal audience survey. And then you can also do informal surveys on like your Instagram stories or through email and things like that. Just asking people what they want to hear about giving people a few different options of topics, and asking them to tell you what they'd like to hear more about. Again, I've done at least one episode on audience surveys. So you can listen to that to get a better feel on how exactly to do an audience survey but but that's a great thing to do to make sure that you are getting input from your listeners. And then the second piece of that, of course is to make sure that you're actually delivering on those serve Have a results. So if you're going to ask people what they want to hear, you need to also make sure that you're looking at those results and planning your content based on them. And then when it comes to looking at ways to nurture your listeners, the second big piece here is to create a community around your podcast. Hosting a podcast is one thing, but creating an actual community around it is another. So always be thinking about how you can continue the conversation after the episode is over. And let people know that you're more than just a voice behind your mic. And this can be really, really hard to do. This is a really big pain point for podcasters. If you are working on building that community around your podcast, here are just some ideas that have popped into my head on ways that you can really focus on community, you can use a platform like SpeakPipe. SpeakPipe is a platform you can sign up for they have free and paid, but you can totally get away with using a free account. And it gives you a link where people can send in messages that you can use in so many different ways you can have people submit a message asking you a question that you would then answer on your podcast, you could have people submit some kind of story that goes with a podcast episode that you're doing. And you can actually take that voice message, and you can feature it in your episodes. I've used SpeakPipe a few different times. If you want to hear an example of how I've used it, you can go to Episode 64. It was the episode about celebrating International podcast day and several of you sent in voice messages sharing about your podcast. And then I put all those messages to make up this episode. And it ended up being a really, really cool episode. And not only was that great, because I was able to feature your voices on this show. But it also sparked a lot of conversation between me and those of you that submitted, I could do an entire episode just on some ways that you could use SpeakPipe. And I will add that to the lineup if you're interested in that. But let's look at some other ways that you can create a community. So another great way is to actually invite your listeners onto your show and have them as guests on your podcast, you could create a Facebook group and have a Facebook community that goes along with your podcast, you could host some sort of monthly or quarterly meet up on Zoom. And this could be something casual, or it could be something more formal, like a training. An example of this is a few months ago, I did a podcast speed dating event. And I promoted it here on this podcast, we had a great turnout, it was a lot of fun. And it was a great way to be able to see a lot of you face to face. And everybody got to introduce themselves. And it was just a really great time. Another really simple way that you can nurture your audience is by sharing podcast reviews, just like I did at the beginning of this episode, if somebody is going to take the time to write you a review, give them a shout out on your show, make sure that they know how grateful you are for that review. Another cool way to build community is you can use a platform like Instagram or a Facebook group or your email to ask your audience questions that maybe go along with episode topics, and have them answer you on those different platforms. And then you can share their results. In the episodes I have. I can't remember if I've shared this before on here, but I work with Heidi and Emily, who are the hosts of teacher approved. And they do this in a really cool way. They I believe they post in their Facebook group before they record their episodes. And they just pose some sort of question. And it could be something that's related to the episode or it could be kind of like a just for fun question like what's a school supply that you can't live without? Or what's your favorite teacher organizational hack? And then you would share those answers some of those results on your episode. So it's kind of a cool way just to spark conversation and get to know your listeners. And then, of course, share their responses. Those are just a few ideas. There's so many different things that you can do. And really what you choose to focus on to build community. A lot of it depends on who your audience is. So think about where would your people show up? What would be interesting for them? What do they need? And let that let the answers to those questions kind of drive. What you decide to do when it comes to building community.
Sara Whittaker 19:41
If you're listening to this, and you have a podcast, then I'll bet that you are already doing a great job of nurturing your audience. I have no doubt about that. But today, I challenge you to just think about how you could do that even more. Could you stop worrying so much about whether or not you're giving too much value Just share some really juicy stuff in your next episode. Could you read some reviews? In your episodes? Could you do a giveaway? Could you get better about tracking and actually looking at your data each month to make sure that you are planning just right content? And I'm looking at you because I know so many of you are not looking at your podcast data. Could you level up your engagement or community in some way? That is personally my focus for this year, and I have some really fun things planned that I'm excited to share with you. But in the meantime, staying on theme with this episode, I hope you know how much I appreciate you tuning in to this episode. You are the reason that I do this. I'm so very grateful for you. And if you know a podcaster, who would benefit from hearing about this organic growth series that we're doing right now, please send them a link and let them know about it. You can check out any of the resources or the episodes I mentioned in today's episode at podcasting for educators.com/episode 81. Next week, I've got a great interview for you featuring a special guest all about having an effective podcast marketing strategy. Do you know the difference between podcast marketing and podcast promotion? That is just one thing we're going to cover in this episode. So I will see you here next week. Before we sign off, let's check out this week's shout out. Each week I'm sharing a voice message from a fellow podcaster and they could be your next podcast guest after listening. If you'd like to collaborate with them, you can reach out using the information in the show notes from today's episode. If you're interested in being featured head to podcasting for educators.com/voice Happy collaborating
Naomi Meredith 21:49
Hey, my name is Naomi Meredith, and my podcast is the elementary stem coach, where I help elementary teachers with strategies, tools and lessons to help them in their STEM space. If you're looking for a podcast guest I'd love to come on and talk about STEM or innovation with elementary students. You can reach me on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore or find me on my website Naomi Mary's dot com. If you don't feel like writing that down right now you can definitely grab my info and Sarah shownotes can't wait to connect with you.
Sara Whittaker 22:22
Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. To keep this conversation going connects with me on Instagram at podcasting for educators. I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about podcasting. If you're looking for support and launching, managing or growing your podcast, check out my online course the podcasting for educators prep school at podcasting for educators.com/prep school. I'll see you here next time.
More about Podcasting for Educators:
Podcasting for Educators is the podcast for TpT authors and other online educators. It's a show that will help you get your podcast in front of those who need it most - teachers, counselors, literacy specialists, SLPs, parents, and more! Each week, Sara Whittaker and her guests will share top tips and actionable strategies that you will need in order to launch, manage, and grow your podcast. You’ll learn how to leverage your show to build long-lasting relationships with your audience and promote your TpT resources, courses, and memberships, all while providing valuable and accessible content!
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