Podcasting for Profit: Where Are Your Gaps? [Ep. 86]

Click play to hear about podcasting for profit:

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Here’s what to expect from this episode:

Podcasting is not only an amazing way to get your message out to a wider audience but also a great way to generate income. (And if making money is your goal, shout it loud and proud!) 

But to make your podcast an income driver for your business, you need to be strategic and identify the gaps in your current process so that you can understand why your podcast might not be working for you the way you want it to. And that's what we're going to get into today, the 7 potential gaps you may have in your podcast right now preventing you from making a profit. 

So if you feel like your podcast isn't really making an impact on your business and you're not quite sure what's going wrong, then this more reflective episode will be really helpful for you. I'm walking you through these 7 gaps and sharing questions that I want you to ask yourself to determine if it's a gap you need to focus on closing. (And no, you don't need to take notes, but do take some time to think about each of these questions!) 

Quick note: If you haven't already, go back and listen to Episode 66 so that you understand the importance of viewing your podcast as a valuable business tool and actually treating it that way to make your podcast profitable. You can find it here: https://podcastingforeducators.com/episode66.

TOPICS COVERED:

• Is your offer something your audience is actually looking for?

• Does your content align with your offer?

• Does your promotion align with your podcast content each week?

• Are you putting time into marketing your podcast?

• What are your expectations for your results?

• Are you tracking the right data monthly?

• Is it time to outsource?

Resources mentioned:

• Sign up for my new audio course, Podcast Like You Mean It

• Join the Podcasting for Educators Prep School

• Sign up for my mini-course, Guesting for Educators

• Get access to my private podcast, Guesting for Educators

TODAY'S FEATURED PODCASTER:

Kelsey Sorenson is the podcaster behind Wife Teacher Mommy: The Podcast, which serves Pre-K through 6th-grade teachers and homeschool parents. As a former teacher and substitute teacher herself (and a current homeschool mom), she loves talking all things sub plans with teachers and helping them with what to include so they can have a successful day off. (She's also soon to be a certified life coach!)

Kelsey would love to connect with you and be on your show to talk about the best ways to make subs happy (and keep them coming back) and all things mindset (like actually taking a day off despite a sub shortage).

Connect with Kelsey on Instagram @wifeteachermommy.

Connect with Sara:

• Book a free call to discuss how we can work together

• Book a 1:1 strategy call

• Connect with me on Instagram @podcastingforeducators

Related episodes:

• Your Podcast IS Your Business: The Roadmap To Impact And 100k Downloads With Sara Marye [Ep. 66]

• What Does An Effective Podcast Marketing Strategy Look Like? With Jeremy Enns [Organic Growth Series] [Ep. 82]

• Turning Listeners Into Email Subscribers With Out-Of-The-Box Lead Magnets With Magan Ward [Organic Growth Series] [Ep. 84]

• Read the transcript for this episode:

  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 Whitaker, 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, welcome back to podcasting for educators. If this is your first time tuning in, I am your host, Sara Whittaker. And today, I want you to think about why you started your podcast. And if you haven't started your podcast yet, why do you want to start a podcast, there's probably a lot of reasons that come to mind, brand awareness trust building, it gives you long form content, you want to support your audience. And then of course, there's the hope that your podcast will be an income driver for you. Hopefully, that's a goal of yours, shout it loud and proud. If it is, it is okay to want to make money from your podcast. And that's what we're going to get into today podcasting for profit, because podcasting is an amazing way to get your message out to a wider audience. But it can also be a great way to generate income. And to make money from a podcast, you need to be strategic and identify the gaps in your current process, so that you can understand why your podcast might not be working for you the way you want it to. If you're feeling like your podcast isn't really making an impact on your business at this time, or you think it's not making an impact, and you're just not quite sure, like what's going wrong, then this episode is going to be really helpful for you. In this episode, I'm going to walk you through seven gaps that you may have in your podcast right now, from a business perspective. And before we dive into those seven gaps, I just want to reiterate something that I preach a lot here on the podcast, this is going to be really good to hear, especially if you're new to the show. And that is that in order to make your podcast profitable, you need to be sure that you're actually viewing it as a valuable business tool and treating it that way. And if you're not quite sure what I mean by that, I really recommend going back and listening to Episode 66. It's called your podcast is your business, the roadmap to impact and 100k downloads with Sara Murray, Sara, and I talk all about how to really begin making your show the core of your business. And she shares how she does this with her podcast. Alright, so let's quickly head into these seven gaps that you may be experiencing with your podcast. With each of these gaps, I have one or two questions that I want you to ask yourself in order to determine if it's a gap that you need to focus on closing. So this really is more of a reflection type of episode. Don't feel like you have to, you know be taking notes or anything like that. But I really do want you to just be thinking about each of these seven things and really try and answer for yourself these questions that I'm asking you. Okay, so possible gap number one is your offer. And when I'm talking about your offers in this episode, this also could be your lead magnets that you're promoting. So I'm really talking about like anything that you are directly promoting in your episodes, your offer is the thing that you are trying to get your listeners to buy. Or if it's a lead magnet, what you're trying to get your listeners to subscribed or opt in to. So I want you to imagine that thing, whatever it is, and ask yourself, Is this actually what my audience is looking for? And how consistently am I sharing about this offer? So thinking about that first question, is this offer something that your audience actually needs and something that they want? Well, a good indication of this would be, I would imagine that you are also promoting this thing elsewhere, whether that's through email, or Instagram, or wherever? Is it getting results in all of those other places, then that's probably a good indication that your offer is something that's going to be a good fit for your podcast audience, as long as your podcast topics and messaging aligns with the other areas of your business. And if it doesn't, then we really need to backtrack and fix that first. And then the second question, how consistently am I sharing about this offer? We know that people need to hear things multiple times. So if you have a main offer or lead magnet that you are trying to drive people to, you really need to make sure that you are focusing on that thing across multiple episodes, not just like a one and done kind of thing. Because if you're only sharing it in one episode, or kind of just like randomly here and there, then that's not going to give people enough time. aim to warm up to the idea, it's not going to give you enough data to decide if this is an offer, that's actually a good fit for your audience or not. Gap. Number two is your content. And this is probably one of the trickiest things to think about. In order to really effectively sell something, your content needs to lead people into it, it needs to really address something that they are struggling with, and, and make them even more aware of that challenge. So they can see that they really need a solution to this thing. Maybe they didn't even know that they needed a solution. But after hearing your content, they know that it's something that they need. So the question that you need to ask yourself here is does my content align with my offer? Let me give you an example of this. Let's take an example of let's imagine there's a podcaster, who, whose audience are high school English teachers. And maybe this person has an online course about using AI at the high school level. This is AI is a very hot topic right now, especially in the education space. So we're gonna use this as an example. For this podcaster, their episodes are going to be funneling people into signing up for this course, or at least getting people interested in it and building awareness around it. So some examples of some good episodes that would lead into this offer would be what is AI? And is it a threat to us as high school teachers, embracing AI three ways it can be helpful in your secondary classroom? How to get parents on the same page about AI? So all of these topics are leading into this idea of okay, AI is here to stay? What do I need to know about it? As a teacher? What do my students need to know about it? What do parents need to know about it? And how can I really embrace this concept and use it in my classroom, to my advantage and to my students advantage in a way that still allows students to be creative writers, and ensures that there's no plagiarism going on? So these episodes would really hit those thoughts for teachers of Oh, my gosh, I'm freaking out about this whole AI thing. What does this mean for me? What does it mean for my students? How am I going to deal with AI moving forward in my classroom, so these episodes, trigger those pain points and offer solutions. But then the course might include you know, detailed lessons, maybe letters to parents, how to talk about it with your students, templates, prompts to put into these AI tools, things like that. But essentially, this podcast host would be taking her listeners on this journey throughout these episodes leading up to this course. Okay, so now thinking about your specific podcast, ask yourself that question, Does my content align with my offer? And if not, how can I tweak my content moving forward? Possible gap number three is your promotion. And the question that I want you to ask yourself here is, does my promotion align with my podcast content each week, whatever you're sharing on your podcast, should be repurposed on your social media and in your, hopefully, weekly email. This makes it really easy to accomplish the goal of being consistent in your messaging in all of the different places. So let's go back to that example that I just gave about a podcaster, who's speaking to high school English teachers about AI. So if their episode goes live, that's called embracing AI three ways that can be helpful in your secondary classroom, then maybe that week, they do an Instagram carousel that really names those three ways that it can be helpful in the classroom so that they are offering that value on social media where those people are at that time. They're also offering it in their podcast episodes. And then maybe they're also laying those three things out in their weekly email. So everything all of their messaging that week is aligned. This honestly makes it easier on you as the podcaster you can tweak, you know, the way that you say things on all of these different platforms and make it engaging for that specific platform. But it also ensures that you're hitting everybody in all of the different places with the same content. Okay, so again, that question was Does your promotion align with your podcast content each week? Gap number four is your marketing. If you missed episode 82 with Jay Army ends go check it out. It was a fantastic conversation. If you listened then you know that effective podcast marketing includes things like podcasts, guesting networking, collaborating, leveraging SEO, all of these different things that lead to more discoverability of you and of your podcast. Without these things, it's pretty likely that you won't see consistent long term growth. And if you're not growing, then that means that you're not bringing in new listeners, and then you're limiting the number of people that you can sell to and make aware of these great offers that you have. So question for this gap that I want you to ask yourself is, are you putting time towards marketing, and that might be something that you do each week, or each month, start small, it could be as little as picking one podcast that you would love to guest on and pitching that podcast hosts start with one per month, and work your way up from there. But these little tiny steps are what's going to lead to that long term growth. Because like I said a second ago, if you're not growing, then the number of people that are hearing about your offers is not growing either. Which leads us into gap number five, which is your expectations. So the question I want you to ask yourself here is, what are your expectations for your results? We need our expectations to align with our actions, which will then align with our results. And what I mean by that is are you sharing about a $5 TPT resource in one episode and expecting to have 100 sales, the day that your episode airs? Do you have 50 people on average listening to your episodes, and expecting 20 of them to purchase your course when it launches? That's a really, really high conversion rate. So we need to be thinking about our audience size, how often we're talking about our offers. And this will really drive what our expectations are for our results. Let's go back to that example of having 50 people listening to your episodes, let's say that you promote a lead magnet for three straight episodes, and you have 10 people opt in. If you see that number 10, you might initially be kind of bummed out because you were hoping for more. But if 50 People listened and 10 people opted in, that's a 20% conversion rate, that's awesome. On average, common conversion rate for an opt in is between like five and 15%. So if you were to get a 20% conversion rate, that's, that's great. Now, if you have 50, people listening, and you're also sharing about it on socials, every single day for three, three weeks straight, you've got three weeks of episodes going out talking about it, you're talking about on socials every day for three weeks, and you have, let's say three people opt in, after putting all that effort out, well, then that might be an indication that you need to go revisit that lead magnet, like I talked about earlier in the episode, and reflect on whether or not it's the right thing for your audience. And really, ultimately, depending on things like your download number, your audience size, your goal right now might be to work on building up your audience first, that might be the thing that needs to be your full focus for the next six months. And that's okay, these things take a lot of time. But you will get there if you just keep going. So again, the question here is what are your expectations for your results? And if you're wondering how to really manage these expectations, or even like come up with these expectations, it really all starts with your data, which takes us to gap six, which is you might have a gap in your data tracking. The question here that I want you to ask yourself is, am I tracking the right data monthly? Full disclosure, this is a bit of a weakness of mine that I am really focusing on this year. I am not a numbers person, per se. And I have realized that I need to be a numbers person. And so that's been a big focus of mine. And it makes a really big impact when you actually track your numbers. Fun fact. Anything in business is an experiment, podcasting, launching a new offer social media content, everything. And I like I just said have learned the hard way that if you aren't tracking your data, then you don't know the results of that experiment. You might think that you do because maybe like me, you tend to just kind of keep everything up in your brain. But that's not the same as actually having it on paper and really looking at the cold hard day. To, you've got to be tracking your download numbers. But also things like the number of visibility opportunities you have, so that you can compare those things with your downloads and see if it's having a direct impact on your podcast. Things like your email, open rates, your OPT in numbers, all of these things. Because when you have that data and you look at it, then you can set your expectations like we just talked about, for the next round of whatever it is that you are promoting, or selling.

  Alright, the seventh possible gap that you may be facing is your time. If you're listening and hearing me say all of these things and thinking, Whoa, I am very overwhelmed right now I can barely get my episodes out each week, then something needs to change. And you kind of have two options here. Number one, you can begin to outsource. It does not have to be huge, it doesn't have to be this really big thing and this really huge investment financially for you, you can start really small, you can start by hiring someone to just schedule your episodes. And then maybe you add editing and then show notes. And everything just kind of grows over time. But slowly, you're releasing things from your plate, so that you can actually have the time to do these CEO type of tasks, like looking at your data and planning your content out in a really intentional way. And if you really want to do this thing, and really go all in on your show, you have to invest in it, it is time, my friend. And I really want you to see outsourcing as an investment. There's so many people out there who can help you and who are so excited to help you with your podcast. Me and my team offer services. And I have a ton of other references that I can give you as well. There's so many great podcast service providers out there, as well as great virtual assistants. So that's kind of your first and best option. And then option number two is you can continue kind of doing things the way that you are right now and kind of try and build in some of these things over time. But ultimately, I think that you are going to find that at one point or another, it's going to be time to invest in your podcast and the growth of your show and ultimately the growth of your business. So that is definitely something to consider for this year. And if hiring is something that you're hoping to do soon. This is perfect timing because next week on the podcast, I am having a guest on to talk all about what you need to know before hiring support in your business. So if that is you, then definitely be sure to come back and tune in next week. Okay, so real quick, I'm just going to review those seven gaps that you may be facing in your podcast and ultimately in your business. Gap. Number one, your offer? Is your offer what your audience is looking for and how consistently Are you sharing about it? Gap number two, your content? Does your content align with your offer? Gap number three, your promotion? Does your promotion align with your podcast content each week? Gap number four, your marketing? Are you putting time towards your podcast marketing? GAAP number five your expectations? What are your expectations for your results? GAAP number six your data tracking? Are you tracking the right data monthly and GAP number seven Your time is it time to outsource. If you're at this place with your podcast where you've had your show for several months, or maybe a year or two years, and you're really ready to close these gaps, you're ready to go all in you are ready to make your podcast the absolute center of your business, then I would love for you to join the waitlist for my upcoming audio course where I'm going to really walk you through how to reflect on where your podcast is in this moment, and how you can improve things so that you start to see more growth in your podcast and in your business. You get more clear on your offers and how you are taking people from listener to buyer. You can learn more and get on the waitlist at podcasting for educators.com/waitlist and that will also be in the show notes for today's episode, which will be podcasting for educators.com/episode 86. Before we sign off, let's check out this week's shout out 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

  Kelsey Sorenson 20:25

  here, my name is Kelsey and I'm the podcaster behind wife, teacher, mommy, the podcast. I've been doing it since March of 2021. And I just love it. And I serve pre K through sixth grade teachers and homeschool parents. I am a former teacher, a former substitute teacher and current homeschool mom and almost certified life coach, I should be finishing my exam with the Life Coach School this week. I love talking about sub plans with teachers. That is what we started with a wife, teacher, Mommy can help teachers with how to write their sub plans what to include, they can have a successful day off. I've been both a teacher and a CIO. So I can talk about what is the best way to make subs happy and keep them coming back which is especially important with the sub shortage we have going on right now. I also love talking about the mindset part of that which is understanding that you can take a day off even though there is a sub shortage and kind of poking at that belief that a lot of teachers have that they can't take a day off. I also love talking about mindset in a wide variety of capacities. So I would love to connect with you and be on your show.

  Sara Whittaker 21:24

  Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. To keep this conversation going connect 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!

Some links on this page are affiliate links. This helps to support this podcast at no additional cost to you.