Building an Audience: 7 Things We Learned At Podcast Movement

1100 attendees. 101 degree summer heat. One comedian. And of course, Serial.

Podcast Movement hosted an amazing conference last weekend in Fort Worth, TX focused on connecting and inspiring podcasters (and aspiring podcasters). The all-star lineup was stacked with the biggest names in the podcasting community including Sarah Koenig of Serial, Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income, and John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire.

While the takeaways from the speakers on stage were incredibly inspiring, we also learned a lot from the community of attendees.

Check out the awesome conversations we had with Jerod Morris, Michael Stelzner Michael Stelzner, Justin Rondeau and more.

What else did we learn from Podcast Movement? A lot! Read on for our seven biggest takeaways.

Start Podcasting… Now

You’ve probably considered starting your own podcast for a while. Maybe you’re concerned that no one will listen, or you’re a perfectionist that just hasn’t been able to finish your first episode. Or maybe you fear the technical side of recording and publishing a podcast.

John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire noted in his keynote presentation simply: “If you want to be a podcaster, podcast.”

“A lot of people struggle with getting behind the microphone for the first time for a lot of different reasons,” notes Jerod Morris who co-hosts The Showrunner podcast, “Once you get 100 episodes down the road, you’re going to look back at your first one and it’s going to stink.”

“Be O.K. with your own voice,” notes Social Media Examiner’s Michael Stelzner, “you’re going to get better, but if you let that imperfection stop you from starting, then you’ll never start.”

Starting requires more than just becoming comfortable in your voice, you also need to define a topic, find guests that can provide expertise, and develop a content schedule to ensure your listeners keep coming back for your next episode, and when they do, they’ll get the experience they’re expecting.

“Start with a plan,” says Daniel J. Lewis who hosts The Audacity to Podcast, a show that focuses on how-to start your own podcast, “Have a plan of where you want to go so you’re not just blindly jumping into something, know where you’re going after you’ve jumped in.”

Every podcaster started somewhere. And the sooner you get started, the sooner you can improve and get the results you want.

Find Your Niche

Comedian Marc Maron who is one of the world’s top downloaded podcasters, joked in his presentation that there are more podcasters than listeners. Although podcast downloads have grown, a large percentage of the population seems resistant to the technology.

Don’t look at that as a curse. Instead,think of the relatively small pond of podcasts as a blessing. As we noted in a previous blog post, being “first to market” in your niche can establish you as the go-to authority.

Finding a lack of resources available relating to recording podcasts with an open-source software program called Audacity, Daniel J. Lewis took to Twitter for content inspiration: “I would search Twitter for anytime someone was saying Audacity and podcast and I would seek first to be helpful.”

By answering questions and solving people’s problems, Daniel not only became the authority on using the recording software, but he built an engaged podcast audience that help grow his business of providing resources to the podcast community.

John Lee Dumas stressed in his keynote the need to define a unique value distinguisher. Your content must be unique in order for the audience to take notice, and once they’ve noticed, you can’t waste it with irrelevant conversation. By continually providing value with each word, you’ll build an engaged audience.

Build an Audience

Typically when people talk about building an engaged podcast audience, they refer to their iTunes downloads and reviews. While these factors play heavily into how your content can rank, they may be missing the point.

“You can attract listeners but building an audience means people who subscribe, people who get on your email list, people who take the next step to connect with you,” says Jerod Morris.

He notes the importance of creating a lasting connection with people by encouraging them to subscribe to your podcast and directing them to opt-in to your email list.

“Setting up that kind of infrastructure in the beginning is really important,” he notes because these connections will become your most valuable listeners as you grow your audience.

Podcasting is Only a Medium

Whether you plan to use your podcast to discuss your interests, or provide valuable information about your business, podcasting should be thought of as another content medium that you can market with. But unlike written blogs, podcasting has the added benefit of emotion.

Jerod Morris notes: “Podcasting is a medium of connection, your voice is inside of people’s heads…If you don’t have passion, you can’t hide it when your voice is out there.”

Podcasting may also serve content to prospects that you’re blog can’t. Some people may have time to read pages of your blog, but others might prefer to listen to you while they’re driving or doing dishes.

Justin Rondeau notes the need to focus on your demographics to figure out where your audience is, “If you have avid podcast listeners, you start a podcast and monetize it, and you get them bounced back to your site.”

For example, Josh Trent of Wellness Force Radio uses his podcast as an awareness tool to get new sales leads.

By regularly providing valuable health and wellness content through his podcast, he’s built trust with his audience: “People that are interested in the content I’m putting out for free aregoing to trust me because they’re getting it without paying any money at all and I’m giving, giving, giving.”

By encouraging email opt-ins on his podcast, Josh uses email to market his paid products to his engaged audience.

Define a Next Step

It’s important to know what step you need your audience to take when they’ve finished listening to your podcast. Sometimes you may push them to subscribe or leave you a review, but defining one clear call to action is important to engage your subscribers or lead to them your paid products.

Jeff Sieh of the Manly Pinterest Tips Podcast notes: “I wish I would have had a very clear call to action, when I launched I didn’t really have anything for them to do.”

Even with an AWeber email list set up, he hadn’t defined any reason for his audience to join that list. Over time he developed a free download as an incentive and builds his subscriber base by providing additional value.

But podcasting is an auditory medium – aside from your show notes, there are no links to click. So how do you convince your audience to get from listening to your podcast onto your website or email list?

“With audio you need to be very clear about where you want to take people,” notes Jerod Morris.

On his Showrunner podcast they direct traffic to an email opt-in with an offer that immediately provides value titled Four Essential Elements of a Remarkable Podcast.

“It’s about being clear. Tell people where they should go next to get more value from you and then actually offer value.” Email subscribers receive information exclusive to the email list and the show’s producers have access to connect with listeners through more than the podcast alone.

Michael Stelzner ends each show by calling out their list-building incentive: “At the end of each show we’ll give out a little factoid like Hey, are you curious how many hours per week people spend with social media? Well we’ve got this report, go here, check it out.”

Email also offers an opportunity to provide content in a different context. Daniel J. Lewis notes “I feel like the email can be more personal, direct, shorter, it can be more transparent a little bit because there is one person reading it, and depending how I’ve setup my email list I can address that person by name.” Emails can be used to deliver extra content, or as a way to solicit feedback. “I get amazing responses…and that’s key to me is allowing people to respond to the email.”

Make Connections

Although podcasting can feel small compared to a radio broadcast, it’s still a mass medium of addressing people. Finding personal ways to make connections with your listeners is important to increasing engagement and building advocates.

John Lee Dumas noted how he records an audio message to respond to email to prove he’s the one answering his personal emails. While initiatives such as these don’t scale well, they make more memorable and stronger connections with your audience.

Michael Stelzner found another way by asking his listeners to tweet photos of where they were currently listening: “I had people in canoes, on horseback, on aircraft carriers, on airplanes, painting houses, all over the world, and it was so cool to see the faces of the people that were listening and that was another great way for me to engage with them.”

Participate in the Community

The podcasting community is full of helpful people you can build relationships with in order to ensure the success of your own podcast. One way to build your network is by collaborating with other podcasters by asking for them to be a guest on your show.

“Interviewing people really helps because those people share the interview and you can tap into their audience,” says Jerod Morris noting that it’s also a great way to learn more and share experiences.

99% Invisible host Roman Mars noted the need for the podcast creator’s community to help each other in his presentation. “80% of the world doesn’t know what we do,” he remarked, “We can fight later.”

Want to learn more about podcasting? Check out our exclusive webinar recording with Jerod Morris, Become a Showrunner: How to Develop, Launch and Run a Remarkable Podcast.

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