I love conducting experiments. If you think about it, all of marketing is experimentation and trial and error.
For the month of July, I decided that I wasn’t going to post a single podcast on my show and see what happened.
Podcast downloads for my show only declined by 235! What does this tell me?
1. Most of the listens are coming from my blog and people that discover my podcasts through social media.
That’s because I’m not ranking well in the iTunes marketplace for my key terms or in any broader category.
2. Listeners are still checking out the early podcast episodes that I released.
The very first podcast episode that I published continues to receive listens (55 in July).
That doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you really stop to think and imagine 55 people in a room listening to your voice, it actually is a good number of prospects and would be a good turnout for a webinar or any event.
This got me thinking. Most podcasts out there aren’t going to be major successes in terms of monthly downloads.
But, I’m coming to realize that you don’t need a high number of new episode downloads in order to take advantage of this new platform.
Podcasting for business isn’t about the number of new episode downloads that you can rack up. It’s about how many relevant relationships that you can develop at scale.
55 individual listeners might not be a lot for a new podcast episode, but the idea of 1,355 people listening to my voice and hearing my message over the course of a month is mind boggling!
In order to really leverage this medium when you have a small audience, your podcast must have a very focused and consistent message or call to action in each episode.
That way, when listeners discover your past episodes, the relationship building continues and they are reminded of certain products, services, or where they can learn more about your podcast’s topic.
Now, if you’re wondering how I actually was able to set up a podcast that has, for the most part, sustained the monthly downloads after not posting for an entire month, then check out my podcast marketing plan here. Hope it’s helpful!
I invite you to share your podcast below so I can check it out!
