Will Changing Your Podcast Help Grow Your Audience? 5 Things to Consider
If you feel the listenership on your podcast has started to slow or become stagnant, it is worth evaluating what tweaks you may need to make to your show and your strategy. For podcasts, there is a “right” way of making changes – some major changes can risk you losing your audience, credibility, and engagement. While high risks do yield high rewards, it’s better to take careful and calculated risks than to start all over again.
Before making the leap, ask yourself these questions:
Do You Really Need a Full Content Overhaul?
If you’re running out of fresh content and want to try new angles and topics, try reframing your perspective first. Rather than starting a new podcast altogether, start small by first testing your new ideas to gauge your audience’s response. This could be through a segment within your current podcast or even a mid-season series about your new topics. When in doubt, simply ask your listeners what they want. When in doubt, simply ask your listeners what they want.
Why Not Just Beef Up Marketing?
Sometimes it’s not your podcast content, it’s your marketing. Before committing to a new direction, consider other ways of getting more reach. You can repurpose your episodes into a blog, social media posts, or a newsletter – all of which can contain backlinks to your episodes. Your guests can share this on their different platforms. To encourage two-way communication, you can easily integrate website features like MailerLite so they can email you, and SpeakPipe so they can send voice mails which you can then repurpose in Q&A episodes.
Why Not Re-strategize?
After deeply evaluating audience feedback, think of your options. If you want to keep your current podcast, but you just need a rebrand or a segment, you may change your key visual, title, and bio so that your audience knows about it. Note that title modifications may affect searchability in Apple Podcasts, so it’s best to keep your former title. In order to keep your audience, do not change your RSS feed. However, if you decide otherwise and start from scratch, consider niching down your audience, content, and platform. An educational podcast for professionals, for example, can be targeted to a LinkedIn audience and be offered as a Continued Education requirement on a subscription basis.
Will Your Audience Understand?
A good podcast has a highly specific niche that attracts listeners to come together and build a community around your content. If you alter that, you risk losing them, then you’d have to start from scratch again. Don’t say goodbye just yet. As you go along with the changes, slowly take your audience with you so they get a better understanding of why you’re transitioning. It also lessens their shock and makes them feel like they’re part of your journey. And if they’ve kept up with you for a while, it’s only right.
Are You Burned Out?
Passion is at the heart of podcasting. It’s what drives you to constantly do your best. If your passion wanes due to the workload or pressures, you might feel a need for something new, which could be unnecessary if your podcast has been working all along. It’s important to have a check-in with yourself about your “Why.” Why did you start a podcast in the first place? Do your episodes still resonate with you? Whether it’s a yes or no, self-awareness can help guide you towards a solution where you feel happier and more energized.
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