Creating a podcast is about more than just speaking and inviting different guests. You need to produce regular content that your audience values. To deliver high-quality content that reaches the maximum number of people, you should know how to scale podcasts. Podcasts are popular, as the statistics suggest— 79 percent of Americans are aware of podcasts—but you need to provide quality to capture the audience.
Scaling a podcast is a challenging thing in the world, but it requires consistency and creativity from you. Success is only sometimes guaranteed, but sincere efforts definitely increase your chances. Therefore, we'll discuss how to scale podcasts effectively in this article and look at different ways.
This article will cover the following;
- Establish a Niche/Topic
- Identify your Target Audience
- Do Extensive Research on your Niche
- Create a Cluster around an Idea
- Incorporate Technology for Management
- Manage all your data in a CMS
- Make use of Online tools to Monitor Performance
- Performance
- Develop a Mechanism to Collect Feedback from Listeners
- Connect with the Audience over Other Platforms
- Incorporate Cross-promotion of Podcasts
1. Establish a Niche/Topic
The most important thing to decide while you ponder how to scale podcast is what you will discuss in it. A “niche” is a narrow category or subcategory on which your podcast focuses. There are hundreds of topics and niches out there, so having a detailed discussion on niche selection is crucial.
Selecting a niche is also important because people often search and judge podcasts based on the topic they discuss and the episode titles, as evident from this Discovery survey.
You can go for a general interest podcast too, but it might be risky unless you're an already popular figure like Joe Rogan, Anna Ferris, or Lex Fridman. Therefore, figure out what you like and create a workable podcast plan around it.
2. Identify your Target Audience
Podcast listening has become highly popular in the wake of COVID and will continue to be so in the future. For instance, an Infinite Dial report in 2021 revealed a 17% increase in podcast listening over 2020. There is also increased diversity in this sphere, with women making up 39% of the audience, which is an all-time high.
Defining your audience will make scaling much easier for you. Talking into the mic means talking to every one of your listeners, which is highly impactful. When you have a clear vision of who your listener is, you know what kind of content you must create to pique their interest and keep them hooked.
For instance, Joe Rogan created a generalist podcast and invited guests from all walks of life. He knows his target audience resides worldwide and has varied interests. Therefore, he discusses everything from science to politics to music.
3. Do Extensive Research on your Niche
While working on how to start and scale podcasts, it is crucial to do extensive research around your niche. Podcast listeners are usually well-educated and intellectually sound people who can quickly point out discrepancies and a lack of research in a podcast.
For example, suppose you want to make a podcast around American politics; you must have the required level of awareness of current affairs to produce compelling content. You'll need to watch and read regularly, listen to analysis from both sides of the aisle, and then come up with pertinent questions the audience wants to be answered.
It’s an important piece of the puzzle when you're wondering how to scale podcasts.
4. Create a Cluster around an Idea
When you have chosen a niche, creating a cluster around it is crucial for a coherent approach. As you need to do multiple podcasts, deciding what type of questions you will cover in them is always advisable.
Ensure that the cluster you create is coherent and doesn't break down at any point. For instance, if you host a science podcast and there is a Nobel Prize season, create a cluster around it. All your episodes during that time should focus on the history of the Nobel, its current status, the new winners and their achievements, etc.
5. Incorporate Technology for Management
There is no running away from technology in this era, and podcast hosts should embrace it too. Incorporating technology in podcast management can bring many benefits, such as easy management of data, quick access to everything, secure data storage, etc. Let's look at how technology can improve your podcast experience.
Manage all your data in a CMS
Content Management System is an application that helps you manage and organize your data in one place. It also allows multiple editors and contributors to edit content regularly. A CMS like Waybook can enhance your productivity significantly and make your workflows seamless.
Waybook allows you to place all your SOPs, guides, and procedures in one place and create a single source of knowledge that is helpful anytime you access it. You can store everything from your podcast episode notes to essential images, docs, and spreadsheets without worrying about losing them.
Make Use of Online tools to Monitor
Remember to use handy online tools to monitor and track podcast data from various platforms. These tools provide invaluable data such as audience demographics, unique listeners, comparisons with other podcasts, etc.
These online tools also provide incredible features that take your podcast experience to the next level, such as:
- Lister trend analysis
- Episode sorting by popularity
- RSS feeds for your podcast
- Downloads per episode
- Platforms on which people are listening to your podcast
6. Performance
You need to measure your podcast's performance regularly to improve your outreach and produce content your audience appreciates.
Develop a Mechanism to Collect Feedback from Listeners
There is no better way of measuring your podcast's performance than by listening to what the audience is saying. And to know that, you must have social media accounts, pages, and groups that people can access quickly and use to make their voices heard.
You can also hire a social media marketing team remotely that can put your brand out there and also collect feedback from listeners on social media.
7. Connect with the Audience over Other Platforms
You can create a public Facebook group that people can join to express their thoughts as you start and scale podcasts. Moreover, they should also reach out to you on Instagram and LinkedIn and let you know what they want. Make sure you listen to their complaints and queries and answer them promptly.
8. Incorporate Cross-promotion of Podcasts
If you're still thinking about how to scale podcasts, cross-promotion might be the answer. Since audiences have a wider choice of podcasts than ever before, they usually listen to multiple podcasts. There are 383.7 million podcast listeners around the world who listen to hundreds of podcasts.
So, a great way of promoting your podcast is through cross-promotion. You can advertise your podcast on other podcasts, and listeners will definitely take notice of that. For instance, if you have a politics podcast, you can promote it in another politics podcast and ask listeners to check you out.
If you're on good terms with the podcast host, they might do it without any charges. For instance, Joe Rogan has often asked people to check out Lex Fridman's podcast and vice versa.
Conclusion
These are some of the guidelines on how to scale podcasts significantly. If you're worried about managing your podcast and all the related data, Waybook can help you out. A modern content management system (CMS) lets you organize your podcast perfectly.
From collecting and storing your documents to creating and editing them directly in the tool, Waybook has extensive playbooks on how to scale not only your podcast, but your brand and business. Check our pricing or start today for free.
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