Articles
Welcome to hundreds of the best articles on podcast growth, podcast monetization, podcast marketing, and show development. You can browse the articles by topic below or start with a curated list of our recommendations.
Most Recommended Articles
The 4 Phases of Podcast Growth (& How to Navigate Each of Them)
If your marketing isn’t working, there’s a good chance its because you’re using the wrong tactics for the phase of growth you’re in.
7 Hurdles Your Podcast Marketing Must Address to Win Each New Listener
The little-known micro funnel within your larger marketing funnel that might be holding you back from more listeners.
8 Specific Elements Found In Every Great Podcast Episode
Check these boxes in every podcast episode you produce to instantly improve your listener retention & grow your show faster.
Articles By Category
Develop Your Podcast Strategy
- Read More About Podcast Strategy
Attraction: Design A Magnetic Podcast
- Read More About Podcast Attraction
Retention: Create Bingeable Episodes
- Read More About Podcast Retention
Exposure: Maximize Your Discoverability
- Read More About Podcast Exposure
Sales & Monetization: Generating Podcast ROI
- Read More About Podcast Sales & Monetization
Hone Your Process
- Read More About Podcast Process
Articles By Date
I Audited 53 Podcasts In 2024. Every One of Them Was Making The Same 27 Growth-Stifling Mistakes
On my walk to the coffee shop this morning, I started the research phase of the 53rd client podcast audit of 2024. I’ve only listened to one episode so far, and I’ll listen to another four or five before putting together my notes and recording the audit, but I already...
Maximize Your Podcast Discoverability through Podcast Search Optimization (SEO for Podcasts)
This post is part of a series of guest posts sharing reflections on the 2024 Podcast Marketing Trends Report. This post is from Jennifer Han, CMO at Ausha, a podcast hosting platform that is building out a suite of tools to help podcasters grow, most notably, their...
The Yin & Yang of Podcast Growth
This post is part of a series of guest posts sharing reflections on the 2024 Podcast Marketing Trends Report. This post is from Alison Osborne, VP of Marketing at CoHost, a podcast analytics and audience insights platform built for brands and podcast...
What if Declining Downloads Are Actually Masking Other Types of Podcast Growth?
This post is part of a series of guest posts sharing reflections on the 2024 Podcast Marketing Trends Report. This post is from Elissa Craig, Head of Marketing at Headliner, a tool to help you turn your podcast into stunning short and long-form video content, whether...
The Biggest Misconception In Podcast Marketing
It’s hot. You’re lying on the beach trying to enjoy your well-deserved (and long-overdue) vacation… But you’re distracted by the never-ending beads of sweat running down your arms, your back, your face. One drips off your nose onto the open book you’re trying to...
12 Podcast Marketing Prerequisites for Giving Your Show An Fighting Chance at Growth
There’s an infinite list of things you could be doing to grow your show. If you’re like me, your to-do list has already reached an insurmountable length… and that's if you stopped adding to it today. You can't be expected to finish it all. No one can, regardless of...
Category Inversion: A Simple Exercose to Identify New Podcast Growth Opportunities
No podcast exists in a vacuum. No matter how unique your show is, in a potential listener’s mind, your show is defined by—and compared to—other shows and content they perceive as similar. The most obvious example of this in podcasting is the categories your show is...
The Hidden Side of Growth: 14 Things Top Creators Do Behind Closed Doors to Grow Their Podcasts
There’s this one line from a blog post by writing educator David Perell that I’ve thought about almost every day since I first read it several years ago. “Your work is done when it looks so simple that the consumer thinks they could have done it, which means they...
How a Podcast Cover Art Redesign Helped Growth Mindset Psychology Grow 45% in One Month (+2,000 Downloads/Episode)
If there’s one practice that is central to the eventual success of your marketing, your show, and your business it’s experimentation. From marketing tactics and strategies to episode formats, show concepts, titling (at both the show and episode levels), show...
Start With Surprise: The Simple Strategy For Structuring Satisfying Podcast Episodes
If there’s one rule that applies to every podcast episode, regardless of genre, format, or purpose, it’s this: Every episode should be structured around a payoff. Payoffs are what make the time spent listening worthwhile… which is what keeps listeners coming back. The...
Take It To The Limit: The Soul-Eating Curse of an Underdeveloped Show Premise
If I asked you to describe the website of a typical SEO agency, what words would come to mind? Clean. Vaguely tech-y. Maybe a little boring. Something like one of the following, perhaps. Bingo. These websites are (mostly) clean, (mostly) professional, and (entirely)...
The B-Plot: The Hidden Emotional Hook Running Through All Great Podcasts
On the surface, Harry Potter— perhaps the most successful story of our time—is about a young wizard’s struggle to defeat the most powerful (and evil) wizard in history… and avenge his parents in the process. It's a fantastic premise, as is the world built up around...
Innovate or Die: Why What Worked for Other Podcasts Won’t Grow Your Show
As far as corporate buzzwords go, “Innovation” is surely one of the best. The reason, I think, is that every company knows that if they want to stand out and stay relevant, they need to innovate. But when it comes to the actual innovation… Well, let’s just say...
Write Better Podcast Episode Titles Using the SHARP Framework
Of all the skills necessary to grow a podcast, few are more important than your ability to write episode titles. Your titles are the single data point most listeners will use to decide whether or not to click play on their episode. As such, improving your titles is...
4 Podcast Growth Challenges (& How to Design Your Show to Solve Them)
Podcasting has a discoverability problem. But it’s not the problem everyone thinks it is. The problem isn’t related to tech platforms finding more efficient ways to get more relevant content in front of potential listeners. If it was, 90% of all YouTube views—driven...
5 Podcast Cover Art Design Decisions That Will Accelerate Your Growth
Your podcast cover art might just be the most important asset of your entire show. For many potential listeners, your artwork is the first touchpoint with the show, singlehandedly forming their first impression. And every listener will encounter the art before...
Stop Educating, Start Arguing: The Mindset Shift Behind Content Marketing That Converts
Think back to the most pivotal moments in your life. The type that left a clear before/after demarcation between where your life had been going... and the direction it then branched off to. A handful of moments that immediately come to mind for me are: The moment in...
8 Podcasting Red Flags That Suggest Your Show Is Doomed (And How to Fix Each of Them)
Jealousy. Neediness. Low self-esteem. Disrespect and rudeness. Bad-mouthing previous partners. When it comes to dating and relationships, the red flags to look out for (and steer clear of) are well-known easily identifiable... and unfortunately plentiful. While they...
The Podcast Recommendation Loop: How To Design A Show That Generates Viral Word-of-Mouth Growth
Let’s start with a frustrating reality. Study after study has shown that word of mouth is one of (if not the) most common ways listeners discover new shows. You already know this, intuitively. You’ve discovered new shows based on the recommendation of a friend, family...
Anatomy Of A Big Idea: The Hidden Levers Behind A Podcast Listeners Can’t Stop Listening to, Thinking, and Talking About
“Small minds discuss people; average minds discuss events; great minds discuss ideas.” The quote is most often attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, but some version dates back to Socrates. Clearly, the idea behind it has staying power. It also has portability. Because...
Everything Podcast Listeners Love, Hate, and Wish More Hosts Understood About Interviewing
On your quest to become a better podcast interviewer, it helps to understand what listeners actually want from the interview shows they listen to. Same goes for the red flags that turn them off and cause them to stop listening immediately, never to return. To help get...
How to Become A Better Podcast Interviewer: The Hidden Skills, Traits & Practices Behind Truly Great Guest Interviews
More than 90% of people believe themselves to be above-average drivers. More than 90% of college professors believe themselves to be above-average teachers. And when it comes to podcasting, it’s not a stretch to assume more than 90% of hosts believe...
The Peak-End Rule: The Surprising Power Of Ending Your Episodes With Intention
Picture this. After years of planning, saving, and fantasizing, you finally take your dream trip to Paris. Two weeks. No work. No emails. No responsibilities. You splurged on a boutique hotel in Montmartre with a pristine view of both Sacré-Cœur and the Paris skyline....
Hook Stacking: The Dark Art & Curious Science of Crafting Podcasts That Stick… & Grow
Good songs are built around a clear, memorable hook. Great songs are built around several. And then there are songs by Taylor Swift. The master of hook writing who brings the craft to another level. Take We Are Never Getting Back Together....
Content Fractals: How to Make Your Podcast Stand Out By Zooming In
I don’t talk about it here much, but I’ve spent the last 8 years traveling full-time. When I first started traveling, I approached it the same way many people do: Each country was a line item on a checklist and I wanted to check off as many of them as possible. And so...
What If We’ve Got Podcast Analytics All Wrong?
Sometimes a seemingly simple question can take you to unexpected and surprising places. Take this one that’s been bouncing around my head recently: What are we actually trying to measure by tracking podcast downloads? Downloads, of course, are the current de...
Breaking Down the Data From the Podcast Marketing Trends Explained Launch
One of my core beliefs about podcasting is that everyone benefits from more transparency about numbers. So today, I want to share some behind-the-scenes numbers from my new show and a few observations so far. 💡 There are a number of screenshots and graphics in this...
Podcast Listener Churn: The Quiet Killer Undermining Your Podcast Marketing
I don’t know about you, but here’s what I like to think happens when a new listener discovers my show: They click play on their first episode, the lights dim, and the sound envelops them like their long-lost favourite blanket from childhood. Within a minute, they...
The Subtle Message Every Great Show Communicates to It’s Listeners
Think of the last time you rode as a passenger with a driver you didn’t trust. Maybe they were driving too fast, recklessly, or inattentively. Maybe were constantly being distracted by their phone. Or maybe they simply didn’t know where they were going, and what...
The 80/20 of Every Early-Stage Podcast Marketing Strategy
There’s a quote from famed Venture Capitalist, Marc Andreessen that I can’t stop thinking about in the context of podcasting. “The only thing that matters is getting to Product-Market Fit.” The advice is directed at early-stage founders building companies on the...
Smash or Pass: A Simple Tactic to Assess Your Podcast’s Growth Potential
Most people don’t know about it, but there’s a remarkably simple test you can perform to assess your show’s growth potential. The setup is this: Find someone who by your assessment should love your show, but currently knows nothing about it Speak to them...
The Gaping Hole at the Center of Every Failing Podcast Marketing Strategy
Ramit Sethi had been writing about personal finance since the early 2000s. He’d published thousands of articles to his blog, I Will Teach You To Be Rich. He’d written a NYT bestselling book of the same name. And he’d built up an audience of hundreds of thousands of...
Avoid This Podcast Listener Feedback At All Cost
A few weeks ago, I came across an ad in a well-known podcast industry publication for a new-ish tech company in the podcasting space. The company was a new sponsor of the publication and as part of their sponsor package, received a number of targeted shoutouts, both...
The Four Phases of Podcast Growth: How to Use the Right Podcast Marketing Strategy at the Right Time
One of the hardest things about marketing is this: There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Cut and paste the tactics that are wildly effective for someone else onto your show, product, or business and they rarely get anywhere close to the same results. If you’ve ever...
This is How Good Your Podcast Needs to Be to Have a Shot at Success
I was talking with a friend who is deeply embedded in the podcast world last week about the current state of podcasting and he said something that stuck with me. “The average podcast just isn’t that good.” To be honest it shocked me. Not because it was wrong. But...
How Much Untapped Revenue Is Locked Up In Your Podcast?
There’s an old saying in online marketing circles: “The money’s in the list.” And it’s true. An engaged email list is one of the most valuable assets you can build when it comes to selling your products and services online. There are numerous reasons why email is so...
Big League Podcasting: How to Compete (& Win) Against the Biggest Shows, Networks & Companies In the World
If your dream is to play pro sports, the path is pretty clear. You start by playing recreationally as a kid, perhaps as young as three or four years old. If you’re good enough, as you grow and improve, you continually enroll in ever more competitive leagues. At some...
The 3 Levers of Mastering Podcast Marketing
There might be no medium that does a better job of systematically guiding participants from novice to mastery than video games. I say this after having recently eased my way back into the world of video games after a 15-year break. Specifically, I’ve been playing...
First Meaningful Engagement: A Simple Strategy to Create Podcast Listeners, Advocates & Customers In 5 Minutes or Less
There are two ways to build a strong relationship with a member of our audience. The first is the default for most creators: Build trust and connection through a steady stream of dozens (or hundreds, or thousands) of pieces of content mass-broadcasted to our podcast...
8 Specific Elements Found In Every Great Podcast Episode
If you want to grow, you need to hook listeners and keep them coming back. The best way to do that? Create great episodes. Of course, this begs the question: What exactly makes for a great episode? And if there was a simple rubric, wouldn’t everyone just follow it and...
Value Density: How to Objectively Measure (& Improve) the Quality of Your Podcast
How do you measure “how good” a podcast episode is? As listeners, good is a kind of “know it when you hear it” type of thing. But as a host, it helps to have an objective measuring stick to assess your show and measure your efforts to improve it. Episode consumption...
Frontloaded Episodes: How to Structure Your Episodes to Improve Listener Retention & Increase Growth
There are some books you read that delineate two distinct phases in your life. There are the before times, and everything that came after. Profit First, by Mike Michalowicz is one of those books for me. The book was a turning point in how I thought about money and...
54 Predictors of Podcast Marketing Success
What is it exactly that allows some shows—and the marketing behind them—to be successful and others not? This question has been playing on a constant loop in the back of my mind for at least the past 5 years. For a while, I—like most people—was most interested in the...
Are Your Episode Titles Accidentally Killing Your Growth?
Consider this scenario. You’re the host of an interview show that features wide-ranging hour-long interviews with your guests. The guests are fascinating and entertaining people and over the course of a typical interview, you jump from topic to topic, going down each...
Listener-Oriented Episodes: The Key to Improving Podcast Listener Retention & Engagement
Imagine you’re attending a conference. You’ve arrived early to a session featuring a conversation between two of the luminaries in your space so you could grab a front-row seat. But as the lights dim and the speakers take the stage, something strange becomes apparent…...
Why Memorability Is One of the Most Important Levers for Podcast Growth (& How to Achieve It)
Over the course of my life, I’ve probably eaten at over a hundred pizza joints. And no matter how good (or bad) the pizzas at these restaurants, I’ve forgotten about almost all of them. There’s one, however, that will stick in my mind forever. Pizza Del Perro Negro in...
Winning the First Click: How A Few Small Changes to Your Podcast Packaging Can Lead to Massive Growth
One of the dynamics that is most essential to understand about creating and marketing on the internet is this: Advantages compound. Said differently, a 1% advantage in quality (or strategy) compared to a competitor might result in a 500% differential in clicks,...
How Would Tesla Create & Market A Podcast?
Back in 2020 the auto industry spent more than $12 billion on digital advertising in the US alone. That's a huge number. It's also a number that doesn't include the ubiquitous TV or radio advertising we're constantly being bombarded with, nor any advertising elsewhere...
A Simple Test to Predict Your Podcast Growth
There’s a quote by the management consultant W. Edwards Deming that I think about on a near-daily basis when it comes to making and marketing podcasts. The quote? “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” When it comes to growing your podcast,...
Attack & Defend: The Tactic Behind All Captivating Podcast Interviews
There’s a YouTuber who’s been popping up in my feed recently named Brandon McNulty. Brandon is a fiction author who shares the writing advice he wishes he had when he first started out, including topics like storytelling, dialogue, plot and character development, and...
6 Reasons Your Podcast Listeners Aren’t Buying (& The Solution to Each of Them)
When you think about “podcast marketing”, most of your attention is probably focused on getting more listeners. More listeners = more sales & sponsorship revenue after all, right? At some level, that’s probably true. But if generating more revenue from your show...
Differentiation: The Secret Behind Creating A Magnetic Podcast that Captivates Your Audience & Amplifies Your Marketing
If there's one hill I will die on when it comes to podcast growth, it's this: No show has a chance to grow without a meaningful, compelling, and obvious differentiation strategy. Here's why. Chances are, your show is just one of many (maybe even dozens of) shows...
The Reason Your Podcast Guests Aren’t Sharing Their Episodes (and What You Can do to Fix it)
Over the past few years, I've probably guested on around 50 podcasts. As someone who has both hosted four shows myself and spends every day working with other hosts, I’m keenly aware of the frustration of guests not sharing their episodes once they’re published....
The Biggest Obstacle to Podcast Growth (& How to Design Your Marketing Strategy to Solve It)
I don’t want to alarm you. But there’s a hidden force that is actively keeping your podcast from growth. It’s invisible. Silent. And baked into the fabric of the universe. That force is friction. And it exists in every part of your marketing process, working against...
The North Star of Every Effective Podcast Marketing Strategy
When taking on any new challenge, it always helps to know what exactly you’re up against. Whether it’s a weekend hiking trip, a new job role, or marketing a podcast, understanding the terrain you’re operating in and the challenges you’re likely to face helps you...
A Clear Red Flag That Your Podcast Is Doomed to Fail
I've had 1:1 conversations with literally hundreds of podcasters looking to grow their shows. And there's one sentence that—when uttered—instantly tells me that their show will probably never be successful. I've heard it spoken by everyone from solo creators to...
Rubber Ducky Debugging: A Step-By-Step Exercise to Fix Your Podcast Marketing Strategy
There's an old trick software developers use to identify problems with their code called Rubber Duck Debugging. Here’s how it works: The developer keeps a rubber duck on their desk and... When they encounter a bit of code that isn’t working as intended—they explain...
To Retain More Podcast Listeners, Get Clear on Why They Choose You
Think for a minute about all the dozens of targeted ads that chase you around the internet every day. Whether it’s on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, or Google the companies behind the ads have clearly identified you as one of their ideal target customers. But despite...
The 3 Types of Consistency that Are Essential for Podcast Growth
Everyone loves to parrot advice about the importance of consistency for growing a podcast. And it’s true, it’s hard to overstate the value of consistency. Unfortunately, most advice about consistency only addresses one of the three types of consistency that are...
Podcast Collaborations & Cross Promotions: Grow Your Show by Partnering with Other Creators
I've got a bit of a sweet tooth. And of aaaaall the sweet treats available, ice cream is by far my biggest weakness. In fact, the first podcast I ever hosted was called Rain City Scoop, a show I created with two friends where we explored Vancouver's craft ice cream...
The 4 Hooks Framework: The Key to Winning Over New Podcast Listeners
The success or failure of your podcast ultimately boils down to your ability to get people to click "play" on your episodes. And while there’s a lot that goes into getting (and keeping) people listening, the majority of the battle is won or lost within the first few...
The Content-Art Spectrum: How to Identify & Research Your Ideal Podcast Listeners
The more you know about your ideal listeners, the easier your podcast is to market. Think about it. When you know exactly: Where to find large congregations of them The messaging that will get their eyes to light up with excitement The content that will hook them and...
Average Time to Value: The Most Important Metric For Hooking & Retaining More Podcast Subscribers
No matter how long your podcast episodes, three specific minutes are more important than all the others. Specifically, the first three. These first minutes are the first impression every new listener has of your show, and are often the sole data point they’ll use to...
It’s Not Your Guests’ Job to Grow Your Podcast
Imagine this: You’ve just recorded an episode with a guest who has a huge following. You might not know exactly why they agreed to be on your show in the first place, but you’re absolutely sure that this is the big break you’ve been waiting for. You take your time...
The 3 Universal Building Blocks of Podcast Growth
Imagine for a moment that podcasting “success” is a bar set at a predefined height and your goal is to build your show up toward it. To do so, you have your choice of three basic building blocks, each of identical dimensions. The first block is time. The second,...
The Simple Psychological Reason Marketing & Growing Your Podcast Is So Hard
Behind so many of our biggest problems is a maddeningly simple root cause. It’s behind everything from personal problems such as neglecting to save for retirement or look after our health to massive global problems such as climate change. The problem? They simply...
What’s Your Podcast’s Hook?
Think of the last movie you actually went to see in the theater. Chances are, before committing to the movie you either had heard about it from a friend or seen a trailer and were intrigued enough to forgo Netflix, leave your house, and head to the theater. In other...
Niche Your Podcast’s Marketing, Not Your Content
Imagine you have a choice of two lakes to fish in, one on your left and the other on your right. The lakes are identical, except for two factors. The lake on your left has 10x as many fish as the one on the right It’s also 100x bigger, with the fish evenly dispersed...
Content Repurposing is Not Podcast Marketing (& It’s Probably Killing Your Growth)
I’ll just come out and say it. I hate content repurposing. *gasp* *faint* *clutch your pearls* Yep, I said it. It might be surprising given that I’m a podcast marketing nerd who spends literally 80% of my waking hours thinking about the topic in one form or another....
The Recommendation Squeeze: 4 Prerequisites for Word of Mouth Podcast Growth
As a newsletter writer, I’m always looking for new resources to share with my readers. I consume a lot of content and have exposure to a lot of tools and resources most creators don’t, and being able to curate and share the best of it is one of my favourite parts of...
Better Podcast Discovery Won’t Save Your Show
As a podcaster, it's easy to look at platforms like TikTok and YouTube and get a little wistful. So many podcast hosts imagine that if only podcasting had a universal discoverability engine similar to those platforms, their shows would have an easier time finding and...
The Subtle (But Destructive) Dangers of Over-Optimizing Your Podcast Marketing
I don't remember many of the details about the first paid product I ever offered as a creator. But I know for a fact that the purchase button was green. Aside from the button colour, I recall three other specifics: It was 2016 The product was a podcast gear guide...
The Most Reliable Blueprint for Podcast Marketing Success
You’ve never heard of Stuart Reid. But he’s the best in the world at what he does. There’s almost no doubt about it. In fact, he’s pretty much the only person in the world doing what he does. Despite the lack of competition—and at least initially—the lack of demand...
How Long Should You Wait Before Quitting a Podcast?
As far as creators go, it’s hard to argue that Matt D’Avella is pretty successful. On YouTube, he has more than 3.5 million subscribers. His podcast, which he produced from 2017-2019, has more than two million downloads. His newsletter is read weekly by more than...
The Counterintuitive Math Behind Podcast Growth
Depending on the positioning of the planets in relation to each other, it's around 225,000,000 kilometers (140,000,000 miles) to Mars. As with all spaceflight, one of the most difficult challenges facing any voyage to Mars is fuel. 225 million kilometers is more than...
7 Hurdles to Acquiring Every New Podcast Listener
A typical marketing funnel consists of several distinct phases that map out a potential client, customer, or podcast listener’s relationship with us. These phases might include a person’s general awareness of us and our work, engagement with our show and other...
Every Podcast Starts From Zero
Zero listeners, zero fans, zero reputation. Every podcast creator starts in the same place. It’s easy to begrudge the big brands and media empires for instantly racking up millions of downloads without having to pay their dues. But they did. They started from zero...
The Only Type of Podcast You’ll Ever Be Able to Grow
Chances are, you'd like your podcast to reach more people. Not just reach people, however, but connect with them, move them, change them. The way to achieve that, as you might have already guessed, is through marketing. But there's a catch. There's a secret that...
Don’t Steal This Podcast Marketing Strategy
A few years ago, I heard a story about a high school basketball player who was determined to one day make the NBA. Like so many up-and-coming basketball players his age, his idol was LeBron James. In an effort to replicate LeBron's career trajectory and success, the...
Why Specificity Is the Hidden Driver of Podcast Growth & Monetization
Imagine that in the past few days, you've started suffering from back pain. It started as a dull ache just above your tailbone but has now sharpened into an acute needling pain that shoots up your spine in waves. Realizing that the problem isn't going to resolve...
The Cliché Career Advice That Will Grow Your Podcast
“Dress for the job you want, not the one you have.” At some point, you've probably heard this advice applied to career advancement. And while the concept might be outdated in a world that's going increasingly remote—when it comes to podcasting, it’s never been more...
One of The Biggest Illusions In Podcast Marketing
Imagine that by some twist of fate, you were granted access to Studio Two at Abbey Road to record and mix your next episode. As the site of landmark recordings from The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Oasis, Adele, Ed Sheeran, and many more, Studio Two is one of the most...
To Keep Podcast Listeners Coming Back, Nail Your Episode Endings
The US version of the Office had a problem. They were six episodes into their pilot season and on the brink of cancellation. To this point, they’d modeled everything in their show on the hit UK version of the show, including their main character, Michael Scott, played...
Is Your Podcast Setting You Up For Creative Burnout?
Not long ago, I hit a wall. It’s not surprising, really, in hindsight. At the time, I was publishing two newsletters, a long-form Twitter thread, and four Quick Podcast Tips every week. From a content creation perspective alone it was a lot. But that was just the...
The 10 People You Need to Grow Your Podcast
As podcast creators, our shows often based around a big goal or grand vision for how to make life better for a specific group of people. That vision might be a refinement or improvement on the way things are currently done or a complete uprooting of the existing...
Want Your Podcast Listeners to Buy From You? Here’s What You Need to Do Every Episode
I think it’s safe to say that if you're currently perusing your a website dedicated solely to podcast marketing and growth, your show is one of your life's current priorities. Producing a show on a consistent basis is a near-all-encompassing labour of love that likely...
Defining Your Villain: The Secret to Uniting & Energizing Your Podcast Audience
While Apple has produced a number of iconic ad campaigns over the years, one of the most memorable is surely the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" series. In the ads, PCs were personified by a hapless (if friendly), doughy middle-aged office worker. Macs on the other hand were...
The Two Tried & True Strategies to Make Your Podcast Un-Ignorable
When it comes down to it, there are essentially two tried and true ways to stand out in your niche and build a following around your podcast. The first is to produce the same content, in the same format, for the same audience that other podcasters are already creating...
Podcast Marketing Insanity (and Why It’s Keeping You Stuck)
“Insanity,” an oft-quoted phrase tells us, “is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” It's easy to recognize the absurdity of this approach in that friend who's stuck in a perpetual cycle of breaking up with their partner... only to get...
Great Podcasts Have A Distinctive Fingerprint. Does Yours?
Imagine ten of your favourite podcasts were put on shuffle mode and you were then played back random 2-minute clips from each of them. Presented with this small sample, what are the chances that you'd be able to identify each of them? If they're truly great shows, the...
The Idea Faucet: A Simple Exercise to Generate Ideas & Get Unstuck
A while back, I came across Julian Shapiro’s idea of the Creativity Faucet. Here’s how he describes it: Visualize your creativity as a backed-up pipe of water. The first mile of piping is packed with wastewater. This wastewater must be emptied before the clear water...
Your Podcast Probably Isn’t That Good (But Should You Expect It To Be?)
Imagine for a moment you decide to want to learn to speak Mongolian. Maybe you’ve got a month-long horseback expedition planned through the Central Asian Steppe, maybe you share my dream of bicycle touring through the region, or maybe you think it would look cool on...
Idea Generation: The Crucial Skill Your Entire Podcast Hinges On
If I asked you to list the skills that are most important to growing a successful podcast, what comes to mind? I'm guessing it's the technical ones. Skills like recording & editing audio, conducting compelling interviews, scripting, copywriting, and marketing. All...
The Art of Finishing: The One Habit that Will Make or Break Your Podcast Marketing Strategy
Imagine for a moment that you're building a house. The whole reason you started is that you need a roof over your head. Knowing the end result you're aiming for, you decide to take the quickest route to get there. You lay a few bricks of the foundation, then slap...
The Overjustification Effect: The Silent Killer of Podcast Dreams
A couple years ago, I bought a book on beginner calligraphy and started practicing. I've always admired hand lettering artists and after taking a one-off intro calligraphy workshop, discovered that apart from looking cool, it was also a lot of fun. I had been looking...
The Kobe Bryant Approach to Podcasting
Kobe Bryant will forever be regarded as one of basketball's greatest players. Much of this can be attributed to his prodigious natural talent. But behind that talent, was one of the hardest-working players the game had ever seen. During the offseason, he followed his...
Are You Measuring the Wrong Podcast Metrics? (Here’s What to Measure Instead)
In our data-driven world, it's tempting to rely on easily measurable metrics as the ultimate judgment of our podcasts’ success, failure, and impact. Downloads, subscriptions, ratings, and reviews are presented front and center in the dashboards of every app and tool...
One Sneaky Psychological Bias Keeping Potential Listeners From Choosing Your Podcast (& How to Get Around It)
As it turns out, Netflix's greatest strength is also its biggest flaw. Let me explain. The other weekend, my partner, Kelly, and I were in the mood to watch a movie. We made popcorn, settled into the couch, and pulled up Netflix. You can probably guess what happened...
The Best Podcast In The World (and How It’s Easier to Create Than You Think)
If I asked you to name the best swimmer in the world, who would you pick? Like any sane person, your mind probably jumped immediately to Michael Phelps. After all, he’s not only the most decorated international swimmer of all time, but the most decorated Olympian of...
A Clever Hack to Stay Motivated When Podcast Growth Is Slow
One of the hardest parts of podcasting is staying motivated. We've talked before about how podcasting is built on compounding returns, which means we have to commit to playing the game for a long time before we can hope to see any real results. The thing is, playing...
Lessons From The Stock Market On Growing A Podcast
When I was in high school, my parents regularly nagged me about the importance of starting to invest for retirement early. Even $50 per month would be worthwhile, they said, and would go a long way toward building the habit of investing as I started working and could...
This One Podcast Audience Member Dictates Your Entire Strategy (Don’t Ignore Them)
In the summer of 2020, I launched the first podcast that was truly my own. I'd spent the previous 4 years hemming and hawing about starting a show and had started the development phase of at least a half dozen shows. For many of these, I'd got as far as mapping out...
The 3 (Deceptively Difficult) Questions That Make or Break Your Podcast Marketing Strategy
One of the things I've learned from working with dozens (and studying hundreds more) of successful podcasts is that the secret to podcast growth is surprisingly simple. In short, every successful podcaster I've encountered has a crystal clear answer to three, simple...
If Your Podcast Isn’t Your Audience’s Favorite, It’s Nothing
At the end of 2020, I discovered the software tool, Notion. If you’re not familiar with it, Notion is an ultra-flexible, all-in-one workspace, allowing you to wrap all your favorite productivity tools into one neat & tidy package. Now, I’m a systems nerd, and I...
The Hidden Marketing Magic Behind the Most Successful, Audience-Loved Podcasts
Magic, it turns out, it's fairly simple. "You will be fooled by a trick," shares Teller (of legendary magic duo Penn & Teller), "if it involves more time, money, and practice than you (or any other sane onlooker) would be willing to invest." A simple magic trick...
The Slow, Unsexy, Utterly Effective Way to Improve & Grow Your Podcast
Think for a moment about your very favourite podcast. The show that you wish yours could be. What are the gaps currently separating your podcast from that show? Chances are they're significant. Your favourite podcast might record in a professional production studio...
Achors & Associations: A Simple Messaging Tactic to Convert More Listeners
Imagine you're trying to convince a friend to check out one of your favourite bands. You know they'll enjoy their music, but you first have to get them to listen. You could start with the genre, of course. But genres–while helpful–are also incredibly broad. A better...
The Real Work of Podcasting
If you've been producing your podcast for long, you know how much work goes into creating a great podcast. Guest outreach & management, research, recording, editing, promotion... Let's just say it's a lot. Each episode of my last podcast took 15-20 hours of my...
The Hidden Benefits of Approaching Your Podcast as a Body of Work
Imagine for a moment that The Beatles had never written and released the song Hey Jude. Would they still be as popular and culturally influential without it? The song is not only one of the band's most popular songs, but one of the most popular songs. Of all time....
Great Podcasts Do “Work” for Their Listeners. Does Yours?
I came across this tweet from Sam Parr, host of the massively successful My First Million podcast a while back. The show's concept is that in every episode, Sam and his co-host Shaan brainstorm potential million-dollar business ideas for their listeners to take and...
Two Ways to Improve Your Podcast (& Why Most People Choose Wrong)
There are two ways to make anything better, including a podcast. The first, and more obvious, is to add something new. More features. More benefits. More bonuses. We often look at the work of others we perceive as more successful and think the difference in results is...
Two Ways to Improve Your Podcast (& Why Most People Choose Wrong)
There are two ways to make anything better, including a podcast. The first, and more obvious, is to add something new. More features. More benefits. More bonuses. We often look at the work of others we perceive as more successful and think the difference in results is...
Distribution Isn’t Enough to Grow Your Podcast
There's a classic scene in Season 4 of Seinfeld that relates perfectly to how many podcast creators approach their shows. Jerry and George are in a meeting with Russell Dalrymple, President of NBC pitching him a pilot for a TV show Jerry and George are writing. When...
The Onlyness Statement: A Simple Sentence That Will Unlock Your Podcast’s Growth
As podcasting becomes more and more crowded, being intentional about your show's positioning ever more important. If you're not familiar with the concept of positioning, essentially it explains the space your occupy in an industry or niche relative to your...
Is Your Podcast Packaging Confusing Potential Listeners?
One of the best pieces of marketing advice I ever received was this: "A confused mind always says 'no'." When it comes to podcasting, this advice applies most specifically to your podcast's messaging. Here's how it works: Clear messaging has the effect of both...
Great Shows Are Built Around The Host’s Superpowers. Is Yours?
I always marvel at the way my girlfriend, Kelly, can get on a call with a total stranger and within 5 minutes be chatting away as if they grew up together. It might be (and often is) a prospective client, potential collaborator, a new acquaintance, or even a customer...
The One Way to Escape the Podcast Production Hamster Wheel
At one point or another, we've all experienced the podcast production hamster wheel. We run faster, produce more content, and yet never seem to get anywhere. The hamster wheel is exhausting, discouraging, and leads, in one way or another to the death of many a...
What’s the Rare Thing Your Podcast Provides?
Hi friends, I'm a bit of an ice cream fiend. I've sampled ice cream at dozens if not hundreds of ice cream shops around the world and my very first podcast was actually a show about local ice cream in Vancouver. Since I know you're curious, my favourite shop is Salt...
Podcast Growth Flywheels: How to Grow Faster with Less Effort
You might remember James Watt, from history class, as the inventor of the Watt steam engine. The Watt Steam Engine played a pivotal role in the industrial revolution. But while it was certainly his most significant invention, it was far from his only one. Another of...
The Truth About How Podcasts Really Grow
A few months ago, I decided to go through the list of podcasts I subscribed to and determine exactly how I had discovered them in the first place. There were 18 podcasts in my feed from Seth Godin's, Akimbo to Krista Tippett's, On Being, 99 Percent Invisible to LeVar...
Before You Can Achieve Podcasting Success, You Need to Define It
Asking what podcasting success looks like might seem like a silly question to ask. "Millions of downloads, of course! Oh, and a line up of sponsors out the door... And a book deal... and I want to interview Barrack Obama... And maybe a spin-off Netflix series? Once my...
Podcasting Won’t Grow Your Audience (But It Will Do Something Better)
Think for a minute about your absolute favourite podcast. How many hours would you guess you've spent with the host plugged directly into your ears? 20? 50? 100? Personally, I'd estimate that there are multiple podcasts that I've spent well over 200 hours listening...
The Square Peg, Round Hole Podcast Problem
When I started producing podcasts in 2016, podcasting was a completely different world. At only 60k active podcasts (compared to more than a million today), the medium was a lot less crowded for creators like us. With little competition, podcast hosts didn't need to...
How Emulating Successful Podcasts Kills Your Potential for Growth
With several million podcasts in existence, there's a lot of noise in the world of podcasting. It's not as much as Youtube (31 million channels) or blogging (600 million), but it's certainly not nothing. Many of those podcasts feature solid content and tight...
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