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 covering the same topic.
Among those shows, you probably don’t have the biggest budget, the most experience, or the highest production quality.
Nor do you have access to the biggest guests, nor the reach and distribution of network or established media company.
In other words, it’s pretty much impossible for you to produce the best show in your niche.
But that doesn’t mean you don’t stand a chance of growing a sizeable (and highly profitable) audience.
It just means you have to take a different approach.
Year after year, new shows continue to gain a foothold and climb to the top of even the most crowded, competitive niches.
And while their shows are certainly solid, they don’t grow their audiences by creating a better version of what already exists.
So what do they do instead?
The secret behind every new show that rapidly gains traction and grows is that it has intentionally been built to be radically different than the existing shows in their category.
Understanding how to achieve this type of effective differentiation is the biggest superpower available to an underdog creator looking to carve out a space in a crowded niche.
Unfortunately, most hosts haven’t spent the time to define, commit to, or even think about their differentiation strategy.
As a result, they end up creating shows that blend into the background and get lost in the noise of their niche.
And when you don’t have a clearly differentiated offering, your only chance of growing it is to market it harder.
Which is exactly the last thing you probably want to spend your time doing.
The alternative is to create a show that is clearly different from everything else that already exists in your niche.
A show that makes your ideal listeners’ ears perk up as soon as they come across it.
A show that is a breath of fresh air in a sea of same-y, generic content.
Crafting an effective differentiation strategy is the most important work you’ll ever do for your show and your marketing.
It’s the difference between growth and stagnation.
Between a money tree & a money pit.
Between fun and frustration.
And while there’s a lot that goes into building out that differentiation strategy, from honing your show concept to your messaging to your packaging, it all begins in the same place.
Competitor research.
It’s the step almost everyone skips and the one that makes all the difference.
Because there’s no way to craft a show that stands out to your ideal listeners if you don’t know what you need to stand out from.
I’ll be honest, the process is uncomfortable.
Because chances are, you’ll realize that your show isn’t as unique or compelling as you thought it was.
But if you can push past the discomfort to gain an accurate view of the shows vying for your ideal listener’s attention, you’ll have a second realization.
That most of the shows in your niche are boring and generic. And that standing out from them isn’t all that difficult.
This is where the fun begins.
Because with awareness in place, all it takes is a few, well-placed tweaks to create a show that is an attention magnet for your ideal listeners.
Which means you can spend less time, effort, and money to get better results.
It’s a pretty good bargain, no?
