Whenever we talk about podcast data, your mind probably goes straight to your download numbers. But in reality, there's so much more you can look at. Today, we're going to look at data in a slightly different way.

Kierra Conover is here to talk about what you can track outside the norm to help drive decisions around marketing your podcast. She also shares ways to track whether your podcast is generating sales for your business and, for those who have yet to launch, how you can use your existing email and social data to strategically launch your show and come up with your first episode topics.

If you enjoyed today's episode, let us know by screenshotting it and adding it to your Instagram stories. You can tag me @podcastingforeducators and Kierra @klc.thestudio.

⭐️ Resources Mentioned:

• Freebie: Take the quiz to see what to track to double your sales on social, email & beyond
• Kierra's Marketing Membership
• flodesk
• Follow me on Instagram @podcastingforeducators 

🔗 Connect with Kierra: 

• Check out her website
• Listen to her podcast, Data over Drama
• Follow her on Instagram @klc.thestudio

🎤 Recommended Podcasting Resources:

• Hosting: Captivate.fm (Get a free 7-day trial!)
• Transcription: Otter.ai
• Project Management: ClickUp
• Private Podcasting: Hello Audio
• Podcast Playlist Toolkit - use code PODCAST to grab it for $17!
• Launch Your Podcast: Free Podcast Launch Guide & Podcasting for Educators Prep School
• Level Up Your Podcast: Podcast Like You Mean It
• Leverage Podcast Guesting: Free Guesting Planning Guide & Guesting for Educators Mini-Course

Show Notes: https://podcastingforeducators.com/episode171

Some links mentioned are affiliate links. This helps to support this podcast at no additional cost to you. 

Whenever we talk about podcast data, your mind probably goes straight to your download numbers, but in reality, there's so much more that you can look at.

I've had several episodes on this podcast talking about different data points to look at, especially inside of your host and on listening apps like Apple Podcasts.

But today we're going to look at data in a little bit of a different way.

Kiera Conover is joining me to talk about what you can track that's outside of the norm to help drive decisions around marketing your podcast.

She also shares a few ways to track whether or not your podcast is generating sales.

And for those of you who haven't yet launched your podcast, you'll hear how you can use your existing email and social data to help strategically launch your show.

There are lots of great takeaways in this conversation, so get ready to maybe listen to this episode a couple of times.

I usually don't like when people say to take notes while you're listening because it's a podcast and you're probably not going to take notes, but you might want to at least get out the notes app on your phone and jot down a couple of ideas that come to you as you listen.

Here's a little bit about Kiera Kiera is formerly a marketing strategist for Banana Republic and Gap and is now the proud owner of KLC, the studio.

With over seven years in billion dollar marketing and experience managing high profile campaigns featuring celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Kanye west, she has leveraged her expertise to establish a boutique agency, KLC.

The studio specializes in marketing data and launch consulting.

They help service providers, coaches and product brands maximize their sales through data backed marketing strategies.

Whether you are somebody who absolutely loves to look at data or somebody who avoids it at all costs, I promise that there will be something in this episode that you can take and apply to your podcast, to your business.

Let's get started.

Your podcast is a powerful tool that serves your audience and your business.

But how do you manage it all?

Bring in new listeners and convert those listeners into customers.

That's what this show is all about.

Welcome to podcasting for educators.

I'm Sarah Whitaker, classroom teacher turned podcast manager, and I'm here to help you get the most out of your show, all while making an impact on other educators.

Hey Kiara, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks so much for being here.

Hi.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

So we are going to be talking about things outside of the norm that you should be tracking when it comes to making decisions about marketing.

Your podcast.

So I'm excited for this conversation because this isn't really a topic that we've touched on here on this show before and it's perfect.

I was just telling you that I am at the time that this episode is going to air, I've been doing some episodes for people who are just thinking about starting their podcast, maybe getting ready to start their podcast, but they haven't launched yet.

And so I thought we could start by talking to those people.

I know that you have some ideas for how people could use their current email and social media data to help them strategically launch their podcast.

So tell us a little bit about what they could do there.

Yeah, so I always like to say the first thing that it is that you should have is definitely two data touch points that you're utilizing to drive any decisions with your marketing.

The first one being obviously what you're learning on social media and what you're like the analytics that it is you get from social.

So like your impressions, your reach, also like the analytics that you get from your email, your opens, your clicks, those are always good foundational touch points to be able to look at what's getting the most opens, what's getting the most clicks and try to utilize whatever messaging or content that it is that you put that got good reach or got good comments, utilizing that and sort of taking that information and then repurposing it into maybe, you know, a podcast episode where you dive deeper into the topic or you give a different perspective and things like that.

So that's always like the first good data point that anybody can use when they're trying to think about how can I take content that it is that I've already created, or how do I know what content to maybe turn into a podcast or elaborate more on a podcast.

Always start there with what is your email analytics saying and your social analytics saying.

Right.

But then step two is going one step further and utilizing Google Analytics.

So if you don't have that set up, sometimes it could be a little clunky.

So I'll just give you like a good high level view on how to get started with it, which is, number one, setting up Google Analytics on your website.

If you don't know how to do that, all you have to do is literally Google Google Analytics setup for Showit, squarespace, WordPress, Wix, whatever your website is hosted on.

That is how you can get the information on how to set up Google Analytics for your website and then setting up UTm links.

And there's tons of different UTM link builders tutorials on YouTube that'll show you how to use this.

Inside of my agency, we have a marketing membership where we walk you through how to do this entire setup specifically for businesses who are service providers, online consultants, run agencies, people that are like in our group.

Because Google Analytics serves all different types of businesses.

And so if you're looking for something specific, that's something that we provide.

But all of that to say if you can get that set up, what that's going to allow you to do is it's going to allow you to look at the data that is beyond just your social and your email analytics.

So when you're looking at Instagram or you're looking at email, all you can see is what got good opens or what got good clicks.

You cannot actually track the consumer behavior beyond those clicks.

And so what Google Analytics is going to do is it's going to help you create that story about what is the behavior of the people that are clicking after your email.

What are they doing on your website?

Are they going to your blog?

Are they going to your sales page?

Are they scrolling far down on your sales page?

Are they interacting with certain CTA's, which CTA's are they interacting with?

And what that'll do is it'll create an even bigger picture on not only do I know what content does really well in email, gets good opens, gets good clicks, but it'll also be able to say, now I know that if I want to drive traffic to my blog, I should be talking about these set things inside of email or these set things inside of podcast because I'm now tracking what my consumer is doing once they click into these emails, if that makes sense.

So it allows you to really create a story around not just what gets good engagement, but what also helps generate leads and conversions.

Oh my gosh, I love this.

I've never ever thought to do this.

It's so smart for, I mean, so many reasons you touched on, like following that journey, after they click on something from social or email and even being able to see like you if you have pop ups on your websites or you have CTA's on your blog posts that you can see what people interact with.

That's really cool too, because that kind of shows you, okay, these are the CTA's that people are really taking action on.

So I should really focus on including those in my podcast episodes.

And of course like topics too.

Like if you're able to see where people are going the most, what people are really wanting to learn from, you, or hear from you.

That solves such a big hurdle for people when they start their podcast because so many people get hung up on like, what should my first few episodes be?

And so if you can really like, target that and focus on those high interest topics, then that's going to be so great for you because you're going to be able to really like, come out with a bang when you first launch your show.

Absolutely.

And it'll help you utilize podcasts as a conversion tool and not just a nurturing tool.

Because a lot of people, when they start a podcast, they, they anticipate not making sales.

They come with the anticipation that it's just an add on to their Instagram where they're already, you know, selling in the DM's or they're doing really well, or it's just an add on to emails.

Like, podcasting is just this place where we nurture and we go deeper and we have these longer conversations.

Or I give value to my audience and I bring in different interviewees and things like that.

Right?

And so people sort of look at podcasting as sort of like this really cool, like on the shelf addition to their marketing, and it's like, no, it could be a money maker.

If you have the data to track it, you could really turn that around a lot faster.

Yes.

Oh my God.

I know everybody who's listening right now is like, yes.

Because that's so true.

Even for people, not only when they first start their show, but also for people who have like, had their podcasts for years.

I mean, I've seen firsthand a lot of people eventually get to that point where they're like, I just don't know what kind of impact my podcast is making on my business.

Like, is it bringing in sales?

Is it not?

Should I still be putting time into this?

So I know that this is something that people really want to hear about is like, how can I?

And this is one of the things I wanted to touch on with you today.

So maybe we could just jump here now is especially talking about UTM links.

Like, what are some ways that we can track to see if our podcast is actually generating sales for us?

Yeah.

So there's a couple of different ways.

One is with Google Analytics, you can actually add the UTM links into your podcast show notes.

And what that will do on your Google Analytics is it will pull in that podcast.

Episode number ten generated ten leads to your website.

And then those leads then went on to go look at your services page, read your about me page or whatever.

So it'll track the behavior of what happened with those leads.

And so that's a really good way to determine maybe my podcast may not be generating direct revenue, right?

It's not bringing in five k, ten k, whatever.

I.

But my podcast is deepening my relationships with my clients because I'm noticing that the people that engage in my podcast are going to my about me section and they're wanting to dive in more.

I'm noticing that the people that come from my podcast are deciding to go to my homepage and sign up for my email newsletter.

So now you understand where to place your podcast in terms of how much do you want to invest in it based on what it's doing for you.

And so that's a really good way to sort of measure if your podcast is generating demand or revenue.

The other way is if on your application forms or if you're someone who doesn't have an application and you just have like a click to purchase, let's say it's a membership or you sell digital products or something like that, having somewhere in the onboarding process, surveying process, somewhere where the consumer can say to you where they interact with you the most.

Now, it's really important that the question is, what channels do you interact with us on?

As opposed to, where did you find me?

Where did you find me?

Could be I found you on Instagram.

That's one thing.

But where do you interact with us on that?

Could be Instagram threads, podcasts, blog.

Like, that could be multiple.

Like, for me, my people always select fortify places.

By the time someone comes to purchase from me, they.

They have gone to every single channel that I am on.

And so it's really helpful for you to understand, is my podcast being selected?

Are they paying attention to that?

What are they choosing when they say, hey, I finally decided to buy with you?

What are all the channels that they're saying that they're tuning into by the time that they've made that decision?

Okay, that's brilliant, because I've always used the question, where did you find me?

And I have the podcast as an option.

But I love what you said because, yeah, maybe they found me on Instagram, but maybe they do listen to my podcast every week, but from the answer, it's only going to look like they're seeing me on Instagram.

Yeah.

So that just means that your Instagram is at the top of your funnel, right?

That's the top where you're generating leads.

But, like, your podcast could still be really doing its job and holding its own.

But you won't know asking, where did you find me exactly?

Oh, I love that.

Okay.

And can I also ask a follow up just for people who, who might not be, because I think UTM links are something that are very underutilized with podcasters.

And I, I know that there's going to be some people who, like, are not super familiar with UTM links.

Can you kind of explain the difference?

Because I know a lot of people will use, like, they'll set up like a pretty link.

So like a redirect.

So maybe they're talking about a lead magnet on their podcast, and so they create a pretty link for it, for their podcast.

So they can kind of like, track clicks that way.

But with a UTM code, you're, you're able to see more than that, like you said.

So you're able.

So are you actually able to, like, pull up the data and it actually shows you, like, everything that they clicked on after that initial click?

Yeah.

So it won't show you by person.

So it won't say, like, you can't track, like, jane clicked on this link and then Jane did actually after.

But what you can see is that twelve people clicked on this UTM link, and then of those twelve people, ten of them went to your blog, one went to your sales page, and the other one went to your about me page.

And then from there you can, you can see what people are doing after they, they get on those UTM links.

Awesome.

And I, I don't know if you're familiar.

Are you familiar with TPT at all?

Teachers pay teachers.

No.

I always say it's kind of like an etsy for teachers.

And a lot of the people listening have TPT stores.

And for anybody listening, you can.

Most of you probably already know this, but you can set up like, your UTM links to your TPT products.

I think there's like a built in link generator on TPT, so that is like, perfect to use, too, for your podcast.

Yeah.

Amazing.

Okay, so anything else that you wanted to mention about as far as, like, tracking to show the ROI from your show?

Yeah, no, I think.

I think those two main points are the biggest ones.

I also have recently started adding.

So I don't know how this works for other people who don't use the same email.

That platform that I use, but I use flow desk and float, allows you to, if someone clicks a CTA inside of your email, it will allow you to automatically set, add a tag or add a, add a segment to that person.

I'm sure various other platforms have something similar.

But what I've been able to do is I also have a private podcast.

And what I've been doing is I've been adding a CTA for people to join the private podcast.

And so anyone who clicks that link, I have them segmented into interested in private podcast segment.

And that just kind of helps me gauge if my private podcast is, like, even something, like I said, like people are interested in and how much of that interest is coming specifically from my email list versus how much of it is coming from Instagram.

And so you can do the same thing with your podcast.

If you don't have a private podcast and you just have a main one, add it as like a little bottom banner after your CTA's on your emails and just start tracking how many people start clicking in from your email list to your podcast.

And that'll help you understand, you know, how the flow of leads are coming in.

You know, maybe now instead of directing people straight to your podcast, maybe it's direct them to email first and then get them onto your podcast and sell the podcast that way.

So that kind of just gives you some more data.

But besides those three points, I think that pretty much concludes it.

Yeah, I mean, I think all of those are so great and can give you a really good understanding of the ROI of your podcast and great points about email.

Gosh, there's so many things that you can do with segmenting and tagging and all of that.

But I love that idea of putting them into, like, even if you're sending maybe a weekly newsletter about your podcast episodes, start tracking how many people are clicking on those, put them into their own segment so you can kind of see, okay, this is my emails are, you know, doing what they're supposed to be doing.

Love that.

Okay, so then what about when it comes to marketing your podcast?

What are some things that people should be tracking so that they can make the right decisions about maybe how to market their show?

Yeah.

So if you're someone who does not have a podcast at all and you are just currently marketing on Instagram or TikTok or, where would you say the majority of your people are marketing?

Probably Instagram.

Instagram and email.

Instagram and email.

Oh, great.

I love that.

How many people are not on email?

Oh, oh, yeah.

Most people are on.

On email.

And I always talk about, like, I think podcast, email, Instagram work or some social media platform of your choice.

Those three things work really well together.

Pinterest is another place that a lot of people are.

Yeah, I love that.

I love that.

Okay, so the things that I would track is before you even get into what to do with your podcast is obviously it's not up and running yet, so you don't have data on it yet is.

I would track a couple different things.

One, I would track your open rate on email and understanding what subject lines draw the most open rates.

Because open rates and overall impressions on Instagram, they speak to interest, they speak to what's going to get someone to click and they speak to that information will be able to help you understand what titles you should title your podcast.

Yeah, that'll help you understand like what topics of discussion to start with.

So if you're, if you're just trying to understand of like where do I even begin, I would look at opens and impressions.

If you're thinking about how do I make my podcast make money for me and convert, that's when you want to start looking at clicks and things that generate like your website clicks inside of your Instagram or things that generate like, people to spark conversation with you.

So like if you post something and then you start getting a bunch of DM's about having conversations around those topics, like those are all things that will indicate that there's demand for more information about this topic.

And then same thing with email, with clicks.

And then of course if you are able to do this, the part two of analyzing the Google Analytics data, that will definitely help you understand that more.

So I think that there's always two different goals that people need to factor in and where do they want to start when they're adding on any marketing platform is do you want it to be a lead gen pool or do you want it to be converting?

Because those two things require two different types of strategies.

If you're just trying to get interest and you're like, I'm already really good on killing it on Instagram, but at this point I want the podcast to be a space where people can get to know me more intimately or hear my thought leadership or hear my opinions on things.

I think understanding what your overall goal is, that'll help you understand what metrics you need to track to be able to hit that goal.

Yeah, I think that's a really good point because also, like, don't take the time to set up Utm links if you're not even going to look at them and use them or if you don't necessarily care about that.

Yeah, I also love what you said about like looking at your open rates and seeing maybe what subject lines were hooking people in as well as, like, I'm thinking, okay, maybe like, look back at some Instagram reels that you've done, and maybe certain ones have done really well because of the hook that you put on your reel that would be perfect for an episode title.

Those are really two good places to focus on and look at for episode titles.

And episode titles are so hard for people anyway.

They always second guess them.

Yeah, you know what I do is that when I have a new client and we're trying to generate some ideas is we take their top, like, literally, we do exactly what it is that we just said.

We take it, we compile a list of it, we dump it into chat GPT, and we ask it to tell us what are all the common themes in between these titles.

And then give me 20 podcast titles to go along with this, and it'll pop out to you what your different podcast titles can be.

And sometimes what I'll do is I'll actually take a podcast title that's formatted in a way that I really like it either if it's a question, because podcast titles that do really well are ones that literally are the exact same thing that the person is thinking when.

Questions do really well.

Yeah.

Yes.

Questions do great.

Or like, things that are like, statement stuff.

Like, I just did one and I was like, my launch was a total flop.

Here's what, here's what I'm doing about it.

Like, people are like, oh, click, I want to see, like, you know, yes.

Or behind the scenes in my quarter.

Or like, you're, you're kind of like narrating a story.

People love those.

And then people love questions, right?

So sometimes I'll take podcast episodes, and this is obviously for people who already have one, but sometimes, or if you don't have one, go to someone else's pages that you really like, and you're like, I binge everything that they say and then take their episode titles and say, tell AI to generate you titles that, like, resemble this same format and for content.

And then that's how you can come up with some podcast title ideas.

Oh, I love that idea.

And even, I mean, if you're an existing podcaster, like, going into your host and looking at maybe like, your top ten or 20 episodes, and then do what you said, put in a chat GPT, ask it to generate some, like, subtopics off of those episodes.

Yeah, love it.

So smart.

So many good things.

Okay, is there anything else that you want to touch on that we haven't gotten to yet?

No.

I mean, I think I think that's pretty much it.

It's pretty straightforward, honestly.

I think a lot of people think data is, like, super complicated, but it's.

It's pretty straightforward.

You just got to know how to look at it and analyze it from there and understand what you want out of it.

That's the biggest thing.

I think.

A lot of times, people don't know what to do with the data because they don't know what they're looking for.

And it's like, what do you want to know?

It'll tell you a million and one different things.

You just have to understand what you want to know.

Right.

And it sounds simple, but I know so many people are not tracking these kinds of things.

Or if they are, it's living in a spreadsheet somewhere.

And then, like you said, they just don't.

Like, they're just staring at numbers and they don't know what to do with it.

How often would you recommend people look at this kind of data?

So, if you are selling your offers on Evergreen, meaning anyone can buy them at any time, then I would say, look at the data quarterly, because that's when you're gonna have a large enough pool to actually be able to make a clear assessment.

If you were someone who launches, I would say, looking at the data from the time that you start your pre launch to the time that you close your cart.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Perfect.

Well, thank you so much.

I feel like there was so much, like, good, actionable things that people can.

Can listen to and then go try it out for themselves.

I know.

I.

I've got some things that I want to start doing after talking to you about this.

Yeah, perfect.

Okay.

Before we start wrapping up, I always end our episodes with something that we're loving and something that we're listening to.

So I'd love for you to share something that you're loving right now.

It could be, you know, anything.

A routine, a show, a recipe, anything that you're enjoying.

Oh, let's see.

Okay, this is going to sound strange, but I've been trying to do different things with my hands when I'm watching television, because I love to snack like I am.

Someone that just loves the process of just taking, like, a bag of chips and eating while I'm watching tv.

Yes.

And, you know, as we go into fall, that's the more cozier season.

And so, of course, like, you, like, I want to eat more.

You know, I'm at home.

I want to have soup, do all the things.

And so to prevent myself from snacking, I have picked up all of these, like, different, like, habits.

So I've got puzzles.

I've gotten into adult coloring, which has been really, really fun.

Yeah.

And it's adult coloring by numbers.

So it's, like, creative enough, but I also don't have to think because the.

Numbers, I love that.

Yeah.

So it's, like, perfect.

So I can, like, watch tv color, and it's like, I can still, like, relax and unwind.

And then the other thing I've been doing is I've been playing solitaire, and I have, like, not realized how much I love having cards and, like, shuffling the card, like, just giving my hand something to do.

Yes.

Has been really, really healthy for me.

So those are all different things that is, that I've been incorporating into my day to day routines, and I've been doing them away from screens.

That's been another thing.

So, like, I do adult coloring on the iPad.

I literally have color pencils, paper, and I'm coloring.

And then same thing with solitaire.

So that's been really, really fun for me to have some, like, space away from screens and also, like, do something that, you know, is relaxing.

I love that.

I love those.

And I love all of those things.

Like, puzzles are so much fun.

I haven't done one in so long.

And solitaire, I used to play the, like, computer solitaire all the time when I was younger, but I like the idea of actually using cards.

What a concept.

Yeah.

Instead of being on a screen.

Yes.

Love it.

Love it.

And I mean, those things.

If you were to do any of those things while you're, like, sitting on the couch watching tv, it also prevents you from, like, sometimes I'll watch tv and I'll also, like, find myself scrolling on my phone.

Yeah.

What am I doing?

What am I doing?

Nothing.

Yeah.

So I'm, like, my hands busy with other things besides food.

Yes.

Okay.

I love that.

Love that.

All right.

And then what is something that you're listening to or that you've listened to recently?

You know, I haven't been listening to much.

It's mainly just been podcasts.

Yesterday, I actually rewatched.

I'm a big documentary person.

Yeah.

Oh, I rewatched the Michael Jackson documentary.

This is us documentary that they did of his final tour.

Oh, I haven't watched that.

And I rewatched.

I watched the Laci Peterson.

I did watch that Netflix, even though.

I lived it, especially since.

So I'm.

I lived an hour away from where it is that they ended up, you know, finding her body and all.

I'm from the Bay area, so, like, I lived.

I like, it was huge when I was growing up.

That's what I've been listening to.

So, like documentaries, honestly, not really listening, but like, watching.

I've been watching all those documentaries.

Yes, yes.

I like a good documentary, too.

And it was short.

It was short, too.

Yeah.

I was like, what?

We're done?

Yeah, yeah, it was really short.

But yeah, I'm a true, I'm a true crime girly when it comes to stuff like that.

So that's kind of what I into.

Me, too.

Awesome.

Perfect.

All right.

And then tell everybody where they can find you online because I know you have a podcast.

Tell us where you hang out.

So my podcast is called data over drama, and you can just find that on anywhere that you stream your podcasts.

And then you can also find me on Instagram.

I'm KLC the studio, and that's where you can find other amazing, like, information about everything that is we talked about today.

But yeah, those two places, the podcast data over drama and KLC the studio, those are the best places to find me.

If you're interested in working with us, we have two offers.

We have a marketing consulting membership.

So we come in, we help you, you know, build out your marketing platforms.

We help you if you want to learn how to start making money from your marketing platforms.

That is exactly what the membership is focused on.

It's all about signing your next five to ten clients through your content so you don't have to be dependent on referrals anymore, waiting for your mom to buy your products online, you know, so you're able to learn how to really show up on social media and make money.

And we incorporate data into all of that.

So if you're interested in that, that's there.

We have the consulting membership and then the other thing is we have a content retainer and that is for people who are like, just do the content for me.

I don't have time to think about it.

And we have a data inside of that offer as well.

So we use data throughout all of our offers.

So, yeah, you have done for you content or consulting.

Pick your poison.

Perfect.

And I love the name of your podcast data.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We just, we just rebranded.

Yeah.

Oh, fun.

Yeah.

Love a good rebrand.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much for being here.

This was really fun.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks again to Kiera for joining us today.

I loved everything we talked about.

If you haven't yet launched your show, take a look at the things she mentioned to help you come up with your first episode topics.

And if you're an existing podcaster, I love the ideas for using AI to help generate new episode ideas and, of course, the different ways that you can track your show's direct impact on your business.

Take care as advice of first thinking about what you actually want from your data, what you want to learn from it, and also what you want out of your podcast.

And that will kind of help you decide which data you should be looking at.

If you enjoyed today's episode, let us know by screenshotting it and adding it to your Instagram stories.

You can tag me odcastingfore educators and Kiera at KLC the studio.

Thanks for listening and I'll catch you here next week.

Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.

To keep this conversation going, connect with me on Instagram odcastingfore educators I'm always looking for an excuse to talk about podcasting.

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prepschool I'll see you here next time.