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Unlocking Audience Insights: Crafting the Perfect Survey for Your Podcast
Episode 96216th December 2024 • School of Podcasting - Plan, Launch, Grow and Monetize Your Podcast • Dave Jackson
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Creating an effective audience survey is essential for understanding what your listeners want and how to enhance their experience.

This episode dives into the crucial steps for crafting survey questions that engage your audience and encourage participation. Dave Jackson emphasizes the importance of knowing your audience and keeping surveys concise, ideally under ten questions, to boost completion rates.

He also discusses strategies for increasing responses, such as using incentives and clear communication about the benefits of participating. By the end, you'll have actionable insights to help you design a survey that not only gathers valuable feedback but also strengthens your relationship with your listeners.

Takeaways:

  • Begin your survey with a concise opening paragraph explaining how respondents will benefit.
  • Keep your survey short, ideally under 10 questions for higher completion rates.
  • Incentives can increase survey participation but ensure they don’t skew honest feedback.
  • Use relevant questions that engage your audience and avoid demographic questions at the start.
  • Incorporate a progress bar to inform participants how far along they are in the survey.
  • Make sure to remind your audience about the survey to boost responses regularly.

Links referenced in this episode:

Join the School of Podcasting

Are you looking to start your own podcast but don't know where to begin? Look no further than the School of Podcasting. Our comprehensive online courses and one-on-one coaching will teach you everything you need to know, from equipment and editing to marketing and monetization. With our proven methods and expert instructors, you'll create high-quality, engaging content quickly. Say goodbye to the frustration and uncertainty, and hello to a successful podcasting career with the School of Podcasting.

No Surveys For You?

If you're a person who has never done an audience survey, and don't plan on any in the future, I'd love to understand why (I'm always interested in different points of view). I'd love to hear why.

Mentioned in this episode:

What Is Your Favorite Podcast in 2024 and WHY?

If you could only pick ONE show as "Your favorite in 2024" Here is what I need: The name of the show. The website address. A little bit about it, and then go AS LONG AS YOU WANT as to WHY it is your favorite. Then tell us your show's name, the website address, and a little bit about it (so I can add you to the show notes).

Question of the Month

Live Appearances

I love nothing more than meeting you at events. To see my schedule, see www.schoolofpdcasting.com/were to have me speak at your event (on and offline) see www.schoolofpodcasting.com/contact

Where Will I Be?

Transcripts

Dave Jackson:

So last week we talked about getting mentally prepared to do a survey and today we're actually talking about what questions should we ask and how can we enable people to take it.

Dave Jackson:

Because I'm kind of worried I'm going to put the survey out and nobody's going to click on the button or whatever it takes.

Dave Jackson:

And so today we're going to talk about questions and we're going to talk about steps you can take to make a survey that people actually want to click on.

Dave Jackson:

Shocking.

Dave Jackson:

It starts with knowing your audience.

Dave Jackson:

I know that's kind of a broken record around here, but also, if you've never done a survey and you don't want to do a survey, I would love to hear from you.

Dave Jackson:

And there's no shame in it.

Dave Jackson:

I'm just trying to understand.

Dave Jackson:

Hit it, ladies.

Dave Jackson:

The school of Podcasting with Dave Jackson.

Dave Jackson:

Podcasting since:

Dave Jackson:

Thanking you so much for tuning in.

Dave Jackson:

If you're new to the show, this is why I helped you plan, launch and grow your podcast.

Dave Jackson:

My website is School of Podcasting dot com.

Dave Jackson:

If you go over there and use the coupon code listener, that's L I S T E N E R.

Dave Jackson:

When you sign up, that'll save you on either a monthly or yearly subscription and that comes with a 30 day money back guarantee.

Dave Jackson:

And last week we talked about, hey, are you really ready to accept feedback?

Dave Jackson:

And we talked about that.

Dave Jackson:

You have to accept feedback if you're going to be successful.

Dave Jackson:

That starts with knowing who your audience is and knowing what they want and giving it to them, while at the same time knowing what you need to get out of your podcast.

Dave Jackson:

So what we're going to talk about today is actually shaping a survey.

Dave Jackson:

And so the one thing I want to point out here, if you have never done an audience survey and you don't plan on doing one, I would love to hear from you.

Dave Jackson:

Not to go, how dare you.

Dave Jackson:

I would just, I don't understand that mentality.

Dave Jackson:

So I'm always open to hearing another person's point of view.

Dave Jackson:

And so if you're like, oh, this is about surveys, I'm out.

Dave Jackson:

Okay, and you're never going to do one.

Dave Jackson:

Just send me a quick note, go out to schoolofpodcasting.com contact and leave me a note.

Dave Jackson:

And so let's hop into this, shall we?

Dave Jackson:

The first thing you have to do, and I'll throw this in.

Dave Jackson:

Now, if you're like, dave, you sound like you're sick.

Dave Jackson:

Yeah, I am.

Dave Jackson:

It's great.

Dave Jackson:

I have Covid.

Dave Jackson:

Mmm.

Dave Jackson:

Just like mom used to make.

Dave Jackson:

But here's the thing.

Dave Jackson:

When you're planning your survey, as does everything with your podcast, a good relationship with your audience is the foundation of increasing the response rate, meaning how many people actually take your survey.

Dave Jackson:

We've got some tips on that today, because I realize some people might go, I don't do surveys because I'm convinced nobody's going to fill one out.

Dave Jackson:

And so we're going to talk about that.

Dave Jackson:

And so you want to start off your survey with an opening paragraph.

Dave Jackson:

Now, this should be short.

Dave Jackson:

You're going to hear this a lot.

Dave Jackson:

Keep your survey short.

Dave Jackson:

The longer you make it, the more people are going to click on your button and go, ugh, I'm not doing that.

Dave Jackson:

But your opening paragraph should explain how they, the audience, how they are going to benefit.

Dave Jackson:

Because who doesn't want to benefit?

Dave Jackson:

And so it's a beautiful thing to go, hey, I'm doing this show for you, and I'd like to make it better, but I can't make it better if I don't know what you want.

Dave Jackson:

And so using sentences such as, you know it would help us out, you know it would help me out, can increase your response rate of up to 18%.

Dave Jackson:

Because not only do people want to benefit, people want to be heard.

Dave Jackson:

And when you're saying, hey, I'm willing to listen to you and consume your ideas.

Dave Jackson:

So all you have to do is click here and fill out a few questions.

Dave Jackson:

Now, how many questions?

Dave Jackson:

Well, I went out to two different sites and when I googled, this one was called Pointer Pro and the other one was called Survicate.

Dave Jackson:

And both of these are kind of high end survey companies.

Dave Jackson:

And so they had these different, you know, blog posts about how to get people to open up your survey.

Dave Jackson:

So I'll have a link to that out in the show notes, just go to school of podcasting.com962.

Dave Jackson:

And so they say generally surveys that have more than 15 questions are considered too long.

Dave Jackson:

And your completion rate.

Dave Jackson:

So this is there's completion rate, and then there are how many people started?

Dave Jackson:

So we want them to start how many people respond and then how many people actually complete it.

Dave Jackson:

And so they go, when you go more than 15 questions, it kind of turns into too long, didn't complete.

Dave Jackson:

And so they say in their experience, if you don't have a prior commitment, meaning you don't have a previous relationship with people, you can get everything you need from your respondents in a maximum of 10 questions.

Dave Jackson:

Therefore, we recommend shortening your survey as much as possible and removing all unnecessary questions.

Dave Jackson:

I saw this in everything I researched.

Dave Jackson:

Make it as short as you can to get the information you need.

Dave Jackson:

So you need to know the information you need.

Dave Jackson:

So things like demographics and how much money do you make and demographics, things like that that you might need if the goal is advertising, but if the goal is more about content, is this working for you?

Dave Jackson:

Then maybe you don't need the demographics.

Dave Jackson:

It's really up to you.

Dave Jackson:

They do say, do not start with the respondents demographics because you're like, okay, let me click on this.

Dave Jackson:

And they're immediately like, how much money do you make?

Dave Jackson:

Are you black, white, purple?

Dave Jackson:

You know, do you have any kids?

Dave Jackson:

Where do you live?

Dave Jackson:

That that can be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.

Dave Jackson:

And they bail.

Dave Jackson:

So don't start with demographics if that's something that you want.

Dave Jackson:

Now, one way that you can get people to take your survey is through incentives.

Dave Jackson:

And so they say, some people might even prefer to share their views rather than receive an award and say, so they say, consider making your incentive optional.

Dave Jackson:

So for my survey, I'm giving you time at the school of podcasting.

Dave Jackson:

But if I made it $5,000, well, yeah, I might get more people.

Dave Jackson:

But they say if you make it really like this amazing incentive, then it might actually influence people to not give you any negative feedback because they want to be nice to the person who's potentially going to give them a lot of money or something like that.

Dave Jackson:

So keep that in mind.

Dave Jackson:

The goal is to get honest feedback a little later on.

Dave Jackson:

I've got some feedback from the last episode about someone who did a survey.

Dave Jackson:

And again, sometimes it doesn't take a ton of incentive to get people to do it.

Dave Jackson:

If your audience is engaged, they do say that offering an incentive can actually increase your percentage of people taking the survey, 19% versus those people that don't offer an incentive being 8%.

Dave Jackson:

So you know, that's a big boost.

Dave Jackson:

So that might be something you want to consider and.

Dave Jackson:

But sometimes it might be just branded goodies, you know, something that's around the show and especially if it's a one of a kind, that's even better.

Dave Jackson:

Then again, if you make a super expensive audience, the people responding might not want to say anything negative because, well, you're going to give them a lot of money.

Dave Jackson:

There's another thing.

Dave Jackson:

Here's some jargon.

Dave Jackson:

Let's learn survey jargon, shall we?

Dave Jackson:

Skip logic.

Dave Jackson:

I'm like, wasn't he a game show host?

Dave Jackson:

Ladies and gentlemen, here's the host of Ding dong dang it.

Dave Jackson:

Skip Logic, everyone.

Dave Jackson:

But Skip Logic is where you ask them a question, and then based on what they answer, it kind of says, why did you say that?

Dave Jackson:

And so that Skip Logic, if a tool you're using offers that.

Dave Jackson:

And my initial reaction was like, wait a minute, that's more questions.

Dave Jackson:

I thought the whole idea was to make it short.

Dave Jackson:

But they say when the questions are relevant, relevant to the user, then they don't mind.

Dave Jackson:

So again, it really comes down to knowing who your audience is and asking the right questions.

Dave Jackson:

And it keeps the survey relevant when you do those types of things.

Dave Jackson:

Another thing, whatever tool you're using, get one with a progress bar.

Dave Jackson:

And what I mean by this is when you go to, you know, question two or three or five, or if there's a next page or something like that, and they can see that, wow, I'm 37% done with the survey.

Dave Jackson:

That will increase the completion rate to 12% or up 12%.

Dave Jackson:

Not to 12%, but up 12% versus if you didn't have a progress bar.

Dave Jackson:

And actually getting people to take the survey.

Dave Jackson:

I thought this was kind of amazing because we could just put a link in the show notes, click here to take the survey.

Dave Jackson:

But if you add a button that says, click here to take the survey.

Dave Jackson:

And this is another thing.

Dave Jackson:

If we go back to that beginning where we're explaining how they are helping us, that button could say things like give input or share my opinion or contribute or have your say or your voice counts, anything.

Dave Jackson:

That kind of just proves that, hey, we're listening to you.

Dave Jackson:

And having a button apparently is much more enticing.

Dave Jackson:

Who knows that people will actually go ahead and click that because you had a button, instead of just click here to take the survey.

Dave Jackson:

And then in the same way that you start your survey.

Dave Jackson:

And so the survey is going to be like they said, about 400.

Dave Jackson:

Was it words or characters?

Dave Jackson:

It was 400 words.

Dave Jackson:

Again, keeping it short.

Dave Jackson:

Hey, we thank you so much for taking this time.

Dave Jackson:

You're going to start off being very grateful by filling out this survey.

Dave Jackson:

Here's how you're going to benefit, right?

Dave Jackson:

You're.

Dave Jackson:

By filling out this survey, you're helping make the show better.

Dave Jackson:

And I can tailor the content to your needs, however you want to do that.

Dave Jackson:

But you want to say it is, thank you so much, and here's how you're going to benefit.

Dave Jackson:

And at the end, you want to again, express lots of gratitude.

Dave Jackson:

Hey, you've made it to the end of the survey.

Dave Jackson:

And speaking of that, if you know it's only 10 questions or 15 questions, you might put that at the in the opening.

Dave Jackson:

Hey, thanks so much for taking time to fill out this survey.

Dave Jackson:

There's only 14 questions.

Dave Jackson:

There's only eight questions, whatever it is.

Dave Jackson:

And I really appreciate you taking the time to fill out this survey.

Dave Jackson:

It's going to help me make the show so much better for you.

Dave Jackson:

Well, when you get to the end of the survey, you also again, want to end by saying how absolutely thankful you are that they took the time.

Dave Jackson:

Now, I read in some different places that it's good to follow up with them later, but this is where you have to be careful because if at the beginning, if you go, thank you so much, it's only, you know, 11 questions and it's going to help me make the show better.

Dave Jackson:

And you will not be spammed.

Dave Jackson:

I'm not selling your information.

Dave Jackson:

It's up to you.

Dave Jackson:

If you then later contact that person to say thank you so much, you might add a button in there.

Dave Jackson:

Can I follow up with you if I have more questions?

Dave Jackson:

Just think about that.

Dave Jackson:

That if they're like, I don't want to get on somebody's email list and then they fill out the survey and four hours later, there you are in their inbox saying, thank you.

Dave Jackson:

I'm not sure how that's going to go over.

Dave Jackson:

So that's something just to think about.

Dave Jackson:

And this is where we kind of go, you have to be you.

Dave Jackson:

And I think it's going to depend on what they say in the survey.

Dave Jackson:

So keep that in mind now for questions.

Dave Jackson:

Back in the day when Tom Webster worked for Edison Research and Edison Research, if you ever have any needs for information on the podcasting space, Edison Research is a great place Tom now works for.

Dave Jackson:

Sounds profitable.

Dave Jackson:

And he again is still creating amazing surveys on what's going on.

Dave Jackson:

And now they're getting even more granular and fine tuning.

Dave Jackson:

Like they just did a survey on the true crime genre.

Dave Jackson:

So it's really cool.

Dave Jackson:

And Tom has been doing these surveys forever.

Dave Jackson:

And so there is a free version of the Edison Research questions that you can download.

Dave Jackson:

I'll put a link to that out at school of podcasting.com962 and you can download those.

Dave Jackson:

But when Tom wrote the book and have you not read this book yet?

Dave Jackson:

Are you kidding me?

Dave Jackson:

It's called the Audience is Listening, a little book.

Dave Jackson:

I always forget the timeline, the tagline you said turning around to get it off his bookcase.

Dave Jackson:

Because, yeah, the audience is listening a little guy to building a big podcast links in the show notes out at school of podcasting.com962 and what Tom did was he took those questions and kind of revamped them and put them in his book.

Dave Jackson:

And so what I'm going to do here is give you some of the questions.

Dave Jackson:

I don't want to give you all of them because, you know, it's Tom's book.

Dave Jackson:

Now if you're using pod page@podpage.com that is a great tool.

Dave Jackson:

By the way, a full disclosure, I'm the head of podcasting at Pod Page, but you can go over and we've taken those questions with Tom's permission and you can go in.

Dave Jackson:

There's about 19 questions.

Dave Jackson:

So again, it's probably a little long to use them all, but you can go in and pick just the ones you want because again, if there are questions about what's your favorite guests and your show is a monologue that doesn't pertain.

Dave Jackson:

And so here are some questions from Tom's book.

Dave Jackson:

So we will start off with how often do you listen to the name of your show?

Dave Jackson:

How long have you been listening to the name of your show?

Dave Jackson:

How did you find and discover your show?

Dave Jackson:

That is something you want to know so that you can do more of that.

Dave Jackson:

How soon do you typically listen?

Dave Jackson:

So again, that one for me, do I really need to know that they downloaded it?

Dave Jackson:

But some people want to know, is this really your favorite show?

Dave Jackson:

Do you think each episode of the show, whichever one your is, should be longer, shorter or same length and it just goes on?

Dave Jackson:

These are all great questions.

Dave Jackson:

Again, depending on your show, it asks you, is there anything else you would like to mention about the name of your show?

Dave Jackson:

For example, things you enjoy, don't enjoy, or where we can improve.

Dave Jackson:

And it goes on and on.

Dave Jackson:

And again, if you want that, there are demographic questions that ask where people listen and things like that.

Dave Jackson:

But you have to think about what do you need and if the goal is I want to grow the show, the number one way you grow your show is by making content that inspires people to listen to the show.

Dave Jackson:

I like open ended questions.

Dave Jackson:

I know when I did some research on this, they're kind of like you can burn people out, but if you don't have a ton of questions and people really see how this is going to benefit them, then they will fill this out.

Dave Jackson:

Now the hard part when I read this was like, ooh.

Dave Jackson:

But if you think about it all things that really help are typically not easy, right?

Dave Jackson:

Podcasting Itself is not easy.

Dave Jackson:

And so some things you can do is you have to make it easy.

Dave Jackson:

So one of the cool things about pod page is you can just go to your website.com survey and it will take you to your current survey.

Dave Jackson:

Now, if you're not on POD page, you could use something like pretty link if you're on WordPress, but make it easy for them to take your survey.

Dave Jackson:

I'm kind of bummed right now.

Dave Jackson:

I am using WordPress for the school of Podcasting because I need to have one website on WordPress because I still have clients that use WordPress and I have somehow behind the scenes, reDirected School of Podcasting.com survey to a page on my site.

Dave Jackson:

And I've looked through pretty links.

Dave Jackson:

I've looked through every plugin I have on the website.

Dave Jackson:

I cannot figure out how I redirected School of Podcasting.com survey to this page.

Dave Jackson:

So I just took the page that it lands on and said, here, click this button to take the survey.

Dave Jackson:

So I'm actually putting.

Dave Jackson:

It's like I'm requiring one extra click and that really bugs me.

Dave Jackson:

But it is what it is.

Dave Jackson:

This is what happens when you've been podcasting for 19 years.

Dave Jackson:

robably did something back in:

Dave Jackson:

But make it easy to do that.

Dave Jackson:

And then the other thing you're going to have to do is remind them.

Dave Jackson:

So in the same way that if you are selling a product, you have to mention it more than once, you can't just say, hey, my book is out, and then go, well, that's weird.

Dave Jackson:

Nobody's buying it.

Dave Jackson:

No, you have to treat that almost like a sponsor and remind people.

Dave Jackson:

And that is the same thing with surveys.

Dave Jackson:

You have to say, hey, if you haven't done it already, I'm doing the survey to help us make the show better for you.

Dave Jackson:

Just go to my website.com survey.

Dave Jackson:

And so the question then says, well, how long do I run that?

Dave Jackson:

And so again, these are two services that make surveys.

Dave Jackson:

And so one is called Pointer Pro and the other one is called Survicate.

Dave Jackson:

And they stated that the lowest number to make changes to your show would be 25%.

Dave Jackson:

So if you get an average of 100 downloads per episode after, let's say, 30 days, you would want 25 respondents.

Dave Jackson:

And that's kind of like at times, like, hmm, okay, but that's what they said.

Dave Jackson:

Now you can always do you.

Dave Jackson:

I don't know that I would make A lot of changes if it was only 3%, but that is a number to look for.

Dave Jackson:

They also mentioned things like 50%.

Dave Jackson:

That would be amazing if you do that.

Dave Jackson:

But to me, 25% again.

Dave Jackson:

And just keep reminding people, just, hey, thank you so much.

Dave Jackson:

We're up to 10%.

Dave Jackson:

Make it kind of a.

Dave Jackson:

Almost like a pledge drive.

Dave Jackson:

Hey, everybody, let's see the tote board.

Dave Jackson:

Hey, we're up to 17%.

Dave Jackson:

All right?

Dave Jackson:

And then you can say, well, our goal is 25.

Dave Jackson:

So if you haven't filled it out, go to my website.com survey and that will take care of that, hopefully over time and again, it's kind of up to you.

Dave Jackson:

The one thing they did say in both places as I was researching this is if you make any changes to the form, only change one thing.

Dave Jackson:

Because let's say you.

Dave Jackson:

You make the title of the form a little different and you also change a bunch of questions, and all of a sudden you get a lot more feedback.

Dave Jackson:

You don't know which thing you changed made the difference.

Dave Jackson:

So if you only change one thing at a time, give it a little bit of time and go, okay, I'm gonna try this now.

Dave Jackson:

And then something takes off.

Dave Jackson:

You're like, oh, they didn't like this one thing here, so keep that in mind.

Dave Jackson:

But I said at the beginning here that when you do surveys, it can result in great results.

Dave Jackson:

And so my buddy Ray over at around the Layout Calm, it's a podcast about model trains.

Dave Jackson:

And the thing about model trains is if you go over to Ray's website, there are guys that got into model trains when they were, you know, kids, and they've still.

Dave Jackson:

And I mean, the amazing worlds they make in their basements and houses and garages.

Dave Jackson:

And it's just amazing the.

Dave Jackson:

Because they love it.

Dave Jackson:

And when I say love, I mean they love it.

Dave Jackson:

And so Ray sent me a note.

Dave Jackson:

He said, hey, great episode last Monday.

Dave Jackson:

That's the1@schoolofpodcasting.com 961.

Dave Jackson:

He said, I enjoyed what you said about being willing to accept feedback and advice.

Dave Jackson:

When I ran my survey, I would take a moment to mentally prepare myself before reading it, remembering that it was one person's opinion and that they took the time to share their opinion and that they truly mean well and not to read too far into what they're saying.

Dave Jackson:

Yeah, they're not out to get you.

Dave Jackson:

Oh, he asked for my feedback.

Dave Jackson:

I'm going to tell him he's a jerk and blah, blah, blah.

Dave Jackson:

And he said, ultimately, the feedback I received helped me solve an issue that I knew I already had.

Dave Jackson:

And he said I was stuck in Groundhog Day with my podcast and my listeners knew it too.

Dave Jackson:

And what he means by this is he was bringing people that were in a model trains and he'd kind of go over their story and it was just kind of okay.

Dave Jackson:

And so their suggestions helped me shake up the format to meet not only what they wanted, but it helped me create the podcast that I wanted to.

Dave Jackson:

And so when you enjoy the podcast, making it, that's a huge thing.

Dave Jackson:

And when your audience loves what you're cooking, that's even better as well.

Dave Jackson:

He said, I've also shifted away from looking at my numbers and have adopted the mentality of it's not how many listens to my podcast, it's who many.

Dave Jackson:

Right?

Dave Jackson:

It's the right people, not the number of people.

Dave Jackson:

He said, I'm blessed to have such an engaged audience and I wouldn't trade it one of my listeners for 10 that are non responsive.

Dave Jackson:

And so I asked him about his survey that he did because he got a huge amount of replies on his surveys.

Dave Jackson:

And I said, what did you offer like a million dollars?

Dave Jackson:

And he said it was win a free T shirt.

Dave Jackson:

He says, I don't have any data on that, but I doubt it was that that filled know that got them like, oh, free T shirt.

Dave Jackson:

I'm going to go do this.

Dave Jackson:

He said, I'd like to think it had more about me asking them to help me shape the future of around the layout podcast.

Dave Jackson:

And I really think that's it.

Dave Jackson:

Because when I talked to Ray, his, his community is amazing.

Dave Jackson:

I talked a couple weeks ago about how somebody had made this like laser wood carving thing of Ray's logo with lights in it.

Dave Jackson:

And that's just not something you're going to pick up at Hobby Lobby.

Dave Jackson:

It was something they made from scratch and that is huge.

Dave Jackson:

If we go to George, Rob does a show called the Geologic Podcast.

Dave Jackson:

It has nothing to do with geology, but George is a guy I always thought was interesting.

Dave Jackson:

I listened to his show and at every 100 episodes, his audience makes the episode like they're like.

Dave Jackson:

And they all just explain how great George is.

Dave Jackson:

That's an engaged audience.

Dave Jackson:

And he didn't ask for that.

Dave Jackson:

They just surprised him.

Dave Jackson:

They're like, hey, we noticed you're on episode 99.

Dave Jackson:

Here's episode 100.

Dave Jackson:

And so that's amazing when you have that kind of engaged audience.

Dave Jackson:

Now let's talk about reality, shall we?

Dave Jackson:

I did a show called Weekly Web Tools and I like doing it.

Dave Jackson:

But the whole point was I wanted my audience to send in either voicemail or, you know, anything, email and let me know what tools you're using and talk a little bit about your services.

Dave Jackson:

And I'm here to tell you I think I got two in about 10 years.

Dave Jackson:

And the only time I ever got feedback was when I said, hey, I think I'm shutting the show down.

Dave Jackson:

And then all of a sudden, everybody's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, here's some stuff.

Dave Jackson:

And so I, looking back at that, I don't know if I just needed to make my call to action more succinct and let them know this is how you know you're going to get some promotion.

Dave Jackson:

Don't know what the deal was.

Dave Jackson:

I don't know if I had a specific landing page.

Dave Jackson:

I know with POD page, you can go to, you know, your website, dot com, voicemail, and there's a button right there for them to leave it.

Dave Jackson:

And some people may not want to have their voice on a podcast.

Dave Jackson:

Well, then make sure there's a way they can contact you.

Dave Jackson:

But that was one that always made me scratch my head.

Dave Jackson:

And looking back, I'm like, well, I could have done this.

Dave Jackson:

I could have done that one.

Dave Jackson:

If you want to do an old radio trick, here's something you can do.

Dave Jackson:

And that is have your cousin, your brother, somebody.

Dave Jackson:

It's a radio trick.

Dave Jackson:

And so if you're like, hey, let me know if you have any questions on such and such or blah, blah, blah, have your brother use the voicemail thing and say, hey, Dave, heard you asking for stuff, and I thought about this and blah, blah, blah.

Dave Jackson:

And once they hear somebody do it, for some reason, they're like, oh, wait, is that all I have to do to get my voice on the podcast or get something read in the podcast?

Dave Jackson:

And that can sometimes have them jumping in to take part.

Dave Jackson:

And the reason I say this is an old radio trick is back in the 80s, you know, you'd be listening like, hey, it's Rock and Rick Allen playing the hits.

Dave Jackson:

Just call the number and we'll get it on for you.

Dave Jackson:

So I called up and I said, hey, can you play something from the new Judas Priest album?

Dave Jackson:

And Rock and Rick said, no, but if you request lover boy, I can put that on for you.

Dave Jackson:

And that's when I went, oh, they're fibbing.

Dave Jackson:

That's not, you know, that's not really what's happening here.

Dave Jackson:

And so, of course, I said, hey, Rock and Rick, can you play some loverboard for me?

Dave Jackson:

And he was like on 96.

Dave Jackson:

5.

Dave Jackson:

And I was like, oh, the bubble has been broken.

Dave Jackson:

Reality is not what I had thought.

Dave Jackson:

But it is a radio trick that.

Dave Jackson:

Because think about it, why did I do that?

Dave Jackson:

Because I heard somebody do it and I'm like, oh, is that all you got to do is call and you can get on the radio?

Dave Jackson:

So that might be a trick you can do.

Dave Jackson:

And I know some people have said, can you just use chat, not chat, GPT11 Labs to have some AI voice?

Dave Jackson:

I guess you could.

Dave Jackson:

That's.

Dave Jackson:

That's AI11 Labs is always a little weird.

Dave Jackson:

But there's something you can do.

Dave Jackson:

Trying to prime the pump.

Dave Jackson:

But you also then when you're not getting an engagement, maybe sit back and go, okay, what do I need to do?

Dave Jackson:

Is it easy to leave a voicemail?

Dave Jackson:

Is it easy to leave an email?

Dave Jackson:

Okay, great.

Dave Jackson:

Do I have an easy call to action and whatever it is.

Dave Jackson:

And then just tweak things.

Dave Jackson:

And then I remember I used to listen to, I think it was six degrees of separation or something like that.

Dave Jackson:

It was something with six degrees.

Dave Jackson:

And at the end of every little spot the host would say, send me an email, whatever it was, you know, email at 6 degrees, blah blah, blah.

Dave Jackson:

And then he would do this little bit.

Dave Jackson:

It'd be like a minute or two.

Dave Jackson:

You're like, hey, thanks so much.

Dave Jackson:

Send your comments to.

Dave Jackson:

And he just beat his email into your head.

Dave Jackson:

And so maybe that's the tactic you need to do is just keep mentioning the way to contact you.

Dave Jackson:

So there are many ways to do this, but you can just like Ray at around the layout.com get amazing feedback that can help you get your show to where it needs to be, to where people that hear it go, oh my gosh, man.

Dave Jackson:

If you know anybody who is into model trains, they got to go to around the layout.com because that's kind of the goal here is to get people to tell their friends.

Dave Jackson:

But you're not going to make your show any better by just going by what you want.

Dave Jackson:

Now granted, you have to again know succinctly who your audience is and what they want.

Dave Jackson:

And you need to know your why.

Dave Jackson:

And it's by knowing that why that helps you figure out what feedback you will accept.

Dave Jackson:

And maybe some feedback you go, yeah, that's not really for the show.

Dave Jackson:

I don't want to be an interview show or I don't want to be this show or that show or trivia or whatever they suggest.

Dave Jackson:

But that's where you can go, thank you so much.

Dave Jackson:

For your feedback.

Dave Jackson:

I really appreciate it.

Dave Jackson:

And keep on listening just to acknowledge that they sent that in.

Dave Jackson:

So with that, that is my thoughts on doing a survey.

Dave Jackson:

And again, if you're a person that's like, I'm just not into surveys, Dave, I again, there.

Dave Jackson:

This is no shade.

Dave Jackson:

This is no judgment.

Dave Jackson:

I would just love to hear why, because I don't understand that.

Dave Jackson:

And I'm trying to understand that.

Dave Jackson:

So I can't understand it unless you let me know.

Dave Jackson:

So schoolofpodcasting.com contact and I am running a survey.

Dave Jackson:

So if you go to schoolofpodcasting.com survey, I will be running that until I get 25% of my audience that has actually answered that.

Dave Jackson:

So I thank you before you've even clicked it yet for your participation.

Dave Jackson:

It's my way of helping me.

Dave Jackson:

You know, it's the Jerry Maguire help me help you.

Dave Jackson:

And so if there are things you want to hear about on this show, this is where I'm collecting your responses.

Dave Jackson:

I am checking my list.

Dave Jackson:

I'm.

Dave Jackson:

Or how's that go?

Dave Jackson:

I'm making a list.

Dave Jackson:

I'm checking it twice.

Dave Jackson:

And I'm going to try to make the show that when somebody says, do you know any podcasts about podcasting?

Dave Jackson:

People go, oh, this is the one you got to hear.

Dave Jackson:

You got to go listen to School of Podcasting.

Dave Jackson:

That's my goal.

Dave Jackson:

So thanks so much.

Dave Jackson:

And Again, School of Podcasting.com survey.

Dave Jackson:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dave Jackson:

Speaking of feedback and giving people promotion on my show, it's time to find out what are we asking for the question of the month.

Dave Jackson:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dave Jackson:

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Dave Jackson:

And I realized not everybody is using Pod Page, but.

Dave Jackson:

Well, you should, said the guy who is the head of podcasting at Pod Page.

Dave Jackson:

But if you're not, there are some options.

Dave Jackson:

One is Google Forms.

Dave Jackson:

I'll have links to all these out at school of podcasting.com962.

Dave Jackson:

That's one.

Dave Jackson:

But I know some people are like, google is the devil.

Dave Jackson:

And so they don't want to have any information in there from themselves or from their audience.

Dave Jackson:

I get that.

Dave Jackson:

Then you might check out Jotform.

Dave Jackson:

That is one that has a free version.

Dave Jackson:

You can have up to 100 monthly submissions.

Dave Jackson:

So it's kind of limited.

Dave Jackson:

If you want their paid version, it's $34.

Dave Jackson:

Then there is one called tally t a l L.

Dave Jackson:

Why?

Dave Jackson:

And what's interesting about this one is I kind of like it.

Dave Jackson:

It's very clean.

Dave Jackson:

Their forms are super simple to Create.

Dave Jackson:

They have all sorts of different ways to integrate questions and such.

Dave Jackson:

That is the one thing I should mention here.

Dave Jackson:

If you are doing your own survey and you have the whole like hey, on a scale from 1 to 10, make sure that 1 to whatever is even.

Dave Jackson:

Because if you make it hey, between one and five, how do you feel about this?

Dave Jackson:

That enables people to just choose three all the way down the middle.

Dave Jackson:

And so when you make it one to six, well then they have to figure out, am I a little more three or a little more four?

Dave Jackson:

So that is something.

Dave Jackson:

Many, many moons ago I was a customer service rep and I made many surveys, which is probably why I'm so big on them.

Dave Jackson:

But keep that in mind.

Dave Jackson:

Tally has a free version as well, and I believe their paid version isn't really that expensive.

Dave Jackson:

Like I say, JotForm is 34amonth.

Dave Jackson:

Tallies is 29.

Dave Jackson:

And keep in mind you could do this for maybe a couple months and then turn it off.

Dave Jackson:

But again, if you want a truly free version, then you're going to go to Google.

Dave Jackson:

Everything I talked about today you can find@schoolofpodcasting.com 962 thanks so much for listening.

Dave Jackson:

If you know somebody who is thinking of doing a survey for their podcast, could you do me a favor?

Dave Jackson:

If you're listening on your phone or whatever, go up to the share button, share it with your friend.

Dave Jackson:

They're going to think you're neato because you shared this great content and so you're going to look good and I get to grow my audience.

Dave Jackson:

Or you could just send them to school of podcasting.com follow and they can follow the show and never miss another episode.

Dave Jackson:

Thanks so much for listening.

Dave Jackson:

Until next week.

Dave Jackson:

Take care.

Dave Jackson:

God bless.

Dave Jackson:

Class is dismissed.

Dave Jackson:

And if you want one that's not Google Forms, it's called mm.

Dave Jackson:

It's called something with a T.

Dave Jackson:

Yep.

Dave Jackson:

And my brain is already checked out.

Dave Jackson:

Usually it's my mouth that checks out, but I am almost overdosing on cold medicine and all sorts of stuff.

Dave Jackson:

And tall Tally.

Dave Jackson:

Tally.

Dave Jackson:

It's Tally.

Dave Jackson:

There you go.

Dave Jackson:

Tell him what he's won.

Dave Jackson:

If you like what you hear, go tell someone.

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