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28. Ask Angie: How Do I Measure The Success Of My Podcast Besides Downloads?
Episode 28 • 7th May 2024 • Podcast That Pays • Angie Jordan
00:00:00 00:13:47

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In this episode I answer a question from my Facebook Group, " how do i measure the success of my podcast besides downloads?"

Downloads are a metric that don't really tell you the full picture of what is happening with your podcast. It's like only relying on the scale to tell you about your health- it's limiting.


In the episode I talk about what metrics you should be looking, and how to start measuring the success of your podcast based on the actual goals YOU HAVE, not just arbitrary numbers that you think you have to use.


Don't forget if you want to ask me a question to be answered on the show shoot me an email at angiej@angiemjordan.com or come over to my Facebook Group to ask me anything.


Thank you for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode

If you are ready to create a podcast that pays for your business, head over to www.podcastthatpays.com

Follow me on Instagram @angiemjordan

Join us over in my Facebook Group- Launch Grow Explode Your Podcast.

Music credit: Mavericks by Harrison Amer. A Podcast Launch Bestie production

Transcripts

Speaker:

So have you ever wondered how

to tell if your podcast is doing

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good or not or how to know if your

podcast is quote unquote successful?

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So in today's Ask Angie, I am

answering a question about how to

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know if your podcast is doing good.

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Performing well or quote

unquote successful.

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So stay tuned.

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Okay.

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What's up fam.

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Welcome back to another ask Angie.

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And this question comes from my Facebook

group and inside my Facebook group.

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I actually asked a question and I

was asking what are your biggest

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struggles when it comes to your

podcast and Stephanie actually

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responded and asked, how do you even

know how to evaluate how good your

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podcast is doing besides downloads?

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So if you know me, if you listen to me

often, You know that I don't care about

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downloads and I think I just wrote a post

about this on Facebook not too long ago

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about Uh, why downloads only gives you,

actually I sent an email to my list the

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other day about this, about how downloads

only gives you, a small picture of what

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is actually going on in your podcast.

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So I gave an example and I'll

give the example again here.

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Uh, one of my clients has a podcast,

the nutrition edit , Jeannie Oliver.

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I love her.

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I love her podcast, The Nutrition Edit.

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She's super smart.

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She has super smart guests.

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If you are looking to, , Get healthy

great podcast to listen to anyway I was

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editing one of her episodes and she was

talking about one of the things that you

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should do is Literally throw away the

scale but not for the reasons why you

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hear a lot of other people talk about

it So a lot of times you hear it because

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it's like I don't know damaging to your

mindset or your pleasure Body weight goes

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up and down blah blah blah, whatever.

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But she was just talking simply

about how paying attention to the

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scale doesn't give you enough

information of what's going on.

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It just doesn't.

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show the full picture.

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And it made me think, and I use this

example in my email as well, because

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it made me think about podcasting

and it made me think about downloads.

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So with your podcast downloads

are the same as using a scale to

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measure what's going on in your body.

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So using your downloads to measure

what's going on in your podcast

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is not going to be the thing that

gives you enough information about

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whether you are successful or not.

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Right.

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So a lot of people look at downloads

as that measurement and this is what

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this podcast episode is all about is

what should you be looking at then?

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And so the first thing that I'm going

to tell you in this is that you don't

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know what to measure if you don't

know what you're trying to achieve.

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So if you don't know what your goals are,

if you don't know what you're actually

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trying to accomplish from your podcast,

other than downloads, then you're

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not going to know what to look for.

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You're not going to have a

measurement of success whatsoever.

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Right.

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Now, a lot of people, why do

people even measure downloads

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as a measurement of success?

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It's just because like what other

people do, it's because what you've

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seen, it's because, okay, if this

podcast gets so many downloads,

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then they get to get sponsors.

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And then they have money coming in from

sponsorship deals or whatever, because

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they have a lot of eyeballs, a lot

of eyeballs, a lot of ear balls, a lot

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of ears listening to their content.

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Right.

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So that is why people

started measuring downloads.

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But I want you to think about

what it is that you really want to

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accomplish other than downloads.

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What is it that you're hoping to do?

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So are you wanting more conversions?

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Are you wanting people to actually

take action on your content?

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Are you, you know, building this

as a place in order to showcase

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your, thought leadership so that

you can get speaking gigs from it?

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I don't know, there's so many different

reasons why you could be building this.

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Is you building this to be a part

of the marketing of your business?

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That's something that's really important.

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So this is just a cog, a

big cog in your marketing.

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And so it's not even really something

that you measure as a standalone tool.

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And so.

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In your marketing, right?

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It could be that this is just a part

of everything else that you do and

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it gets factored into the equation

of your overall marketing, which is

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actually really smart or something

that you should be, you know, doing.

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But anyway, so it just depends on what

it is that you're trying to accomplish.

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It depends on what

you're trying to achieve.

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So here are some things that you could be

measuring that just looking at your stats,

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if you open up your podcast app, your

host and look at these different numbers.

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Here's some others numbers that could

tell a different story or paint a bigger

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picture of what is actually going on.

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So here's the things that

I like to track to know.

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Well, first of all, I want you

to know what your goals are and

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what you're trying to accomplish.

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That's number one.

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So you need to know that so that you know

that if you are actually accomplishing

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your goal or not, that's number one.

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Number two is here's some things to look

out for within your podcast host, which

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would be metrics that I like to dig into.

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So one of the metrics that I like

to look at is your unique listeners.

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So your unique listeners, tells a

measurement of how many unique IP

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addresses or whatever you call it is,

are actually coming to your podcast.

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So this gives you an idea of not

just downloads, but people who are

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actually listening to the show.

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So there is a little distinction

between a download and a listener.

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So downloads automatically will happen.

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If someone has a setting on their

phone that's turned on that says zero,

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You know, every time a new episode

comes out, it automatically downloads.

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Right.

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So then you look like you're

having people listening, but

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they're not actually listening.

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It's just downloading in the

background on their phone.

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Okay.

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So I like to measure the number of unique

ones, because that gives you a picture.

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of how many people are

actually in your audience.

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So you know, if you go and measure in

April, and you have 150 unique listeners,

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and then you can measure in May, and all

of May you have 250 unique listeners, you

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know that your audience size has grown.

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So that's a great metric to look at.

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another metric I really love to

look at is your consumption rates.

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Now your consumption rates, you can

only find inside of Apple podcasts.

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So you need to make sure that

you're in Apple podcast connect

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so that you can get this, data.

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I do like Apple podcast, analytics.

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Most people, the majority of people,

I mean, 70, 80 percent and upwards

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are listening still on Apple podcast.

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So it still gives you a.

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a big enough picture, a big

enough pool of data to, to get

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an idea of what's going on.

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even though it's not the full amount of

people, because there are still people who

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are listening on Spotify and other places.

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Right.

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So what your consumption rates tell

you, and here's what I like to look

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at and why I like to look at them.

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So your consumption rates are telling

you how much of your episodes people are

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consuming once they come to your episode.

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So this is a great tool and a

great metric to actually see

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if your content is engaging.

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Thanks for watching.

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Transcribed And not just to see if

your content is engaging, but to

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see what content is most engaging.

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What is capturing people's attention?

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What is getting people to listen

all the way until the end?

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And so this is something that you can

measure so you can go in and see different

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topics might be doing better than other

topics because remember your podcast is

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about your listeners and what they are

resonating with, what they are liking.

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So this is a metric that

is going to tell us.

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If you're being successful in

creating content that aligns with

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your people and that people are

actually wanting to consume to the

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end or for the most part, right?

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And so looking for consumption

rates of for solo shows.

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I mean, you want to really be in

the eighties, 90 percent consumption

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for a solo show and for interviews.

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I mean, 60 percent is probably a good

percentage, 60, 70 percent because it's

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usually a little bit lower for interviews

because let's be honest, I mean, sometimes

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unless they're done really, really well,

the interviews tend to lollygag around

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different topics and sometimes people just

don't consume them all the way through.

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Okay.

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So this gives you a good idea of how.

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your episodes are, your content is,

if it's hitting the mark, if you are

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doing interviews, if you're seeing

people drop off soon, then you know that

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you guys are doing too much lollygag.

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You're doing too much.

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You're not capturing anybody's attention.

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No, like people aren't

listening all the way through.

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And so that's a better, a much better

metric than looking at downloads because

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Who cares if it's downloaded to their

phone if they're not listening to

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it, that they're not engaged, right?

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Then it's not being

quote unquote successful.

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So that's a great metric to also hang

on to and be able to see what content

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is resonating, like how is this doing?

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And then you can make tweaks

and see if that does better.

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Do people enjoy this?

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I could do a split test or I can go

in and look at my metrics and see if

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these Ask Angie episodes, how they

perform next to My other episodes.

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What's the difference?

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Are people actually more engaged in this?

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Because these are like

shorter to the point.

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I'm answering your question episodes.

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Do people like that?

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Or are people seeming to like

my other content just as well?

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Right?

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So this gives you a picture

of what is actually going on.

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And I don't know if that's

necessarily this is, you know, Okay.

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gives you a picture of how to measure

if my podcast is successful or not, but

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it's a great metric to look at to see

if your content is actually landing.

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Okay, so the last thing I like to look

at to measure podcast success, and

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this just goes back to number one,

which is like, what are your goals?

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My assumption is always that your goal

is to get people to act on your content,

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get people to convert from your content.

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So that would be the third thing.

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To measure if your podcast

is being successful or not.

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So it's not about how

many people are coming.

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It's about what are people

doing when they're coming?

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So are people actually taking action?

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Are they going to that

call to action page?

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Do you have a, do you even have it?

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Most people don't even have it set up to

be able to see this information, right?

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But it's really important data and it's

really important to get it set up where

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you can have the visibility to see, Hey,

this week when I released this episode

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on my sales page, there was an uptick of.

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, visitors, or there was an uptick from,

you know, my podcast this week with this

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content, or, I had a higher percentage

of people who came from my podcast.

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And I also had a higher percentage of

people who converted or who got my opt in,

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or I had a high percentage of people who

came, but nobody, you Went to my opt in.

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So it just gives you more data,

but I like to measure and see,

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are people actually taking action?

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That's probably my number one metric

to measure success because for me,

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success is, are you engaging people?

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Are they actually taking

action on what you're doing?

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Are they wanting to take

the next steps with you?

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Is this working as a

marketing channel for you?

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That's what I would be.

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measuring.

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And that's what I would be getting good

at looking at those numbers of, Hey,

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people are actually acting on my call

to action, but no one is converting.

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So then I know, Hey, okay,

maybe I need to go in here and

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change like what my offer is.

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Maybe this isn't the right thing, but

you have to start collecting that data.

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So.

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I hope that that helps.

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I hope that that answers the

question of how do you actually

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measure success from your podcast?

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And again, if you have any questions

that you want me to answer on the

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podcast, head over to my Facebook group,

Launch Grow Explode Your Podcast, and

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you will see posts in there, or you can

just ask away any questions that you

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have, , for a chance for me to answer it.

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Live, well, not live, but me to

answer it here on the podcast for you.

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So thank you for tuning in

and I'll see you next time.

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