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Sustaining podcast growth week after week is really hard.
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And while there are plenty of consultants, plans, or methods out there that promise
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to fix it for you, the root cause may be something frustratingly simple.
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Today's episode is brought to you by the advancing podcasting community
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Because why would I do anything normal?
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Podcast Pontifications and it's populated by like-minded working
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Evo Terra:
Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
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"Why isn't my show growing?"
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We hear it quite a lot, which translates to "Why has my show's
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audience growth hit a plateau?"
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And, "Can I fix it with some marketing?"
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Well, maybe you can.
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Maybe some marketing would help you.
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Who knows?
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Maybe more social media posts would be just the thing to give you
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another bump in your listenership.
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Or maybe just doing a better job of posting content on social
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media might bring audiences and additional audience to your show.
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Maybe what you need is a big-name guest.
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That's the secret.
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Or maybe you need a provocative topic, something that will
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attract more people to your show.
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Or maybe, you think, "I need to be a guest on more podcasts.
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Podcast listeners listen to other podcasts.
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Why not?
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That makes sense to me."
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Or maybe I'll buy some advertising.
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That's the thing.
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But I'm not going to waste any money.
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I'm smarter than that.
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I'm going to buy ads only on, like, podcast apps.
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Or maybe I'll buy ads on other podcasts with audiences similar to mine.
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And you know what, I hear that Spotify now let's podcasters spend
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relatively small amounts of money to advertise all over their app.
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Well, maybe that'll work for me.
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Well, you know what, maybe some of those talk tactics are going to work for you.
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Maybe all of them are going to work for you, but then again, they might not.
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Chances are, unfortunately, none of them are going to work for you.
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Either not at all, or maybe not as much as you had hoped for.
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Because if it were easy to get growing your audience month after month,
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wouldn't you already be doing it?
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Really, if it were as simple as following a recipe, wouldn't
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every show keep seeing growth?
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But you and I know they don't.
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Just like yours might not.
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And, heck, as mine doesn't grow month over month.
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So what's really happening when a show has hit that plateau?
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Have you really reached peak audience with your 100 listeners that you have?
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Or your 1000 listeners that you have?
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Or maybe even your 100,000 listeners.
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Have you reached everyone you can?
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I mean, it's possible depending on how niche your show is.
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And you know me, I'm a fan of going super niche on shows, but chances
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are, there's a simple and rather singular reason that people - well,
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that your show has stopped growing and the secret's there in the people.
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It's because people have stopped recommending your show to other people.
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That's it.
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That's the reason, right?
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If people were continuing to recommend your show to other people they
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encounter, your show would continue grow.
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We know that word of mouth is how discovery happens, and not
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just in podcasting, but just about every other form of media.
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And yes, of course, there are big, glitzy and terribly expensive media campaigns,
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which help launch television shows, music, new movies, and, of course, new podcasts.
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But we're not talking about launch.
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We're talking about sustained growth for an extent show.
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And if it's not growing, that means that your audience is no longer
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recommending your show to other people.
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The question becomes why aren't they recommending your show any longer?
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And I will agree to you or agree with you or concede the fact
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that that's a bigger question.
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It's something you'd have to pontificate on your own for a while,
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especially if there is something in the way there's something happening.
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That's not resonating enough with your audience.
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That's maybe on you to sit and think about that.
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Now, Tom Webster had an amazing presentation at
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podcast movement 21 last week.
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It's not yet up.
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The final version has not yet been made available, but I watched it,
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loved it, and he gave three ways to increase what is known as the,
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what he calls the recommend ability.
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I love that word of your podcast.
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I'm going to state them briefly here and then I'm going to go through each one of
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them in detail for the rest of this week.
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So, you know what you're getting yourself in for, for the remainder of this
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week on podcast ponds, vacations now.
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Here they are.
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Number one, know what your listeners expect and then how
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to deliver the unexpected.
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I'll talk about that tomorrow.
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Number two, make your show easy to recommend.
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There are unlikely things you were doing or getting in the way of that.
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I'll talk about that on Wednesday.
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And then number three, master your craft.
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That will be the topic of Thursday's episode.
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I will dig into each of these, starting with the knowing what
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your listeners expect tomorrow.
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In the meantime, I have a weird request.
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It's a little strange for me.
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I'm researching sexy and sex positive podcasts for a new project.
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And I'd love to add into my consideration.
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Set my research, set any shows you might be passionate suited.
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Did there any shows you might be passionate about to my list?
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So if you listen to a sexy or a sex positive podcast, and you don't mind
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sharing the fact that you've listened to those shows with me, please send an
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email to evo@simpler.media with the name of the show, or you can DM me on Twitter.
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I'm at Evo too.
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And if you got any value out of today's show talking about blaming
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your podcast audience for your Sluggo.
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Sort of, if you got value out of this conversation, please return
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some of that value by visiting.
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Buy me a coffee.com/evo Terra and buying me a virtual coffee or 12.
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Sure.
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I'll take 12 coffees.
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That's fine.
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All right.
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That's it, everyone.
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Tomorrow I will get more into the topic of knowing what your listeners expect.
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So you can then give them things that they don't expect that's happening
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because I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
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Cheers!
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Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.
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He's on a mission to make podcasting better.
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Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes
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section of your podcast listening app.
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A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at
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podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected
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transcript, both created by Allie Press.
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Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.
