One of the biggest frustrations I see with podcasters is not really knowing their listeners. Gaining insight from listeners is challenging but it is invaluable when it comes to creating content they actually want to hear and forming a meaningful connection with them.
Today, I’m talking about three easy strategies to get to know your listeners so you can connect with them, sell your products, and make more quality content. Let’s dive in!
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1. Connect with your audience on social media
Social media is a great place to engage directly with your audience and get to know them better. No matter which platform you’re on, you can easily ask questions directly to your followers that will give you more information about them and what they want to hear from you.
You can ask what topic they want to hear about, which episode is their favorite, or what question they want you to ask your guest next week. Instragram stories has a polling tool that makes answering questions really fun for your followers. Clubhouse is a new social media platform where you can actually speak directly with your listeners to get to know them better. If you’re not sure how to leverage the platform as a podcaster, check out my interview yesterday with Clubhouse pro Laura Bauder.
2. Look at your data
We did a deep dive into podcasting data on last week’s episode about how to measure and accelerate your podcast growth. The most important thing to remember when looking at your data is to not compare it to other people’s data because it is completely irrelevant.
When trying to gain insight into your audience, there are definitely some things that you can see from your data. For example, where do they come from? What country do they live in? When do they listen to your podcast? Which apps do they use?
Maybe you think that your audience is only in the US, but maybe they’re not. Maybe half of them are in Europe, or spread all over the world, which is awesome. It can also mean that you will speak differently to your audience. You will say different things. So instead of talking about relevant topics in the US, maybe you will make your topic more international. So use your data to get to know your audience better.
3. Survey your audience
This is one of the best ways to get to know your audience and not many podcasters do it. The reason why I think surveying your audience is such a great tool is because not all of your podcast listeners follow you on social media. Actually, most of them probably don’t follow you on social media.
To survey your audience, create a quick survey with Google form or Typeform, mention it on your episode, and then pop the link in your show notes. Keep in mind that surveys take extra effort and you don’t want to give the listeners who are taking the time to give you this valuable information too much work. Limit your survey to 10 questions and consider doing a drawing for a gift card as a thank you for their efforts.
Make sure to leave some open-ended questions like what was your least favorite episode and why? Or how can I serve you better? That last question is so important and if you start to see a common theme in the answers, you’ve likely identified a new opportunity for monetizing your podcast. You’ll want to survey your audience on a regular basis, maybe every quarter or six months, to get fresh insights.
Ready to monetize your podcast?
No matter if your podcast has 10 or 10k downloads, you can start monetizing your podcast right now. I have created an ebook for anyone that wants to monetize their podcast without turning it into one big ad.
In this ebook, I’ll break down 5 ways to monetize your podcast, including which one is the easiest to start with and which one will be most profitable in the long run. Download it here.