Podcasts are growing, and it is the best way to build engagement and trust with your audience, but if you think you will upload episodes and people will start listening to you, that’s a mistake. It takes time, and nothing is so simple.
Every podcast starts with zero subscribers and zero downloads, but the faster you get to increase the numbers, you succeed.
Both are equally important; for instance, you liked an episode and checked the other episodes, but those were not good enough. So you will just download that particular episode and will not be willing to subscribe as you don’t want unwanted mails on your inbox. Similarly, you have already subscribed to a show as the contents are valuable, but the new episode they have released does not interest you, you will not want to download it. So both the numbers of subscribers and downloads go hand in hand.
However, the process of how to increase Podcast Subscribers and Increase your number of Downloads per Episode is different.
Let’s discuss the eleven things you need to follow to increase the number of subscribers.
What makes a podcast successful is how many subscribers you are having. To increase subscribers a good content, quality audio, and some useful strategies are required.
Submit your Podcast to as many Podcast Platforms & Directories – Your podcast show needs to be present to as many podcast directories as possible. To maximize your podcast reach, it is essential to be present everywhere your target audiences are. Podcast listeners search podcasts in different applications and directories they use, so you need to find out the best directories and submit your show there.
Use Social Media Effectively – Utilize your social media channels effectively. Research has found that around 90% of people who listen to podcasts are present on social media. Promote your podcast to all the channels you are using. It is not about just tweaking your episode to grab the attention of your target audience; you need to promote in different ways and formats.
Sending an Email to your Email List – Make the most use of your email list. Let your subscribers know that you are starting with your podcast show, giving a detailed description of what the show is about and why they should listen to it. Once you have launched, send a weekly mailer to your list informing you have published the week’s episodes and write a snippet of what it is about.
Release 3-5 episodes on the Launch Day – Record as many episodes as you can before the launch day and upload at least three episodes on the launch day. This is because people prefer to stick to the shows that are having more than three episodes. By uploading one episode, chances are people might not return to your show.
Be Consistent – Fix a day for launching episodes every week and follow the schedule. Most of the podcast episodes are released either on Monday or Wednesday at 2 am. Releasing episodes at 2 am is better as most people listen to podcasts either while going for a walk or driving to the office.
Podcast Artwork needs to be Attractive and Clear – When we talk about podcasts, we are mostly focussing on the quality of the audio, but your podcast artworks are equally important. People will first be attracted by looking at your cover art, and that is the only piece of information that will lead them to look further.
Repurpose Contents from Podcast – Repurpose and promote your episode contents in dozens of different ways you can. Create video clips, teasers, graphics, quotes, polls, etc. The more content you get to share, the more people you will be able to reach.
Convert each episode to Youtube Video – Youtube is the second largest social media platform having around 2 billion users worldwide. Conduct your podcast interview live on Facebook, convert it to a video, and upload it to youtube. This also helps your SEO apart from attracting listeners, as videos help increase your search engine ranking.
Appear on others’ podcasts as Guest – Appearing as a guest on other podcasts similar to your industry and target audiences will help attract their listeners to your show.
Before every episode launches Share a Trailer – Promote a teaser before any episode launches on your social media channels to inform people about the episode beforehand. Choose the title attractive so that people get interested in listening to the episode.
Make your Listeners Take Actions – Another great thing you can do on podcasts is making people take action. You can ask your listeners to ask any questions, leave a comment, you can conduct a poll, you can ask them to visit your page, or download a book from the link. It can be anything.
Now that we have discussed how you can increase your number of subscribers, increasing the number of downloads will not be difficult with some strategies to take care of. With these strategies, the more subscribers increase, the number of downloads for each episode multiplies.
Everyone has this question in mind that does downloads matter in podcasts, and the answer is yes, it does. With this, you get to analyze how many people are listening to each episode. In return, you understand how much quality content you are producing and sharing; also, you get the data on which type of content is getting more downloads.
The number of downloads is not only the metric for measuring your podcast’s success, but it is one of the deciding factors for measuring success. Increasing the number of downloads is not an easy task; with quality content, by creating a professional look of your show, and with the following strategies, you will get to achieve the milestone faster.
Choose the Right Guest – Who are your guests plays a vital role in attracting and growing your subscriber list but inviting prominent personalities without a significant number of subscribers seems impossible. And without inviting a big personality, increasing subscribers is not possible. This is a typical puzzle for most of the people who are hosting podcasts.
But what is essential to increase the number of subscribers and downloads is sharing immense value to your listeners. To start, you can look for new authors who are launching their new book, which is similar to your industry and niche, also utilize social media channels and find out people who are having good engaging followers.
The Starting 2 mins need to be Connecting – The starting few minutes decides whether your listeners will continue listening to your episode or not. So the start of the episode needs to be attractive enough, which makes your listeners know further.
The Audio Quality needs to be Good – Your audio production quality is paramount; no one enjoys listening to audio with background noise and disturbance. No matter how much great content you provide, if your audio quality is poor, no one will be interested in listening, not even your regular listeners.
Create a Structure for Every Episode – Your every episode should be full of information and value. Before the episode, structure it with the key pointers you will discuss and prepare some key questions to interview your guest. Share the copy of the structure with your guests so that they are ready before the interview.
Follow a Schedule – Following a schedule and being consistent will help your listeners know when your next episode will be available. If you don’t follow a schedule, you might lose listeners as no one likes waiting and wondering when the next episode will be published. Follow a schedule with the week’s fixed day and time so that your listeners are aware and can download it.
Include your Episode on your Website – Share your podcast episodes on your website; it is the right place to increase your podcast awareness. You can even have a different page for your podcast show. Let your visitors landing on your website listen to your episodes and get them interested in tuning in to your podcast show and following you.
Episode Descriptions need to be Attractive Enough – Write an attractive description about the episode. It is the description that interests the listeners to tune in and listen to your episode. The description needs to be crisp, providing the information to your listeners with what they can expect to get from the episode. The description and the episode’s title also need to be attractive enough to want the listeners to scroll further.
Share a Key Moment before the Launch of every Episode – Before launching the episode, create a short key moment video and promote it on your social media channels that can attract your followers to listen to the entire episode. The key moment video should not be more than 2-3 minutes; it is to create an interest among the people.
Make Sure your Guests Promotes the Episode – Provide your guest with the episode link and ask them to promote with their followers. This way, you get to attract their followers who will be interested in downloading the episode and listening to it.