So, you’ve got the podcast but you’re still not seeing the listener engagement you were hoping for. Never fear! We’ve rounded up five of the best tactics to help you see your podcast participation go up, all it requires from you is a little time and planning and you should start to see the broadcaster / listener back and forth increase in no time!
1. Schedule your social media strategy when your audience is active
Every good marketer knows that understanding your audience is the key to growing your listener figures but importantly it will also help increase engagement. Knowing when your listeners are most active on social media will give you the ability to strategically target them with your posts and gain their interest and involvement.
Social media networks love engagement and a great example of how this work is Instagram. Instagram’s algorithm gives priority to posts which receive high levels of attention, meaning that the more likes and comments you get, the more people will see it. But how can you put this into action? For example, if your target audience are new mums, it’s worth thinking about posting during the early hours of the morning or the middle of the night when they are most active on their phones. By taking the time to understand your audience’s daily routines it will allow you to tactically plan your posts and therefore gain maximum engagement.
2. Add a CTA
A call-to-action, or CTA in marketing terms, might seem obvious to those in the sector, but if you’re not you won’t be aware of the effect these little sentences and questions could have on your engagement. The idea is that you literally invite viewers to comment or participate with your post, with the aim being that you inspire people to spend longer viewing your post and therefore also your account. It doesn’t take much from your end, all you need to do is add a simple phrase like: ‘have you seen what we’ve been up to this week?’ with the hope that viewers will click through or ‘what do you think of our latest episode?’, asking them to leave a comment. So why not give it a go and try tracking your click-throughs / comments to see what effect it has!
3. Be involved within the community
It goes without saying that the more vocally present you are within your field of interest the more you will be seen by other users. Therefore it’s crucial that you’re as active as possible on social media, this means you should comment on other users activity, like posts and follow related accounts across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. A little bit of investment in online presence can go a long way, so factor in some time to your day to make sure you’re being seen!
4. Run a competition
Everyone loves to win something, which is why contests are a sure fire way to gain attention from users. Partner with other businesses or influencers to really maximise your reach and offer prizes which your audience would love to own. If possible, you can also use the competition as a way to gain some customer insight – ask your audience about their likes and dislikes so you can target future content towards them. Above all the competition needs to be simple so people are encouraged to enter!
5. Build a newsletter
Newsletters are a great way to shout about your podcast’s activity and summarise in a succinct way what you’re up to. Also, by tracking your newsletters open rate and click-throughs you can start to understand the topics which particularly interest your audience which will allow you to plan your content more easily. Motivate people to sign up to your newsletter by offering an incentive – exclusive content or being entered into a draw are both great ways to encourage users to sign up!
There you have it, these are our top five tips to getting your listeners to be more engaged. They are simple and straightforward, all it requires from you is some time and you should start to see results soon!
