The 5 Stages of the Podcast Listener Journey
There’s plenty of discussion around the benefits of launching a podcast, measuring podcast ROI, and how podcasts drive brand awareness and generate leads. But, where’s the conversation around one of the most crucial elements of podcast success: the podcast listener?
Whether an organization is B2B or B2C, a tech startup, a professional services firm, a creative agency, or a nonprofit, understanding the customer buyer journey is always a priority. Learning how a customer becomes aware of a product all the way through to their decision and purchasing step is crucial to build a successful marketing and product strategy.
This concept also applies to podcasts. For a podcast to meet their goals (which could be measured by a mix of qualitative and quantitative metrics) or deem its podcast successful, a podcast needs to win over the people.
Understanding the Podcast Audience Journey
Building a dedicated listener base and enthusiastic word-of-mouth advocates is a key goal of any podcast. Therefore, understanding the specific podcast audience journey is essential.
We’ve developed a framework called the Podcast Listener Journey that is similar to a typical customer buyer journey and sales funnel and consists of the awareness, consideration, and decision stages - with a few podcast-unique additions.
Stage 1: Awareness
They first become aware of your podcast
🤔 How does someone become aware of your podcast?
As noted in the table below, we’ve identified two categories of listeners: those who do not listen to podcasts, and those who already listen to podcasts. Each group has different traits and requires customized marketing messages. Pacific Content calls this approach: “preaching to the converted” and “growing the pie”.
✔️ What activities and tactics help build awareness?
We’ll only discuss different tactics for the two groups at this stage. For simplicity purposes, we will assume that everybody in Group 1 converts to Group 2 during the last four stages (the ultimate goal!)
Create the right podcast marketing mix
Treat every episode like an individual marketing campaign. Have the right assets (trailer, graphics, audiograms) for the right channels (Instagram, LinkedIn) with the right promotion strategies (earned media, paid ads, podcast swaps).
Outreach
The biggest mistake that podcast creators make is thinking “if we build it, they will come.”
Real talk: that’s not going to happen in a noisy digital world. Marketing strategist Ross Simmonds consistently points to the concept of DREAM (Distribution Rules Everything About Me) underlying content success and we agree. Don’t overlook distribution efforts.
Spread the word, put in the effort, and be creative. As JAR Audio states, the key to podcast launch success is a 360 degree approach from all angles.
Leverage guests
Accessing the established audience of podcast guests is an easy method to attract more ears. The first step is making sure your guests have an audience to begin with!
Then, the best way to convince guests to share the episode on their channels is to make it as easy as possible for them. Don’t give them more work. Create a ‘Podcast Guest Package’ that contains everything they need to effortlessly share on their own accounts.
Also, get the greenlight from your guests before anything is shared: guests like sharing things they are proud of. They won’t want to share an episode with their network if they don’t like how they are sound or how they look.
Don’t underestimate crossover episodes
As the CEO of Wondery, Hernan Lopez states that guest swaps and promotion on other podcasts is the best way to spread the word about your podcast. Host swapping is the equivalent of guest blogging in podcast land: it works in either medium.
Make a list of other podcasts that you can conduct cross promotions with:
Recording episodes on other podcasts as a guest
Hosting other podcast hosts on your podcast as guests
Agreeing to mention each other’s shows
Budget for podcast ads
Don’t write paid media off: it works.
In fact, Lopez also states: “And when it comes to marketing investment, I don’t think there’s any more effective and cost-efficient way than promoting a show via ads on other podcasts. They’re going to be reaching an audience that’s more predisposed to listen to your show, and also ‘in the mood’ to listen to other podcasts.”
Outside of podcast ads, don’t forget the effectiveness of social media ads.
Create really good content
Just like any form of content, good podcast content will get shared. This is how word-of-mouth grows. Don’t ever let the desire of audience growth and distribution efforts get in the way of creating high-quality, unique, and valuable content.
Stage 2: Consideration
They consider listening to your podcast based on topic relevance, reviews, recommendations, and other personal factors
🤔After becoming aware that your podcast exists, why would someone consider listening to your podcast?
Credibility and influence
People trust other people’s opinions. According to Edelman’s 2019 Trust Barometer report, “61% of people now find information from 'a person like me' to be credible or very credible.”
The likelihood that someone will actually consider listening to your podcast goes up if the recommendation comes directly from a friend, colleague, influencer, or even trust-worthy acquaintance.
Don’t underestimate the power of influence from other podcast hosts and hard metrics like chart rankings. The Trust Barometer report also shows that people trust “experts” more than “people like me”.
Personal interest
If the podcast and episode topic seem interesting and relevant, they will be thismuchcloser to listening. People listen to podcasts for two reasons: education and/or entertainment. Be strategic and research topics that people are searching for on Google, Reddit, Facebook groups, YouTube, and other social media channels.
✔️What activities and tactics help influence someone during the consideration stage?
Write clearly and succinctly
A intrigued listener will scan the episode title, episode description and podcast description to decide whether the episode is worth their time. As you write these things, avoid jargon and make sure your value proposition is clear. What is the episode about? Who is the guest and why does it matter? What five things will they learn from the episode? What is the podcast about? Avoid yoga babble and get to the point.
Invest in first impressions
The quality of your visual assets makes a difference. Podcasts are judged by how they look because sometimes, that’s all people have at first to form an opinion. Keep your assets (cover/episode art, social images, website) professional, on brand, minimalist, and easy-to-read. Podcast covers compress on mobile so always use minimal text in a legible font. Use PodcastLaunch to check what your cover will look like on different platforms.
Create a trailer
Help people commit with a good trailer. Trailers are the key to securing someone’s attention (just think of TV and movie trailers). Tease the best parts of your show so someone becomes intrigued and starts listening. We recommend trailers no more than one minute long. We’ve seen some trailers in the three to five minute mark — but that’s risky as people may not want to commit more than 60 seconds to give your podcast a chance.
Phase 3: Decision to Listen
They decide to listen to an episode based on perceived value and/or entertainment, quality of recommendations, and convenience factors
🤔 What convinces someone to hit play on your podcast?
Perceived value
If the content seems appealing, educational, entertaining, and matches what they want to learn, they will press play. Their interest needs to be piqued.
Quality and quantity of social proof
Credibility sells. If they are impressed with the positive press your podcast has received and sees multiple high-quality reviews, they won’t want to miss out.
Podcast social platforms such as Podyssey rely on its network of podcast enthusiasts to share trustworthy recommendations with others.
Convenience of consumption
A podcast is just another form of content to be consumed, out of many. Someone has to come across it at the right time and the right place. We often underestimate how convenience contributes to a podcast play. There is no shortage of content to consume: why would someone choose to listen to your podcast rather than reading an article, watching a YouTube video, or listening to an audiobook?
If they are commuting, at the gym, or running errands and they only have their ears available, then you’ve got a higher chance that they’ll hit play. But don’t leave it to luck, eliminate barriers that may prevent someone from listening to your podcast. The most important thing you can do is to market to attention spans and keep episodes short and sweet.
✔️ What activities and tactics help them decide to ultimately listen to your podcast?
Be as detailed as possible
In addition to writing clear episode titles, episode descriptions, and podcast descriptions, dive even deeper in episode descriptions. Include timestamp summaries, key insights, guest bios, topics covered, and memorable quotes. Tease the content and demonstrate that the episode deserves their time.
Show off social proof
Ratings and reviews are important as they are indicative of podcast quality and podcast popularity. This is where the ‘groupthink’ approach from social media can be applied to podcasts: when someone sees a higher quantity of ratings and reviews, they’re more likely to pay attention.
Share positive reviews across social channels, across marketing mediums, in a media/sponsorship skit, and on the podcast website. Consider reading out reviews in your podcast just like Dax Shepherd’s Armchair Expert and Chalene Johnson’s The Chalene Show.
Make it easy for the listener
Instead of blindly saying “subscribe” or “listen to our newest episode” -- show people how to do that. Create an easy-to-understand tutorial (video, social post, or text instructions) that walks them through the steps of how to find your podcast, listen to an episode, and subscribe. If you teach Group 1 (people who do not listen to podcasts) how to listen to podcasts, you’ll gain a plethora of first-time listeners.
Phase 4: Subscription
If they are impressed after the first listen, they subscribe and listen to other episodes
🤔 Why does someone choose to subscribe to a podcast?
They’ve been impressed
At the end of the day, if the content in your podcast is truly educational and entertaining, you’ll gain fans. The quality of the content will always bring someone back for more. (P.S. here are two overlooked ideas on how to improve podcast content).
Anticipation for the future
Just like a good first date, a good first listen will keep someone interested. They will subscribe if they want to receive alerts about new episodes and see new episodes in their feed.
✔️ What activities and tactics help them decide to subscribe to your podcast?
It all comes down to good content
People never listen to a podcast just because it’s a podcast. People just want to consume good content. Retain drive-by podcast traffic by turning one-time listens into multiple listens. A listener’s attention is valuable: respect it and avoid the banter and chitchat. Become familiar with the term “insights per minute”, the key metric that a16z uses to measure value on its popular podcast.
Actively build anticipation
So, how do you plan a first date/first listen to keep someone interested? Our First Date Strategy (IMDB) is a helpful reminder of the approach to keep in mind:
Become a power editor
One way to retain listeners is to create episodes that align with attention spans. Edit your podcast and create short and succinct episodes. Stop trying to be the next Joe Rogan or Tim Ferriss with 2-hour plus episodes. Shorter is sweeter, we promise.
If the average commute time is 26 minutes, aim for a 30-minute episode or less to improve listener engagement and content retention. Would you rather produce a 30-minute episode that results in a 100% consumption rate from listeners, or a 1-hour episode that only achieves a 50% listen-through rate?
Ask for it
A CTA is a call-to-action that requests a specific action you want the listener to perform. Always end every episode and marketing message with a clear CTA. Make it easy for the listener and don’t ask them to do five different things: stick to one.
A lot of podcasts give listeners too many CTAs (rate us, review us, subscribe, follow us on Instagram) and it is overwhelming. Pick one easy-to-action on CTA (such as subscribe) and stick to it.
Send them to your website
Yes, you need a podcast website. Your podcast is a brand and every brand requires a standalone website. Here’s why:
It’s your home. A website is where listeners can learn all about your podcast mission, values, and peruse all the podcast assets and episodes at once. Podcast players don’t do podcasts enough justice from a branding perspective so it’s important to have an online space to house all your podcast IP.
Build your funnel. A website is an essential component of a podcast’s sales and monetization funnel. Whether you’re selling a product, service, or just hoping to garner donations or membership revenue in the future, a website is where this process begins.
Own your data. Podcast creators forget they need to collect their own listener data. Podcasts are at the mercy of the players they are played on -- you can track downloads and where your listeners come from -- but it’s impossible to start a direct conversation with your listeners -- unless they give you explicit permission to contact them. Collect permissions and emails straight from listeners so you can stay in contact outside of the podcast. Plus, email is the one channel people are bound to check every day. Don’t forget that social media is limited. While you can engage through comments and DMs, the user data is ultimately owned by the social media platforms.
Phase 5: Retention
They become a loyal listener and advocate for your podcast. They submit positive reviews and share your podcast with their networks.
🤔 Why does someone listen to a podcast regularly?
One last time: content is king
We’ll say it one last time: good content always wins. If someone has derived serious value, insights, education, and entertainment from your podcast, they will become loyal listeners.
We define a loyal listener as someone who has:
Listened to at least three episodes at a 90% listen-through rate
Written a positive review on a public podcast player or directory
Shared an episode with their networks
Connecting with a community
Podcast fans have transformed what the word ‘community’ means.
According to Nicholas Quah from Hot Pod: “Because there is no comment section for podcasts, when you consume one it’s an isolated digital experience. But there’s this feeling that comes with podcasts, where often times you feel like you’re part of a community that you’re not physically part of. You want to find other people in this nation that doesn’t physically exist. Often that takes the form of a Facebook group.”
Dan Misener from Pacific Content also says: “Podcasts are a medium based on loyalty. Make it dead simple for your most passionate fans to become word-of-mouth advocates for your show.”
Power listeners have a desire to feel connected with the podcast creator and other podcast fans. Connected listeners naturally turn into your biggest advocates.
✔️ What activities and tactics turn listeners into loyal advocates?
Nurture relationships
Talk to your listeners! This is another reason why collecting listeners email is crucial. Just as brands talk to customers and ask for feedback, podcasts should also be focused on developing deeper relationships with listeners. Make them feel valued. Ask for feedback and actually implement it: they’ll feel heard and become even bigger advocates.
Maintain good content
Always be analyzing and take your podcast metrics seriously. Pay attention to the dips, spikes, and consumption rates. If longer episodes are less popular, experiment with different lengths. Try hosting two guests at one time. Never be stagnant with your content and always look for ways to improve.
Join their conversation
Power listeners are having conversations about podcasts they enjoy. Join the active discussions by replying and engaging. A few popular podcast communities:
Give them more
Release regular content and create highlight reels from popular episodes
Repurpose and repost your best content
Host Ask Me Anythings (AMAs) with popular guests
Build a Facebook group with exclusive incentives
Consider hosting live events
Create valuable content to quench their content thirst such as:
A topic directory (example: Damsel in the 6ix)
Podcast ‘roundups’ and ‘best of the best’ lists
Collection of the best quotes/advice given on the podcast
Using the Podcast Listener Journey
Understanding the five stages of the Podcast Listener Journey provides insight into a listener’s priorities, barriers, and how to turn their initial interest into that of a loyal podcast advocate.
This guide has hopefully helped you in rethinking the content in your podcasts, promotion and marketing tactics, retention strategies, and audience growth activities.
Comments, questions, interested in working together? Send us a note! Thanks for reading.