Special Series: Is My Podcast Working? How to Measure Success This Fall
As we close our series on getting your podcast fall-ready, today's episode delves into the critical task of measuring success and planning for growth. Understanding how to evaluate the impact of your podcast refresh or changes is more than essential—it's transformative. And you might be surprised to find how closely it all connects back to the intentions we set at the start of this journey.
In this episode, I’ll guide you through the process of identifying which metrics genuinely reflect your podcast's success and how they can sync beautifully with your business goals. We're moving beyond mere download counts to embrace a holistic view of listener engagement, conversion rates, and the real influence your podcast holds over your business’s trajectory. Join me as we uncover practical steps to analyze your podcast’s data, ensuring the hard work you've put in this summer sets you up for a thriving fall season.
Grab the FREE Strategic Podcast Performance Review Checklist here: http://wildhomepodcasting.com/audit
Understanding the Right Metrics for My Podcast
Measuring the success of my podcast goes so much deeper than just download counts and listener stats. It's about really diving into how my podcast is impacting my broader business goals. In this post, I want to share with you the metrics that I find most valuable, including engagement rates, conversion effectiveness, and the feedback from our amazing listeners. Understanding these metrics helps paint a clear picture of my podcast's performance and how it’s truly resonating with you all.
Setting Goals and Benchmarking Success
Setting clear, measurable goals has been a fundamental part of my podcasting journey. Today, I want to walk you through how I define success for my podcast—whether that's boosting audience engagement or driving business conversions. I’ll also show you how I use these goals to benchmark success and make informed decisions that steer the content you hear every week.
Analyzing and Adjusting My Podcast Strategy
After pinpointing the metrics and setting goals, the next step for me is to dive into the data and make necessary adjustments. Here, I’ll share some practical tips on how I review my podcast’s performance and pinpoint areas for improvement. Whether it’s tweaking my content format, adjusting release schedules, or shaking up promotional strategies, I’m here to give you an inside look at how I enhance my podcast's effectiveness.
Leveraging Listener Feedback for Continuous Improvement
Your feedback is absolutely invaluable to me. This part of our journey together involves gathering and interpreting what you tell me, whether through social media interactions or direct listener surveys. Discover how I use your insights to continually refine our shared podcasting journey and shape the episodes that come next.
Embracing Change for a Dynamic Podcast
In the ever-evolving world of podcasting, adaptability is my key to success. By effectively measuring our achievements and being open to necessary changes, I ensure our podcast remains a vibrant and integral part of our business strategy. As we transition into the fall, I invite you to join me in reassessing our approach, embracing new challenges, and continuing to elevate the impact of our podcast.
The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
189: Special Series: Is My Podcast Working? How to Measure Success This Fall
[00:00:00] It is the end of July and pretty much the end of summer, especially if you're like me and you homeschool and you're starting school next week. And so we're here at the last episode of my series on getting your podcast ready for the fall. And today we're going to talk about how to measure for success. And how to adjust for future growth.
[00:00:21] And this really is one of the most important pieces. And I bet you're going to be surprised to how much I'm going to relate it back. To one of the very first episodes in this series, stay tuned.
[00:00:33]
[00:00:33] [00:01:00] Hello, everyone. And welcome back to share strategize and shine. How is it the end of summer? Somebody please tell me, because I literally do not know. We actually have a letter board. In our house right in our entryway that we like to update all the time. And right now it says summer should get a speeding ticket. And I think that's a really good quote for how crazy this summer has felt. It's felt really busy, busier than normal.
[00:01:44] And it's also felt like super, just fast. Like I blinked. It was, may I blinked again? And now here we are almost to August. And to be quite honest with you, I haven't done anything luxurious as summer or amazing. I'm mostly been spending the summer. Uh, [00:02:00] preparing for the next homeschool year. Just hanging out with my kids, driving them to camps. Uh, lots of camps going on this summer. Lots of socializing for my oldest and you know, lots of swim lessons for my little.
[00:02:12] So it's been a very low key summer, but I'm really excited because it's also been an incredible summer of like, Rest. Not necessarily relaxation, but like taking steps toward what the next thing is for me. I feel like this year has been a very big year of growth and. Okay, what do we want next? What do we want our life to look like?
[00:02:34] That kind of thing. And in the past couple of weeks, I've taken some really big steps toward those goals, whether it's related to my health, whether it's related to my business. So. I'm actually not. Sad that summer is over. I'm actually really excited to dive into the fall. And yeah, so that leads me into this week's topic.
[00:02:55] So we have been talking about in this series, how to get [00:03:00] your podcasts ready for the fall. And really focusing on. Why you might need to refresh your podcasts before the fall, how to set really great goals for your podcast and your business so they can work together. And the power that an audit can have for your podcast.
[00:03:18] And today we're going to wrap all of that up and talk about. How do we know if all of this work we did this summer to get our podcast ready for the fall is actually working. So, this is an episode that I want you to bookmark come back to in like September, October when you're going. Okay. I did all these tweaks and changes now.
[00:03:38] How do I know if they're actually working? So there's a couple things that I want you to really think about as we're talking in this episode. One is. How important are metrics for us? And we're going to talk for a minute about how to define what metrics are for us as we get down into this episode.
[00:03:56] But I want you to think about how often you're looking at [00:04:00] your metrics, how often they're playing a role in your decision making with your podcasts. And, you know, this really is all meant to help you measure your podcast performance and. Look at the data in a way that's meaningful, because I think that we can look at data. And get really overwhelmed with it.
[00:04:21] We see numbers. We wonder, are those the right numbers? Should I be getting those numbers? I mean, more often than not when somebody contacts me and they're thinking about a podcast auto or her podcast refresh. They will say in their inquiry form, and maybe this is you too. I'm not even sure if my podcast is doing well.
[00:04:40] Like, I don't know what doing well means. And so we're going to talk about that a little bit today. Let's start with, how do we identify the right metrics for our success? Post audit, post refresh. I want you to go to back to the episode where we were talking about your goals and that is episode [00:05:00] 187. So if you didn't listen to episode 187, I highly recommend you go back and listen to it. Knowing if your podcast successful all boils down to what are my goals and based on my goals, what do I need to be measuring?
[00:05:15] So we can look at a lot of different metrics. If we start with just your podcasts, we can look at downloads, listens. We can look at how much engagement we're getting on a social media post about our podcast and how that translates into listens. Maybe we're able to track how many shares we get when we post that. Episode on social media, right? So we can look at some kind of engagement, very specific metrics. But do those have anything to do with what our goals are?
[00:05:44] Right. And then we can get into business metrics. We can start looking at leads, generated conversion rates on sales pages or a podcast page. Direct revenue as it relates to your podcast. So how are you making money [00:06:00] with this podcast? That's something that you would have determined when you were setting your goals for the podcast. Maybe you're driving more people to your membership. Maybe you're hoping to get more one-on-one clients with your podcast and that all has to do with your opt-in the path that you're leading people on and what your goals are.
[00:06:18] Again, go back and listen to episode 187, if you're not sure what I'm talking about. We can also think about listener feedback, what kind of comments are we getting from people? What are people telling us anecdotally, when we're talking about our podcast, what are people saying on social media? Maybe we've been getting some new reviews or maybe just, maybe we've had listeners actually email us directly. And, you know, all of these things combined are going to help us. Create a picture of the success of our podcast. I think it's really easy to just take one of these metrics and say, That's how I'm going to totally measure the success.
[00:06:55] of my podcast. But I know for me, if my goal is to get more [00:07:00] people into my membership. I'm not necessarily going to be looking at downloads. Yes. That's important to me as I think about growth. But when I think about conversion and my goals, I want to look at other things. So let's say I do a promotion for my membership.
[00:07:14] I have a special landing page set up. How many people actually clicked through. To the landing page and the, from there, how many people actually converted. This is where we really start to dig in and see like, is the podcast working for our goals? It's really, really , important to set some baseline metrics before you make changes to your podcasts. So as you're thinking about, okay, do I need an audit?
[00:07:40] Do I need a refresh? When we talk about those goals, which is a main piece of both of those things, right. We're thinking about how are we going to measure if this worked for us, how are we going to measure? If all the changes we made are going to work? And the thing about podcasting is it doesn't just happen tomorrow.
[00:07:59] It may [00:08:00] happen. 10 episodes from now, we may start to really see the impact next year of the changes that we made now. But the point is, is that we're not going to know that impact unless we have determined for ourselves, for our business, for our podcasts, how we're going to measure it.
[00:08:17] And so. I want to give just a quick little example of how analytics and feedback can lead to significant podcasts improvements. I've talked about this client before she had a podcast that was doing really, really well. I mean, really well, tons of people listened. She's kind of a name in her industry.
[00:08:37] so she wasn't having problems, getting people to download the episodes, getting people to listen to the episodes. But what was a struggle for her was she felt like she was creating all of this content and she wasn't seeing any monetary value connected with it. So the first thing we talked about when she sat down with me and we were working on through her audit and we were talking about her strategy was. Okay.
[00:08:59] What [00:09:00] is your actual goal for the podcast? Like what is your, what do you want this podcast to do for you for your business? And she said, well, I want people to go into my membership. So we had to determine, well, how are we going to measure this? What is the way that we're going to measure. And she had a very specific page set up for people to go from her podcast to her membership. Now, granted there was a lot of other strategy that was incorporated into this such as changing up her content. Making sure the message of her description, her intro, outro trailer, all of that was correct and effective for what she was trying to achieve. I will say that for her content was a huge piece of it. But because we knew what we wanted to measure post audit, post strategy.
[00:09:43] We were able to set that up. So then once she made the changes, we were able to see if it was working. In fact, she has been able to measure that exactly and has been able to see that whenever she posts an episode, she is actually able to get new people directly into her membership. [00:10:00] But she would know that if she was just looking at downloads because her downloads. By all indications should have said your podcast is successful. By what people in the podcast industry determined that successful.
[00:10:13] Right. And that's why it's so important to determine your own metrics and decide how I'm going to measure this. And is it working for me? Okay. So let's say you go through, you do an audit, you do a refresh, you're all ready for the fall. You're excited. You've determined your metrics, how you're going to measure it. But how do we know when it's not working?
[00:10:33] When should we tweak? When should we change things? I want to give you just some encouragement here, because I think. The knee jerk reaction is if something isn't working right away. To just overhaul it. Right. , In my business circle, we talk about burning things down all the time. I'm sure you've heard that.
[00:10:53] If you're an online business person. But don't burn down your podcast. It takes a little bit of time [00:11:00] to gain momentum. And so, especially when you make changes to like your subtitle or SEO or you're working on your content. It takes time for that shift to happen with your listeners as well as yourself.
[00:11:12] And so you don't want to do it today and then tomorrow measure and say, well, that was an epic failure. Let me change everything. Give it a few episodes. Now that can mean anything to you, but a lot of times what I will tell my clients is like, can we wait at least 10 episodes and see. What's going on, you will be surprised by how different things look. From the next day to those 10 episodes later.
[00:11:36] Right? And, you know, there's some other things you can do when you think about, okay, what should I experiment with and change. It could be changing the day that you release your episode. Maybe your episodes, you're releasing them on Friday. But the bulk of your listeners are actually listening on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
[00:11:52] Now, how do I know this? Because I'm able to go and look at the downloads and see when they spike. So I might know. Oh, I shouldn't [00:12:00] probably post them Fridays. I should maybe post on Mondays. Because I'm going to see a surge of downloads on Mondays. This is also like part of knowing your audience and knowing when they're listening, I have clients who post on Fridays and they get amazing listens over the weekends. But that's because that's when their audience listens. Mine does not listen on weekends and I don't listen to podcasts on weekends.
[00:12:19] So it doesn't make sense for me to do that. Right. You can also tweak your format, right? The actual format of your podcast and the content. You know, if you feel like those metrics are not hitting where you want them to hit. The first thing I would tackle before you change the cover art before you start changing everything. Is to really think about is my content working for me. Is my content aligned with my ideal audience.
[00:12:45] Is it leading them to the thing that I want them to be led to via my goal that I set in episode 187. Is it doing that because a lot of times that is the best place to start. You would be surprised. How a [00:13:00] really aligned strategic content strategy. Can make a change in how your podcasts performs. And I think a lot of times we don't put enough emphasis on this.
[00:13:09] We think. Well, if I just come up with a catchy title and I show up, people are going to listen. And they might. Yes, absolutely. But if you are telling them how to do everything and not the why behind what they do, there's not going to be a need for them to take the next step. Okay. So, those are just some things I want you to think about.
[00:13:28] If you're like, oh, maybe I should tweak and change everything. Start with your content. Let's start there. I highly recommend quarterly doing a review of your podcast. So doing a podcast performance review, doing a quick little audit. Thinking about what you have coming up in your schedule, making sure that everything is aligned and working towards those goals. And this is going to help you to continue to grow, to continue to improve. To continue to constantly be moving forward with not just your business, but your [00:14:00] podcast as well.
[00:14:00] Right. We want to use our podcast is like the content that's driving our business growth, and it really can do that for you. If you take the time to do these quarterly reviews. And then remember, like lean into your audience and your listeners. What feedback are they giving? What people, what are people saying they have resonated with on your podcast? I bet you. That when you sit down to do a call with someone and discovery call. And they mentioned a podcast episode.
[00:14:30] You're going to be like, what? So write that down. Because it's always surprising to me, which episodes people really resonated with compared to like what I thought was super important. So. As you are looking forward. Towards the fall towards the surgeon downloads that we see. I want you to remember that. Podcasting is not a set it and forget it kind of thing.
[00:14:56] It's a constant evolution. And honestly, [00:15:00] all content is I think about my journey on Instagram, on LinkedIn, my email. I'm constantly improving and evolving your podcast should do the same as well. So if it feels mundane, if it feels like you've been doing the same thing for a while, You probably have, and it's probably time to shake it up. And that is going to help you grow.
[00:15:21] And that is why, if you are in my membership, we do content planning and performance reviews. every quarter. Because we are constantly striving to grow and improve our podcasts. And if you need some help with any of this, if, if you've been listening to this series and you're like, I don't know where to start. I want you to head to wild home podcasting.com/audit. This is a really great way to get started on thinking about strategy for your podcast. If you are like feeling great about the audit and you're ready to plan content.
[00:15:55] I also have content planning, strategy sessions. Where we [00:16:00] literally just sit down and plan your content for the next quarter. And I will say, like, as we're heading into August, we're going to be opening enrollment for the strategize and shine membership. And this is the place to get support tools, resources for your podcasts. Including AI tools to make the process easier for you.
[00:16:18] So definitely like, just remember you're not in this alone. And I am so excited to wrap up this podcast series and dive into regular episodes in the fall. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your summer. I am so excited to hear about what this audit process and setting goals for your podcast process has been.
[00:16:40] So let me know, connect with me and I'll be back soon with another episode.
