Get Your Podcast Ready for the Holidays
I can’t believe the holidays are almost here! If you haven’t already, now is the time to figure out what to do with your podcast during the holidays. For me, the holidays are family time so we build our podcast’s schedule around being able to take time off. That may not be right for you or your audience. So let’s break it down.
Does your audience take a break? Past stats show us that our listeners tend to drop off during the holiday season. Is this a busy time for your listeners or are they still engaged? If they are, consider batch recording and scheduling ahead so you can take a break. If not, maybe consider taking some time off.
Can you work ahead? Does your podcast content allow you the ability to plan ahead, batch record and schedule out episodes? If so, DO IT. This has been the biggest game changer is my podcast life. While I love recording and editing, doing it last minute is never fun. Plus, being able to get it done ahead of time affords me breathing room and we all need a little bit of that.
What would a break look like for you? Do you need a few weeks completely off or do you want to passively publish episodes? Think about what would make the most sense for you.
Now, if you have a decided that a break is the right way to go, there are a few options that I think work really well for podcasters.
Rerun episodes! I like to call them throwbacks, but you can call them rewinds, reruns, whatever works! Look at your stats and see what your most popular episodes were or think about your most impactful episodes. Maybe you have an episode that is holiday specific. Record an intro mentioning you are sharing a throwback with them and then play the full episode. We love these and so do our listeners.
Record a sign off episode. Take a full break. We are! Record a short episode talking about your break before you sign off for the holidays and let it play. Your audience will appreciate the update and be excited for new episodes.
The key is to stay engaged with your listeners during your break. We will keep our Facebook group and social media running, but won’t be releasing new episodes. We will be teasing episodes coming up and when we will start re-airing episodes.
If you want to hear more about taking a break, listen to my podcast Episode 005 - How to Take a Break
I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing holiday season and happy podcasting!
