110: Why Aren’t Your Listeners Becoming Customers?
You’ve set up your online business. You have a great sales page, excellent copy, good reviews, and you’ve got your podcast going with a solid listener base… but those listeners aren’t turning into customers. And for small business podcasters, that’s a frustrating problem–but the solutions might be simpler than you think!
Today, I’m walking you through four common reasons that your podcast might not be turning listeners into customers–and ways you can fix those problems. Some solutions are quick and easy, and some will require a bigger perspective shift in the way you make your content. But rethinking your podcast strategy can have huge payoffs in the long run, and we’re here to help you get there!
#1 | Your listeners don’t know what services or offerings you have available–or how to sign up for them.
I know this seems so simple, but one of the first things we do during a client intake meeting at Wild Home Podcasting is go over goals for our client’s podcasts. Often, their concrete goals might be something like “get more leads for my business,” which is a great goal! But then, when we dig into their podcast a little bit… there’s nothing in their show notes, on their website, or even in their podcast episodes that aligns with that goal. No email list mentioned in the episode or show notes, no link to a website or offers page, and maybe not even a mention of the actual work they do or services they provide.
No one wants to feel salesy, but if you never tell listeners what you do or how they can work with you, they aren’t going to know. If you want listeners to eventually become customers, you have to lead them down that path, and it starts by telling them you have something to offer.
You aren’t building trust and connection with your listeners through your podcast episodes.
One of the great things about podcasting is that you can be a little informal and chat with more familiarity to your audience. You can tell them about your week, your favorite snacks, or the cool article you read last week. In fact, you not only can, but you should. You should tell them about yourself and the other places that they can connect with you outside of your podcast too. Podcasting isn’t just a place to share your expertise and knowledge, it’s also a great format to build relationships and connections with your listeners! The more you share, the higher like, know, and trust factor you’ll gain, which is a crucial part of the foundation you need to build when converting listeners to clients.
You aren’t giving your listeners a clear, succinct call to action after each episode.
As we covered, it’s important to give listeners a look into the work you do, the services or offerings you provide, and the ways they can connect with you further–but you don’t necessarily need to give them every single option every episode.
When it comes to laying the groundwork for turning listeners into clients, pick ONE call to action that’s going to further that goal. It’s probably not going to be something like “subscribe, rate, and review! And follow on Instagram! And sign up for this course!” You’ll be better served thinking through your customer journey and asking yourself what the next link in the chain is. For many of our clients, it’s asking listeners to join an email list or a close friends circle on Instagram. Pick one option that’ll have a big impact and save other options for future episodes.
You’re giving away too much information with each of your podcast episodes.
Okay, this might be a little uncomfortable, because many of us started podcasts not just to sell stuff, but to actually help people, right? We want to share our knowledge and create an environment where others can learn and grow too. But, if you also want to grow your business, you need to consider if you’re giving listeners a little too much information.
If you’re walking listeners through your step-by-step programs, they aren’t going to have much incentive to buy a course or a service from you. Worse, if you’re just sharing a lot of “how-to” information but not giving context for where or why it might be applicable for the listener’s unique circumstances, they may not realize that you even have something that could solve a problem in their life or business.
Instead, think about conversion this way: it isn’t about being salesy or withholding, it’s about identifying pain points for listeners and offering them real, tangible solutions so they can solve their problem.
You have to let listeners know that you understand their problems. You have to build connections with them so they have confidence in the solidarity you have to offer. You have to tell them that you have a solution to offer to their specific problem. And you have to let them know where they can find that solution. Once you have this process ironed out, you’ll be amazed at how quickly though listeners turn into leads and customers.
You can do it, friends! Go out there and get strategic with your podcast! We’re cheering you on!
Need help identifying opportunities to convert podcast listeners to clients and customers? Take a look at our Podcast Strategy Intensive.
We’ll audit your podcast and marketing strategy, help you create a unique customer path, and give you a strong, strategic base so you can grow your podcast AND your business! We can’t wait to help you out. Click here to learn more.
Links:
94: How a Podcast Strategy Elevates Your Business
96: How to Set Goals for Your Podcast
106: Why You Need to Use Your Podcast to Drive the Rest of your Business Marketing
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The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
110: Why Aren’t Your Listeners Becoming Customers?
[00:00:04] Caroline Hull Are you ready to start a strategic podcast for your business and share your message in a way that feels wildly authentic? This is the place. Welcome to Podcast Your Business, where each week I share the strategy behind having a podcast that helps grow your business. I'm Caroline Hull, podcast manager, strategist and consultants, and I've seen the power of podcasts can have for your business. Let's get started.
[00:00:34] So if you listened to last week's episode, I talked a lot about download numbers and how to approach them and asked you the question, Is this What is holding you back? And I think these next few episodes are kind of like me hitting some pain points that have been brought up a lot in my strategy sessions with clients. My strategy intensives are refreshes. And so today I want to talk about maybe you've noticed that your listeners aren't becoming customers, and why is that the case? So this is a huge part of picture strategy that we do. It is not easy, right? When you launch a podcast, you have an idea, you know, kind of what you want to do and you dive in and that's amazing. And as time goes on, you do the things that you think you are supposed to do as a podcaster based on the podcast that you probably listen to. One of the problems with that is that what these big podcasters are doing doesn't necessarily help a new podcaster who is using their podcast, not necessarily for volume, but to help them meet their business goals. And if you need to know more about downloads and how that relates to business, please go listen to the previous episode because I talk about that a little bit.
[00:01:59] So when we are working on podcast strategy, the first thing I will ask people is like, What is your goal with this podcast? How is this podcast going to serve your business? And people will tell me, Well, yeah, like I want them on my email list. I want to sell more of this package. I want them to join my membership. It's usually really easy for them to come up with the thing that they want people to do. And they tell me this, and then I go look at their podcast and know where in their podcast. Does it communicate any of the goals that they just shared with me? And so usually that is like the first step when I'm doing an audit or a strategy call is ask them what their goals are and then see if everything you're doing with your podcast is communicating those goals. And so why aren't your listeners becoming customers? Well, they may not be sure how you can help them. You would be shocked to know how many podcasts that I work with and people that I talked to who have these great, amazing podcasts with amazing content. But nowhere do they ever say exactly how they help people or they don't ever allude to their services or share any new programs that are coming up. They simply do not communicate how they help people.
[00:03:26] Like, it's one thing if I had this podcast right, and I just talked about podcasting all the time. I love podcasts, I love podcast strategy, but I never said to you listeners, like, if you want more of this, you know, here is how you can work with me, or this is what I talked about with my clients and our client calls today. You know, you have to let people know what you do and how you do it through your content and through actually like saying, Hey, I've got a program, a membership that's opening up this week. This is who it's for. You can find the link on the show notes. Like, that is so simple, but people forget it because they don't want to be salesy. And what I always tell people is that they're going to have to hear it multiple times before they totally get it and understand it right. And so, like, you feel like you're being repetitive, but to your listeners, you may actually not be. And that time they actually listened to the episode without their kids interrupting them. And they hear that maybe the first time they've heard it. Right. And so you have to tell your listeners what you do and how you can help them.
[00:04:36] The second problem that I often see is that your listeners have not connected with you. And what do I mean about connection? Well, listen, if you have been listening to my podcast, you know that I did like an outlook for podcasts for this year, all linked in the show notes because it's a really good episode to go listen to. And one of the things I talked about in that episode was how people are really craving more connection with the host of the podcast that they listen to. And so what do I mean by connection? I mean, they want to hear about you. Now, you don't have to share all the nitty gritty, but they want to know who you are and what you're about. And they probably would love to go connect with you in a different way, whether that's an email list or Instagram, tech talk, Facebook, LinkedIn, whatever they want, some way to become more a part of your world, right? And if we don't give our listeners that opportunity to connect with us, we're really missing out on a chance to engage with them, to get to know them and to bring them into our world a little bit more.
[00:05:40] This is also like part of a bigger podcast strategy where we map out like the customer path and what we want people to do, and there's always some type of connection point in that customer path because a lot of times what we're doing is this podcast, right, is like crumbs, right? We're leaving them crumbs leading them to the big cookie, which if you've ever been in a call with me, you've heard me use that analogy because I just think it is so perfect and delicious to think about a cookie, but we have to kind of lead them down a path. And part of that path is creating connection so they develop more of that know like and trust with you. That's why on this podcast, sometimes I will throw in, you know, little things about what's going on with me or talk about the fact that I'm a homeschool mom. Like, I'm not afraid to share a few tidbits so people get to see a bigger picture of me and who I am. And that's so, so important. If somebody is going to work with you and it's not like again, this isn't like I'm telling you to do a whole episode on your personal life. I'm just saying like, you need to incorporate more of you into everything you do so that people can feel that connection.
[00:07:01] The other problem that I see is that when people listen to your episodes, they don't know what to do after an episode. And so there's kind of two two sides to this one. People will ask them to do a million things like rate review. Subscribe, follow, Join me email list. Follow me on Instagram. Like they will just list out all the things. And what I tend to find is that the more things you tell people to do, the least likely they are to do just one of those things. And so what I often encourage people to do is think about what's next in the step of the listener path. What are they going to do next? Are they going to join an email list or are they going to join a Facebook group? What is the thing that you want them to do to get into your world to build that connection? And that's the thing you're going to ask them to do. Instead of giving them five steps, give them just one. You know, if all you want from them is to rate and review your episode. Great. Ask them to do that. I'm just going to say they may not do that. But if you're wanting to build your email list, show them the value share, that value of jumping from the podcast to your email list and let them know what they're going to get once they get there.
[00:08:18] But here's the thing If you don't ever tell them about your email list, they're never going to know about it, right? And so that's kind of that late conversion that we see that becomes a huge problem for a lot of business owners is because they listen to other podcasts and they think what they should be asking people to do is write reviews, subscribe, follow, you know, blah, blah, blah. All the things when really what they need to do is create one thing. That you want your listeners to do and make sure you communicate it.
[00:08:47] One of the other problems I see, and this one is interesting, I know I've talked about it in my marketing framework episode and I've also discussed it in a lot of episodes because I talk about content a lot, right? But. What happens with content. A lot of times with business owners and their podcast is that they start giving away too much on their episodes. Now, listen, I love sharing. I love you know, you can listen to all of my episodes. You can go through my entire library and you can create your own podcast strategy based on the episodes I've done. But I never give you. Like, if you notice, I never give you the exact steps. I do not sit down, share a template with you on the episode, and we walk through it together like, that's never going to happen on this podcast because I don't want to necessarily write share how to do the thing because I want you to come do it with me. I want to help you write. I want to help you create a podcast strategy. Now, again, you can definitely go back and do it yourself, but in each episode I am not necessarily going to give you every piece that you need to do the thing.
[00:10:08] One of the issues that we see is a lot of times when we're talking about online content, people are more focused on the results and the solutions part of what they do, right? So they'll share the solutions they found, they'll share the results that they found, just basically telling people exactly what to do and how they got there. But what I feel and this kind of goes back to that connection piece, is that when people listen to a podcast, what they really want is to feel seen and feel like somebody understands the struggles that they've gone through. And so what I really try to do is focus on the pain points and focus on more of identifying them and understanding what they are. Because the first part of solving any problem is understanding, right? And so, like, right now, like we're talking about why our listeners aren't becoming customers. There are some tips in here definitely that you could go implement, but I'm not telling you the full solution because we don't have time for that. That would take a couple of hours and like a strategy document and a sit down and like a coffee. But what I am doing is showing you how these pain points, what they are and what they can look like. And so you can start identifying them in your own world and understanding that I am here to help you solve that pain point. It's a very different mindset when it comes to content because we want to make sure again that people know how we can help them and that they know what to do after an episode. But if your content is constantly giving away everything. They're not going to really need to do any of those things.
[00:11:56] And I'm not saying this in a way of like, we're not manipulating people. We're just sharing our experiences and what we've noticed in our sphere and our world that the things that people struggle with and the things that we help people with, identifying them. Right. And helping people feel seen in our episodes. We're not manipulating here. We're not being salesy. But what we're not doing is giving away so much on our episodes that they don't need us. This isn't a course, right? Our podcast is not a course on how to do the thing. Our podcast is a way for us to share our authority, our expertise, and how we again, how we help people write. So when you sit down to plan your episodes, you know, really thinking about, okay, what are the pain points that my people are experiencing right now and how can I help them identify those and how can I help them understand that I can help them with those things? Again, without being salesy, I'm not sitting here saying you need to book a call with me. Like, that's not what I'm saying, but I am helping you feel seen as a podcaster who may be struggling with creating a podcast that actually supports the goals of your business. Right? I hope that made a lot of sense.
[00:13:15] So a lot of times when your listeners aren't becoming customers again, it's because we are just leaving out some things. We aren't telling them how to help us. We're not creating connection point. Really. It is. What I find is like creating the episode, putting it up and nothing happens after because we have not created that what comes after piece to our podcast strategy. And so this is something you can do today. You can go, you can look at your podcast, look at every aspect of your podcast and say, Is it clear what I do? How to connect with me, what they need to do after an episode, and how I help people. Are these things clear in my podcasts, in my episodes? And if they're not, there's some very, very small tweaks. As I said in this this episode that you can make to help you get there. And it's amazing how these tweaks can make such a difference, because, again, when everything is aligned and everything is working toward the goals that you've set for your business, you will start to see those conversions, whether that's in download numbers or that's in people actually clicking by on your website because they listen to your podcast episode and they knew that you were the one to help them solve their problem. So I hope this helps you think about this a little bit differently.
[00:14:38] There is no magic pixie dust to sprinkle on your podcast. You don't need it to get picked up by like one of the biggest podcasts in the world and reviewed on it to get clients like and these are things that you can do yourself to really reframe how your podcast is working for your business and how it is talking to your customers, and that's going to make such a difference. Again, if you want more of this type of thing, please head over to Instagram and connect with me and I will be back next week with a new episode. Thank you for listening to Podcast Your Business. For more podcasting tips, follow us on Instagram @wildhomepodcasting. If you're ready to launch up level or grow your podcast, head to wildhomepodcasting.com to get started today.
