If you follow me on social media, read my blog or watch my videos, you’ve heard me talk about why download stats for your podcast don’t matter. Well, today I’m going to contradict myself a bit by writing all about STATS!
In the spirit of full transparency, take a look at my download stats for Rhodes to Success:
To start off, I need to be clear that the actual number of download numbers per episode don’t matter to me. What I analyze are the trends in my stats; when downloads go down, when they stay the same, when they go up and why. When I see that little orange line go up, it means my audience is growing. That tells me that I’m I’m honing in on my target market and delivering content that they find valuable. It also tells me I’m reaching more people as my business and my podcast grows.
Friends, growing an audience takes time. It took a solid year of producing and fine-tuning my podcast before I saw my audience grow. By staying connected with my audience I have been able to make adjustments to my show and establish myself as an expert in my niche.
While ramping up my marketing strategy has helped grow my audience and connect with my listeners, remember that great marketing can’t make up for a bad podcast. You can’t polish a turd! Don’t get so focused on “growing your audience” that the quality of your show falls by the wayside. I did not invest in much marketing for my podcast until a year after I launched. Today, I invest in a social media manager and I recently invested in Meet Edgar to repost my old content as well. Have these marketing strategies help grow my podcast? The answer is an unequivocal YES. But don’t forget, the quality of your show is most important. In addition to ramping up my marketing, I also have improved the quality of my production and my interview skills.
If you host your podcast on Libsyn or another hosting service, you can easily log in to check your own download numbers and trend data. Keep in mind as you review your data that it is NOT the number of downloads that matter. What truly matters are the people behind those numbers. Even if you aren’t seeing growth or maybe you are even seeing a decline, take a step back and evaluate how you are engaging with your listeners. If your stats are doing down but your engagements are going up, you are on the right track! You are honing in to your target market and reaching the people who are truly going to benefit from your show. And those are the people who are going to eventually convert into paying customers and grow your business.
Podcasting is so much more than stats and download numbers. Podcasting is connecting with real people. If you like my content and think it applies to you and your business, I’d love to connect with you through my podcast Rhodes to Success and my weekly videos Interview Connections TV.
