A Matt Countdown: The Top 10 Reasons Your Podcast Isn't Working

The last few weeks, I've been doing a lot of podcast
housekeeping- pitching sponsors, and reviewing the stats, and
thinking about what's next for the Sound Off Podcast. As it turns
out, it's going to be more of the same, which is a good thing.
One of the biggest questions I get asked is: "Why is my show
doing better?" Here are some of the conclusions that often come
up.


Number 10: No Video Strategy


Have a video strategy that includes Youtube. That's it. That's
number 10.


Number 9: You Are Impatient


Did you know that it takes three years to build an audience? It’s
true, because Dave Jackson, who has been podcasting since 2004,
told me so. Even if you have a big audience now with your
podcast, because you are named Kim Kardashian – it is still going
to take you three years to find that podcast audience. I see this
all the time with actors, Youtubers and Instagrammers: They get a
big audience out of the gate, and then the audience drops off
because those initial people prefer to interact with the star on
Youtube or Instagram or TV. But if they stick to it, over the
course of three years, a true podcast audience will develop.


So if you want to start a podcast, give yourself a lot of runway.
Like three years worth.


Number 8: You Thought It Would Be Easy


Wanna know what’s easy? Doing the midday show on a music station.
You talk for a few minutes an hour, and all the elements are
handed to you. Produced commercials, traffic and weather
together, the music and promos… You have about 56 minutes of the
hour taken care of. That’s why you hear the same midday person
across many markets now. In podcasting – you don’t have any of
that. You have to build most of it from scratch. You will need to
produce all the necessary elements including the commercials (if
you have any), the intro, the extro, and the music beds. You need
to do some show research, show prep, writing, you need to produce
the audio and make it sound listenable, and then after you launch
it… you’ll need to market the show.


Number 7: Your Show Is Not Everywhere


I can’t tell you the number of podcasts I review who are missing
from iHeart or Stitcher. And with countries like India offering a
gateway to 1.4 billion people, it might be a good idea to be on
Gaana or Jio Savaan. Think of India as the same size as the
United States… with an additional billion people. Yeah you want
in on that. And don’t forget to submit your show to Tune In… it
works well with the smart speakers. Don’t be like a radio company
that takes its stations off Tune In to be on an app only
available in the US. That’s stupid.


And finally don’t let your podcast host provider submit the show
to Apple or Spotify for you. Do it yourself. It takes five
minutes, and it’s a pain in the ass to rescue the show later
should you have to move. You always want to keep your stats with
you, not with someone else.


Number 6: You Don't Release Episodes
Consistently


Ironic, I know, because I didn’t release an episode on time last
week. But you need to be consistent with your releases. Those in
radio know this better than any other, and it’s why radio people
get famous. They are reliable and always there on time. What
radio and TV people are doing is creating the consistency that
allows for listeners to get in the habit of consuming their
media. So, if you think you are going to release episodes
whenever you want, and expect people to download it when you want
them to? Not happening.


Mondays and Tuesdays are great days to get episodes out. Early in
the week, people believe they have more time to plan their life
out. By Thursday they are swamped. You can still release your
episode on a Thursday or Friday – but you’ll have to market
through a weekend when attention spans are on neutral. Best of
luck with that.


And for those of you who do the “seasons” thing- unless there is
someone honestly pacing the floor waiting for the new season of
your podcast- don’t. Taking a random break is tantamount to
pulling the plug on a bath and letting the water run out.


We shifted to consistent releases after I had a conversation with
Aaron Mahnke, who has a number of hit podcasts, including Lore.
He gave a really compelling argument to releasing your show on
time, and in the end it's about respect for the listener and
their time. When we shifted to consistent releases, we saw a 20%
jump in our audience numbers. If you show the listener respect
they will show it back to you.


Number 5: Your Podcast Looks Like Shit In The
App


For the life of me, I don’t know why people put episode numbers
in the title field of their podcast. I think they do it because
Joe Rogan does it. There are ways to put to the episode number in
there without using the title field. People are not searching for
a show called Episode. I also see some people put the show title
of the podcast where the episode title is supposed to go, and
they think they are gaming the SEO gods, and they aren’t. They're
making a mess of the podcast. I wanted to listen to a podcast the
other day in the car, and every episode title had the word
"episode" in it. I couldn’t choose the episode I wanted, because
the word episode was causing the guest's name not to appear on
Apple Car play. So I moved on.


Also, get some episode artwork. Spotify, Amazon and even some
Apple apps are now using it. If you have a podcast that's about
people – put the people in the show artwork. Get yourself a Canva
account for free and take the 5 minutes to do some episode
artwork.


Number 4: Your Audio Quality Sucks


I've actually run into people who have argued with me about this.
They say, "It’s about the content, not the quality of the audio."
Uh, the audio is your content- and it sucks. There are 2.7
million podcasts out there, and if yours is serving up some sort
of echo-y, staticky stupidity, the listener will go elsewhere.
You need to create a listening experience that people will enjoy
on their headphones, or in their car, or on an airplane.


If you are producing your own show, learn about compression,
LUFs, normalization, and mixing. I want to give a shoutout to The
Insurance Podcast with Pete Tessier and Curt Wyatt, who are
insurance guys but took the time to learn about compression and
audio production. They have one of the leading podcasts in their
field because they respect their listener and care about their
show.


The other thing you could do is what I do: Hire people who know
way more than me to produce the parts I don’t know. This podcast
was making huge errors when we started out. Our first four
episodes were poorly produced by me. Later they were
over-compressed and too loud. We made the corrections after some
friendly advice from one of the best in the business, Jeff
Schultz, who worked at KFOG in San Franciso doing the imaging
(and is now at Wondery making great podcasts). He said, "Hey.
It’s a little loud. Pull it back."


Number 3: You Don't Have A Website


If you're in it to win it, you need a website. One of the best
things radio taught me was that making your website your
marketing hub is a good thing. You need to be found on Google,
and having a podcast website will go a long way to getting
discovered. If you think your Buzzsprout or Anchor website is
home base – it is not. James Cridland spoke on this show about
the value of Google and SEO. Take notes.


Make sure each episode has its own page, so when you have Matt
Cundill on as a guest, Google understands that Matt Cundill was a
guest on your show. Remember, every time you market your show on
social media, send people to the website where there is an Apple
badge for the iPhone users, a Google Podcasts badge for the
Android and Samsung people, and Spotify because lots of people
are into that. Anything beyond 4 is overkill. If you are just
sending people to Apple Podcasts when they don’t have an iPhone –
then it won't really work for them.


By the way, there is one exception to this, and if you follow the
Sound Off Podcast on Instagram, you’ll see it. Instagram stories
are a great way to get listeners one click away from the show on
Spotify.


When you do social media, the less clicks to get them to the
content, the better. And if you find websites a pain in the ass,
there are a few solutions out there for podcasters. Our Network
uses Podpage and it looks nice - see for yourself.


Number 2: You Don't Market Your Show Very Well... Or At
All


Do you know who your audience is? Or where they are? Do you just
put out a few social media posts for every episode and then
you're done? Well, that might be the problem. Think of your
podcast episodes as items in your fridge. Is it something that is
stale after 24 hours? 72 hours? A week, a month, a year? Two
years? Okay, well I don’t know anything in my fridge that makes
it that long, but I know many of the episodes I record from two
and three years ago are still getting regular downloads because
people are discovering them through search. I can market them
with the same vigor as if they came out last week.


I have the stats, and new people are discovering the show all the
time. It’s not the same people who listen to the show every week.
We churn listeners like any other media outlet does. Many people
say they're discovering us for the first time, and see a
wonderful back catalogue of episodes. Our biggest episode is the
one with Tom Leykis, and his audience continues to grow as well.
The episode I did with Tara Sands is excellent advice for anyone
who aspires to become a character voice in anime. Both episodes
with Sheri Lynch contain valuable information on becoming your
own radio startup. Steve Reynolds' talent coaching isn’t going to
change drastically over the course of a few years... I could go
on, but you see what I mean.


The same way a radio statio music director is going to program
Led Zeppelin on the radio station, I am going to do the same with
many of the episodes. The back catalogue is strong. In fact, I
read in Podnews that 47% of all podcast downloads were older
episodes- So tell people about them. That means tweets, and IG
stories, and Facebook and LinkedIn and a newsletter.


It also matters how you market. Maybe it’s audiograms and social
media posts- and it doesn’t have to be a lot- but it should be
consistent. And you want to hear something crazy? I am certain
that some people just know and follow the show through their
social media feeds, but haven’t listened to a single episode. I
never watched Roseanne but I knew the characters and what the
show is about. Marketing isn’t really about doing the homework.
It’s really about being involved.


Number 1: Your Show Is Boring


Anything that you record, you can make better. Over the years,
I'm certain that my live media game has deteriorated. I am only
live on my Youtube channel every once in a while, but being able
to produce and especially edit has been invaluable. And for those
of you who do Youtube Live podcasts- Have you ever considered
editing and producing around all that live audio to make a better
audio experience? I know, time is money, but every click and
every download counts. I did that a few weeks ago on another
podcast, and you can view it here if you want to see the
difference.


It's about respecting your listener, but not being boring. It's
about respecting your listener, and not wasting their time. You
really only have one competitor in podcasting, and that is your
listeners time. So respect it.


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