Q&A: How do people discover a new podcast?

Notes from Chris

Episode 1787

Welcome to a new week—Thanksgiving week for some of us!

Marketing is essentially about discoverability.

Consider a billboard: the idea is to reach a lot of people in a concentrated area with a specific message. That message may just be branding, like a sign by Coca-Cola. Or it could be something time-sensitive: get tickets to Hamilton. Or it could be for a new movie, skincare line, or anything else.

So if we focus on online a bit, how do people discover websites? SEO is a big one, and so is online links. If someone writes about your site in the New York Times, or if you rank highly for relevant keywords, hopefully a lot of visitors will discover it.

But what about a podcast? If you think about it, it’s a bit different–a podcast isn’t a website. It doesn’t rank in search terms or get links from other sites. All of this points to what is known as a discoverability problem for podcasts.

Before I say any more, we have a listener question on this topic that might help you see how this can be a big deal.

"I’d like to start a podcast and am pretty familiar with the technical parts—it seems relatively simple. I've also been working on content and have most of what I need for the first six episodes lined up. There's one thing I don't understand, though: how do listeners discover new podcasts? It seems like a very different medium than YouTube, where the algorithm determines placement and makes recommendations to users based on what they've previously watched. There's nothing like that for podcasts, right? And if so, how could anyone discover a new show in the first place? Thanks for any help and advice you can give me."

Listen to today's episode to learn more...

 

 

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SEE ALSO:

• Q&A: What are the main things to know when starting a podcast?: A listener is taking the plunge and starting his own podcast! What are the top three things I wish I’d known when I began Side Hustle School?
• Q&A: Did you hear about the $20 million podcast deal?: A listener has heard about a $20 million podcast deal—did that really happen?? Also, are some podcast genres or categories more profitable than others?
• Q&A: How do you grow a podcast without spending money on ads?: If a podcast falls in the forest, will anyone hear it? This listener wants to know how to grow his new show—without handing over buckets of money to Google and Facebook.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,