This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome to a new week. It's actually Thanksgiving week for some of us. I am thankful for you and you're listening to Side Hustle School. This is Chris Guillebeau. Marketing is essentially about discoverability.
That's what we're talking about in today's listener question. Consider, for example, a billboard. The idea of the billboard is to reach a lot of people in a concentrated area with a specific message. Or it actually could be a general message. It could be branding, like a sign by Coca-Cola.
It could be something time-sensitive. Get tickets to Hamilton. Or it could be for a new movie, skincare line, really anything else. So if we go from billboards to online, like let's think about how people discover websites. You know, online links, that's a big one.
Search engine optimization, that's a big one. If somebody 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 here's our question, what about a podcast?
Because 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. And all of this points to what is known as a discoverability problem for podcasts. So before I say any more on this, we have a listener question on the topic that might help you see how this can be such a big deal.
And I'll also offer some suggestions on what to do about it. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Bradley and I started following the show this past year. I'd like to start a podcast and I'm 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. Hey Bradley, you're absolutely right. Podcasting is definitely a different medium in terms of discoverability. So you mentioned YouTube, discoverability on YouTube is great. It's actually better than most other mediums.
TikTok has also been fantastic about this with its For You page. And of course, as I mentioned, websites can get discovered through search results and links from other sites. And none of those things are options with podcasts because there is no YouTube of podcasts. So here are some facts. Most podcasts are discovered by personal mention from a friend or by mentions on other podcasts.
So that's pretty much it. Collectively, those are by far the biggest sources of referrals. So the mentions on other podcasts that can be organic or it could be some kind of outreach campaign or it could be a paid ad campaign. And if you think about it, like the podcast world attracts millions of listeners. You know how big podcasts are, but lots of other people still don't know much about the medium.
Some people just don't care. So you really need to reach those who are actively engaged or at least familiar with it. And then of course, I'd be remiss to not mention, focusing on your own audience. If you have one at all, even friends on Facebook, even Instagram followers, whoever you know, they might be willing to take a chance on it, even if it's a new medium. So make sure to campaign actively with them.
And ideally, you don't want them to just listen. You want them to help bring other people along. So tell them directly about this challenge. Tell them, say it's actually hard for a new podcast to get discovered because it's different from YouTube and other mediums and such. So if you like it, I'd really appreciate your help bringing other listeners.
Now, all that said, in the end, you still need a great podcast. You need great content. You need to make something worth talking about. That's the bottom line. Make something worth talking about because then a crazy thing will happen.
People will talk about it. So the discoverability problem is a real thing. It's actually a challenge. However, there are also ways to overcome. And people do overcome just like I believe you will, Bradley, and any other listeners who are starting podcasts.
Let us know how it goes. Come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. You've got a question or an update. We'll continue to feature them and follow our listeners who are starting lots of different projects. Thanks for tuning in today.
I'm glad you discovered the show, however you did. And I hope you'll come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
