May 12, 2025 • 20 mins
We hope you'll find these ideas on how to grow a podcast from 50 listeners per episode helpful in your podcasting quest.
Launching a podcast is exciting—but growing one from just a handful of listeners can feel overwhelming. The good news? You don’t need thousands of followers or a marketing budget to build momentum. In this episode of Podcast Insider, MacKenzie and Mike share eight actionable tips to help new podcasters attract more listeners, build a loyal community, and make progress one episode at a time.
Today's Hosts: MacKenzie Bennett and Mike Dell
8 Ideas on How to Grow a Podcast From 50 Listens Per Episode
1. Double Down on One Social Platform
Don’t spread yourself thin. Pick one platform where your audience already hangs out (e.g., Twitter/X for tech, Instagram for lifestyle, LinkedIn for B2B) and:
Share 15–60 sec audiograms or clips from your podcast
Post quotes or takeaways from your latest episode
Engage with your niche (comment, follow, reshare relevant stuff)
🎯 Goal: Get seen by people already interested in your topic, and become a recognizable voice.
2. Ask for Word-of-Mouth the Right Way
Instead of “Rate and Review!” say:
“If this made you think of someone, send it to them.”
That’s a clear, emotional ask—easier than writing a review and more likely to lead to a new listener.
3. Nail Your Podcast Title and Description
Your show title and episode titles must speak to the value or curiosity of your target listener. Avoid vague names—opt for searchable, benefit-driven wording.
Bad: Episode 22: A Chat with Mark
Better: How Mark Went from Burned-Out Employee to 6-Figure Freelancer
4. Collaborate with Other Small Podcasters
Reach out to similar-sized shows to:
Do guest swaps
Promote each other’s episodes in intros or outros
Appear in each other’s newsletters or communities
You don’t need “big names”—you need aligned voices who share audiences.
5. Repurpose Your Content
Turn each episode into:
A LinkedIn post or blog
Short YouTube Shorts or Reels
A newsletter tip or mini-series
Each of these increases visibility without recording new content.
6. Capture Emails (Even 10!)
Add a simple email signup to your website or use a free ConvertKit/beehiiv form. Offer:
A free guide
Bonus audio
Behind-the-scenes content
Use the list to personally invite people to share, leave feedback, or check out a new episode.
7. Talk to Your 50 Listeners
Literally. Survey them. Ask:
How did you find the show?
What was your favorite episode?
What should we talk about next?
These 50 listeners are gold. They’re your early adopters—make them feel like insiders.
8. Improve Just 1% Each Episode
Better intro, tighter editing, clearer audio, stronger CTA… your audience grows faster when the quality improves consistently. You don’t need perfection—just progress.
Thanks for listening to Podcast Insider, you can subscribe to new episodes out every Monday.
The best place for support with any Blubrry product or service is our ticket system. Tickets give the whole team access vs. direct emails or calls. General podcasting discussions and more can be shared on the Blubrry Podcasting Facebook group.
Fill out our listener survey at surveys.blubrry.com/podcastinsider
Hosting customers can schedule a one-on-one call with Todd or a tech checkup with Mike at todd@blubrry.com and mike@blubrry.com
Stay tuned for more episodes and visit our website for the latest updates and resources.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Podcast Insider. I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing
specialist at Blueberry.
I'm Mike Donald, VP of customer relations here
at Blueberry. Today, we're talking about how to
grow your podcast when you're just starting out,
maybe 50 listens per episode.
Yeah. From building listener loyalty to simple strategies
that actually work, we've got tips
that you can put to use today.
(00:21):
You're listening to Podcast Insider, a weekly podcast
bringing insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks
to help you start, grow, and thrive through
podcasting with the support of your team here
at We Very Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in.
This is something that we get asked on
a
regular basis
(00:42):
from from all types of creators. So I
figured this would be, you know, helpful to
a lot of people out there.
But one of the first things that we
wanted to talk about is
social media. Double down on one social platform.
You know, putting yourself across all of them
is gonna spread yourself way too thin. Yeah.
I mean, you know, promoting
(01:03):
your show,
there's a lot of lot into it. You
know? Like, in my particular case, I focus
mostly on Facebook because my target audience
are Facebookers
and, you know, sometimes on x.
And that's really it for what I do
for my particular show, and it makes it
easier so I don't have to go to
(01:24):
Instagram and TikTok and YouTube
and, you know, all the places
to,
you know, to share or to, you know,
send a clip to or whatever. You know?
I I I picked just a couple, and
and seems to work okay.
We recommend that you use,
quotes,
you know, something that was
(01:47):
that you can see other people really enjoying,
some kind of takeaway.
You can do audiograms
and clips.
The Blueberry
podcast AI
will do all of that for you. They'll
figure out the clips for you.
And then
it's I would recommend, like, maybe you have
a presence
(02:07):
on more than one social media platform,
but not, like, burn yourself out on every
single one of them. You know, say,
like, yeah. You might have a Facebook group
where people are there, but you don't necessarily
need to be there that much. Just say,
like, hey. Here's a new episode.
Because maybe you just, like,
(02:28):
don't have a huge following there. However, on,
you know, x, you might. So that's where
you spend the majority of your time. So
take a just go wherever you're probably most
comfortable with.
Yeah. And and one of the things that,
you know, a lot of people will do
is they'll go into a Facebook group, and,
unfortunately,
(02:49):
podcast
related Facebook groups are notorious for this.
They'll go in and say, hey. I got
a new episode. Well, most podcasters
don't really wanna see you you promote your
podcast on a podcast related group.
So do it in your niche. Don't go
you know, like, if you're doing a podcast
(03:11):
about dogs,
go to the dog groups,
not the podcast group because
you know?
And and don't just go in there and
say, hey.
I got a podcast episode here. You know?
Say
you know, answer questions,
participate
otherwise. Get, you know, get them to know
you.
(03:32):
Actually, be helpful.
Yeah. Because so many people just you know,
they get turned I I hate it when,
you know, I go into a group and
all there is is a bunch of self
promotion
Yeah. And, you know, no real interaction.
You know? Well, you have to you have
to, like, establish
yourself as someone who knows what you're talking
about, and then people start to like you.
(03:52):
And then they're like, hey. Do you have
a podcast? Or, like, hey. Do you have
any other information about this since you seem
to know so much about this or, like,
be interested in this in the first place?
So you're nice trick. Kinda lead them there.
And that a nice trick
is to like, if, say, someone and let's
talk dogs. You know? Someone has a question
(04:13):
about something to do with a dog,
and you did an episode about that. It
might not even be the most current episode.
Hey. I did an episode about that two
months ago. Here's the link to it. You
know, something like that.
It has to be a authentic hook. You
know, you everything else, like, people are gonna
be able to tell. We can all we're
(04:33):
all on social media so often that people
can tell authenticity a mile away a lot
of the time.
Speaking of authenticity
and,
and whatever,
you'll notice Mackenzie glitching a little bit.
When she's talking today, she's got Internet issues.
So
Yeah. We're still going on. But, if she
(04:54):
glitches a little bit, that's what's going on.
It happens to the best of us and
to the worst of us. For sure. Anyway,
another another thing is, you know, ask for
word-of-mouth,
you know, right in your show. Oh, hey.
Mhmm. If you like something, you know, say
say, you know, we're talking here and
and you say, you know, hey. This little
section that Mackenzie and Mike did about,
(05:16):
you know, rating and reviewing rather than whatever,
that's, you know, that's interesting.
Tell somebody
that, you know, this
tell somebody else that, you like that section
or you like this episode or whatever. Don't
just say rate and review. Well, ratings and
reviews,
they're great for social proof, but they're not
(05:36):
gonna get you more listeners.
You know? Yeah.
People have to find the rating and review
by finding your show first. Well
it's exactly what I was gonna say is,
yeah,
if I'm already led to this show and
then I look at the ratings and reviews
and it's more just continuing
to say, you know, like, the the good
(05:58):
information that I already heard before, then, yeah,
I'm gonna take those reviews at face value.
But you have to be able to like,
people have to be able to find those
reviews in the first place. Those reviews don't
really mean much if people still aren't finding
the show. Right. And don't rely on the
apps
to surface your show. I mean Yeah. There's,
(06:18):
you know, reportedly
4,000,000
possible shows out there of which, you know,
only a certain number of them are
actively producing,
but still don't, you know, don't rely on
Apple search
or, you know, Spotify
search or whatever to find
your show if they don't know the name
of your show. So word-of-mouth is the best
(06:40):
way. You know? Hey. You know? Tell a
friend. Tell
a coworker. Tell family members or, you know,
whatever. You know? That
that's that's the way to get the word
out. And then once they show up on
on whatever app they're looking at and they
see some ratings and reviews, well, that just
helps them decide to to listen.
I will say my my sister
(07:02):
and
some cousins of ours have had a group
chat for a decade now, and there are
a lot of podcasts
being sent to one another in that chat.
A lot. Yeah. And that's And and that's
what gets us hooked on to new shows
is each other.
See. And next on the list here is
nail your podcast title and description.
(07:23):
Okay. So we'll see how well I nail
naming this one. What what did I already
name it? Let me go how to grow
a podcast from 50 listens per episode.
So
how you're gonna do that is
nail the title episode and description.
Yeah.
It it depends
a little bit
(07:44):
on the directory that, you know, your show
is being shown in, whether that's Apple, Spotify,
podcast addict, whatever it is.
But
I think probably still at the top of
the list of what you want to hit
is
just traditional SEO.
That one's probably gonna work the the best
(08:04):
for people. Here's a bad example for this
episode.
Episode four
forty one,
Mike and Mackenzie talk about growing your show.
That would be a terrible title.
Yeah. I don't like that one.
I don't like that one at all. Yeah.
The one that you pick much better. Yes.
Yes.
If there is someone that you interviewed that
(08:25):
is gonna be good for SEO, like their
name, you know, if you're interviewing going,
like, a lot of people will put Todd's
name in an interview because Todd Cochran at
this point, he's been doing this twenty years.
His name is online.
So that will bring up some
some stuff for people, you know, put you
in the good search results and discoverability. But
overall,
(08:46):
just follow the parameters
of
of whatever directory it is that you're part
of, and you'll be fine. That and just
making sure that you actually have, like,
enough
of a description
that it'll show up online as well, that
it'll show up in search engines. But, also,
don't spam it. I I remember,
(09:07):
like, even in show titles, you know, the
overall show, like this podcast insider, you notice
it's Mhmm. Podcast insider. It's not podcast insider,
featuring Todd Cochran, blah blah blah blah blah
blah. Just like in the you know, Joe
Rogan blah blah blah in the title. You
just We don't even put buy blueberry in
(09:27):
the title. Right. You know? Because it's not
worth
it. Yes. You wanna keep that you know?
And the episode titles, you you say what
it's about. Don't say
all these other things that isn't really relevant.
You know? We we do put the episode
number in the title kinda at the end,
or we used to. I don't know if
we still do. Well, it's it goes out
(09:50):
on
the,
like, the the blog post, like, the when
I actually published the episode on podcastinsider.com,
but I don't put the number in the
title for Apple.
No. We have an option within PowerPress to
put in a title that you want Apple
to have for this episode, and I never
put it in there because
it doesn't matter.
(10:11):
Right. Right. So, you know, your episode number
is cool for you. Maybe not such a
good thing for the title. And if you
put it in there, put it at the
end of the title, not at the beginning.
Or the beginning of the description.
Yeah. Something like that. But, you know, it's
it's only important to the podcaster, not the
listeners.
Yes.
(10:31):
But that does kinda lead us into the
next one, collaborate with other small podcasters.
Whether that is doing, like, a guest swap
where you go on each other's shows or
you promote their
you know, with the trailer in your intro
or something like that. That's very common on
all of NPR shows I know is, like,
(10:53):
you know, whenever a new show is coming
out, they just play the episode on the
feed of an already popular show,
because they know it'll still get ears and
eyes. So
there's a lot of different ways that you
can do that. There's another, another thing that
isn't done a lot, but I think is
a cool idea,
is say you you like, in our case,
(11:14):
we you know, we we're a podcast about
podcasting.
Mhmm. And Dave Jackson does one called School
of Podcasting,
and Daniel Lewis does another one and, you
know, so on and so forth.
If you're really in close with somebody,
another podcaster in your genre,
say, hey. Let's do a feed drop. And
(11:34):
what that is is, say,
one of our episodes would be also added
to
Dave Vaxon's, and not that he would do
that, but,
you know, some some niches, that works.
And Yeah. Also amongst networks,
Wondery is really into that. So they'll they'll
have a new show,
(11:56):
and they wanna promote it. They'll put it
in every show in the network
as as a special episode. And, you know
Yep. That may or may not work in
your case. It's it's just something to think
about.
But even if people don't wanna listen to
that episode, they're still gonna hear the title.
Yeah. They're still gonna know that it exists.
Yeah. That's the beauty of podcast listening. You
(12:18):
can choose what you hit play on. Yeah.
So Yeah. There you go. So you're not
gonna be forcing anybody to listen to somebody
else's show on yours or vice versa.
So, anyway, just, you know, keep that in
mind. You know? I there's lots of shows
that that I'm subscribed to, and I look
at the title, and I say, I don't
wanna listen to that one, and I just
get it out of there. You know?
(12:40):
And
not everyone wants to listen
or watch every single time. You know? People
people during the day have different wants and
needs, and,
this is gonna this is the way that
you can repurpose your content is to reach
people in each of those different ways.
So you can do something like a YouTube
(13:01):
short of an episode.
You can do,
newsletter stuff that is related to your show.
You can do audio and video podcasting.
You can just have a really, you
know, really heavy presence on social media,
whatever. It's all
(13:22):
vaguely the same content just in whatever medium
that people are getting it. You know, and
it's it's like we always say, you know,
it's okay to be everywhere.
But, you know, also
know that being everywhere
takes extra work. And
as we said before, you know, kind of
focus on
one or two places
(13:43):
rather than all the places. But if you've
got the time,
being in all the places don't hurt either.
No. It does not. It definitely does not.
Just make sure you're doing it good, not,
you know, just half assing everything, you know,
which can happen. You know? I I I
know in my case, you'd all go real
hot and heavy on one thing and then
(14:04):
get tired of it and go real hot
and heavy on another thing and get tired
of it. And, you know, trying to do
it all is is a lot of work.
A lot of the time your body knows
before your brain knows. Yeah. Exactly.
Your body will figure out you're doing too
much before your brain will sometimes. Yeah. Another
thing is, mailing lists. I know they're annoying
to some people. You know, hey. Join my
(14:26):
mailing list or, you know, having the most
annoying thing is having a email
list pop up before you even have a
chance to look at the website. I hate
that. But
in your
show itself, say, you know, hey. I do
have an email sign up. It's over here
on my website, and, you know, you'll get
some, you know, some sort of free something
(14:47):
or you get a little behind the scenes
or, you know, or just extra information or
get the show notes sent to you or,
you know, whatever you wanna send out in
that mailing list. But collect some emails, you
know, get to know your audience a little
better.
I mean, I have a real life example
of this.
A friend of mine, she actually listens to
the show. I just watched the stuff on
(15:07):
social media for, this podcast, The Basement Yard,
and they're going on tour.
I think they're recording live episodes whenever they
do their shows, but it's basically just it's
like a comedy show. But she's on their
mailing list and
got the email saying, coming to Columbus.
Tickets go on sale at such and such
time,
blah blah blah blah. So
(15:29):
now we're gonna go
because it's gonna you know,
that's just how that works. If you if
people like your stuff, they're not gonna be
mad.
Yeah. I got the same sort of thing
on a show I watch,
on YouTube. It happens to be, not a
podcast necessarily.
But, you know, he he put up his
you know, I'm going on tour. You know?
(15:49):
It it was a comedy thing, and he's
gonna be here in Traverse City, and, wife
and I got tickets. So Yeah. You know,
I would have never known that had I
not signed up for his little, side email
thing because he really doesn't say it on
his show much.
It's as simple as that.
Okay. So this one's saying,
talk to your listeners. If you only have
(16:10):
50 listeners, talk to them specifically.
Like,
that is,
you know, a small enough group that you
could call out and remember some names of
those exact people.
A lot of the time audiences
do really wanna, like, email or DM
the host of a show. Like, they love
it.
And I think that is reciprocated
(16:31):
on the other on the other side as
well. So ask them, do you like these
episodes? Do you think they should be longer
or shorter? Do you think this one sucked?
Was this one really funny? Like, was this
actually helpful to
talking about, like, whatever science thing? Yeah.
All all of those things.
(16:52):
Regardless of how show you're ever like, how
big your show ever gets,
those 50 people are technically, like, an early
adopter.
So so think of it that way. And
I was watching a video this morning
talking about, like, trying to
build up your social media saying, like,
(17:12):
if you have,
you know, 250
videos, that's a sold out movie theater. If
you have 500, that's a conference. If you
have 2,000, that's a concert. If you have
50,000, that's a stadium.
Like,
you have these people.
Use them wisely.
You know, be kind to them, and they'll
(17:33):
be kind to you.
Right. Yep. And, you know, that yeah. I
always tell people when they, you know, call
about stats, hey. My stats are really low,
and you look at the number and, you
know, they have two or 300 downloads per
episode. And I said, 202
or 300 people. Imagine the size of the
room you'd have to have
to to to get them all in one
room, and then you gotta entertain them for
(17:55):
an hour. Does that seem like a small
number? It isn't.
It's not a small task.
So And then the last little bit here
is, you know,
improve just 1%
each episode, and you will be growing your
audience.
You know, it's not much more than that.
You know? Do a couple of these things.
(18:17):
You know,
try try to, you know, keep track of
it in stats. You know? You got you
got stats. You can see how many downloads
per episode.
And as long as that number stays the
same or goes up just a little bit,
you're above average.
Well, one of my friends,
he's a big Costco lover.
(18:39):
And whenever I, you know, whenever I see
him, I'm like, oh, I like your shoes.
Or, oh, this this food's really good. Where'd
you get it? Blah blah blah. And he's
like, Costco.
It's the Kirkland brand, and the Kirkland brand
is 1% better. That's, like, their thing is
they are trying to be 1% better of
whatever they are
replicating
or doing on their own. Yeah.
(18:59):
And and eventually, it's like, yeah. No. I
I'm okay buying,
you know, store brand of everything as long
as they are making
the same the equivalent.
And that 1% better is what they strive
for, and it's
highly working.
It is going very well for Costco right
now. So
(19:21):
if you just keep the same mindset, I
think it's, that's an obtainable goal Yeah. For
each episode. Don't don't overdo it. You know?
You you you're not gonna grow like a
hockey stick in most cases. Now you might
have an episode that breaks out, and that
always keeps listeners too. But,
you know, for the most part, podcasts just
grow slowly over time, keep consistent, and
(19:43):
and, you know, try to improve 1% per
episode.
That's it for today's episode on growing your
podcast from the ground up. Thanks for joining
us.
If you found any of those helpful, be
sure to follow us and subscribe to Podcast
Insider so that you don't miss any episodes
in the future. Yep. And if you're using
Blueberry, thanks for being part of our podcasting
(20:03):
community. We'll catch you next time. Thanks, everyone.
Thanks for joining us. Come back next week.
And in the meantime, head to podcastinsider.com
for more information,
to subscribe, share, and read our show notes.
To check out the latest suite of services
and learn how Blueberry can help you leverage
your podcast, visit blueberry.com.
That's Blueberry without the e's because we can't
(20:24):
afford them.
Welcome to Podcast Insider. I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing
specialist at Blueberry.
I'm Mike Donald, VP of customer relations here
at Blueberry. Today, we're talking about how to
grow your podcast when you're just starting out,
maybe 50 listens per episode.
Yeah. From building listener loyalty to simple strategies
that actually work, we've got tips
that you can put to use today.
(00:21):
You're listening to Podcast Insider, a weekly podcast
bringing insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks
to help you start, grow, and thrive through
podcasting with the support of your team here
at We Very Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in.
This is something that we get asked on
a
regular basis
(00:42):
from from all types of creators. So I
figured this would be, you know, helpful to
a lot of people out there.
But one of the first things that we
wanted to talk about is
social media. Double down on one social platform.
You know, putting yourself across all of them
is gonna spread yourself way too thin. Yeah.
I mean, you know, promoting
(01:03):
your show,
there's a lot of lot into it. You
know? Like, in my particular case, I focus
mostly on Facebook because my target audience
are Facebookers
and, you know, sometimes on x.
And that's really it for what I do
for my particular show, and it makes it
easier so I don't have to go to
(01:24):
Instagram and TikTok and YouTube
and, you know, all the places
to,
you know, to share or to, you know,
send a clip to or whatever. You know?
I I I picked just a couple, and
and seems to work okay.
We recommend that you use,
quotes,
you know, something that was
(01:47):
that you can see other people really enjoying,
some kind of takeaway.
You can do audiograms
and clips.
The Blueberry
podcast AI
will do all of that for you. They'll
figure out the clips for you.
And then
it's I would recommend, like, maybe you have
a presence
(02:07):
on more than one social media platform,
but not, like, burn yourself out on every
single one of them. You know, say,
like, yeah. You might have a Facebook group
where people are there, but you don't necessarily
need to be there that much. Just say,
like, hey. Here's a new episode.
Because maybe you just, like,
(02:28):
don't have a huge following there. However, on,
you know, x, you might. So that's where
you spend the majority of your time. So
take a just go wherever you're probably most
comfortable with.
Yeah. And and one of the things that,
you know, a lot of people will do
is they'll go into a Facebook group, and,
unfortunately,
(02:49):
podcast
related Facebook groups are notorious for this.
They'll go in and say, hey. I got
a new episode. Well, most podcasters
don't really wanna see you you promote your
podcast on a podcast related group.
So do it in your niche. Don't go
you know, like, if you're doing a podcast
(03:11):
about dogs,
go to the dog groups,
not the podcast group because
you know?
And and don't just go in there and
say, hey.
I got a podcast episode here. You know?
Say
you know, answer questions,
participate
otherwise. Get, you know, get them to know
you.
(03:32):
Actually, be helpful.
Yeah. Because so many people just you know,
they get turned I I hate it when,
you know, I go into a group and
all there is is a bunch of self
promotion
Yeah. And, you know, no real interaction.
You know? Well, you have to you have
to, like, establish
yourself as someone who knows what you're talking
about, and then people start to like you.
(03:52):
And then they're like, hey. Do you have
a podcast? Or, like, hey. Do you have
any other information about this since you seem
to know so much about this or, like,
be interested in this in the first place?
So you're nice trick. Kinda lead them there.
And that a nice trick
is to like, if, say, someone and let's
talk dogs. You know? Someone has a question
(04:13):
about something to do with a dog,
and you did an episode about that. It
might not even be the most current episode.
Hey. I did an episode about that two
months ago. Here's the link to it. You
know, something like that.
It has to be a authentic hook. You
know, you everything else, like, people are gonna
be able to tell. We can all we're
(04:33):
all on social media so often that people
can tell authenticity a mile away a lot
of the time.
Speaking of authenticity
and,
and whatever,
you'll notice Mackenzie glitching a little bit.
When she's talking today, she's got Internet issues.
So
Yeah. We're still going on. But, if she
(04:54):
glitches a little bit, that's what's going on.
It happens to the best of us and
to the worst of us. For sure. Anyway,
another another thing is, you know, ask for
word-of-mouth,
you know, right in your show. Oh, hey.
Mhmm. If you like something, you know, say
say, you know, we're talking here and
and you say, you know, hey. This little
section that Mackenzie and Mike did about,
(05:16):
you know, rating and reviewing rather than whatever,
that's, you know, that's interesting.
Tell somebody
that, you know, this
tell somebody else that, you like that section
or you like this episode or whatever. Don't
just say rate and review. Well, ratings and
reviews,
they're great for social proof, but they're not
(05:36):
gonna get you more listeners.
You know? Yeah.
People have to find the rating and review
by finding your show first. Well
it's exactly what I was gonna say is,
yeah,
if I'm already led to this show and
then I look at the ratings and reviews
and it's more just continuing
to say, you know, like, the the good
(05:58):
information that I already heard before, then, yeah,
I'm gonna take those reviews at face value.
But you have to be able to like,
people have to be able to find those
reviews in the first place. Those reviews don't
really mean much if people still aren't finding
the show. Right. And don't rely on the
apps
to surface your show. I mean Yeah. There's,
(06:18):
you know, reportedly
4,000,000
possible shows out there of which, you know,
only a certain number of them are
actively producing,
but still don't, you know, don't rely on
Apple search
or, you know, Spotify
search or whatever to find
your show if they don't know the name
of your show. So word-of-mouth is the best
(06:40):
way. You know? Hey. You know? Tell a
friend. Tell
a coworker. Tell family members or, you know,
whatever. You know? That
that's that's the way to get the word
out. And then once they show up on
on whatever app they're looking at and they
see some ratings and reviews, well, that just
helps them decide to to listen.
I will say my my sister
(07:02):
and
some cousins of ours have had a group
chat for a decade now, and there are
a lot of podcasts
being sent to one another in that chat.
A lot. Yeah. And that's And and that's
what gets us hooked on to new shows
is each other.
See. And next on the list here is
nail your podcast title and description.
(07:23):
Okay. So we'll see how well I nail
naming this one. What what did I already
name it? Let me go how to grow
a podcast from 50 listens per episode.
So
how you're gonna do that is
nail the title episode and description.
Yeah.
It it depends
a little bit
(07:44):
on the directory that, you know, your show
is being shown in, whether that's Apple, Spotify,
podcast addict, whatever it is.
But
I think probably still at the top of
the list of what you want to hit
is
just traditional SEO.
That one's probably gonna work the the best
(08:04):
for people. Here's a bad example for this
episode.
Episode four
forty one,
Mike and Mackenzie talk about growing your show.
That would be a terrible title.
Yeah. I don't like that one.
I don't like that one at all. Yeah.
The one that you pick much better. Yes.
Yes.
If there is someone that you interviewed that
(08:25):
is gonna be good for SEO, like their
name, you know, if you're interviewing going,
like, a lot of people will put Todd's
name in an interview because Todd Cochran at
this point, he's been doing this twenty years.
His name is online.
So that will bring up some
some stuff for people, you know, put you
in the good search results and discoverability. But
overall,
(08:46):
just follow the parameters
of
of whatever directory it is that you're part
of, and you'll be fine. That and just
making sure that you actually have, like,
enough
of a description
that it'll show up online as well, that
it'll show up in search engines. But, also,
don't spam it. I I remember,
(09:07):
like, even in show titles, you know, the
overall show, like this podcast insider, you notice
it's Mhmm. Podcast insider. It's not podcast insider,
featuring Todd Cochran, blah blah blah blah blah
blah. Just like in the you know, Joe
Rogan blah blah blah in the title. You
just We don't even put buy blueberry in
(09:27):
the title. Right. You know? Because it's not
worth
it. Yes. You wanna keep that you know?
And the episode titles, you you say what
it's about. Don't say
all these other things that isn't really relevant.
You know? We we do put the episode
number in the title kinda at the end,
or we used to. I don't know if
we still do. Well, it's it goes out
(09:50):
on
the,
like, the the blog post, like, the when
I actually published the episode on podcastinsider.com,
but I don't put the number in the
title for Apple.
No. We have an option within PowerPress to
put in a title that you want Apple
to have for this episode, and I never
put it in there because
it doesn't matter.
(10:11):
Right. Right. So, you know, your episode number
is cool for you. Maybe not such a
good thing for the title. And if you
put it in there, put it at the
end of the title, not at the beginning.
Or the beginning of the description.
Yeah. Something like that. But, you know, it's
it's only important to the podcaster, not the
listeners.
Yes.
(10:31):
But that does kinda lead us into the
next one, collaborate with other small podcasters.
Whether that is doing, like, a guest swap
where you go on each other's shows or
you promote their
you know, with the trailer in your intro
or something like that. That's very common on
all of NPR shows I know is, like,
(10:53):
you know, whenever a new show is coming
out, they just play the episode on the
feed of an already popular show,
because they know it'll still get ears and
eyes. So
there's a lot of different ways that you
can do that. There's another, another thing that
isn't done a lot, but I think is
a cool idea,
is say you you like, in our case,
(11:14):
we you know, we we're a podcast about
podcasting.
Mhmm. And Dave Jackson does one called School
of Podcasting,
and Daniel Lewis does another one and, you
know, so on and so forth.
If you're really in close with somebody,
another podcaster in your genre,
say, hey. Let's do a feed drop. And
(11:34):
what that is is, say,
one of our episodes would be also added
to
Dave Vaxon's, and not that he would do
that, but,
you know, some some niches, that works.
And Yeah. Also amongst networks,
Wondery is really into that. So they'll they'll
have a new show,
(11:56):
and they wanna promote it. They'll put it
in every show in the network
as as a special episode. And, you know
Yep. That may or may not work in
your case. It's it's just something to think
about.
But even if people don't wanna listen to
that episode, they're still gonna hear the title.
Yeah. They're still gonna know that it exists.
Yeah. That's the beauty of podcast listening. You
(12:18):
can choose what you hit play on. Yeah.
So Yeah. There you go. So you're not
gonna be forcing anybody to listen to somebody
else's show on yours or vice versa.
So, anyway, just, you know, keep that in
mind. You know? I there's lots of shows
that that I'm subscribed to, and I look
at the title, and I say, I don't
wanna listen to that one, and I just
get it out of there. You know?
(12:40):
And
not everyone wants to listen
or watch every single time. You know? People
people during the day have different wants and
needs, and,
this is gonna this is the way that
you can repurpose your content is to reach
people in each of those different ways.
So you can do something like a YouTube
(13:01):
short of an episode.
You can do,
newsletter stuff that is related to your show.
You can do audio and video podcasting.
You can just have a really, you
know, really heavy presence on social media,
whatever. It's all
(13:22):
vaguely the same content just in whatever medium
that people are getting it. You know, and
it's it's like we always say, you know,
it's okay to be everywhere.
But, you know, also
know that being everywhere
takes extra work. And
as we said before, you know, kind of
focus on
one or two places
(13:43):
rather than all the places. But if you've
got the time,
being in all the places don't hurt either.
No. It does not. It definitely does not.
Just make sure you're doing it good, not,
you know, just half assing everything, you know,
which can happen. You know? I I I
know in my case, you'd all go real
hot and heavy on one thing and then
(14:04):
get tired of it and go real hot
and heavy on another thing and get tired
of it. And, you know, trying to do
it all is is a lot of work.
A lot of the time your body knows
before your brain knows. Yeah. Exactly.
Your body will figure out you're doing too
much before your brain will sometimes. Yeah. Another
thing is, mailing lists. I know they're annoying
to some people. You know, hey. Join my
(14:26):
mailing list or, you know, having the most
annoying thing is having a email
list pop up before you even have a
chance to look at the website. I hate
that. But
in your
show itself, say, you know, hey. I do
have an email sign up. It's over here
on my website, and, you know, you'll get
some, you know, some sort of free something
(14:47):
or you get a little behind the scenes
or, you know, or just extra information or
get the show notes sent to you or,
you know, whatever you wanna send out in
that mailing list. But collect some emails, you
know, get to know your audience a little
better.
I mean, I have a real life example
of this.
A friend of mine, she actually listens to
the show. I just watched the stuff on
(15:07):
social media for, this podcast, The Basement Yard,
and they're going on tour.
I think they're recording live episodes whenever they
do their shows, but it's basically just it's
like a comedy show. But she's on their
mailing list and
got the email saying, coming to Columbus.
Tickets go on sale at such and such
time,
blah blah blah blah. So
(15:29):
now we're gonna go
because it's gonna you know,
that's just how that works. If you if
people like your stuff, they're not gonna be
mad.
Yeah. I got the same sort of thing
on a show I watch,
on YouTube. It happens to be, not a
podcast necessarily.
But, you know, he he put up his
you know, I'm going on tour. You know?
(15:49):
It it was a comedy thing, and he's
gonna be here in Traverse City, and, wife
and I got tickets. So Yeah. You know,
I would have never known that had I
not signed up for his little, side email
thing because he really doesn't say it on
his show much.
It's as simple as that.
Okay. So this one's saying,
talk to your listeners. If you only have
(16:10):
50 listeners, talk to them specifically.
Like,
that is,
you know, a small enough group that you
could call out and remember some names of
those exact people.
A lot of the time audiences
do really wanna, like, email or DM
the host of a show. Like, they love
it.
And I think that is reciprocated
(16:31):
on the other on the other side as
well. So ask them, do you like these
episodes? Do you think they should be longer
or shorter? Do you think this one sucked?
Was this one really funny? Like, was this
actually helpful to
talking about, like, whatever science thing? Yeah.
All all of those things.
(16:52):
Regardless of how show you're ever like, how
big your show ever gets,
those 50 people are technically, like, an early
adopter.
So so think of it that way. And
I was watching a video this morning
talking about, like, trying to
build up your social media saying, like,
(17:12):
if you have,
you know, 250
videos, that's a sold out movie theater. If
you have 500, that's a conference. If you
have 2,000, that's a concert. If you have
50,000, that's a stadium.
Like,
you have these people.
Use them wisely.
You know, be kind to them, and they'll
(17:33):
be kind to you.
Right. Yep. And, you know, that yeah. I
always tell people when they, you know, call
about stats, hey. My stats are really low,
and you look at the number and, you
know, they have two or 300 downloads per
episode. And I said, 202
or 300 people. Imagine the size of the
room you'd have to have
to to to get them all in one
room, and then you gotta entertain them for
(17:55):
an hour. Does that seem like a small
number? It isn't.
It's not a small task.
So And then the last little bit here
is, you know,
improve just 1%
each episode, and you will be growing your
audience.
You know, it's not much more than that.
You know? Do a couple of these things.
(18:17):
You know,
try try to, you know, keep track of
it in stats. You know? You got you
got stats. You can see how many downloads
per episode.
And as long as that number stays the
same or goes up just a little bit,
you're above average.
Well, one of my friends,
he's a big Costco lover.
(18:39):
And whenever I, you know, whenever I see
him, I'm like, oh, I like your shoes.
Or, oh, this this food's really good. Where'd
you get it? Blah blah blah. And he's
like, Costco.
It's the Kirkland brand, and the Kirkland brand
is 1% better. That's, like, their thing is
they are trying to be 1% better of
whatever they are
replicating
or doing on their own. Yeah.
(18:59):
And and eventually, it's like, yeah. No. I
I'm okay buying,
you know, store brand of everything as long
as they are making
the same the equivalent.
And that 1% better is what they strive
for, and it's
highly working.
It is going very well for Costco right
now. So
(19:21):
if you just keep the same mindset, I
think it's, that's an obtainable goal Yeah. For
each episode. Don't don't overdo it. You know?
You you you're not gonna grow like a
hockey stick in most cases. Now you might
have an episode that breaks out, and that
always keeps listeners too. But,
you know, for the most part, podcasts just
grow slowly over time, keep consistent, and
(19:43):
and, you know, try to improve 1% per
episode.
That's it for today's episode on growing your
podcast from the ground up. Thanks for joining
us.
If you found any of those helpful, be
sure to follow us and subscribe to Podcast
Insider so that you don't miss any episodes
in the future. Yep. And if you're using
Blueberry, thanks for being part of our podcasting
(20:03):
community. We'll catch you next time. Thanks, everyone.
Thanks for joining us. Come back next week.
And in the meantime, head to podcastinsider.com
for more information,
to subscribe, share, and read our show notes.
To check out the latest suite of services
and learn how Blueberry can help you leverage
your podcast, visit blueberry.com.
That's Blueberry without the e's because we can't
(20:24):
afford them.
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