You want to improve your podcast content. How can you track what’s working and what’s not?

I’ve been reflecting on these five surprising benefits of launching and hosting a podcast. These are the benefits I've experienced, and some unique goals you might consider as you get started. 1. Practicing emergent conversations that sharpen your listening skills 2. Practice publishing your perspective to nurture your own voice 3. Building community with epic people 4. Building a growing library of resources to educate, inform, and inspire 5. Repurposing content to sustainably show up

As you think about your goals for podcasting - understand that the greatest reward you can gain is building and forging trust with a bigger community than you could have imagined before. And in turn, as that trust grows + spreads... becoming a bedrock to growing your business or current offerings + future projects too. So as you define goals - I've found it's critical to get clear on your values. Write them down. Talk about them often. And find ways to thread those values into your podcast conversations or interviews. Doing so will give your listener clarity of what you stand for (or what you don't!) + attract those like-minded people who value the same things too.

Once you have determined your goals (for example, reach, awareness, or education) then you can look at the metrics that help support those goals. What's useful to know is that if you rethink the result of a podcast as content, it can be repurposed in 100 ways. By repurposing and remerchandising you'll be more likely to achieve your goals and reach exponentially more members of your community.

There's nothing amiss about preparing a script in advance. Unlike scripted shows, our script serves as a checklist for your podcast, ensuring you cover all key points and execute it effectively. You don't have to stick to it word for word. This script streamlines your process by offering: -Predefined content -Clarity on outcomes -Enhanced audience engagement with your content

To improve your podcast, track what works by: 1. Analyzing download and play data from your hosting platform. 2. Collecting listener feedback via social media and email. 3. Monitoring ratings and reviews on platforms like Apple Podcasts. 4. Using social media engagement as an indicator of interest. 5. Observing trends in episode performance over time. Consistently review these metrics to identify popular topics and formats, then adjust your content strategy accordingly.

The metric that I feel is often missed is that of your own CONSISTENCY! While tracking all the metrics like downloads + engagement + subscribers are all good + important, your initial focus should be on making a commitment to deliver content on a consistent schedule. Podcasts become a rhythm in the life of your listeners. So becoming part of a daily/weekly or monthly habit for your listener is how you will grow your metrics + trust with your audience. Of course, continuing to optimize your show based on data + feedback over time is key too - but don't get so hung up on those metrics from the beginning because just learning the discipline of creating + distributing content is so important along the way.

When I think about metrics, it is the one that you can't just grab from the download site. It is not downloads, or engagement or subscribers. They are all useful, but the real metric is how many people provide you feedback on the podcast? Mine are technical in nature, and so I am looking for more than thanks or I agree. Rather I am looking for the deep questions I missed, or different sources of data or alternate answers. This is the metric that is both most frustrating (e.g., "I disagree with your take, because...) and the most rewarding (e.g., I just used your open questions in your podcast to build my thesis outline). Getting and responding to feedback is absolutely the best way to see if people are listening critically.

In my experience, metrics that I might follow will be: - Comments, Share & CTAs - Average duration - Drop offs - Location For the first time I guess these are my key metrics.

Ask your audience for honest feedback on the show and how you can improve. Connecting with your audience is one of the best ways to get direct feedback and how you can serve them even more.

To track the performance of your podcast, you can use podcast performance metrics. Here are some of the key metrics you can track: 1. Total listener engagement: This metric measures the total number of listeners who engage with your podcast. It includes metrics such as downloads, listens, and shares. 2. Audience reach: This metric includes unique downloads, subscribers, and social media followers. 3. Social mentions: This metric measures the number of times your podcast is mentioned on social media platforms. 4. Podcast downloads: This metric measures the total number of downloads for each episode of your podcast. 5. Marketing effectiveness: This metric includes click-through rates, conversion rates, and cost per acquisition.

Recent Apple data has shown that downloads can be a misleading measure of podcast success. So focus on tools that accurately track subscribers and subscriber growth. It's the best way.

Hosting through Libsyn allows you to track downloads across platforms. While downloads aren't the sole metric to determine how successful a podcast is, they are a clear way to see patterns and draw conclusions. This is how I learned that marketing episodes perform well if they have key words that are easily identifiable like BookTok or Bestseller, but otherwise they tend to get lost in the noise. Analytics are also great to see when people are listening. Every episode of Published sees the most downloads per day on the first day it's live, which tells us that's when the algorithm is pushing it the most. This also means the time that we upload is important; earlier in the day gives more people time to see it while it's being pushed.

Remember this : Craft, Connect, Convert! View these tools not just as metrics trackers but as instruments to craft compelling content, connect with your audience, and convert listeners into a community. Tailor your approach, emphasizing meaningful engagement over raw data accumulation.

include your website in your show note. entice people to your website with the promise of additional value, such as a download that expands on the topic discussed in the episode.

it is better to measure and improve the amount of time people stay to listen to each episode then having lots of meaningless people starting to listen to an episode and abandon after several minutes.

Data indeed plays a key role in assessing the effectiveness of your podcasts. It's important to look at 2 types of data points 1) Structured - when mined will help cluster the users based on their interests, the frequency, engagement (number of times they provude free flow feedback).You can target such listeners uniquely based on their consumption and interaction behaviors 2) Unstructured - text analytics to get insights on sentiments. Word cloud to get the keywords universe which might shout on top of its voice about the changes that would drive the improvements in content and delivery to make it more compelling. Keep the data collection simple, few clicks & dropsdowns and give an incentive to increase the feedback traffic.

Data without purpose or context is useless to you. Make sure that the data you're collecting and analyzing is relevant to the goals you set, and measurable based off of your SMART goals. It is, after all the M in the SMART framework. If you can find industry benchmarks, use those to see where you compare. Do your research on those that are best in class. What are they doing differently or better than you? Take those learnings into your next planning. Don't be afraid of trying new things- but in the same vein, don't forget to continue the things that are working. Too often, I've seen people try something new and forget to continue what was already doing well, and have it come back to bite them. Don't make that mistake.

Having the tools to gather data is a start. After that, some of the tools out there have additional features that will help you slice the data to understand how to drive your podcast analytics. Some of the tools are: 1. CoHost 2. Megaphone 3. Podbean 4. Blubrry 5. Castos 6. Anchor In addition, Spotify for podcasters and Apple Podcasts also have built in tools to monitor your metrics.

Equip yourself with the right tools and regularly scrutinize your podcast data for performance insights. Compare metrics against goals and industry benchmarks. Assess trends over time, by season, episode, or topic. Identify strengths and weaknesses, leveraging the former and addressing the latter. Experiment with formats, styles, topics, and strategies to enhance content and delivery. Your podcast data is your compass; decode its story for strategic evolution.

There are tools available to measure different metrics like #views, #unique views, engagement, Avg. viewing time, subscriber-to-viewer ratio , viewer feedback etc that should be tracked religiously and insights should be incorporated to make decisions for future videos. This ensures continuous improvement and viewer engagement.

Reusing your content in different platforms is key to spreading the getting greater exposure. For example you could cut short clips from your YouTube video and post them on Linkedin, TikTok, Twitter and more.

You can always keep it simple by polling your audience. If you have listeners on Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok or any social media platform with a polling option, use that to ask your audience. They will feel included in the process, and eager to contribute their thoughts.

Episode listening duration: If you see that your audience tends to drop off before a certain part of the episode, and this is a part of the episode you WANT your audience to consume... You can simply repurpose that segment into a future episode. For example: If your data says that your listener typically drops off around the 15 minute mark for episode #100, but you offer some key insights at the 17-25 minute mark, then you can repurpose the content from the 17-25 mark (of episode #100) and use it near the beginning of episode #101.

Content is always king! I would create a wish list guests that you want in the show. Don’t start with all A-list celebrities either. Start by building a base. What companies or initiatives do you love? This is a great place to start because you know the industry or product or situation inside and out. It’ll help you ask more effective questions and create very strong conversations. After you do this 20 times, it’ll help prepare you for bigger interviews and better conversations going forward.

It's so important: start small, and scale. Exactly Right Media's flagship show, My Favorite Murder, is a master class in iterative delivery and content optimization. They receive feedback from their audience with aplomb and acknowledge missteps (in the form of "Corrections Corner" at the top of episodes where necessary), have market-tested multiple episode lengths and content structures. As their audience grew, they selectively upped their game from two people sitting in a loft chatting to adding in better equipment, hiring a sound engineer, bringing on researchers and content developers and building out partnerships. But what we see is how they are NOW, with a NYT best-selling book, extensive merch, animated episodes and a network.

Metrics matter... but community + the impact of your podcast matters way more. How is your podcast growing your value-aligned community? This is how you future-proof your work by connecting with the humans (not data points!) who are listening + sharing + being impacted by your content. Knowing people engage in different ways, this can be through social media (LinkedIn is huge for this!) + dedicated community sites (we use Mighty Networks) and of course growing + nurturing your own email list. Pro tip: Give a call-to-action on every episode for how to connect with you. It will grow your community episode-by-episode, one person at a time. And over time it does compound.

When it comes to podcasts, building a connection with your listeners is key. It's like creating a bond, a sense of family, where people feel at home when they hear your voice. While having creative content is important, being consistent and available for your audience is what truly holds their loyalty. When they feel that connection, they'll keep coming back, no matter what. So keep being yourself and keep showing up for your listeners, because that's what keeps them feeling connected and engaged.

Distribute your podcast for maximum reach. 1. YouTube - the biggest network to distribute podcasts. 2. Spotify - great way to drive visibility when optimised well. 3. Apple podcast - very influential network. 4. Google podcast - great for SEO with Google's infra. 5. Amazon music - Alexa infra and growing network. 6. Submit to podcast directories. There are hundreds of them. 7. RSS - enable rss feed for easy distribution of newer podcast episodes.

Maybe the most important thing to consider, before all the metrics and data kicks in, is what is your unique POV. What story do you want to tell and whom do you want to tell it with? Once you figure out your narrative, the technicality is the simplest to solve for.

Enhancing your podcast content is a journey of continuous refinement. One pivotal aspect is deciphering its impact. Track listener engagement through analytics—observe patterns in popular episodes, listener demographics, and retention rates. Encourage audience feedback, as it unveils what resonates. A/B testing could be insightful—experiment with different formats or topics and gauge responses. Also, leverage social media to gauge discussions and sentiments. Remember, it's a dynamic process. Regularly reassess your metrics, adapt based on insights, and embrace the iterative nature of improvement in the podcast realm. Keep your finger on the pulse of your audience's preferences.