22 lessons learned after 2 years of podcasting

Last week was Growth Marketing Today's 2-year anniversary. So in the spirit of transparency, I'd like to share 22 lessons I've learned (good and bad) after 2 years of podcasting.

1. Twitter has been the best source for asking finding new guests. I’d say 80-90% of my guests came from conversations, threads, and re-tweets on Twitter. That’s how I asked April Dunford to be on my podcast

2. Marketers have small pockets of communities. One of the best ways to get a guest to say “yes” to be on the show is to mention who else in their circle you’ve had on the show. For example, any marketer who’s been on Forget the Funnel, I mention that I’ve had Gia Laudi & Claire Suellentrop

3. The best performing episodes are not from big influencers but from micro-influencers in a specific niche. I’ve had guests who were “famous” on LinkedIn or Twitter that didn’t perform well. My best performing episodes by far feature April Dunford and Kevin Indig.

4. Referrals from guests have been one of the fastest ways I've monetized this podcast - after 15 episodes - I got a $10k contract from a referral of a guest. My advice to podcasters looking to monetize fast – focus on the guest and not the listeners in the beginning.

5. Podcasting opens doors for future partnerships with guests. I have something in the works next month with a previous guest. I wouldn't have happened if I didn't have this person the show first.

6. Having a podcast has been a great talking point in client meetings and interviews. It helps make it seem like I know what I'm about to talk to them about ??

7. Videos perform best when giving a preview of a podcast episode. Twitter and LinkedIn are the two platforms I’ve focused on and they’ve recently prioritize videos over other types of posts. This video with Rand Fishkin has been viewed about 6k times:

8. Guests sharing the episode they’re featured on is one of the best ways new listeners have find out about this podcast and not through search (Google, Apple podcast, Spotify). I’ve talked to several listeners and this is how they found my podcast.

9. Apple Podcasts, Overcast and Breaker are the top 3 podcast apps that my listeners listen to my podcast. It’s interesting that those 3 best are not Spotify and Google Podcast. If you have a podcast, don't just publish it on Apple, Google, and Spotify.

10. Even though I’ve had several Canadian marketers and founders on the show, and my network is based mainly in Toronto, 50%+ of my listeners are from United States

11. Podcasting is one of the best ways to meet and talk to smart people who are super busy. I wouldn’t have been able to chat with folks like Rand Fishkin, Val Geiser and more

12. Podcasting is also one of the best ways to make new friends in your industry. Here’s me meeting up with Bill King from Drift when I visited Boston this fall

13. Podcasting is one of the best ways for introverted folks like me to network. I’m not a big fan of networking events with 100+ folks. They tire me out.

14. Providing a one-page “coles notes” of your podcast has been effective in generating an email list. I get about 50 to 100 emails per month organically from this since I started doing it in July.

15. Managing paid sponsorship is a lot of work coordinating the copy, timing and more.

16. Listeners would pay a few dollars an episode to get ad-free episodes. I have 9 patron sponsors giving $2 per episode. That’s on average $72-$90 per month depending on the number of episodes I release. That’s enough to cover my podcast hosting and tools

17. If I had to start from scratch, the three things I would do in the get-go:

1. Focus on video to promote each episode on 2-3 social
2. Build an email list using a one-page summary of each episode
3. Start a Patreon right away. It’s free to start.

18. Guests would rather just re-tweet or share the post you tag them on. It’s easy for them to do so. But when guests do share the podcast on their own social network, the reach is much higher. For example, here’s a post from Amrita Mathur. This episode is one of the best-performing

19. Just an observation that I get more cold pitches from men than women marketers or founders. Most of them are agency owners. I’ve only accepted maybe 5-10%. I almost always accept cold pitches from women and PoC. They are underrepresented in podcasts and that needs to change.

20. Episodes from cold pitches typically don’t do well.

21. I spend about 5 to 10 hours for each episode. I’m looking for ways to automating, delegating and deleting steps in that process

22. Once a podcast listener listens to two or three episodes, they tend to binge-listen your past episodes. For example in August, 48% of my podcast downloads were from past episodes

BONUS: 23. I've experimented with promoting the podcast on Instagram using video posts and Instagram stories. It has done that well. I think Instagram doesn't have that re-shareability factor that Twitter and LinkedIn have with re-tweets and re-shares

BONUS: 24. Guests that have a newsletter drove the most traffic to the site and new email subscribers. Here are screen captures of when Hiten Shah and Val Geisler mentioned their episode on Growth Marketing Today in their newsletter