Reasons Why You May Not Be Getting Listeners

There are many reasons why you might not be getting new podcast listeners, but don’t take them personally. The trick to being a successful podcaster is that you must adapt and improve on your craft in order to see results. Use these tips to help boost your downloads and enhance the production quality of your podcast and your audience will grow in no time.

Reason Number One: You Are Not Being Consistent

Consistency is key to podcasting in a few different ways.

First and foremost, posting on a consistent basis is going to get you repeat listeners. This does not mean that you need to start churning out content and posting every day of the week, but it does mean that you need to start following a schedule. People will not want to come back and listen to your show if they have to keep checking Spotify or Apple Podcast to see if you’ve uploaded. Instead, treat your podcast like a television show. Ask yourself: when do my new episodes air? Do they air at 3 pm Eastern on Monday? If so, that is when you should post your episodes consistently so that your audience knows that they can trust you to post on schedule.

Secondly, consistency refers to your content as well. Are your podcast episodes wildly different lengths? If one episode of your show is 20 minutes long and the others are 45 minutes long. Maybe some of them are even 60 minutes long. This varying time in length will ensure that you are not reaching a target audience. People are very picky about the length of time that they are willing to commit to listening to a podcast. By being so variable in your episode length, you are not accessing a consistent audience.

Reason Number Two: You Are Not Creating a Community

Referring your listeners to a community that they can join is one of the number one ways to generate a returning audience that will come back each week wanting to hear more from you. Give your audience a place to collaborate and discuss outside of your podcast. Start a Facebook group and post your podcasts there. Make sure that you are inviting your listeners to this group by mentioning it within your podcast itself.

Reason Number Three: You Do Not Have a Call to Action

This ties in directly with Reason Number Two. Your call to action should be helping convert your one-time listeners into repeat fans of your content. Call your listeners to action by informing them of your Facebook community. Mention that you have a freebie for them if they sign up for your email list. By doing this, you are telling your listeners that you care about them and how they interact with your content.

Reason Number Four: Your Episodes May Not Be Polished

Consider your “why” and your ideal listener once more. You may need to go back to the drawing board for content ideas. If you think that Reason Number Four is why your podcast is not getting the downloads that you want it to, consider doing a podcast audit to get to the bottom of why your content is not your dream content. This podcast audit can help you narrow down what people might not be loving about your content. You can also think about writing down a new list of episodes to create that are in your topic area to keep your episodes fresh!

Take a look at your podcast and determine which of these reasons are responsible for holding you back from your full potential. It may just be one of them or it may be all of them! Either way, use this as an opportunity to improve your production quality and set your podcast up for future success.