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Hey Reader! - My brother and I tore down my old shed this past weekend in anticipation of building my new office/studio. Now I have to shovel out all the rotten plywood that made up the old floor. Fun times ahead. Anyway, onto today's newsletter.

5 Actions That Won’t Grow Your Podcast Audience

I talk a lot about growing your podcast audience. It’s why I run Podcast Marketing Puzzle. In fact, I detail 28 podcast promotion strategies in this article.

But there are a few actions I see people doing that don’t grow your audience while also sucking away your time.

No judgement if you like doing these things, you just need to know that they won’t grow your audience.

1. Soapboxing on Social Media

Social media can be an excellent discovery tool for your podcast. It’s even better at keeping in touch with your existing audience. But simply posting about your latest episode daily will not grow your audience.

This is soapboxing. Standing on your soapbox in the middle of the busy square shouting about your podcast. People will just walk straight past you because you haven’t given them a reason to care yet.

The people know you might hear you and catch up with episodes they missed. But as far as reaching new listeners goes this just isn’t going to work because it’s not the type of content social media algorithms promote.

Instead, you want to create content designed to get reach on the specific platform you use. Pithy observations for Twitter. Selfies for Instagram. And whatever is getting pushed on Facebook these days (when I rarely log in I only see people getting annoyed at local cafes. Just me?)

2. Adding in More Calls to Action

CTAs are important. I seem to always be talking about them here. And a clear call to action can indeed lead to growth. But adding in more and more CTAs won’t grow your show.

If you already ask people to share on Twitter, that’s great. Don’t then also ask them to share on Facebook, Reddit, and StumbleUpon (anyone remember that?). It won’t encourage more action; it will just lead people to tune out and stop caring.

Keep your calls to action clear and concise, and then forget about them. As long as you’re using them, you’re doing fine.

3. Re-editing Older Episodes

We all cringe at the thought of our first episodes. We all gain skills and become better presenters, hosts, and editors. But that doesn’t mean you should go back and edit older episodes.

Yes quality is everything, but quality has to be improved moving forward. If you overpolish your old episodes you’ll lose the charm that drew people to you in the first place. It feels good but ultimately won’t lead to growing your audience.

Instead, you could spend that time setting up collaborations with other podcasters, pitching yourself as a guest, or doing more research for upcoming episodes. If you edit yourself, do a good job the first time, and then leave it as is.

4. Checking Your Stats

I’m a relentless stats checker. No matter what platform I join or create on, I quickly get lost in trying to make sense of the analytics. When the reality is checking your downloads every day doesn’t gain you any insights into how your show is growing.

Keep stat checking to once a week maximum. That way, you can see how episodes were received and keep an eye on the overall trend of your downloads and followers. Any more than that is checking your word count without writing anything. It’s not going to grow just because you’re looking at it.

5. Obsessing Over Equipment Upgrades

There is a minimum audio quality you need in your podcast. I talked about how to make your podcast sound professional here. But after a point it falls all the way to the bottom of things that move the needle of your audience.

Testing microphones and reading mixer reviews is fun for audiophiles but won’t grow your audience. Get all the hosts the same microphone, learn to sound treat your room by putting pillows in corners and throwing blankets over hard surfaces, then leave it at that. You’ve completed that task. Now it’s time to market your show.
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Focus on Connections and Creation

All of the above can feel like useful productive things to do, but they ultimately won’t grow your audience. Instead focus on creating better content and connecting with more listeners and collaboration partners. Those will move the needle on your audience and start you on the path to the growth you deserve.

Appreciate you being here,

Kieran MacRae

P.S. I made a fancy new coaching page, check it out.

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How I Can Help You

1) ​​How to get your first 100,000 downloads ebook – Learn what it takes to grow a podcast and make sense of podcast marketing.

2) ​​Work with me 1:1​ – I am an experienced podcast coach, and I want to help you master your podcast marketing. Check out my full list of services and discover how we can work together.

3) Growth Machine Podcast Audits are now available. Don't be blind to the mistakes holding your podcast back from the growth it deserves. Get an experienced and critical eye to give you feedback on everything from show notes to podcast quality and delivery.

4) ​Recommended Tools​​ – These are the tools I use to grow my podcast. I focus on tools that improve quality and save time.

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