Starting A Podcast... Day 2

Last time on "Starting a Podcast" we talked about finding your show Niche, the little space you occupy and can be the master of.,

We also talked about defining your show format, and what your Episode Zero should look and sound like.

We now move on to Day 2.

You have this wonderful idea for a podcast, and you're passionate about it. Excellent.

Passion helps make good shows, but the other thing that helps make good shows is knowing who your audience is.

I'm not talking defining them as strictly as a major business would, believe me, I've seen some pretty crazy "Big Data" breakdowns of what has been collected on customers.

In my past roles, we actually bought some of this data on our clients.

We were able to tell, with disturbingly accurate certainty, that Customer number 24601 is between the ages of 25 and 34, likely owns a home, is into pickup trucks, enjoys certain types of video games, watches 3-5 hours of Youtube a week, hunts, is married, likely has young children, and may just be the perfect customer for your brand.

All this was obtained by giving that data company an email address and having them grind it through all the systems that collected data from that customer's interactions online.

Thankfully, you don't have to be that detailed, but you should go for as much detail makes sense.

Take my show, for example. Recruiting Hell is a podcast about job hunting in 2020.

I've identified who my listener is easily; a job seeker.

I further define that by making sure that the show caters both to those out of work and those who want better jobs. So I have two sub audiences there that I need to make sure my show addresses.

Working more with what the show is, I have to ask myself, who listens to the type of media I create?

A bit of research about who listens to podcasts reveals that downloads are strongly correlated with the Millenial and Gen-Z age demographics. Gen-X is a smaller audience, but folks over 55-60 years old are generally not podcast listeners as supported by listener data from platforms like Spotify and Apple.

This helps me target my show even further. I now know the type of language I can use with my show, I don't have to button it up so tight like the evening news from back in my parents' childhood.

This also tells me where I should be promoting my show.

Millenials and Gen-X use social media frequently, and have moved to a significant number of newer platforms; Intagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit, etc.. The Baby Boom generation has firmly latched onto Facebook, while the Gen-Z'ers have moved to Tiktok

This helps me know where I should be promoting my podcast and what platforms should be getting the lion's share of my time.

If we take Recruiting Hell - I spend 80%+ of my efforts on the platforms I mentioned above for Millenials and Gen-X, but I know the Gen-Z folks listen to podcasts as well, so I'm beginning to make efforts to reach toward them with the social platform they are most likely to frequent.

I all but actively avoid Facebook, because I know that the general demographic on that platform that uses it these days are people over 60, and I know that people over 60 don't listen to podcasts.

Now, there are exceptions to every rule, but to give you an idea of where I base this off of take a look at my last 90 days of downloads for the show

Now, this data comes after folks start listening to the show, but we can use it to infer that we are correct on who we should look to market our podcast to.

Knowing your existing customer base and cross referencing that with who is likely to listen to your show if it's in audio format is critical. If your average customer is a 62 year old male, there's a HUGE disconnect in making a podcast, because he doesn't listen to those. The numbers and demographics show it!

The biggest point of Day 2 is identifying who your customer is, and making sure that lines up with the medium you're choosing to operate in.

If it doesn't, it's back to the drawing board.

You can find data for your audience from your customer management systems and your marketing team. Together with a bit of brain power, they can help you create what is called an avatar for your company's customer.

This is basically a "composite person" who represents your brand's ideal customer.

There may be more than one, and making sure that you identify as many of these archetypes as possible is key to having the most success on your podcast launch.

We'll be back again with more of this series in the future to give you a leg up on starting your business's own show.

Need a hand faster than that? Book time here with us at Westport Studios for a no cost consultation!