087 The Best Way to Measure Podcast Success
Sep 10, 2019
Mega-downloads = successful podcast, right? Not so fast, podcaster.
Look, I get it. Watching your download numbers grow feels good. It’s like a whole bunch of gold stars on your homework. And, skyrocketing downloads seems like a reasonable goal.
But, park your ego for a sec. Just for a second, you can have it back in a minute.
If you’re podcasting to market your business then sheer numbers is not really what you should be aiming for. Think of it this way. Say you had an old bricks and mortar store. And everyday, more and more people came into the store because it’s warm and it smells nice. Do you think you could go to the bank and say - hey, I need to take out a loan because so many people are coming in my store that I need a bigger store.
No. You couldn’t because the banker doesn’t care about how many people come in. He cares about only one thing.
His hockey pool.
Just kidding. He cares about the money, chum. How many of those people are buying? Do more people through the doors mean more cash in the till?
You have to measure the right things!
Caveat - if you’re business is your podcast, meaning your content is your commodity, then by all means - care about the downloads. Obsess about the downloads because each one gets you a little closer to bigger sponsorship deals.
But, if podcasting is a marketing tool for your business - those numbers are not the most important measure of your success. Downloads don’t tell the whole story. They can’t give you an ROI.
So, what is the best way to measure the success of your podcast?
There are a few ways to go here. You could measure the number of leads you get from the podcast, you could measure the number of conversions you get from those leads, you could measure the lifetime value of that customer.
I like to measure engagements. Because the goal of my podcast is to serve business owners in their podcasting efforts, everytime I get the opportunity to connect with a listener, I get a little closer to my goal.
This KPI can also tell me if I’m reaching my target audience and give me more information about what they need. And, I know that many of these connections will result in my being able to serve them on a bigger level.
My podcast is supposed to be a conversation, so when I hear from my listeners, I’ve succeeded in starting that conversation. Isn’t that what you want from your podcast, too?
Once you set the right KPIs for your podcast, the next step is hitting them.
The key to hitting your KPI in your podcast is to have a strong call to action. A lot of podcasters leave this our or they inundate their listener with a million calls to action. Are you one of those podcasters. Here, hold out your hand so I can smack it! Stoppit!
In this episode, I cover how to set the right KPI for your show so that you can really assess when it’s a success. Spoiler alert - it will likely be WAY before you hit 10,000 downloads!
Don’t believe me? Let’s talk about it. Book a free 15-minute coaching call and we’ll get your podcast KPIs realigned for success.