Audience Retention 101
Audience Retention
How to get and keep your audience’s attention.
Which is more important to the success of a podcast- to keep the listeners you have or to gain new listeners?
Of course attracting new people is what helps podcasts grow, and your main goal could be to reach as big an audience as possible. But, podcasting is not just about sharing knowledge and marketing, it’s about building a community through your audience. If you are only getting new listeners and you’re not building a community, you’re not forging any kind of connection with the people tuning in to a single episode, you’re not building any trust with your audience. The people that do regularly listen to your podcast would know your style and references and would understand more about your discussions. This core audience would be who would share it with their friends and relatives.
So getting them to want to stay and listen is what makes it stable and worthwhile. But how do you get them to want to stay and listen to what you and your guests are talking about? Audience retention is a phrase that you’ve probably used when analyzing the success of a podcast.
What is Audience Retention?
Basically ‘audience retention’ is how much of your audience you’re retaining over the course of your podcast. It is easy to break down if you think of having 100 listeners for your first episode, but only 50 of those listeners came back for episode 2, which would mean you have a 50% retention rate for your podcast.
Why is Audience Retention important?
Retained listeners are dedicated listeners! They’re the ones recommending podcasts on Linkedin and Twitter, leaving Apple reviews on podcast sites and buying your merchandise. These listeners are also the ones that are going to be talking about it to friends, family, and anyone who asks them what they’re listening to now. So by increasing your audience retention, you’re giving your podcast new ways to be discovered. And remember, we know that Apple’s algorithm means podcasts with higher completion rates are more likely to appear in charts.
Of course, who wouldn’t want to have a 100% retention rate? But can you achieve it?
Let’s be positive and say YES! You can!
Well, it’s the ultimate goal as a podcaster to work towards, but positive thinking is going to need to be backed by good strategy. So here are some tips to help with improving your audience retention and keeping those valued listeners staying right beside you to the very end of each episode.
Analyze your statistics. What are your completion rates? How much of an episode are your listeners staying tuned for? You can check them on your Apple podcast data or Spotify podcast account data or search for a summary of most of your data together by plugging your podcast into Chartable. Knowing users' habits will help you to see at what points they are skipping or disconnecting. Then you can see what content you have at those points and tweak a little. Strive to have the completion rates up to 80% each episode.
Have good quality technical equipment in sound and video. No one wants to listen to or see bad quality. If your audience is having a difficult time hearing and/or seeing you they will not stick around long.
Dedicate time to educate yourself and prepare. Try to have a checklist of everything you need before the podcast. Before doing your podcast episode always read a few articles about the topic you want to discuss. Then digest it and meditate on it. This includes preparation of guest interviews. Listeners like to know what to expect, episode after episode. If you’re making a podcast from scratch, come up with a structure and stick to it – there’s always room to tweak it. When planning your episode, see where there’s room to insert features and segments to make it more interesting and diverse.
Do you have enough content? Content is king. Have you written out a plan of action with some show titles and outlines of your topics to be discussed? A strategy and plan of action will help you feel more confident in your newfound podcast.
Interview Guests. The audience wants to hear a variety of experiences and expertise. While guests may change, your approach to your guests can help the way the interview goes. And the guests are your allies when it comes to great content.
Familiarize yourself with the guests' background and think about what the audience would want to hear from them. Help the guest to prepare for the interview. If they haven’t listened to your podcast before, get them to listen to a few episodes to acquaint themselves with your style. You are giving them an opportunity to speak and share their expertise. Make sure they feel comfortable and confident. And, if you see in your statistics that certain guests are making your audience happy, invite them back!
Catch your audience’s attention in the first 30 seconds. If you don’t they are more likely to click away and not stay to listen to the rest of the episode. Do you dive right into the meat of your subject? What kind of hooks do your favorite podcasts use in their intros? What could you apply to your podcast? Asking an in-depth question that you answer later in the episode is a good way to start, or sharing something funny or interesting a guest has shared with you. Experiment with different styles.
The Substance of the Episode.
The most important thing as a host is to be true to yourself and authentic while discussing topics that are important and entertaining to your listeners. So while doing that these following ideas can help make it the best it can be:
Explain your own interest in the topic.
Tell listeners what the topic has to do with them.
Refer to your listeners' experience. Mention your own experience. Personalize the subject when that's appropriate.
Give your email address so your listeners can write to you, and pick one or two to mention in your episode.
Tell a story. Humans take naturally to stories. Narratives are an evolutionary social tool we use to convey experiences, so we find it far easier to listen and relate to a story than we do a list of facts or statements.
Describe a scene or a character, help the audience visualize your story.
Share a personal experience.
Relate to a recent event.
Piggyback on a previous speaker’s remark or theme.
Point out something important about the audience or the current setting.
Spell out what's at stake for your listeners.
Offer a humorous observation or anecdote.
Preview what’s to follow—your points, your approach, or the type of content. (Previews tell listeners what's coming next or how you're going to develop a point.)
Define unfamiliar terms.
Can you be genuinely enthusiastic about your niche week after week? Are you a good storyteller? This is crucial. None of us enjoy listening to dull uninspiring material. We live in a content-saturated world, your listeners will be looking for informative and exciting entertainment. Reflect emotion in your voice. Get animated, and use emotional vocal inflections to put some real texture behind your words. Without that emotional inflection, your audience might as well be listening to a robot.
You don’t want guests to assume an episode is finished so tell the listener not to go anywhere and what to expect shortly before the advertisements roll.
If a listener knows what to expect in an episode, they know what to stay tuned for.
Ask for feedback. As previously mentioned, allowing your listeners to be able to communicate with you helps them to feel connected, but it is also a great way to get feedback in order to improve your content and give them what they want to hear.
Edit. You’ve recorded the podcast, so now you have the substance, but you need to edit it to make sure that you're keeping the gold while staying within the target length. If you have guests on the show, don’t feel you need to keep every word they say. If the 2nd part of an answer is a reiteration of the first part, is it necessary?
Add music. Music and sound design can bring life to a conversation and be a great background.
So while your audience retention might not improve overnight, these tips are starting points to consider and the ways your podcast can improve, and hopefully your podcast will not only keep your current listeners wanting to stay to the end of each episode, but attract new listeners to enjoy it all the way to the end too!
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