How to Keep Listeners.

 

Your podcast could have had a few good episodes, where you had a lot of listeners, or one great guest that helped the word out about your show. Although those spikes are great for helping your show out, your main goal is to keep those listeners coming back to every episode.

 

This can be a difficult thing to accomplish, as people are busy and there are a lot of podcasts out there to keep them entertained. These are a few ways to help you keep your listeners coming back week after week.

 

Incorporate Seasons

 

Even if your show isn’t fiction, or storytelling, you can still use the seasonal structure. You can use certain themes for each one of your seasons, and for every episode in that season, you can explore that theme. That’s a great way to keep people coming back to see what the next season will be about, and keeps everything a bit more organized for the listener. 

 

At the end of every episode, tease the next one, that will entice the listener to return and hear more. You don’t have to have a journalism podcast in order to have an episodic set up. It will also make it a little easier for you, because you will have a break between each season, which will give you more time to plan things out and give more of an effort to each episode.

 

Keep your Listeners Engaged

 

There are a lot of ways to keep your listeners engaged with your show. This can be a great way to create loyalty in your listeners. Getting them involved helps keep them coming back to hear if you used their submission. Hearing your name on the air is exciting, even if it’s on a podcast, as long as you know other people are listening to it, it’s oddly exciting. I’ll go over a few ways to keep your listeners engaged.

 

• Trivia - At the end of each of your episodes, you could hold a trivia question. This will give the listener a chance to write in and possibly hear their answer on the air.

• Catchphrases - This could take place at the beginning of your episodes, similar to how Comedy Bang Bang does it. They announce the catchphrase to open up the show. This could be funny, or motivational, or something educational, whatever theme your show has.

• Segment Ideas - Your listeners could submit their own ideas for things they want discussed on the show. In the episode you could announce who came up with this segment. You could also hold a poll on social media to ask your followers which segment you should do, or have people write in one.

• Listener Stories - Before the end of your show, you could take some time to ask your listeners to submit an experience they’ve had with the theme that you’ve discussed on the show that day. This helps with connecting with your audience on a personal level.

 

Use Your Personality

 

The fact is, most people keep coming back to podcasts because of the host(s) personality. They feel like they are building a connection with them, and want to continue that relationship by coming back to listen. Don’t be afraid to lean into your personality a bit on your podcast, that’s what makes your podcast different from everyone else’s. 

 

If you have a loud, outgoing demeanor, use that in your show, if you’re more quiet and warm, there will be an audience that connects with how you present yourself. The content of your show should be most important to you, but how you present yourself on mic, should be a close second. Be unapologetically you, if you do that, you will create listeners that want to come back every single week to hear your voice and connect with what you have to say.