How To Start A Podcast With No Existing Audience In 2022
As intimidating as it may sound, having no existing audience on your podcast is excruciating. Let me unfold simple tips on starting a podcast with no audience and reveal what your podcast show might be missing that leads to 0 listeners. – Let’s go!
By Niall Mackay
Steps To Start A Podcast With No Audience
Starting a podcast is like starting a business. You have to understand your expertise, offer, and audience who will “buy” into your stories. If you don’t have business experience, don’t worry. Just follow these simple steps to start your show brand new.
Know your “why”
Please don’t start a podcast because everyone else is doing it. Understand why you are trying to show in the first place. Are you passionate about the topic? Are you going to educate others in your niche? Do you want to shed light on hidden stories?
If you are starting a podcast for your business, link your company’s mission and vision to the podcast.
Then think of how can you expand on the benefits of your product and services? How can you ensure that people trust you in your industry?
Understanding your podcast show’s core mission helps you build a solid episode calendar and shape your narrative to catch the right listeners.
Speaking of right listeners, let’s move on to the second step.
Understand your ideal audience
If you don’t have an existing audience, the best way to start building one is to create researched assumptions and imagine your ideal client or listeners. Put yourself in their shoes and dig deep into what they might like.
Ask yourself these questions before starting recording your first podcast episode:
“Who am I trying to convince?”
“How old are they?” “Where do they live?”
“What problems do these people have where I could help them?”
“What lifestyle do these people follow that can be related to my podcast show?”
Once you have built up an “ideal audience” persona, do some research on social media, ask your network (friends and family), or go on Reddit and Quora. As an established business, you can also hold simple Q&As on your social media channels and ask your existing followers what they like.
Bonus Tip:
Go on your well-performing competitors’ or influencers’ social media channels in your niche and read their comments. Those engaged accounts could be your ideal audience, too, and you can recognize problem patterns and straight-up answer those questions on your podcast.
Why is no one listening to your podcast show?
You got a great show, but no one is listening? Here are three reasons why no one tunes in your podcast.
You have 0 marketing strategy
If you don’t send out invitations, people won’t come to the party. – That’s it.
Your podcast marketing strategy doesn’t have to be a hardcore multi-level marketing campaign that involves hundreds of people’s time and money.
Instead, create a simple marketing campaign that reflects your show’s message and audience. You can start with social media pages on Instagram or Facebook and if you have a website, then repurpose your episodes into email newsletters or blog posts.
Bonus tip:
To make the best out of your show, you can also learn more about podcast SEO which helps your show be more visible on search engines like Google or YouTube.
Small changes such as writing your title or learning basic keyword research can help your episode visibility, and you never run out of ideas to bring to your podcast.
You’re not solving the listener’s problem
Just, PLEASE, GET TO THE POINT! – This is precisely how your listeners feel when you host a show without answering your audience’s questions or solving their problems.
In my previous post on keeping your podcast more engaging, I’ve mentioned the Treasure Hunting technique. You can start your show with a relevant issue or problem and let the listeners find the answer during the episode.
If you apply this technique, you catch your listener’s attention, and they have no choice but to listen to your episode.
Another way to approach this issue is to put yourself in your listeners’ shoes. Often we get biased on our performance but thinking critically about your delivery can step up your game.
What do people want to know? Was my episode clear and concise enough? How is my episode satisfying their issues and giving them a solid answer to their problems?
You’re impatient
Finally, the last issue is your lack of patience. You’re probably doing all the great things, but you’re impatient. Podcasting takes time, and you have to stay consistent with your publishing.
Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for failure. If you have your marketing
strategy and well-thought-out episodes that answer your ideal audience, you shall not worry.
In the next section, I’ll give an average estimate of time to grow your podcasting audience. – Keep reading!
How long does it take to build a podcast audience?
What is that magic timeline that makes your podcast show become one
of the best conversation podcasts on the internet? Hmm… the answer depends.
As a rule of thumb, give yourself at least 12-18 months to gain practice, different test styles, and gain momentum to grow a solid podcast audience.
The time matters less, however. To set the show up for success, you must aim for your topic clarity and depth while maintaining a consistent publishing and marketing schedule.
It’s not an easy job. Therefore simplify your work process. I teach in-depth podcasting setups and help podcast fans succeed on their journey in my podcasting course.
