Latest / Podcast Growth, Podcast SEO, and Podcast Launch Strategies for Mom Entrepreneurs | Podcasting for Moms / 80. Why Nobody Is Bingeing Your Podcast

Transcript

80. Why Nobody Is Bingeing Your Podcast · Podcast Growth, Podcast SEO, and Podcast Launch Strategies for Mom Entrepreneurs | Podcasting for Moms

• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, real talk.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever gone down a podcast rabbit hole?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like you find a show, and then three hours later you've listened to six episodes, you've got your AirPods in while you're making dinner and you're fully hooked.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that is what binge listening feels like.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to ask you something that might stain just a little bit.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is that happening with your podcast?
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what I see all the time with mom podcasters.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're putting out episodes consistently, they're showing up every single week, they're doing the work, and yet their listener count stays flat.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: People are not coming back.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: No one's binge listening to their back catalog, and they cannot figure out why.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is almost never what they think it is.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that their content is bad, it's not that their audio quality needs work, and it's not that they need to post more on Instagram.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's that their podcast was never designed to be benchworthy in the first place.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're gonna be fixing that.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about it.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Podcasting for Moms, the show for moms in business ready to start, grow, and scale a podcast that turns their listeners into buyers.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jenny Summson, a podcast strategist and fellow mom entrepreneur.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the right place if you want to learn how to start and grow a podcast that attracts your ideal clients and really does the heavy lifting for you when it comes to selling your offers, all while balancing life as a busy mom.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to create a podcast that grows your income, impact, and influence?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's make podcasting work for you.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because as moms, we know how to get things done.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's jump into the episode.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, hey, and welcome back to Podcasting for Moms, the show for mom entrepreneurs who are using their podcasts as their primary marketing tool.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Jenny Sandison, a podcast strategist and producer, and I'm here to help you build a podcast that doesn't just sound good, it actually grows your business too.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the episode.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so welcome back.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you're here today because this episode has been living in my brain for quite a while, and I cannot wait to unpack it with you.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to tell you about a client that I worked with a while back.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: She had been podcasting for almost a year.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: She had solid content, a great voice, showed up every week like clockwork.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when she came to me, she was frustrated because her downloads weren't growing, and no one seemed to be going back and listening to her older episodes.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I went into her feed and I started listening.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And within about 10 minutes, I spotted the problem.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Every single episode was completely standalone.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: There was no through line, no listener journey, no moment where she said, Hey, if you love this episode, go listen to episode 12 because it builds on what we talked about here.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: There was no connecting thread between her content and her offers, just episodes, week after week after week.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Her podcast was like a pile of puzzle pieces with no picture on the box.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Every piece was fine on its own, but there was nothing pulling you forward.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing bingeworthy podcasts are not an accident.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: They are strategically designed.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And today I'm going to walk you through exactly what's missing and how to fix it.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to be covering three things.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing we're going to be covering is why your episode titles are costing you new listeners before they even hit play.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing we're going to cover is why your episodes feel like standalone content instead of chapters in a story your listener is dying to finish.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third thing we are going to cover is how to build a listener journey.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third thing that we're going to cover is how to build a listener journey that actually pulls people through your back catalog and towards your offer.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the episode.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the first thing is your episode titles are killing your discoverability.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start at the very beginning, because this is where most podcasters lose potential listeners before they even get a chance to hear your voice.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Your episode title is your first impression.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's a tiny billboard in the podcast app and it has one job to make someone stop scrolling and press play.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I see so many titles that are doing the opposite of that.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean titles like Finding Your Voice or My Journey with Burnout or A Conversation with Sarah.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Those are not titles.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Those are vibes.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: They tell me nothing about what I'm going to learn, what problem is going to get solved, or why I should listen to this episode right now instead of literally anything else on my feed.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: So compare that to a title like How to Grow Your Podcast Without Without Social Media or Why Your Podcast Isn't Making Money Yet and How to Fix It, or Three Reasons No One's Finishing Your Episodes.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: See the difference?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: The second set of episode titles tells me exactly what's in it for me.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: It speaks to a problem that I already have, and it uses words that I might actually be typing into a search bar.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's what a lot of podcasters don't realize podcast apps are search engines.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all of them.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: People are searching for topics, not show names.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And if your episode title doesn't have the words people are actually searching for, then you are essentially invisible.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is what I call the discoverability problem.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it is, and in it, and this problem is so fixable, but you have to be really intentional about it.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I want you to do.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to go and take a look at your last five to ten episode titles right now and ask yourself this question.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: If a stranger with zero context saw this title in a search result, would they know why they should listen?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Would they see themselves in it?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Would they click?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: If the answer to that is no, then the title needs a rewrite.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: A strong podcast episode title does two things.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: It names the outcome the listener is gonna get, and it speaks directly to the problem that they already know that they have.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be clever, it doesn't have to be cute, it truly just has to be clear.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because clarity is what converts browsers into listeners.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Then the second thing is your episodes are silos, not a series.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we've got someone to hit the play button, now what?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the second problem comes in.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, this one is the bigger one.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is the thing that is actually preventing the people from binging your show.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Most podcasters treat every episode like a standalone, like a completely independent piece of content.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: It has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it goes back to zero for the next one.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I get it, that's how a lot of us were taught to think about content creation.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just keep making new episodes or new content.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the problem.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: When every episode exists in isolation, there is just no reason for a listener to stick around.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: They finish one episode and then they're just done.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's no pull to the next one, no thread connecting the dots, and no sense that they're on a journey towards something.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to think about your favorite Netflix show for a second.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: The reason that you watch five episodes in one night is not because each episode is perfectly self-contained.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's because there is a through line, there's a story unfolding, and each episode ends in a way that makes you feel like you need to know what's gonna happen next.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And your podcast can do the same thing.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Not in like a cliffhanger, dramatic type way, but in a strategic and intentional way.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what this looks like in practice.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: It means that when you finish an episode on how to grow your email list from your podcast, you say, and next week we're gonna be talking about exactly what to do once someone gets on that list.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't want to miss it.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: It means that when you're teaching something that builds on a concept from an earlier episode, you say, This is part two of something that I started teaching in episode 34.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't listened to that one yet, go back and check it out first because it's gonna make this episode land so much better.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: It means that you're actively threading your content together so that your listener feels like they're moving through something, like they're on a path, not just collecting random information.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the business case for this, because I know that you're thinking about that too.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: When a listener sticks around longer, they trust you more.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And when they trust you more, they're so much more likely to say yes to your offer.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Bench listening is not just a vanity metric, it is a trust accelerator.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to stop letting your episodes be silos.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Start treating your podcast like a series.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Even if your episodes are different topics every week, you can still create an intentional path between them.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Reference your own episodes often, point forward to what's coming, and build a world that your listeners want to keep living in.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last thing is that you don't have a listener journey.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a big one.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is a thing that ties everything else together.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: A bingeworthy podcast is not just a collection of good episodes.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a design listener journey that takes someone from first-time listener to trusting super fan who is ready to buy from you.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And most podcasters, they have not designed that journey at all.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: They know that they want more downloads, they know they want more sales, but they haven't connected the dots between the episodes that they're making and the offers that they're selling.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so their podcast becomes this thing that takes up a ton of time.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so their podcast becomes this thing that takes up a ton of time and energy and does not move the needle in their business.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what a listener journey actually looks like.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: So first it starts with discoverability.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's your episode titles, your descriptions, and the words that you use so people can actually find your show.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: We already covered that.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Then it moves into trust building.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is where your consistent content lives.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where your teaching, sharing perspective, and letting people to get to know you and how you think.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the key the episodes in this phase should be connected to each other and connected to your offer.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Every episode should have a job.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: It should be moving your listener somewhere.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then it moves into conversion.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is where your call to action lives.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is where you invite people to take the next step with you.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not in a pushy or gross way, but in a natural and obvious way, because you've been building towards this the whole time.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: When you have this design, here is what happens.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Someone finds your show from a search.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: They listen to that episode.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: You've done such a good job at connecting your content that they go back and listen to another one and another one.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time that they listen to three or four of your episodes, they feel like they know you.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: They feel like they already know you.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: They trust you.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And when you mention your offer, it does not feel like a sales pitch.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like the natural next step for them.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: That is a listener journey and it doesn't happen by accident.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: You have to build it on purpose.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: So here is your action plan coming out of today's episode.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the first step is I want you to audit your last 10 episode titles.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Are they searchable?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Do they name an outcome or a problem?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Rewrite any that are too vague.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: Then the second thing I want you to do is to listen back to your last three episodes like a first-time listener.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a through line?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are you connecting your content?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Are you pointing people forward?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: If not, I want you to start doing that immediately.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then your third step is to, and then the third thing I want you to do is map out your listener journey.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want someone to think, feel, and do after listening to your podcast?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: What's the path from first-time listener to buyer?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And are your episodes actually taking them there?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you do those three things, your podcast is going to feel completely different.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Not just to your listeners, but to you.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so before we wrap up, I do need to call something out because I see this constantly and is one of the biggest obstacles to building a binge-worthy podcast.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to stop treating your podcast like a content hamster wheel.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I talk to so many podcasters who are just grinding out episodes because they feel like they have to.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's no strategy behind the topics, there's no connection between episodes, they're just putting out episodes and hoping that something sticks.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that is exhausting and ultimately it doesn't work.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: More episodes will not fix a strategy problem.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your podcast doesn't need more content, it needs better strategy, it needs a design listener journey, and it needs episode titles that actually get found.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: It needs connective tissue between your episodes so that listeners have a reason to stay.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to stop publishing and praying and start publishing with a plan.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's pull this all together really quick.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So today we talked about the three reasons that no one is binging your podcast.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the first one, your episode titles are not searchable.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: They are they're not naming outcomes or problems.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so that means that new listeners cannot find you and don't know why they should click.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing is your episodes are living in silos.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's no through line, no connection, and no reason for someone to go from one episode to the next.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: You've got puzzle pieces with no picture on the box.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the third thing is you don't have a designed listener journey.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: You haven't mapped out the path from first-time listener to trusting buyer.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so your podcast is producing content without producing results.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: The fix is not produced the fix it, the fix here is not making more episodes.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: The fix is making smarter, more connected episodes that are actually designed to build trust and move people towards your offer.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you listen to all this and you're thinking, okay, but I genuinely don't know where to start, then I have something for you.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you listen to all this and you're thinking, okay, but I genuinely don't know where to start, I have something for you.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: My podcast audit is a deep dive look at your show where I tell you exactly what's working, what's not, and what to fix first.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: We look at your titles, your structure, your listener journey, your calls to action, pretty much all of it.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you walk away with a clear action plan, not a 47-page report that you're never going to read.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're ready to stop guessing and start growing, you can book your podcast audit by going to podcastingformoms.co slash audit.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'll also leave a link for you in the show notes.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Your podcast deserves more than just good content.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: It deserves a strategy.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I would love to help you build one.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that is a wrap on today's episode.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for hanging out with me today.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: If this episode hit home for you, make sure to share it with a fellow mom podcaster who needs to hear it.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that's it for today's episode.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: I will talk to you next week.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning in to Podcasting for Moms.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I hope today's episode gave you the tools and inspiration you need to make your podcasts work smarter, not harder.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you love what you heard, be sure to subscribe and leave a review.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: It means the world and helps other moms in business find the show.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: For more tips, resources, and support, head to podcastingformoms.co.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, you're not just building a podcast, you're building your legacy.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, friends.