58. Podcasting Growth Hacks to Boost Your Downloads and Audience (POP: The Healing Pod)

Are you struggling to increase your podcast downloads and reach a wider audience? In this episode, I chat with Megan from The Healing Pod about what she and her cohost Jess can focus on to boost their podcast's performance. Tune in to hear actionable tips that you can also use to make your podcast stand out and attract more listeners!

Listen to The Healing Pod!

Want to make your podcast POP? Schedule a free call with me at www.ThePodcastTeacher.com/pop

This episode was produced by me, The Podcast Teacher! Contact me at Hello@ThePodcastTeacher.com.

Transcript

Julia Levine:
Hey. Hey. And welcome back. It's been a while since I've shared a pop episode with you. I've reviewed someone's podcast and have created a podcast optimization plan to make their podcast pop. If you're a current or aspiring podcaster, listen in as a fly on the wall for our conversation. I guarantee that you'll find something of value in this episode that you can apply to your current or future podcast. And if you'd like to chat with me about how we can make your podcast pop, you can schedule your own free call with me at the podcast teacher.com/pop. Today, I'm chatting with Megan, one of the hosts of The Healing Pod podcast about how to increase downloads and get more listeners. If those sound like things that you want to, keep listening. So you of course, your podcast is the healing pod, navigating anxiety and mental health together.

Julia Levine:
Mhmm. And then the primary goal that you identified for our conversation today was that you're looking to get more downloads and reach a wider audience. Yes. Awesome. Just making sure we're on the same page. Mhmm. And then for context, who are you trying to reach with your show here?

Megan:
So in general, it seems to be landing that we're reaching out to people that feel like us. So both my partner, Jessica, and I are mental health professionals, but we're very busy people pleasers. And we often get wrapped up in taking care of everyone else's problems and not really creating that community and that space for ourselves. So we really started the podcast as a way to have time ourselves just to sit and connect every week and every other week, but also to reach out to other people who share that geeky psychology interest and who just want to explore these topics better and to find a space where they can land and actually take time to be about themselves and build a community where they can reach out for and say, hey, I'm struggling with this or I have questions about this. Who has answers? Who can help me with it?

Julia Levine:
Awesome. So I was able to take a look at your show, and I listened to a couple different episodes. And just a few first impressions, I always like to kick off the call with some things that you're doing really well. So first of all, you have nailed the subtitle. You've got your keywords of anxiety and mental health in there. So that is awesome slam dunk. I'd say probably 95% of podcasters don't have that dialed in yet. So the fact that you do is a huge asset and you are ahead of the game.

Julia Levine:
So big pat on the back for getting that dialed in. You so much. Yeah, absolutely. And then also your audio sounds really good. It sounds really professional. It's nicely edited. I know that you're doing your own editing. And so, you know, for someone who's not a professional, you're doing a really great job.

Julia Levine:
So Thank you. Awesome awesome things to kick off the call there with. And then, of course, I did, you know, to put on my my constructive criticism hat and pick out a couple things that maybe you can modify, constructive criticism hat and pick out a couple things that maybe you can modify and do better to reach that goal of getting more downloads and reaching a wider audience. So the first thing is your cover art. Okay. So I I hate to bring this up because it's so super cute, and it clearly has meaning to you and Jess. You know, the 2 p's in the pod and that kind of thing. But when I'm looking at it with my podcast coach hat on Mhmm.

Julia Levine:
The first thing is when it's displayed really tiny, I can't read the words. Okay. But part of that is because it's small font, it's cursive font, and it's just kind of all squished in there. There's not really a lot of breathing room in the image. It's very crowded. And so that's that's kind of a problem when we're trying to get people to our show, they need to be able to identify our show. And then if we keep in mind that a cover is part of a potential listener's first impression, you have, let's say, 5 seconds for them to say yay or nay. I'm going to keep scrolling past this or I'm going to stop and check this out.

Julia Levine:
Does your cover art stop and say, hey. This is a show that's meeting the need that you're looking for. Stop. Take a closer look. Check us out. And I just don't know that your cover art is doing that at the moment. And and that pains me to say because it is so cute.

Megan:
I mean, we can always find another spot to use that picture, another spot for the art. Yeah.

Julia Levine:
Yeah. Yeah. And then when we're talking about redoing the cover, of course, you want to make, things more readable, not using a cursive font, using very clear printed font, make it very large. And for you in particular, because your show, the main part of your title, the healing pod, doesn't really necessarily indicate clearly what your show is about, I suggest that you put your subtitle, the navigating anxiety and mental health together, put that on the cover to provide additional context. Because if I just see the healing pod, what am I healing from? You know, there there's a lot of directions that can go in? Is this physical healing? Is this trauma healing? There? Of course, there's overlap with these, but there's so many different areas. So I would love to see those keywords on the title itself, again, making them fairly large, so they're readable. But just again, adding to that first impression of the person who has no idea who you are, no idea what your show about, you came up in their search results, and are they gonna click on this or not? We want it to be a absolutely yes, they're gonna click on this.

Megan:
Gotcha. Okay. Okay.

Julia Levine:
We can work with that. So that's kind of the first and, like, the biggest area of need that I see. The other thing that I think that you can do to optimize your organic discoverability, again, people discovering you through not through effort based marketing, but just naturally stumbling across your show, is to do the same thing with your episode titles that you have done with your show title. So with your show title, you added navigating anxiety and mental health together for that search engine optimization. Right? And so doing that with your episode titles as well is going to help the algorithm understand, help the search engine understand that, hey, our content is about this. So when people are searching this, you should pull up our content. Okay. So, you know, you very clearly have 2 main keywords, anxiety and mental health.

Julia Levine:
Technically a phrase, but you know what I mean. Yes. And so one of those should be in every single one of your episode titles.

Megan:
Okay. Does it matter where in the title or anything? Or

Julia Levine:
It doesn't so much. I mean, honestly, the first step is just getting it in there, period. The search engine likes it when it's closer to the beginning, but we also have to keep in mind that we're writing for humans and we're writing for robots. So even though the robots like it really close to the beginning, that's not always a great thing for the human in charge of saying, is this an episode that's worth my time today? Am I gonna press play? So Yeah. I try not to put too much of a formula on it. So, you know, use that creative expression to make it appealing to humans, putting the word in there somewhere for the robots.

Megan:
And I think in one of your your recent episodes of your podcast, you talked about kind of going back and reworking some of those titles too. Does that make sense?

Julia Levine:
Yes. You can absolutely do that. I do recommend that you do that. And you're in a great position being only, you know, 14, 15 episodes in. And so you don't have a huge back catalog to go through. So that's an advantage. So even though it's like, oh, man, I have to go back and and do this, you know, it's it's not a huge amount.

Megan:
Okay. Okay.

Julia Levine:
And then the third point of feedback, you know, I like give people kind of a 3 step plan. My mind goes in a lot of places, but I like to try not to overwhelm people with too many things to do. So I like to come up with 3 step plans. And so for you, cover art, title, search engine optimization. And then the 3rd step in this plan would be to kind of hone in and work on framing your content a little bit. Okay. And what I mean by that is that your content is good. It's entertaining to listen to the 2 of you interact with each other.

Julia Levine:
You're clearly very knowledgeable professionals, and you have great information to share. I think that we can just frame it a little bit differently Mhmm. To make the value more clear to the listener. So this is kind of like, you know, we wrap a present or something, and, like, what's inside isn't really changing all that much, But the way we package it and present it can have a big impact on how someone's initially perceiving that and whether they're going to be excited about it, whether they're going to, you know, really want to to open it like that kind of thing. Going a little down the rabbit hole with the analogy there, but it works. It works. Yeah. I got it.

Julia Levine:
And so this comes into play with the title, of course. And so that's you know, when we're talking about throwing in those keywords, we still wanna make sure we're framing it in a way for the human. And so every single time you sit down to discuss a topic, record an episode, I would love for you just to ask yourselves and, like, dialogue a little bit before you start recording, or at least the part that you're going to cut out at the beginning. And talk about, okay, what is the value for the listener today? What's in it for them? Okay. Because, of course, we live in a a fairly self centered world, and everybody's time is valuable. So if I'm tuning into this podcast, and I could be tuning into my favorite comedy couple, I could be tuning into, you know, to learning a new skill, Why am I choosing this one? So maybe this topic is on my mind, on my heart today. Okay. I'm interested in this.

Julia Levine:
But why this over one of your other episodes? Why this over a different show? Mhmm. So really conveying that value of why is this worth your time today? What are you gonna get out of this? Okay. And whenever possible, putting that into the title. Mhmm. So that the listener immediately knows, hey. I'm gonna get this answer to this question, or this is going to help me with x, y, and z, or I'm going to understand a better. You know, that kind of thing. Okay.

Julia Levine:
Does that make sense?

Megan:
Yeah. So I mean, I I know writing the titles is I'll sit there and I'll start the editing process and I just start pulling the notes out of what on earth do we talk about today.

Julia Levine:
Mhmm.

Megan:
So doing some of that beforehand and making it more clear as well when we introduce the episode of this is what we're talking about and why.

Julia Levine:
Yes. So I like to in in the teaching world, you know, I'm a former elementary schooler school teacher. In the teaching world, there's something a technique called begin with the end in mind. And so we figure out where we're gonna end up, and then we kinda backwards map how we're going to get there. Okay. And so for you guys, I think it's really important to kind of determine that ending point of, like, where are we going with this episode? Why are we talking about this today? Why is someone going to tune in and wanna listen to us talk about this today? What's in it for the listener? So identifying that and then having that conversation doesn't necessarily need to be scripted, but just kind of coming back to that value to the listener periodically throughout the conversation. Maybe it's a, hey, listener. You can try this.

Julia Levine:
Or, you know, so in your episode about social media that I listened to, a lot of it was about your own experience with social media, you and Jess. And that's great. Keep that. But, also, turn it back to the listener and maybe ask some reflective questions of, you know, have you experienced this feeling? What what does this feel like for you? And perhaps give some suggestions. I know you mentioned like blocking people, but like, is there another technique that people could use? Could they set a timer on their phone? Could they, you know, like what what is it? Do they choose 1 social media platform to hang out on instead of all of them? Like, just little little tiny nuggets interspersed with your own experience that come back to the listener. That makes sense.

Megan:
Because I know it's it feels a lot right now like that shouting into the void because there's not that base yet. There's not that interaction.

Julia Levine:
Yes. Yeah. And I think especially in the beginning as you're trying to build that base, you're trying to build that community, you're trying to talk to strangers. Mhmm. They have absolutely no idea who you are. They do not know you yet. They do not like you yet. They do not trust you yet.

Julia Levine:
And so you need to, like, with the shiny bow, be like, here, I have an answer for you. Very, you know, pretty on my platter. And so I'm bringing you to the door. I'm serving you this delicious dish so that you then come back for more. You're getting to know me, you're getting to know my personality, you're getting to know how, you know, we interact with each other as hosts. And you wanna think about why are people seeking out a podcast on anxiety and mental health? Why are your audience of kind of the average people, non mental health professionals, why are they seeking out a resource like this? Most likely because they're struggling with something in their own life. Right? And they want to not feel alone. They want some of their feelings and experiences to be kind of normalized.

Julia Levine:
Right? Mhmm. But also, probably, they want some help, some action steps, some things to do to help solve this problem.

Megan:
That makes sense.

Julia Levine:
Of course, continuing to bring your personalities, your style, your experiences into it because there's only one you. Right? There's one of each of you. You make a a pair together. You're 2 peas in a pod. And so lean into that, of course, because that is partially what's going to make you different. And so me, the the listener who's like, okay. I want a podcast about anxiety, but I don't need, like, a whole hour therapy session here. I don't want someone to talk at me.

Julia Levine:
You know, I want someone who's relatable. So, of course, I have lots of options. There are lots of podcasts that talk about anxiety. And so I'm looking for something. My need needs to be met, but I also need to find the right people to fill that need. And so maybe there are multiple options. Maybe you're the right fit. And so just kind of coming back to how does this benefit the listener and kind of just thinking about it from their perspective.

Julia Levine:
Does that all make sense?

Megan:
It makes a lot of sense.

Julia Levine:
You're doing awesome things so far. And I think with some fine tuning with keeping that stranger in mind who doesn't know you yet, that is what's gonna propel you forward into success.

Megan:
Alright. Well, thank you very much. It's it's definitely gonna help. It says more stuff. And this is brand new to me. We just started it in April. So we're playing and we're trying to figure out where to go from here.

Julia Levine:
Yeah. I totally understand.

Megan:
Thank you so much. I really appreciate you reaching out and having this. It definitely helps.

Julia Levine:
My pleasure. I'm glad you found value. Alright. That's all for today. If you'd like to chat with me about how we can make your podcast pop, you can schedule your very own free call with me at the podcast teacher.com/pop. Until next time, happy podcasting.