124. Why Podcasting With A Small (But Mighty!) Audience Delivers Big Results

Think your podcast needs thousands of downloads to be successful? Think again. In this episode, I’m flipping the script on podcast growth and showing you why smaller audiences can actually mean bigger results. You’ll learn why download numbers don’t tell the full story, how to turn a modest listenership into paying clients, and three strategies to build trust and drive conversions through your show.

Check out the Podcast Growth Collective: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com/collective

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

Transcript

Hey, hey, and welcome back. This is your podcast teacher, Julia Levine, and you're listening to Podcasting for solopreneurs, the show that helps online business owners grow their podcast to get more listeners, leads, and sales. Today, we're tackling the myth that you need thousands and thousands of downloads to get results from your show. You have probably heard the advice that you need to increase your podcast's downloads. I have certainly talked about that here on the show before, and that's because, as a general rule of thumb, 1% of your audience will turn into clients or customers. So math dictates that the more listeners you have, the more downloads you have, the more clients and customers you'll have. And while that is true, it's not the entire story. Your podcast does not need to be massive in order to be mighty.

In fact, smaller shows often work harder for you behind the scenes, building deeper relationships, creating more trust, and converting listeners into clients for faster than you might think. So in today's episode, I'm going to show you how a smaller podcast has the potential to outperform a bigger and flashier competitor. Because bigger does not necessarily mean better. Let's start with some transparency. About download stats. Visiting buzzsprout.com stats is a great way to see how you're doing in comparison to other podcast. For example, if you get 28 downloads or more in the first seven days after your episode publishes, you are in the top 50% of podcasts. 111 downloads puts you in the top 25%.

I hear so many podcasters talking about how their show is doing so, so badly and their downloads are so low because they, quote, unquote, only have 30 downloads in seven days for an episode. But being in the top 50% of all podcasts is certainly not bad, right? So the first thing I want you to know is that you are probably doing better than you think you are in terms of downloads. When we hear about the big names hitting millions of downloads, we instantly feel inferior. And I say we because I have felt this too. But you simply can't compare yourself to them. No offense, but they are in a different league. You may know that Friends is my all time favorite TV show, but you may not know that by the end, each friend was getting paid $1 million per episode. Per episode.

Holy bananas. If I sat here and said, well, I'm not making anywhere close to a million dollars a week, so I must just suck at my job, you would say that I was crazy, right? It would be ridiculous to compare myself to them. And it's the same thing with your podcast. So do not compare yourself to the big names. Okay, I'm stepping down from my soapbox now. And to get back on track, I'll say that you are probably doing better than you think you are. But also what matters most is not how many people are listening, but who the listeners are. If those listeners are your ideal clients, people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer and how you help, that is amazing.

Those are the people who are likely to look, listen longer, trust you faster, and take action more quickly than a random audience of a bunch of people who are not really quite the right fit. Because podcasting is intimate, intimacy builds trust, and trust converts into sales. So now let's talk about three strategies that you can implement in order to make sure that you are attracting, retaining and converting your ideal clients. Strategy number one is to create strategic content. This is the foundation of a small but mighty podcast. Strategic content is not just informative and helpful, it's intentional. Every single episode should answer a burning question, ease a fear, shift a belief, speak to a deep desire that your ideal listener has, et cetera. You can scroll back to last Week's full episode number 122 about creating a high impact content planning system for a framework to follow to create this strategic content.

To figure out which topics to fit into that framework, start by listening to your audience. Go through your DMs, your discovery call notes, the FAQs that you get about your offers. Identify common gaps in knowledge, common concerns, objections, fears, etc. That information is a goldmine. Then think of each episode as a stepping stone toward your paid offer. What does someone need to think, feel, say and do in order to be ready to work with you? Then build your content around those things and don't be afraid to niche down. The more specific you are, the more your listeners will have that feeling that you're in their heads. You're reading their minds.

You know exactly how they're feeling and what they're going through and and that is where the trust begins. When you get strategic with your content, your podcast stops being just simply a free resource and it becomes an integral part of your sales funnel. If you would like support with creating strategic content, that is something that is covered inside the Podcast Growth Collective and I would love to have you join us. Check it out@thepodcastteacher.com collective all right, moving on to strategy number two, which is to include a clear and specific call to action. 1 Episode 1 CTA I say this all the time because it's so easy to overlook. So many podcasters end their episodes with something like Follow me on Instagram, Download this freebie, rate the show, and share this episode with a friend. And what does the listener do? Usually nothing. Instead, choose one single meaningful action that you want them to take.

Ideally, this is something that moves them closer to becoming a client. Something like grabbing a lead magnet, taking a quiz, booking a discovery call, or joining a wait list. And remember to say it early. Don't wait for the outro. Most people are multitasking while they listen. They are walking the dog, they're in the gym, they're folding laundry, they're driving the kids to school and they might get distracted. They might not make it till the end of the episode for whatever reason. So make sure to give your CTA mid episode or while you've got their full attention.

And then you can repeat it briefly in your outro as well as a reminder. So you can think of your CTA as the bridge between your free, valuable content and your paid offers and services. Don't skip the bridge, okay? And finally, strategy number three is to prioritize relationships overreach. And this is where small shows can really shine, because big shows might attract a wider audience, but small shows can go more deeply. So instead of focusing on how many people you are reaching, focus on how connected you are to your listeners. That is a key thing that can lead to action. So there are several different ways that you can do this. One way is to mention your listeners by name when they leave a review or they send you a message when you're answering a question that someone sent in.

I do this in my FAQ Friday episodes, so check those out if you haven't listened to any yet. You can also encourage replies at the end of episodes. You can ask a question, you can invite them to contact you, to send in feedback, to send in questions, things like that. If you're a social media person, you can start a conversation there and of course go back and forth in the DMs. If you're more of an email person, you can of course use your email list to deepen the relationship by sharing behind the scenes stories. You can share extra insights, you can ask them to reply to the email, et cetera. All of these techniques are they're not about marketing at your audience, they're about connecting with them. My biz bestie Robin uses this famous Maya Angelou quote a lot.

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. And it is so true. If someone feels seen, understood, and like you really get them when they're listening to your episode, they are 10 times more likely to take the next step with you. So you don't need to have a massive following in order to have a massive impact. Just a few raving fans can make a bigger impact on your business than a hundred lukewarm followers ever could. You don't need a huge audience to get results. I mentioned in the beginning that a general rule of thumb is that 1% of your listeners will turn into clients and customers. But when you have a strategy that really goes deep with the right listeners and helps them take the right actions, that number can increase to 5, 10, 20, 20% or more.

You can make 20 sales with an audience of 100. Under the right circumstances, you don't necessarily need 2,000. So create intentional content, give a clear, meaningful CTA and build relationships with your listeners. When you do that consistently, your podcast becomes a powerful growth tool for your business, no matter what your download numbers say. And if you want help doing exactly that, that's what we work on inside of the Podcast Growth Collective. It's where I help online business owners like you turn their podcast into a lead generating machine. You can learn more@the podcastteacher.com collective. Until next time, Happy podcasting.