Home Custom Presets Courses Consulting Coaching Blog Gear About SUBMIT YOUR VOICE Login

How Do I Grow My Podcast Audience?

podcasting Jan 18, 2025

Grow your podcast audience

I want to begin by sharing a little about me. Knowing my background is important because I want you to understand why I'm qualified to speak on this subject and offer answers. My name is Lenny B. I am a broadcast professional with over 3 decades of experience working with podcasters, radio morning shows, and other content creators responsible for capturing, retaining, and growing massive audiences worldwide. I help content creators, including podcasters, connect better with their audience. My superpowers are storytelling, marketing, and audio!

Podcasting can be exciting. You've acquired the microphones and headphones, installed the recording software, and settled on the perfect name for your podcast. You even have a logo. The thought of thousands or potentially hundreds of thousands of people becoming fans of your show is intoxicating. Maybe you've recorded and posted the first several episodes, and they feel great. You've listened to them repeatedly and are confident you're on the right path. Friends and family with whom you've shared the debut episodes are encouraging and have nothing but great things to say. So, you press on—you invest more time, more recording, more editing, and more episodes uploaded and available to the world. Then, something unexpected happens. You are shocked that although you've created more episodes, you're not getting more traction. The listeners aren't increasing. Occasionally, there are a few glimpses of interest, but the audience numbers aren't growing. The groundswell you were convinced would happen is nowhere to be found. So, what's the problem? You are asking, why aren't people as excited as I am about my podcast? How is it possible no one is hearing this? How do I draw more people to find my podcast? Should I post it in more places? Should I share it more on social media? Do I need to pay to promote my podcast? 

This problem is more common than you think. Over half a million podcasts are launched annually, but only 20 percent survive. Even fewer generate income and continue to grow their audience.

 

Strategies To Grow An Audience

There are proven and reliable strategies for attracting, retaining, and growing an audience. These strategies have been utilized for decades in the radio broadcasting industry and can also lead to success for podcasters. I'll share a few monumental techniques here to get you started.

 

 

Consistently Use A Clearly Defined Brand

One of the best ways to grow your podcast audience is to ensure that you clearly define your brand in every piece of content you create. In terms of podcasting, that means in every episode. One of the biggest mistakes that beginning podcasters make is that they forget to treat every episode like it's the first and only episode someone will hear. This strategy is vital for attracting new audience members.

For example, let's consider a podcast on the subject of gardening called Gardening Made Easy. In every single episode, the host begins by including a statement that enforces the podcast's clear and well-defined brand. This statement can be made with a few words, sentences, monologues, or conversations. The podcast name might do some branding, but going further with a branding statement is essential. A strong branding statement may be "Welcome to the Gardening Made Easy podcast. In this podcast, we discuss the proper care and feeding of plants. With our help, you'll feel confident you'll have happy, healthy plants in your home garden." Let's think about what this does for the first-time listener who may have searched and landed on this podcast episode. The branding statement sets an expectation to let the first-time listener know what to expect in this and other episodes. They know they're in the right place if this is what they're looking for. They'll continue searching if it's not what they're looking for. The result is that people who stay and continue listening will have a good and beneficial experience.

Let's also discuss the benefits of a branding statement for the regular listener who subscribes to the podcast and listens to multiple or all episodes. The frequency or repetitiveness of a branding statement in every episode strengthens the brand and often accidentally becomes assigned to memory by the listener. When someone asks, "What podcast do they listen to?" they can easily state the podcast name because they hear it frequently. If someone were to ask, "What's the podcast about?" they could easily explain it. We've told them what to think, know, and feel about the podcast. The repetitiveness burns it into the listener's brain.

Additionally, a brand is strengthened further when you deliver on the promise in your branding statement. Here's the takeaway. Never assume a listener has consumed any of your other content. Treating each episode like it's the first impression is one of the most important jobs of a podcast host. A podcast host should welcome new listeners and set expectations for what they can expect from you, this episode, and the ongoing podcast.

You may hesitate to say the same thing every time you begin your episode. You might feel like the repetition will turn some listeners off. You might expect you and your audience to be fatigued at hearing the same statement every time you start an episode. They won't. Think of your branding statement as the frame around your original painting. This frame sets the tone for your artwork. You must deliver your branding statement with conviction and enthusiasm! This branding statement needs your confidence. If you're not proud of your content, you can't expect anyone else to be. When you're passionate about the content you deliver, it is magnetic for people who are equally passionate and searching for your brand of content.

Of course, you must first have a clearly defined brand before you can accomplish any of this. Developing and identifying your business' brand is a good place to start if you don't. A strong brand is essential before you build and market a successful business with a successful podcast. Let's talk about another concept to help grow your podcast audience.

 

"Your podcast is not your product. Your podcast is marketing."

 

Possibly the most critical move necessary to grow your podcast audience is also derived from the radio broadcast industry. This concept is that your podcast is only a portion of a business strategy model. Your podcast is not your product. Your podcast is nothing more than marketing. Every single word you say in your podcast is marketing. You must understand and accept this principle—your podcast markets your product. If you intend to generate income from your podcast, you must accept that your product is the access to your audience. You might want to let that sink in for a moment. I'm going to repeat it because its importance is monumental for success. If you intend to generate income from your podcast, you must acknowledge that your product is the access to your audience. Once you begin thinking in these terms, you'll find that other things start to take shape. You'll even find that generating the right ideas for your podcast's content becomes easier to develop. I'll illustrate this with our Gardening Made Easy podcast. This podcast will gather an audience of people passionate about gardening and eager to improve their gardening acumen. Access to this audience is valuable. Gardening supply, fertilizer, or garden hose companies, to name a few, tailor their products and services to these demographics. Access to this audience is valuable to them.

Do you have a strong, clearly defined brand for your podcast? Is your brand aligned with your business strategy? These and many other concepts are critical to growing your podcast audience and generating income. Does your business get marketing support from your podcast? Do you have a clear picture of your ideal audience?

If you're a podcaster looking to grow your audience and generate real income, consider applying for private 1:1 coaching with me. I only work with a handful of clients, so space is limited. If you're interested, click here to apply.

Get Started Now!

What Is A Custom Preset And Why Do I Need One?

A custom processing preset for your voice-over is a series of plugins explicitly tuned for your voice, in your room, and on your microphone. If you want to compete in today's voice-over world, you must ensure that your demos and auditions are extraordinary. Voice-over artists at every experience level from all over the world are fighting to win work. However, if you don't have a professional sound, you will lose out to someone who does.

Custom voice-over processing presets can take your audio presentation quality to the level necessary to compete with the pros. Instead of taking it upon yourself to tweak the parameters like EQ, compression, DeEssing, and saturation to name a few, you can hire a professional voice-over audio engineer to create it for you. Once you have the custom preset on your system, you have "The Sound" every time you press the record button. The investment pays for itself with the money and time saved. Here are the top reasons why they are so popular:

  1. A custom processing preset lets you focus on your strengths, leaving more time for pitching your voice-over and less time stumbling with engineering.
  2. A custom processing preset gives you the confidence necessary to help you perform your best.
  3. A custom processing preset allows you to outshine the competition, win more auditions, and get more work.

 

Demo Your Custom Voice-Over Preset Sound Free!

Once you submit your voice for processing, you will be notified if your audio recording quality needs improvement or if it's ready for prime time. If your production quality needs improvement, you will be offered suggestions to help identify and resolve any issues before being asked to resubmit audio. On the other hand, if your audio recording quality is up to par, you will receive a sample of your custom-tuned processed sound to review for free. 

Get Started
Close

50% Complete

Stay Connected

Join the mailing list to receive the latest videos, free tips, and promotions from Lenny B.