Give in to podcast burn out or push on?
Host of "Taking it Down" has the "why bother" feels at 200 podcast episodes.
Many podcast professionals often tailor their advice to new creators; however, Blaine Duncan (co-host of the Taking It Down Podcast) opened up and shared his frustrations with his podcast. With 200 podcast episodes under his belt, he’s feeling like the podcast category he falls under is saturated, growth has become stagnated, and he feels that it’s too late to change.
Let’s explore the podcast, website content, and related socials to Blaine’s podcast to see what he may consider improving in order to achieve his podcast growth goals.
Initial Observations
Blaine initially found interest in a previous post related to enhancing your Podcast SEO. From there, he expressed concerns with feeling stagnant in a saturated podcast category (TV & Film).
200 episodes for a “hobby podcast” is nothing to sneeze at. When assuming a weekly episode distribution we’re talking nearly four (4) years. Wow!
Taking It Down Podcast is part of a larger Creative Network coined as The Alabama Take. Many podcasts and written articles featuring movies, music, sports, politics, and more.
The website content for the creative network and individual podcasts is easy to navigate and easy to use. I enjoy the podcast descriptions having a conversational flow with podcast timestamps woven within the description text.
Social presence on Facebook (700 followers), Threads (150 followers), and Instagram (nearly 300 followers).
Reviews on Spotify show only one five star review. Whereas, reviews on Apple Podcasts include 34 five star reviews for this podcast. Not too shabby!
Podcast presence seems to available on dozens of podcast platforms as well. Great!
Unfiltered Perspective
Assuming that the Taking It Down Podcast has been promoted for four years I’m concerned that this podcast has taken a back seat (or only the bare minimum to socialize has been actioned). For example, I chatted with a podcast creator with approximately five years experience in the podcast game. Marsha has 600 700 podcast episodes under her belt and over 5300 instagram followers. That’s quite a difference indeed.
Diving into the social activities for the Taking It Down Podcast I found a lot of statements and “here is my podcast episode” post. Nothing for me to really get excitement about, engage with, or empowered to continue a conversation (by jumping in the comments). It’s more, for me, of a ‘that’s nice’ feeling as I scroll on by.
According to Podnews there are over 31,000 podcasts within the TV & Film category. When you’re putting out content that doesn’t spark, it may be time to figure out how to make the most of your time while trying to create a buzz about your podcast.
If Blaine is leading this creative network AND is an active co-host on his “hobby podcast” it’s no surprise that something may suffer (or be placed on low priority).
Blane’s goal is to continue growing his podcast. As it’s quite likely he’s stretched too thin, he may want to consider going all in one platform. To understand what social media platform that your audience may best align with, listen to this conversation with Marie of Gumamela Studios on Let’s Start a Podcast to learn how to find the best social media platform persona that best vibes with you and your podcast audience.
After reviewing the website for Blaine’s podcast, I’d love to see links included in the description to add supplementary content (such as IMDB), links to podcasts socials, and the podcast website. This will help with SEO (back-links = more perceived popularity). Since the ask to reach out and provide suggestions is often requested why not make it easy for your unfamiliar listeners to do so?
Eyeing the Competition
I wanted to get a different podcast perspective on how other podcast creators went about content structure, style, and length. Movies and television series may bring different audiences; however, ‘stealing’ some listeners from a sub-genre within your podcast category may be beneficial for your podcast growth.
I googled “best tv podcast” and found a link to this podcast subbreddit. Reddit users have earned a reputation of being brutally honest without concern for the feelings of others. Let’s say that reddit a great for unfiltered data when doing podcast research.
One of the comments on this post soliciting best tv podcasts to listen to, I immediately recognized a call-out to NPR. I’m a big fan of NPR and look to this public broadcaster as a standard for audio-based entertainment. NPR Podcasts are usually about 20 minutes in length, high-level in nature, and do a good job of keeping the listener’s attention while balancing the art of sharing knowledge and entertaining.
A lot movie podcast creators will “nerd out” or go “down a rabbit hole” which can do a great job of creating a specific listener niche. Yet, this approach may also turn off potential listeners who might be looking to understand if the movie (or television series) is even worth consuming. This is why I went with NPR to listen to as I know this company has a broader content approach across all of its podcast offerings.
I picked a random podcast episode and there’s definitely a news-style podcast featuring two co-hosts taking turns talking about the podcast. Yet, there’s a faster pace to the content and the podcast features highlights of a TV series (instead of getting into the weeds). NPR Podcasts has over 30,000 followers on instagram. To me, that means that its podcast content is intriguing to many podcast enthusiasts.
When visiting the NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour Podcast website I really enjoyed the flow of the content, the brief descriptions shown on the left (in desktop viewing), as well as leaving room for an influential shot of the content that the podcast co-hosts are reviewing. This experience created an engaging read (while sparking my curiosity enough to want to click and listen right away).
After reviewing the NPR Podcasts Instagram page, the content is engaging, inspires curiosity, and leaves me wanting more. There’s a feeling of storytelling (versus here’s my podcast episode so go listen).
To compare the Taking It Down Podcast Instagram page, there’s less story telling and more of what feels like inside jokes/references.
Which podcast posts would you most likely click on?
Creative Ways to Stand Out
I love the old TV imagery to help the Taking It Down Podcast stand out. A small adjustment from showing the same podcast image every episode consider including a memorable frame from the movie this team is reviewing. Notice the subtle difference between the original graphic followed by an altered graphic to help easily identify the topic at a glance.
When growing your podcast your aim is to attract newer listeners who may be scrolling through their podcast app. Create a “wow” moment to force that potential listener to stop scrolling.
Steps to ‘Unfunk’ Your Podcast
Learn from successful podcast creators
Search popular [category] podcasts OR top 200 [category] podcasts
Review competition podcast title, description, website, and socials
Identify what you like, what inspiration you may work in to your podcast
Perform analysis (check out what others are doing, what’s unique, and what followers engage on most)
Create a buzz
Ask for reviews
Contact followers (DMs, emails)
Offer incentives (gift cards, guest appearances, etc)
Sign up on social media groups and share your podcast often
Contact other podcast creators to swap guest appearances / features
Tell stories about your podcast instead of simply posting “hey a new podcast episode. wee.”
Leverage content repurposing: Clips, blogs, articles (more content you put out there the more likely someone will find you)
Be Open To Change
Create listener surveys and ask for feedback
Email/DM: Offer to do a video chat/phone call
Maybe you could record this sesh and use this as bonus content or for social clips
Change up your podcast episode format
Borrow from talk show hosts or comedians who have podcasts
Create segments within your episode (monologue, movie hall of shame, I burned my popcorn, golden ticket (some meaningless award you hand out to movie producers for example), do a hot take segment where you highlight 3 things you loved and 3 things you hated; use the main part of the podcast to expand), have a segment where you perform an acapella jingle in the theme of X and related to the song (it doesn’t make sense but it’ll be wacky, fun, and worth sticking around for).
Do your socials, review asks, or CTAs in the first ten minutes or middle of episode
Maybe reward others for liking and sharing a social media post or reviewing your podcast (prize draw, free high five, donation on their behalf to a charity, etc)
Hire a Podcast Pro
Outsourcing an expert to brainstorm, perform an audit, to coach/mentor you, or to just be a fresh pair of eyes can be all you need.
If you feel that I’m right for you, please know that my consultation hourly rate is $50USD. I’ll record the conversation, you ask me anything podcast-related, and I’ll put together a nice summary with references (in a google-y doc or PDF).
Reach out by sending a message (button below), book a meeting or contact me directly.
Happy Podcasting!