Ep 165: Do This To Quickly Increase The Downloads For Your Podcast
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These days, it seems like everyone is doing anything that they can to increase the almighty follower count. Whether you're on Instagram or TikTok or a podcast, it really is about the metric. Maybe it's a vanity metric, maybe it's not, but I've got four ways for you today that I do to consistently increase the downloads here on The B Word. ♪

The power of a podcast extends well beyond plugging in the mic. So if you're ready to learn how it can help you build a big business, then I'm your best friend. Hi, I'm Joanne Bull and I am obsessed with all things podcasting and creating an unapologetically big revenue business with it. From podcast guesting to podcast hosting and everything in between, we're going to dive into it all and show you step by awesome step how

how using a podcast can and will grow your business. So grab a glass of wine and pop your headphones on because girlfriend happy hour has begun here on The B Word.

Okay, friends, I will admit I am a slave to the download numbers. They're not a vanity metric for me, though. I actually look at them every single week and then month and then quarterly in order to determine what content I am producing here on The B Word that's really resonating with my audience. What's working? What's not? Because let's face it, if you don't know your numbers, then you don't know the path to get to where you want to get to.

But when it comes to increasing the visibility of the podcast, I like to do a little bit of experimentation. You guys know because you've been listening for a while that I think a little bit outside the box. So when I first wanted to increase the visibility of the B word podcast, I did what many of you probably do. I went to Google.

And I Googled how to increase downloads on my podcast. And it told me the same thing. Every blog I read, everyone had the same prescription. Go get on other people's podcasts. Do this, do that. Put an audiogram out on social media. And I thought, yeah, but...

That's not me. That's not how I want to lead generate for the B word. So I decided to do things a little bit differently. And I'm going to give you the secret sauce today so that you can do them too. Here's the first one, Facebook groups.

Okay, Facebook may be an older person's social media, if that's what you're thinking. It's not TikTok and it's not Instagram. But do you know what it is great for? Groups. So if you know who your ideal listener is, find five to 10 Facebook groups that those people would be in.

And then set a timer every single day. This is something you can do Monday through Friday for five minutes. That's all it takes. Set a timer every single day and open up your Facebook. I find it's easier to do from a desktop than your mobile, but you do you boo.

Here's the thing. Open up those Facebook groups and start looking through what the conversations are happening in the groups. A, it will give you some great ideas for content for your own podcast. But here's where you're going to really utilize it to increase your own downloads. If someone puts a post in there that says, does anyone know how to...

and you've done an episode that addresses that topic, that question, that thought process, then you are the perfect person to add a comment in that says, oh my gosh, yes, I actually went through it in my episode and then give the title of your episode or tell the person why listening to that episode will solve the problem that they themselves posted in that Facebook group and put a link to the episode.

You can link to your blog or you can link to your Apple podcast or your Spotify, wherever you want to send people to put a link there and then just leave it. Because guess what?

Other people in the Facebook group will read the responses. Some of them may have had the same question and they're just following the responses even without telling people that they're following. And when you put your link in there and you show up adding value, not screaming, oh my gosh, go listen, not screaming, oh my gosh, give me a review, but instead saying, I hear you.

Here's the question you're asking. Here's the topic you want more info on. Here's how I addressed it in my podcast episode. And then you just casually give them the link and that's it. That's all you do. Other people are going to follow that link too.

When I began doing this every single day, Monday through Friday, I literally put it in my calendar to do. Sometimes I do it in the carpool line while I'm waiting to pick the kids up. Sometimes I do it while I'm cooking dinner and I'm waiting on something to finish boiling or baking, or sometimes it's the very first thing I do in the morning to kick my day off. But it happens for me consistently every single day for no more than five minutes. I do set a timer.

Because I'm like anybody else. I can get lost in the Facebook scroll and then I'm over on Instagram and I might, you know, venture on over to TikTok, but most likely I'm going to stay in Instagram land and Facebook land or maybe LinkedIn land. But it's really easy to get lost in there and forget where you are and what you're doing. And suddenly you're not even on there doing what you meant to do. So set the timer.

Go into each of your Facebook groups, try to find at least one Facebook post that you can add value to with one of your episodes. It doesn't need to be even a recent episode. You can take your listener or, you know, back 30 episodes if you want to. It doesn't matter as long as the content is relevant and you will increase your downloads that way.

All right, you ready to keep digging in? Let's keep going. The second way that I increase downloads to the B word episode is okay. And I will say before we get into this one, this one takes a little bit more effort, but I have created landing pages for the B word. And on those landing pages, I, at the very top of the landing page, I've got my name and a link to my Instagram. Cause that's where I like to send people.

And then underneath it, I've got top five episodes four, and I generally have a topic. So you'll hear me speak a lot here on the B word about things like email list building, brand building, building your business through a podcast. And so I have created a landing page for each of my content pillars and then replicated it three times. And all I did was update the episodes and I created one for the very beginner to that topic.

the medium listener to that topic, and the more advanced listener to that topic. Yes, guys, this did take a little bit of effort. And we update those landing pages almost quarterly or before I'm about to go anywhere, because here's how I use those landing pages. If I'm going to hop on a virtual networking call, I'm going to listen in.

And I'm going to hear the level of the people on the networking call. Are they more beginner entrepreneurs? Are they more advanced entrepreneurs? And then when it comes my turn to introduce myself, I am going to pick the most relevant of my content pillars to that networking group.

and the most relevant skill level to that networking group. And after introducing myself, I'm gonna say, hey guys, you can check me out here. And in the chat, I'm gonna put the landing page. What that does is if anyone really was interested in what I do with my 30 second elevator speech,

When I introduced myself in a networking event, they can go to the chat, they can click the link, they can come back to it at their leisure. But most importantly, it gives them my name, how to connect with me on social media, because most other people on a virtual networking group are just giving their social link. And it gives them five bingeable episodes of my podcast relating to whatever topic I was in a networking group for at their perceived skill level. So

So now I've gotten them listening to the B word even when they weren't before. And I didn't have to say I'm the host of the B word podcast. Instead, my elevator pitch can be geared toward what I do that is relevant to the networking group I'm speaking to at their level. And then they can go and listen if they want to. But every single time I've done this, my downloads have increased. If you're not doing virtual networking groups, and

And I've got a couple you can DM me on Instagram at it's Joanne Bolt. I will be happy to send you to a couple that I love to pop into that my friends host. But if you're not going to do those, have those landing pages ready on a scannable link, put them on your homepage of your phone.

on a QR code so that if you're at a conference or an in-person networking event, you can have it on your homepage, on your phone. And that way, when you meet someone, instead of handing out a business card, simply hold your phone up, have them scan the QR code and boom, you have just made your landing page, your virtual business card for the people you're meeting live and in person.

Great, great, great ways to increase your downloads. Okay. That was a lot of juicy information. You guys ready for the third one? Can you handle it? Yeah. Let's keep going. All right. The third thing we do, and this one is not a quick hit. This one is more of a consistent hit. We do a lot of freebies here on the B word. In fact, in episode 154, we're

I did an entire episode on why to create a freebie behind the scenes of creating a freebie. Like, why do I use it? I use it to grow my email list, by the way. You can go and listen to 154 if you want more information on creating a freebie. But here's the thing that we have discovered here on The B Word. When we create that freebie,

It is best to not just create a PDF or a website or something else for someone to download and get some free valuable information for. We also put links in there throughout the freebie, not only to the episode that the person was most likely listening to in order to go and get their freebie, but one or two other relevant episodes. So if we created a freebie on how to do a solo episode on a podcast, like,

like we did in episode 154, and we gave that out to everyone on that episode, we will also on that freebie include two to three links throughout the freebie on other relevant episodes where I talk about creating your podcast show. Why? Because if you wanted a freebie on the ultimate episode checklist, which is what that one was, then you might want to listen to other episodes talking about podcast. Is

Does that make sense? We're really just giving someone in the freebie, the valuable tool that they wanted and other ways to learn about that topic, how to use that topic, all kinds of things. And we're just creating loyalty and an engaged listener base here on the B word. In fact, we've also got a freebie for this episode and you can go to podcast, her.com forward slash free.

four ways that's F O R ways in order to get the freebie download where I'm going to just lay it out for you. The roadmap to what I'm talking about today, the four ways to increase downloads for your own podcast. So you can go to www.podcasther.com forward slash four ways in order to get today's freebie. All right. That one is,

If you utilize that one, and I do really recommend if you're going to keep your podcast going for any length of time, start a list of all of your landing pages and what episodes you place them on because you can repurpose them again later. But make sure that you're doing that very consistently because you will increase listeners to your podcast.

Okay, finally, number four and the last way. We use a CTA that we bake into podcast episodes that move the listener from the one that they're currently listening to, to an older episode. And the reason we do that is not just for the download count.

It's because if you're a loyal listener to the B word, maybe you missed an episode or maybe something we are talking about right now is relevant to another episode and you just need to jog your memory and go back to it, getting you to listen again to the episode, but

But more importantly, or maybe I should say just as importantly, if you are a new listener to the B word and we give you a CTA to go back to a older episode of the B word, then we are just creating engagement and we're building a relationship with you as a listener. And we are showing you the authority that I've got on the topic. And I'm going to give you a big hint. If you want to hear how this is done really well.

You've now gotten to the end of this episode. Did you notice in number three, where I talked about the freebie and how to incorporate links to other episodes in your freebie, I referenced you back to episode 154, the one where I talk about creating a freebie to increase your email listeners for your podcast.

Okay, so I just told you in when I discussed in today's episode, how to go back to another episode. That was me giving you an example of this one, number four, of how to bake in a CTA on leading your current listener back to a past episode in order to increase your downloads. Hope that made sense. It can get a little bit convoluted.

And if you've got an entrepreneurial friend that needs this goodness, whether they are just starting their podcast or they are 600 episodes in, I guarantee you some of these things maybe they haven't thought about before. So be a friend to me and go ahead and share this episode with them. It'll increase my downloads and you'll be doing them some goodness because they need to hear this. Have a great week, guys. I'll see you next time. Same time, same place.

You just finished another episode of the B-Word Podcast. Cheers to you. If I were with you, I would literally pop a big old bottle of Prosecco and pour you a glass. Since I'm not, why don't you do the next best thing and share this episode with one of your besties? Because we all know you've got that one girlfriend that needs to hear it. Thanks, friends.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Before you go really fast, would you please take a second and go and leave me a review here on the B-Word podcast? It really does make a world of difference to how we show up for new people. And to give you a little thank you, because my mama always taught me that you send a thank you note or something in return for a gift.

We have got a free gift that we are changing every single month here on The B Word. So head on over once you've given your review, grab a screenshot of it, and then go to thebwordpodcast.com forward slash review. Upload it for me and I will send you a free gift immediately. Thanks in advance.