Founder Podcast Playbook: Understanding Listener Analytics

Speaker:
00:00:00
Does this describe you? You opened your
Speaker:
00:00:03
podcast dashboard this week, maybe as recently
Speaker:
00:00:07
as this morning or yesterday. You saw a number
Speaker:
00:00:12
and you either felt vaguely okay or
Speaker:
00:00:16
pretty terrible, and then you closed the tab and got on
Speaker:
00:00:20
with your day. See, that's not a podcast
Speaker:
00:00:24
strategy. That's reading your horoscopes.
Speaker:
00:00:28
And in this episode, I'm going to give you the playbook for putting
Speaker:
00:00:31
that data to good use and actually grow
Speaker:
00:00:35
your show and grow your brand.
Speaker:
00:00:41
Welcome to B2B Podcasting Insights with me, Neil Verlio,
Speaker:
00:00:44
the founder of Podnos, a podcast agency
Speaker:
00:00:48
helping clients get better results from podcasting.
Speaker:
00:00:52
Here's something I want to make clear. Today we are going to be talking about
Speaker:
00:00:55
podcast listener analytics, and
Speaker:
00:00:59
I'm not going to be spending the next 10 to 15 minutes just
Speaker:
00:01:02
pontificating to you about how unimportant download numbers are,
Speaker:
00:01:06
how they're the worst metric to focus on, and all that
Speaker:
00:01:10
stuff. You've probably heard it a million times. Instead, what I'm going to
Speaker:
00:01:13
do is I'm going to give you a way of actually putting
Speaker:
00:01:17
those analytics to good use. Those download numbers
Speaker:
00:01:21
that are staring you in the face and are kind of the poison
Speaker:
00:01:24
chalice, if they're on the high side, it's great. It fuels
Speaker:
00:01:28
your ego. It makes you feel good. It also gives you something to report back
Speaker:
00:01:31
to the board or the CMO or whatever decision maker is in
Speaker:
00:01:35
your business. If that number is low, well,
Speaker:
00:01:39
it's the opposite end of the deal, isn't it? You get scrutinized,
Speaker:
00:01:43
questions are asked. Is this worth doing? What I
Speaker:
00:01:46
want to give you is a playbook where you can start a Monday
Speaker:
00:01:50
morning protocol in terms of what to look at in your
Speaker:
00:01:54
analytics, in what order, and the
Speaker:
00:01:57
most crucial part here, what decision each
Speaker:
00:02:01
number in that dashboard should be prompting you to
Speaker:
00:02:05
make. Here's the problem that most
Speaker:
00:02:08
B2B founders and their marketing teams have
Speaker:
00:02:12
around podcast analytics. They've got the dashboard
Speaker:
00:02:16
open, they've got the data, and they're doing absolutely
Speaker:
00:02:20
nothing with it. Certainly nothing useful.
Speaker:
00:02:25
We have all the data, but no idea what to do.
Speaker:
00:02:29
And it's not because they're lazy. It's because nobody ever
Speaker:
00:02:33
told them what the data is actually meant to be used for.
Speaker:
00:02:37
So let's fix that right now, starting with metric
Speaker:
00:02:40
one downloads. Okay, I know I just said that
Speaker:
00:02:44
I'm not going to stand on a soapbox about downloads here, and I'm not,
Speaker:
00:02:48
because downloads are useful for something. They do tell
Speaker:
00:02:52
you stuff. They're just not telling you what most people think
Speaker:
00:02:55
they're telling you, downloads don't measure
Speaker:
00:02:58
popularity, they measure reach. And reach
Speaker:
00:03:02
on its own means absolutely nothing unless you know
Speaker:
00:03:06
who's being reached. And here's the thing. If your episode
Speaker:
00:03:09
about fixing your sales deck got twice the plays
Speaker:
00:03:13
of your episode about company culture, then your
Speaker:
00:03:17
audience has a sales problem right now. So stop
Speaker:
00:03:20
diversifying. Go deeper into what's already
Speaker:
00:03:23
landing. Here's your Monday morning protocol move.
Speaker:
00:03:27
Stop comparing this week's episode to last week's episode.
Speaker:
00:03:31
That's just noise. Compare episode
Speaker:
00:03:35
topic to episode topic. Which of the topics are
Speaker:
00:03:39
pulling in more plays? That's your content brief. That's telling you
Speaker:
00:03:42
what you should be talking about more. That's your audience
Speaker:
00:03:46
literally telling you, hey, I like this stuff.
Speaker:
00:03:49
Do more of it. And in the only language available
Speaker:
00:03:53
to them, they're telling you what problems they're currently
Speaker:
00:03:57
faced with. Metric 2 episode completion
Speaker:
00:04:01
rate otherwise known as retention data. This is the one.
Speaker:
00:04:05
If you only track one metric on your show
Speaker:
00:04:08
going forward, make it this one. The
Speaker:
00:04:12
completion rate, which you can see in Apple podcasts, in the
Speaker:
00:04:15
Podcast Connect Dashboard, and in the Spotify for Creators
Speaker:
00:04:19
dashboard. That data tells you whether the right
Speaker:
00:04:23
people are sticking around. And what are you benchmarking for here?
Speaker:
00:04:26
Well, let me tell you, a completion rate consistently
Speaker:
00:04:30
below 40% means one of two things. Number one,
Speaker:
00:04:34
your content isn't relevant to them. Those people that are pressing play
Speaker:
00:04:39
are just, nah, it's not for me and they're stopping it.
Speaker:
00:04:42
Or two, your opening isn't making a strong enough
Speaker:
00:04:46
case for why they should be sticking around to hear more. Both of
Speaker:
00:04:50
those are fixable. It just means you've got to get a bit more intentional about
Speaker:
00:04:53
how you hook people in to your episodes and tell them up front
Speaker:
00:04:57
what they're going to get. Back to that intro episode that I published a couple
Speaker:
00:05:01
of weeks ago where I was saying to you, people don't want to hear 90
Speaker:
00:05:03
seconds of plinky plonky piano music. They want to know
Speaker:
00:05:07
exactly what problem you're going to fix for them, or even before
Speaker:
00:05:11
that, making them aware that the problem exists in the first place.
Speaker:
00:05:15
And they want to know exactly what the outcome from listening will be.
Speaker:
00:05:19
Will you help them fix it, or will you steer them towards a way of
Speaker:
00:05:22
doing so and make sure there's absolutely a clear
Speaker:
00:05:26
next step waiting for them at the end of the episode?
Speaker:
00:05:30
Because if there isn't, you're leaving money on the table.
Speaker:
00:05:33
Here's your Monday morning protocol move on this one.
Speaker:
00:05:37
Pull your last five episodes completion rate together and if
Speaker:
00:05:40
one is dramatically different from the rest
Speaker:
00:05:44
figure out what it was that was different about that
Speaker:
00:05:48
episode. And the answer is almost always to be found
Speaker:
00:05:52
in the first two minutes. Metric number three the
Speaker:
00:05:55
drop off points. Now this is one of the most underused
Speaker:
00:05:59
insights in podcasting data and it's sitting right there
Speaker:
00:06:02
in your dashboard again. Apple Podcasts,
Speaker:
00:06:05
podcastconnect.apple.com,
Speaker:
00:06:09
spotify for creators. Look at it. It's
Speaker:
00:06:13
completely ignored. They're also in YouTube. That is
Speaker:
00:06:16
the one thing YouTube is really good at. Drop off timestamps are not
Speaker:
00:06:20
a measure of failure. They're your script doctor. They're telling
Speaker:
00:06:24
you with precision to the second the
Speaker:
00:06:28
exact moment that your content stopped being relevant to the person
Speaker:
00:06:32
who should be most likely to buy from you. Maybe went off
Speaker:
00:06:35
topic. Maybe you started explaining something your audience
Speaker:
00:06:39
already knows and they felt a bit patronized. They went to
Speaker:
00:06:43
another episode somewhere else that was telling them a little bit more about what they
Speaker:
00:06:46
wanted to know at that point. Maybe it's where you put your CTA in and
Speaker:
00:06:50
it felt like a bit of a hard sell too early. The data
Speaker:
00:06:53
is pointing at something, but your job is to figure out
Speaker:
00:06:57
what. Here's your Monday morning protocol move on this
Speaker:
00:07:01
one. Screenshot your top three drop off points across
Speaker:
00:07:05
your most recent batch of episodes and and have a look. If there's a
Speaker:
00:07:08
pattern, is it the same segment of the show every single time?
Speaker:
00:07:12
Is it the same kind of content? If so, you found your
Speaker:
00:07:16
recurring problem. Get rid of it or fix it. And that
Speaker:
00:07:19
will fix the whole show's issue
Speaker:
00:07:23
metric four. Repeat Listeners and
Speaker:
00:07:27
this is your buying window signal. We talked about buying triggers on a couple of
Speaker:
00:07:31
episodes recently and that's kind of what this is about. And
Speaker:
00:07:35
most founders completely miss it. A first time
Speaker:
00:07:38
listener is curious. A repeat listener
Speaker:
00:07:42
is considering what you can do for them. They keep
Speaker:
00:07:45
coming back because something in your show is answering a question that
Speaker:
00:07:49
they're still lingering around. They haven't resolved it yet.
Speaker:
00:07:53
That's an open loop in their buying journey. And your podcast
Speaker:
00:07:57
is what they're using to try and close it. These are your
Speaker:
00:08:01
highest value listeners, full stop. Make
Speaker:
00:08:04
absolutely sure that your call to action is framed for
Speaker:
00:08:08
someone who already knows you, not for a complete stranger
Speaker:
00:08:12
because they're not a stranger anymore.
Speaker:
00:08:16
And here's your Monday morning protocol move on this point.
Speaker:
00:08:20
Look at your listener retention curve week on week. Is it
Speaker:
00:08:24
growing even slightly? That stickiness is worth more
Speaker:
00:08:27
than a spike in new downloads from, say, being featured in a
Speaker:
00:08:31
carousel on one of the podcast apps or somebody sharing
Speaker:
00:08:35
your episode's Link on a LinkedIn post. Most of
Speaker:
00:08:38
that doesn't convert for longer term. So there we have it. That's the
Speaker:
00:08:42
four metrics, the four decisions that you can be taking
Speaker:
00:08:46
around your podcast. None of them require a spreadsheet, none of
Speaker:
00:08:49
them require a data analyst, and all of them can be acted
Speaker:
00:08:53
upon. Before your next episode even goes live
Speaker:
00:08:57
Monday morning, stick an hour in your diary to go through all this stuff.
Speaker:
00:09:01
Downloads compare topic to topic, not week to week.
Speaker:
00:09:05
Completion rate, your audience fit, test drop off
Speaker:
00:09:09
points, your script rewrite, repeat
Speaker:
00:09:13
listeners, your buying window and triggers speak
Speaker:
00:09:16
to them like they're almost ready to buy. Because they probably
Speaker:
00:09:20
are. Each
Speaker:
00:09:23
episode I share questions from founders running their own B2B podcast.
Speaker:
00:09:27
You can send yours to Neal. That's N E a l@podnos.co.uk
Speaker:
00:09:31
p o-k n o
Speaker:
00:09:34
w s.co.uk.
Speaker:
00:09:37
this week's comes from Rachel, who's head of growth at a
Speaker:
00:09:41
professional services firm. Rachel has recorded six
Speaker:
00:09:45
episodes and hasn't published a single one. I see where this is
Speaker:
00:09:48
going, she asks Neil. I keep going back and finding things to
Speaker:
00:09:52
improve on my yet to be published episodes. How do I
Speaker:
00:09:56
know when an episode is actually ready to publish? I'm going to be
Speaker:
00:09:59
honest with you, Rachel. You're not tweaking here, you're hiding. And I say
Speaker:
00:10:03
that with complete understanding, because almost every founder I've worked with has had
Speaker:
00:10:07
a version of this conversation with me at some point. Here's the
Speaker:
00:10:11
truth for you. The six episodes sitting on your hard drive
Speaker:
00:10:15
are converting. Absolutely nobody, not one warm prospect, has heard
Speaker:
00:10:19
them or been nudged closer to making a decision to work with you
Speaker:
00:10:23
or booked a call. Meanwhile, the episode that has
Speaker:
00:10:26
published imperfectly next week and then
Speaker:
00:10:30
lands in the ears of one person who maybe needed to
Speaker:
00:10:33
hear it that's already doing more for your business than anything
Speaker:
00:10:37
you've recorded so far. So you need to meet
Speaker:
00:10:41
the imaginary version with the real version, because there is no
Speaker:
00:10:45
ready, there's only published and unpublished.
Speaker:
00:10:49
And unpublished is just really an expensive hobby that
Speaker:
00:10:52
you're kind of justifying with the brand
Speaker:
00:10:56
attachment. So what I would say is pick the
Speaker:
00:10:59
strongest episode, accept that it won't be perfect, and just publish
Speaker:
00:11:03
it no matter what happens. The second episode would be better, because by
Speaker:
00:11:07
the time you hear the first episode with the ears of a listener rather than
Speaker:
00:11:10
creator, you're going to pick up on things you can improve, and the sixth one
Speaker:
00:11:14
will be even better still. But none of that improvement
Speaker:
00:11:18
happens while they're sitting on your hard drive being quietly
Speaker:
00:11:21
tweaked into the point of irrelevance. Another
Speaker:
00:11:25
tip for you it might be time to hire an external editor
Speaker:
00:11:29
to be the critic on this and actually tweak it
Speaker:
00:11:32
in the way that helps your business doesn't stay anchored in your
Speaker:
00:11:36
ego. Hope that helps. Rachel
Speaker:
00:11:41
Time for this week's quick tip for B2B founders stop writing your
Speaker:
00:11:44
show notes as a summary of the episode. Nobody who
Speaker:
00:11:48
hasn't listened yet cares what you covered.
Speaker:
00:11:51
Your show notes are a landing page for the person who found you through
Speaker:
00:11:55
search, and they haven't pressed play yet, but they're trying to figure out whether they
Speaker:
00:11:59
want to write the notes for that person. Write for
Speaker:
00:12:03
search intent, not for listener resources. By
Speaker:
00:12:06
all means, stick the listener resources in there, because it then gives them an idea
Speaker:
00:12:10
that it's worth them listening to. Then have the outcome at
Speaker:
00:12:14
the end, but don't write it like they've already
Speaker:
00:12:17
listened. And here's something that's worth knowing if your website SEO is
Speaker:
00:12:21
weak, your Apple Podcasts episode page can actually
Speaker:
00:12:24
outrank your own site for the same keywords. Which
Speaker:
00:12:28
means your show notes might be the very first thing a warm
Speaker:
00:12:32
prospect ever reads from you. So treat them accordingly.
Speaker:
00:12:36
If this episode's been useful, I've put together the Founder
Speaker:
00:12:39
Podcast Playbook as a downloadable resource.
Speaker:
00:12:43
You can go and get that. It talks you through everything we've mentioned,
Speaker:
00:12:47
covering all four metrics that we talked about today and with the
Speaker:
00:12:50
Monday morning move for each one laid out so so you can act on
Speaker:
00:12:54
it straight away next week. To grab it, go to
Speaker:
00:12:57
podnos.co.uk Founder
Speaker:
00:13:01
Podcast Playbook. That's podnos.co.uk
Speaker:
00:13:06
founder podcast playbook
Speaker:
00:13:10
and the link's also in the episode description, as you would expect. And
Speaker:
00:13:14
if you want to go a little bit further and figure out
Speaker:
00:13:18
whether your show is actually doing a useful job
Speaker:
00:13:22
for your business right now, that's what the Podnos
Speaker:
00:13:25
Podcast Growth Diagnostic is for.
Speaker:
00:13:29
It's a single session designed to answer
Speaker:
00:13:32
exactly those questions. Also in the episode description.
Speaker:
00:13:37
Until next time, best of luck continuing to publish
Speaker:
00:13:40
your B2B podcast.