If you want to maintain and grow your podcast listener base, then you need to provide them with fresh content on a consistent basis. As with most things in life, consistency is key to success. But sometimes coming up with new ideas for your next podcast can be a real challenge. Here are a few helpful tips to come up with your next major podcast episode topic.
Ask your listeners what they want to hear next.
This is a simple concept that is often overlooked. Sure, it seems obvious, but surprisingly very few podcast creators take the step to reach out to their own audience.
If you want to know what your listeners want from your next podcasts then ask them. Ask them to get involved and share their opinions and what they’d like you to tackle next at the end of each podcast episode.
And reach out to your base (while developing some new listeners) on social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even TikTok are full of podcast listeners with opinions and, like most people, they love sharing them. Take advantage of that!
When you do ask for ideas, you need to be specific.
For example, if you have a podcast about online marketing you could ask your listeners “what is your biggest problem or hurdle with traffic generation?” This is much better than just asking “what do you want me to discuss next?”
Find out what problems your listeners have and discuss potential solutions.
You should know your listeners or target audience very well. What problems do they have? What is stopping them from achieving their goals? What are they fearful of? There are several ways that you can answer these questions and create new podcasts around the associated content.
One of the easiest and most effective methods to find answers and future podcast titles is to use Google. Just type in some relevant keywords and make a note of what comes back. For example, for online marketing, you might uncover “how can I control my spending with PPC ads?” or “which sales funnel software is the best?”
A Q&A website is flush with valuable and thought-provoking content ideas. Log on to any of the sites listed below and type in your overall niche. Find out what questions many people are asking and how they’re being answered. Can you add anything to those answers? Will your expertise provide a new and valuable layer to the solution that you can share with your podcast audience?
Consider answering a few questions relating to your expertise, and be sure to include in your bio a link to your podcast. This is a great way to consistently build up a new audience and expand your podcast’s listener base.
Q&A Sites You May Consider For Podcast Ideas
Quora: the largest and most popular with questions and answers on everything.
Stack Overflow: Q&A site dedicated to programming and technology.
Superuser: a specialty site focused on gamers, computer users and gadget enthusiasts.
Answers: primarily for students of all ages, but with considerable educational material and worth investigating.
Hacker News: a great resource for questions relating to technology, business, startups and entrepreneurship.
Dig into Amazon Books Keyword Research
Amazon is a great place to find inspiration for future podcasts, and they make it easy. Just enter some keywords relevant to your niche, and you’ll see a number of book titles returned. You can get some good ideas from the book titles alone, but we recommend that you dig a bit deeper.
Take a look at some reviews left by people that purchased the books. Quite often, customers will let the author know that they particularly liked the way that they tackled a particular subject. You can then use this as inspiration for your next podcast.
Of course, by filtering the reviews to show one or two stars, you’ll learn what readers considered to be the greatest weaknesses of the book. What did the author fail to include? Is there anything you can improve or discuss that will resonate with the author’s readers?
Keep in touch with your industry.
Your listeners are expecting you to be an expert in your chosen niche. It is important that you keep up to date with what is happening in your industry, and changes or proposed changes can be great for the content of a podcast.
Use Google Alerts to be notified of new content published in your niche. Join forums related to your niche. Do whatever you can to stay on top of what is happening.
If you are in a niche where there is always a lot of change, e.g. computing, then focus in on a specific area for a month or so.
What have you done before?
You can look back at previous podcasts that you have created or articles that you have written and use this for a new podcast. Let’s say that you created a popular podcast on SEO a few months ago. Well, listen to that again and create an SEO Part 2 podcast.
If you have a blog, then go back through your blog posts and see if you can rework any of them to create a new podcast.
Usually there is always a way to expand on a topic that you have discussed previously.
Podcast Statistics
- 50% of all US homes are podcast fans
- 37% (104 million) listened to a podcast in the last month – up from 32% in 2019
- 24% (68 million) listen to podcasts weekly – up from 22% in 2019
- 16 million people in the US consider themselves avid podcast fans
- 51% of podcast listeners are male
- 45% of monthly podcast listeners have household income over $75K
- 27% of US podcast listeners have a 4-year college degree
- Age of monthly podcast listeners:
- 12-34: 48% (vs 37%)
- 35-54: 32% (vs 40%)
- 55+: 20% (vs 23%)
- 49% of podcast listening is done at home
- 22% listen while driving
- Podcast listeners subscribed to an average of 6 shows in the last week
- Podcast listeners listen to an average of 7 different shows per week, up from 5 in 2018
- 80% listen to all or most of each episode
- Podcast listening on a computer went up from 29% to 31% (smartphone listening went from 71% to 69% respectively)
- 21% of listeners increase the speed and listen faster
- 65% of monthly podcast listeners have been listening for less than 3 years
- Comedy is the most popular podcasting genre, followed by education and news
- Podcast listeners are much more active on every social media channel
- 94% of listeners are active on at least one social media platform
- Podcast listeners are more likely to follow companies and brands on social media
- Podcast listeners are more likely to subscribe to streaming services
- 51% of bottled water households are podcast listeners
- 57% of baby food households are podcast listeners
- 69% agreed that podcast ads made them aware of new products or services
Sources:
- Edison Research Infinite Dial 2020 released March 19th, 2020
- Nielsen Podcast Listening Buying Power Database, Nielsen Company, 2021
