Holiday Podcasting Plan to Grow Your Downloads this Season!

Hey There!

In today’s quick tip Tuesday episode I am answering a question from Michelle, “What should my holiday podcasting plan be to maintain or grow my downloads?” I loved this question so much that I came up with a simple, 3-step strategy for you to use to make sure your podcast maintains momentum during the holidays.

Be sure to take notes and implement ASAP because ending this year strong helps set a solid foundation for next year to be your BEST. YEAR. YET.

I hope you enjoy. If you want to be featured on a Quick Tip Tuesday episode, please leave your question at the bottom of my homepage!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00):
Hey, friends! Today, we have a fun, Quick Tip Tuesday coming your way. This question is from Michelle and she is really curious about the holidays. How do we adequately plan out podcast growth and a podcast strategy to get us through Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons? She asks a great question and I can’t wait to dive into three simple steps to get you through podcasting through the holidays.

(01:27):
Hi Stefanie! This is Michelle Zavala with The Easy Aging Show and with the holidays coming up, I didn’t know if there were any hints or tips or strategies, or if you’ve seen any trends over the years regarding Thanksgiving week and Christmas week. Is listenership up? Is it down during the holidays? Are there any specific ideas that you have that might help get more listeners involved or engaged? I was just wondering and would really appreciate your advice. Thanks so much. Take care. Bye-bye.

(01:56):
What is up, Michelle? Thanks for asking this question. It’s such a great question. And I loved it as I sat down and mapped out your answer. First thing I want to mention is that typically in my priors now I have two full years of podcasting and then this’ll be my third full year. So we’ll see how this year plays out.

(02:14):
However, in the past two years, I’ve maintained my download growth for the months of November and December, but I had really down weeks the week of Thanksgiving and then the two weeks in December. So I want you to just kind of take that into consideration that while people are slowing down and they’re not at work typically.

(02:34):
Or they’re not commuting as much, our podcast listenership is definitely going to correlate to that, right? Because most people listen while they’re driving, while they’re at the gym, while they’re commuting, while they’re doing their routines.

(02:47):
And while we have a routine shakeup through Thanksgiving week and Christmas week, but don’t worry. January is typically one of my absolute, highest downloaded months ever. So you’re going to that up in January.

(02:59):
I have three simple steps for you when it comes to maintaining your podcast, through the holidays and some ways to really get people captivated so that they stay, even though we have that routine disruption.

(03:15):
Number one, the first thing I want you to do when preparing for the holiday season is to batch, because I think it’s so important, Michelle, that you stay super present in your family and that you’re not worried about podcasting, and you’re not worried about uploading episodes or sharing and promoting episodes throughout these weeks.

(03:34):
And so I want you to batch all of you, all of you to batch out, cover Thanksgiving week at a minimum and cover the two weeks in December from December 20th, all the way through the 3rd of January.

(03:45):
Like best thing ever, if possible, sit down and power batch, which I talk about in episode 356, how I batch four episodes in two hours, guys, this is legit. You really can do this so that you can really step away from your business and be absolutely 100% present for a full month. How epic is that?

(04:07):
And believe me, I don’t even use social anymore other than having the team share on Instagram, our latest episode and share on Facebook other than our groups, of course, but you can really step away from your business. And I just so encourage that.

(04:22):
However, that doesn’t mean that we have to step away from growth. So step two, after you’ve power batch, go to episode 356, you’re going to take a ton of notes. It’s a doozy. Step two, what I want you to do, Michelle is sit down, you can pull up a mind Meister map, or you can do an Excel spreadsheet or even a simple sheet of paper.

(04:41):
And I want you to write down as many time sensitive pain points, time sensitive triggers, relevant content for your avatar that they are experiencing for the holiday season.

(04:56):
So for example, you run a fitness podcast. You’re going to want to have episodes that are related to keeping to your fitness goals through Thanksgiving week, right? Or four ways to not overindulge this holiday season or three simple hacks to maintain your weight through the holidays.

(05:14):
Those are going to be super time sensitive and relevant, and they’re going to listen because it matters to them. And it has to do with what’s coming up. This is a great way to really peak people’s interests and keep them yoked into your show. Let’s do another example.

(05:29):
Let’s say you run an entrepreneurship or productivity podcast. You’re going to want to have content related to goal setting for 2022. How to end the year strong, Q4 goals. Three ways to be more productive, even through the holiday season. So really do that.

(05:44):
And I think a great way to do this is to go into Facebook groups and do market research around what do you struggle with the most when it comes to the holidays and let people tell you what their struggles are, then you can come back and create that podcast episode and those solutions that solve those problems.

(06:03):
Guys, be sure that you are adding into the titles of your show, their verbiage, their pain points, their keywords back to you because those are the things they’re going to search for when they go into Google.

(06:15):
Number three, last but not least is to consider a series. So once you’ve figured out what the time sensitive, relevant content is going to be, that solves your person’s problems right now for the holiday season or for the end of the year, think about how you can make that into a series.

(06:30):
A series is just two to four podcast episodes in a row that go together. The content builds off of, one built off the next builds off the next builds off the next, right, and why these are so great is they keep people’s interest. You know, if they hear one episode on, let’s say it’s like, the weight management master series for whatever 2021 or Q4 weight management series.

(06:58):
Well, they’re going to start with episode one. When you talk about like preparing for the holiday season, and then they’re going to go to episode two, which talks about three food swaps to bring to your holiday event. And then the next one’s going to be how to not overindulge this holiday and what to do instead. And then number four is how to set up your weight management plan for 2022.

(07:15):
So each episode build off the prior episode and people want to come back. It’s this challenge that we have as podcasters and content creators to maintain someone’s interest and be front of mind, even when they’re not in their normal routine.

(07:35):
So your super fan number, episode 199, guys, your super fan number, those people they think of you and they listen to every episode because they’re in a constant routine and they know when your new episodes come out, they head into the app, they click on you. And it typically is triggered by a routine.

(07:54):
So when they have a pattern interrupt, they’re not thinking of you, but if you have a series that is really important to their heart and it’s time sensitive, they’re absolutely going to pencil you in, they’re going to remember, they’re going to be curious about what step two was in the series. So that might be a great thing for you guys to consider, to boost those download numbers for the holidays.

(08:14):
Michelle, I hope this blessed you. I hope this helped you and y’all, if you want to be featured on a Quick Tip Tuesday episode, please head to stefaniegass.com, scroll down the homepage and leave me a SpeakPipe question. I answer these questions every single week and I will keep doing so as long as you keep these juicy questions coming in hot.

(08:34):
This can be anything related to business, getting unstuck, clarity, branding, having a Christ centered business, being a mompreneur, anything that I talk about, you’re good to go. You can also ask me a personal question. Whatever’s on your heart. Go for it. And the last thing, last but not least.

(08:53):
I want to let you guys know that we’re we are gearing up for a huge holiday sale. It’s going to be happening the 22nd and 23rd of November. So start saving those dollars and planning for what product that you want to purchase from the Stefanie Gass suite. You can go to stefaniegass.com, click on courses, check them out. All courses will be on sale for two days for the holiday season.

(09:17):
You can also have that conversation with your honey about putting one of these courses on your wishlist. Let your babe know that he can head on over and purchase this course for you on the 22nd or 23rd and save big. This will be the only sale happening this year. That’s it? We’re done. I actually didn’t even have this planned, but decided to give you guys one holiday amazing sale, just to allow you to start 2022 off as strong as possible.

(09:46):
You have the courses in your back pocket. You can be prepared and ready to go. And I know that the two weeks in December are such a great time to pour into your business. Your kids are off school. You can sit, you can learn, you can take these courses. You can make them a priority and you have that time.

(10:03):
That’s why I’m doing this. It’s a Christmas gift to you. Love you so much. So mark your calendars the 22nd, bright and early, you’re going to have an email in your inbox. So be sure you’re subscribed to my email list also at stefaniegass.com. And you’re going to get an email about this awesome holiday sale. Love you so much. God bless. I’ll see you back here on Thursday. Bye, friend.