Turn Your Podcast Listeners Into Engaged Fans – Step-by-Step
Hey Friend!
Have you ever wondered how to turn your podcast listener into an engaged fan? You know the fan that doesn’t just listen to your content but talks back to you and connects.
I have 5 things I unpack in this step-by-step guide on how to turn your podcast listeners from passive listeners into interactive fans.
How to Turn Your Podcast Listener Into An Engaged Fan
1. Encourage feedback from your podcast listener
You need to ask them, friend. This could be as simple as having a sincere conversation with your listener on your podcast.
For example: “Hey friend, are you enjoying this podcast? Have you ever gotten value here from The Stefanie Gass Show? Have you learned something that you have been able to implement into your business? If so, would you mind pausing me quickly, and leaving a review?
It’s probably a little overdue. It’s the only way I know that you are liking what I am teaching you. That it’s landing for you, encouraging you, and it’s honestly one of the only ways that I hear from you. So pause me right now, go to your I phone, and scroll down under my podcast to leave a review.”
Encourage this feedback by asking your podcast listener. This could be whatever engagement you actually want. Do you want reviews and want your listeners to come to your community? Do you want them to submit some type of form? Or do you want them to shoot you an email or a DM?
Be specific in what you actually want and why and ask.
2. Make feedback/ engagement from your podcast listener stupidly easy.
If you make it hard for people to leave you feedback and engage, nobody’s going to do it.
For example – DON’T say this: “So I’d love to hear from you. If you want to click on this random link over here and scroll down and triple-click on these 3 things and then fill this out. Give me 5 or 10 minutes of your time. That would be so great!” (Can you hear the sarcasm?)
No one is going to do hard things. They’re listening to free content on a free app with a free mindset. And they are also probably really distracted because they likely have kids around if your audience is anything like mine.
Think of what you’re doing usually while you listen to podcasts. Are you listening while you drive, are you doing dishes, are you taking a run, are your little kids climbing all over you, are you trying to cook dinner?
Most likely you are busy when you’re listening. So for you to ask your listener to stop what they are doing and come and engage in your Facebook community by clicking 3 things and filling out 27 questions – It’s not going to happen!
Make it easy. So shoot me a DM. Scroll down and leave a review. Make it one simple action that would take people 20 seconds or less.
You may have a landing page that has whatever you want your podcast listener to do laid out super clearly. Maybe you have to show them how to leave that review on that landing page. Ask yourself is what I am asking them to do too hard? That could be why you are experiencing crickets.
3. Reward engagement or feedback
When I have had a big ask from my audience, I reward them. So when I was doing a bunch of market research before I did a huge re-vamp of my brand, I needed my podcast listener’s time to go to a poll to give me a bunch of answers.
I actually needed 5-10 minutes of their time. I knew most of my listeners were unwilling to do this for free. So we rewarded that behavior by offering some gift cards in exchange for feedback. It went over super well. We had hundreds of responses.
You can also reward engagement in a Facebook community. What we do is offer spotlight posts for people, and we give away discounts on the courses for highly engaging people.
How are you rewarding that engaged behavior? And then market that on your podcast. Tell your podcast listener what she will get when she does blank. What is it that you want her to do?
Going back to number 1 – encouraging feedback, what is it that you actually want them to do? If you don’t know what you need and want them to do, they’re confused and are not going to do it.
4. Drive your podcast listener into a community
For those of you who have done my group coaching program Podcast to Profit, you’ll know that one of our favorite ways to connect with our podcast listeners is in a Facebook group. If you don’t like Facebook, you can build this community elsewhere. But you do want a place where you can start to foster that conversation.
What we try to create with our community is not a place where we are in there talking to people 24/7, but a place where they can find a community within themselves. A truly beautiful, successful group or community is one where you aren’t needed. People are working together. They’re connecting and they’re encouraging. You of course need to moderate, but you’re not needed. It’s almost self-run in a way because people are super excited to be part of it. And they’re in there giving feedback without being prompted and they’re engaging.
So driving people to whatever end goal community that is for you is a must if you want to have a highly engaged listener base. They don’t have anyone to talk to when they are listening to your podcast on an island. Your podcast listener needs to have a place to come and connect.
5. Talk directly to one person
If you want engagement, the worst thing you can do is this: “Hey guys. So I know all of you are maybe considering podcasting but you actually haven’t started podcasting, and I’d love to know why. Is it because you’re this, this, or this? I’d love for you to come over and let me know.”
That was me talking to everybody. I said ‘you guys’ and ‘you all’. I’m not speaking directly to one person. Therefore you do not think I am calling you out and that I don’t need feedback from you.
When you are making your ask and speaking to your people, you need to have one Lola (that’s my avatar’s name) in your mind.
So here’s the difference: “I know YOU are thinking about podcasting but you are wondering if maybe you have enough time or if it’s even going to work. You wonder what you would even speak about. You probably have so many questions about if it’s the right decision for you. I would love to have a quick conversation with you to learn WHY you feel what you feel about podcasting. Or why you haven’t started yet. Would you mind giving me just 5 super quick minutes? I’m gonna be giving away a $10 Amazon gift card for anyone willing to give me 5 minutes of their time (or you will draw for it). If you could go to the DM right now and shoot me a voice memo, it would be so insanely helpful for me. Or an email. I would love to hear from you.”
Help your listener feel seen, heard, and valued
Talking directly to one person is going to help you build a relationship with your podcast listener. The funny thing is it is one-sided. Your listener might be like “We are best friends. I love Mandy and her podcast. I know everything about her, we are BFFs.” And Mandy is over here thinking I have literally never met this person or talked to them in my life.
But because you are talking to one person on your show, your listener feels super seen, heard, and valued. And they are way more open to engaging with you because they feel important. And they feel you are speaking to them as a friend.
I hope these 5 tips I’ve shared to turn your podcast listener into an engaged fan have been helpful. Use them to connect with your audience and help them feel seen and heard!
I pray this blesses you!
Xo,
Stef
P.S. Also, listen to podcast episode 578 for the full training on Turn Your Podcast Listeners Into Engaged Fans – A Step-by-Step Guide.
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