Audience envy. Does podcast size matter?

It’s easy to be envious of podcasts that seem to attract, maintain and enjoy a healthy audience. When you love the process and are proud of what you're creating, knowing others are meaningfully consuming is the ultimate reward.

Unlike a lot of platforms, Podcasting typically offers its creators a veil of secrecy when it comes to the size of its audience. You don’t see a definite subscriber number publicly, and usually chart placements and reviews are the only indication of a podcast's success in growing an audience. It’s pretty common for some podcasters to only have a vague idea of their exact audience.

Download figures offer only a glimmer of insight on the nature of your audience. For me engagement is the real metric. I’m envious of podcasters who have developed unique relationships with their niche, rather than a mass of download figures.

But what do I mean when I talk about an engaged audience? 

Podcast listeners are all individuals with unique tastes and preferences. However, we do see patterns emerge when we consider the intensity and frequency a listener interacts with a show. Here is how I like to define the personas:

Fans- Engaged listeners / eager for new episodes / emails hosts / follows social media / takes action

Subscribers- Regular listeners / may save new episodes for later date / less likely to take action or follow social media

Browsers- Discovered and downloaded / Has maybe listened to one or part of an episode /  Yet to fully engage

Strangers- Podcast listener / yet to discover

So as you can imagine, a new celebrity-led show with a huge marketing budget will be driving traffic to its RSS feed. This will lead to a huge number of Browsers and Subscribers taking the leap. It’ll have good chart placement, and eventually a ton of reviews. The celebrity will already bring along some Fans but some new Subscribers will also graduate to that level eventually.

However, most of us aren’t famous and don’t have millions to spend on marketing. 

So when I stumble across a show that has a serious number of Fans despite a lack of money to capture the attention of Strangers and drive Browsers to become Subscribers, then I know it’s something special.

The podcaster has created something unique and important to their niche. They have connected with their community and built something special. 

That is something to be envious of.