Why Podcasters Need to Care More About Hooking In Non-Listeners
Do we as podcasters do enough to bring newbie listeners into the medium?
Not according to EarBuds’ Arielle Nissenblatt, who highlighted this as the single biggest threat to the podcasting industry in an expert roundup we just published.
She said:
“The biggest threat to podcasting in 2024 is our collective unwillingness (or maybe inability) to invest in net new listeners.
It’s very easy to introduce an existing podcast listener to their next favorite podcast. What about the person who is podcast-curious but doesn’t know where to start? We need to spend time and resources thinking about bringing new listeners into the fold and nurturing them so that they become longstanding podcast lovers. This will help the industry to grow and get more creators paid.“
Arielle Nissenblatt from EarBuds Podcast Collective
And I’d have to agree. The urgency of converting non-listeners is something we talk about often here at The Podcast Host. Or, as my colleague Matthew perfectly put it: “How do you get your granny into podcasts?”.
But before we get into the ‘how’, it’s important to understand why engaging non-listeners is so important to growing your podcast, and the industry more widely.
So here’s why it’s in your interest as an independent podcaster to invest time and effort into converting non-listeners into podcast lovers – and the obstacles we need to overcome to get there.
Why You Need to Care More About New Listeners
First of all, let’s take a look at why engaging non-listeners will be personally beneficial to you as an independent podcaster. It’s not just about contributing to the industry more broadly but playing your part in keeping independent podcasting – and even your own show – alive.
Growth potential is huge
Last year, we wrote about the huge untapped potential in certain listener demographics. And while you might think engaging non-listeners from those demographics isn’t something you can impact, that’s certainly not the case. In fact, unless we proactively invest in these audiences, it’s likely most of them will remain untapped – particularly when it comes to older generations.
For example, the percentage of Boomers (aged 60+) who listen to podcasts is substantially low when you consider that as much as 91% of them own a smartphone.
Multiple studies have shown that podcasting is more popular with younger people, but there’s so much potential there to grow listenership amongst the over 60s. Retired people are an excellent target market – talk radio is popular with this demographic, so podcasts should naturally appeal to them. Theoretically, retired people have more listening time to spare, too.
And it’s not just about who might listen but how they might listen that holds potential for new listener growth. With more apps and devices supporting podcasting every day, that’s more potential new listeners for your show too. A recent study found that smartspeaker podcast listenership has quadrupled since 2018 and another that 1 in 4 people listen to podcasts in the car nowadays.
But have you even optimised your podcast for voice search?
As new listening opportunities arise, it’s important we make it easy for people to find podcasts. And, of course, the more listeners you can hook into your show, the better.
Once they’re hooked, they’re hooked
Studies have shown that if someone starts listening to podcasts, it’s likely to become their favourite audio medium. So, introducing new people to podcasts isn’t just about creating new one-off listeners, but podcast lovers. The likelihood of them becoming highly engaged in the media is high.
With this in mind, the more new people we get hooked on podcasting, the more and faster the industry will grow. When we grow the number of listeners who are more engaged with podcasts than they are with TV and radio, this tells advertisers how valuable our audiences are, and that our industry is worth investing in.
Keep independent podcasting alive
When you play your part in engaging non-listeners with your podcast, you’re helping to support the independent creator ecosystem. This is because bringing listeners into niche podcasting communities bypasses the big celebrity podcasts that are monopolising listenership.
The current methods that hook in new listeners focus only on big-player podcasts (e.g. Spotify recommended, podcast charts). As a result, the big celebrity podcasts are only getting more popular and making more money, while the independents barely get a look in. Our industry needs more niche enthusiast listeners to help get around this issue of celebrity dominance.
As independent podcasters, we have a responsibility to play our part in growing independent podcasting by helping non-listeners find content that speaks to their niche interests. This will mean more creators get paid, and we focus on what makes podcasts different from mainstream media.
What’s Getting in the Way of Netting New Podcast Listeners?
So what’s holding things up? There are three main overarching obstacles that currently get in the way of podcast newbies getting into the medium:
1. The Accessibility Problem
There’s no denying that podcasting is less accessible than other mediums. To watch TV or listen to the radio, you simply switch on a device that’s built for it. Podcasting, on the other hand, is less straightforward. There’s no dedicated podcasting device you can use, which is likely why the 60+ market listens less as they’re used to consuming media in this more straight-forward way.
To listen to podcasts, you need to know where to find them. We’re spoilt for choice in terms of listening options, which is a great thing but can be overwhelming for some people – particularly the non-tech-savvy. Should I be listening on a smartphone, a smart speaker or a computer? Which listening app should I be using? And what’s all this talk about watching podcasts on YouTube?
So when you think about it, knowing how to access podcasts can be a bit of a minefield for the complete newbie. A lot of people don’t listen to podcasts because they simply don’t know how.
2. The Discoverability Problem
Not being able to easily find quality podcasts in your specific area of interest is still a problem when using apps like Apple Podcasts. This impacts new listenership because Apple Podcasts is often the first app non-listeners will default to because of the original correlation between podcasts and Apple.
I remember back when I first started listening to podcasts, I found it almost impossible to find decent content through the Apple search function. Discoverability is much better on apps like Spotify and YouTube, but not everyone will bee-line for those platforms when trying out podcasting for the first time. Apple could substantially impact new listenership if they only improved discoverability in the podcast app.
One of the best things about podcasting is how varied and niche the content can get. So when discovery fails us, the only way people hear about podcasts is through the charts or through advertising on other media (meaning they’ll only hear about shows that have a huge marketing budget behind them).
Which takes me to the third and final barrier…
3. The Quality Problem
Referring back again to the roundup article that originally inspired this article – three contributors cited ‘mediocre content’ as the biggest threat to podcasting right now. And I think this threat is very relevant when we’re talking about introducing newbies to the medium.
There are well over 4 million podcasts out there right now. If someone dips their toe into podcasting without any direction on what they should be listening to, they can get turned off the medium quickly due to the low quality of some of the podcasts out there.
Anyone can become a podcaster, and the low barrier to entry is something that’s so important to protect. But publishing unplanned, unedited content only serves to harm the industry.
Got some podcast-curious folks in your life who just need a bit of guidance on how, where and what to listen to? Lindsay has pulled together 13 ideas of how to turn non-listeners into podcast lovers.