Why people are listening to one of your podcast episodes and never coming back
Building a core listener base that comes back to your podcast every week is pretty much every podcaster’s dream.
A returning listener means somebody wants to spend more time with you. It means your show is starting to become part of their routine. They now know what to expect from you, they trust your taste, and they care enough to keep choosing your podcast over the 45 million other things they could be listening to.
It is also, unfortunately, one of the hardest things to build.
So as someone who has produced over 800 episodes - here are three places where you might be making it hard for people to become weekly listeners.
You’re asking too much of your listeners
Starting strong.
A new listener doesn’t have a relationship with you and in the first 10 minutes (honestly sometimes in the first 5 minutes), they’re actively looking for a reason to choose another show. Don’t give it to them!
If the first 5-10 minutes of your show is mostly admin, rambling, inside jokes, vague catch ups, or a long build up before the episode actually starts you might be pushing it. And the reason is because you’re asking too much from someone who has no reason to care about you yet.
Instead, get straight to the juicy stuff. Don’t give your guest free rein to talk about their entire background story, instead, ask them what your audience wants to hear first. And if you find yourself needing to provide context, summarise it in 1 minute and get the show moving.
Rather than “Can you tell us about your background and how you got to where you are today?” Get specific!
→ “You’re the CEO of the super successful ________, but it hasn’t always been that way. I read online that you really struggled in that first year. So much so that you thought you were going to quit. Can you give us a quick breakdown of what that first year was like for you? I think a lot of our listeners are going to relate to you…”
Also - don’t be afraid to edit some stuff out. Most of us aren’t coherent enough to be super compelling, especially when we’re getting into the groove. So try to be a little more intentional with your opening edits.
Now, that’s not to say you can’t show your personality in your podcast or let the audience into your life. I definitely recommend letting your audience into your life BUT when you’re starting to build the show - sprinkle that in throughout the episode OR leave it to the end of the episode. That way you’re rewarding your listener for choosing you, and then they can slowly build that relationship with you as they go (don’t force feed it to them).
Your show feels different every episode
You can have range. Please, please have some range. But your listener still needs to understand what kind of show they’ve landed in.
If one week your podcast is a deep personal story, the next week it’s a random interview, the next week it’s a pop culture recap, and the week after that it’s business advice, all of those episodes might be good on their own… But from the outside, your audience has no idea what to expect from you and you are quite frankly depriving them of the opportunity to look forward to your next episode by doing that.
I’m not saying that every episode has to be the same, but we do need a common thread between them. That thread could be your point of view, your topic, your tone, the kinds of questions you ask, or the types of guests you bring on…
Alternatively - you could also turn them into episode formats that your audience can expect on certain days. (Like every second Thursday is a guest episode, or a deep dive into a topic). Think of shows like Shameless or Hamish & Andy, where part of the appeal is knowing the kinds of segments, formats or recurring bits you’re coming back for.
If you want me to talk more about episode formats or creating series that people get excited to listen to, let me know on IG and I can do a whole post on it over there.
But moral of the story is that we want to build a habit around your show, so that it’s easier for your podcast to fit into people’s lives. And to do that - they need to know what to expect from you.
You’re not reviewing your content
Reviewing your podcast can easily be put into the “too hard” basket but trust me when I say that to review your podcast does NOT mean you need to suddenly become a data analyst.
If you’re posting consistently and really want to build your dream audience, your best bet is to start listening to what your listener’s like, what they’re responding to and what they want to hear more of.
There are a few easy ways to figure this out. Answer these questions a week or so after you publish an episode:
Which episode was easiest to promote?
Which episode got the most replies/comments/DMs?
Which clip or post got saved/shared/commented on?
Which topic would you happily record again?
Which episode felt weirdly hard to explain?
That last one is very underrated, by the way. If an episode is hard to promote, caption, clip or hard to explain in one sentence, there is a very good chance that the idea wasn’t clear enough in the first place.
You’ll notice I asked also included questions around how you felt about the episode - not just how your audience responded. Your audience can tell exactly which episodes you enjoyed recording because the way you show up changes drastically (whether you realise it or not). If you can try hone in on the episodes that you genuinely enjoy recording, not only will you have more fun, but it will be WAY more engaging for your audience.
I’ve written up a full post on the podcasting metrics you can focus on when trying to build your podcast, which you can read here. It also includes an entry level tracker so that you can start looking for patterns in your show rather than trying to guess week to week.
With that being said…
Getting people to come back to your podcast every week is not about tricking them into becoming loyal listeners. Despite what gurus on the internet say. What we really need to focus on is building trust with your audience instead.
That means your opening gives new listeners a reason to stay, your show has enough consistency to feel familiar, and you’re paying attention to what your audience responds to (and what you love doing too).
I’m currently working on building out Podcast Audits/Reviews so that I can help as many podcasters as I can get some personalised strategy behind their shows. It’s in beta at the moment while I work to make sure it’s super helpful for you, but if you want to join the waitlist just click the button below. I’ll let you know as soon as spots are available 💖
