Here are 8 tips to scale the charts
I launched my first ever podcast, Entrepreneurs Can Party, on 4th March 2020.
Just 6 days later, Entrepreneurs Can Party was ranking in the U.K. Top 10 of Apple Podcasts for entrepreneurship. This means it was up there with Tim Ferriss, Gary Vee, and Steven Bartlett.
I started to network with successful entrepreneurs who are having fun in their lives to see how I can replicate this for myself. With this ranking and the credibility it brings, my podcast has given me the opportunity to speak with people such as:
- Podcaster making $100,000s each month, John Lee Dumas
- Former Apprentice Finalist, Sabrina Stocker
- The founder of Performance Nut Butter which makes over $1,000,000 a year, Travis Marziani
Here are 8 tips to scale the charts and reach thousands of listeners as I have done.
1. Craft your podcast name
Journalists recognise the importance of headlines. The Sun reportedly spends thousands of pounds on writers whose sole job is to craft the front-page headlines.
Here’s a recent conversation I had with my one of my followers about how I crafted the name Entrepreneurs Can Party:
All in all, it took me 3 months to come up with Entrepreneurs Can Party.
Yes — that’s a month per word.
2. Carefully consider your podcast categories
There are over 100 categories and subcategories to choose from in Apple Podcasts. You can choose up to three. The first has a greater weighting than the second, which has a greater weighting than the third. I suggest you go narrow on your first.
For example, I chose “Entrepreneurship” as my first category and “Management” as my second. Both of these are subcategories of “Business” — my third. Picking a less competitive subcategory gives you a greater chance of ranking in the Apple Podcast charts.
If you’re not sure which categories you want to rank for, don’t worry. You can change them at any point on your hosting platform.
3. Decide on a launch date
Don’t underestimate the power of accountability!
By committing to a launch date ahead of time and publicly announcing it, you’ll be more willing to stick to it.
My podcast mentor suggests summer is typically a bad time to launch a new podcast if you’re based in the U.K. People might be looking after kids and may not be commuting to work as often.
4. Use social media to build your network
Building an audience that loves your content doesn’t happen overnight. It takes patience, consistency, and perhaps most importantly of all, zero expectations.
Something I come back to time and time again is something John Lee Dumas told me:
“Strive to understand before being understood.” — John Lee Dumas
I now spend an average of an hour each day engaging in the content of my followers. I leave meaningful comments on posts, drop DMs on stories and celebrate their achievements.
If someone comments on one of my posts, I ALWAYS respond.
If I don’t have time to check out their profile, I’ll take a screenshot so it’s in my photos for me to check out later.
I never attempt to promote my podcast or sell them a service. If I’m engaging with others, they’ll naturally want to see what I’m up to.
5. Leverage competitions and giveaways
Everyone loves a giveaway! Because my followers like to read, I ran a competition to give away 20 of my favourite books.
For giveaways, I suggest you:
- Make them relevant and appealing to your audience
- Make them easy for people to enter
- Don’t ask winners to share that they’ve won on social. If it’s a great prize, they’ll want to talk about it!
- Surprise and delight winners with extra gifts! I included 4 bonus books, bookmarks, and a hand-written card
6. Make a compelling trailer
Creating a 1 or 2-minute trailer that introduces your show is useful for a couple of reasons.
First, it builds anticipation.
Marketers know that people often need to see things at least 6–7 times before they take action. Therefore, don’t worry about over-promoting. Whenever you can, mention in your content that you’re launching a new podcast and include a link to your trailer.
As a minimum, your trailer should include who your show is for, what listeners can expect and when the first episodes will be released.
Second, releasing a trailer gives you an opportunity to test your podcast hosting works.
Because it’s reported Apple Podcasts currently accounts for around 60% of all unique podcast downloads, you’ll want to make sure that your podcast is on this platform when you launch. Just a note of warning:
If you’d like to rank in the Apple New & Noteworthy section (which you should aim for), you have a window of 6–8 weeks to get as many downloads and reviews as possible.
Apple New and Noteworthy = more eyeballs = more listeners and downloads = a higher ranking position
By posting a trailer a week before your launch date, you effectively have one less week to get those downloads and reviews in.
7. Schedule a MINIMUM of 3 episodes
The number of episodes to launch with is up for debate.
My mentor suggested releasing 6 or 7. The logic here is that if someone listens to your podcast and you’ve only got one episode, you’ll only register 1 download from this listener. Launch with 6 episodes, you could get 6 times as many downloads.
However, I have a slightly different approach.
I believe we podcast listeners are ‘completists’. We like to finish what we’re listening to. Launch with too many episodes and you run the risk of overwhelming listeners before you even get going.
As such, I only launched with 3 episodes, plus the trailer.
8. Get those downloads and reviews!
To rank in the Apple Podcast charts, you need downloads and reviews. Just as importantly, you need consistent downloads for each episode you release.
This signals to Apple that your podcast has momentum and is trending in the right direction.
How do you build this momentum?
Ask your network to subscribe to your podcast when they listen.
This way, they’ll be notified every time you release a new episode, just like on YouTube.
Do you need lots of downloads? This depends on the categories you choose.
Here’s how my first month of episodes performed. (The download numbers are in the far right column.)
The other crucial component is the number of reviews you get.
Depending on which category you choose, you’ll be surprised at how few reviews you need to get a good ranking. For me, 24 reviews were enough to break into the U.K. top 10 for Entrepreneurship.
And once you get a good ranking, you can make a big show and dance about it across all your social media platforms.
How should you ask for reviews?
I knocked up a quick Excel spreadsheet and sent DMs to 30 people in my network every single day post-launch until I exhausted my network. The spreadsheet tracked who I contacted, what platform I contacted them on when I contacted them, and whether they responded.
It wasn’t the same blanket message to everyone. I personalised every message with details like “I hope Toffee is enjoying the sun!” (Context: Toffee is the name of my friend’s Cocker Spaniel.)
I was also quite tactical as to who I contacted and when. I figured my closest friends wouldn’t need much prompting so I contacted them first. From here, I gradually moved further and further from my core friends to people with who I’ve struck up connections with on Instagram and LinkedIn.
I like to think of it as a stone being thrown into a lake and the concentric circles rippling outwards.
As a rule of thumb, 10% of the people you reach out to will probably leave a review.
In other words, if you’re looking to get 100 reviews, you’ll need to ask at least 1,000 people.
Something else to be aware of is it’s not possible to leave a review on Apple Podcasts from an Android device (which is very annoying!)
Should you keep reminding people days after asking to leave reviews? Some people might forget so a reminder could be useful. Personally, however, I wouldn’t feel comfortable reminding the same person more than once.
You just have to accept that even though it takes less than 30 seconds to rate and review a podcast, some people just won’t bother.
There are other ways to jog peoples’ memories about leaving a review without directly messaging them.
I ran a competition to win a year’s supply of Netflix throughout April 2020. I figured more people would be watching TV given the pandemic, and it would only cost me £100.
To enter, all people had to do was leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. If they wanted a couple of bonus entries, they could share the competition post on their Instagram stories.
The result?
5 more reviews and plenty of social shares.
Takeaways
The only reason my podcast had a successful launch was because of months of preparation.
If you create content in advance and line up your dominoes, you’ll be able to focus on promoting your podcast during your launch week. This includes encouraging people to subscribe and leave a review, and running meaningful giveaways.
The most important advice I can give?
Get as many downloads and reviews for your podcast in the first 6–8 weeks after launching, and choose your categories wisely.
Doing these two things alone should help your podcast scale Apple Podcasts.