A podcast is like a marriage…not a wedding

The success of a marriage is not determined by how big, lavish, or expensive the wedding is.

Sure, you’ll always have those memories and photos of the wedding.

My wife and I married in the beautiful mountain town of Marysville. Her family had flown out from Japan, and the day before the wedding we all had a wonderful time at my parents’ farm.

The wedding itself was magical, of course, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

As wonderful as those memories are for us, it’s not what defines our relationship.

The success and longevity of a marriage stems from all those little things you and your partner do for each other: support and encouragement, expressions of gratitude, talking with each other, acts of kindness, shared responsibilities, and physical affection.

Likewise, a successful long-term podcast is not about the launch or any one episode. It’s the consistency of turning up for your listeners on a regular basis.

And that’s what a lot of people forget when they launch their podcast. They have high hopes in the beginning, and fret about making a huge impact with their first episode.

Yes, launching your podcast properly helps get the word out from the get-go. But, the success of a podcast is its longevity.

Ideally, you want your podcast to be habitual listening for your target market. Once they’ve been listening to on a regular basis, they get to know, like and trust you.

And when they’re ready to use a service (or product) you provide, they will choose you. And that’s why podcasting works best when it’s an ongoing strategy.

BEWARE OF POD FADE

There is a term in the industry called ‘pod fade’, when a podcast suddenly stops releasing new content without announcement.

Often the reasons are because podcast creators are feeling overwhelmed by the demands of producing regular content.

They’re trying to do it all themselves and realise they simply don’t have the time to not only host the show, but do the editing and assembly and marketing of the podcast.

Pod fade on average kicks in around episode eight.

In fact, 50% of all podcasts have five or fewer episodes; 80% have 22 episodes or fewer. Around 10% of podcasts have 55 episodes or more – and that’s around about how many episodes you’ll need to start getting good traction with your podcast.

Remember, you have to consistently show up and be of service to your audience. It takes some time, but podcasting can be one of the most rewarding marketing activities.