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🎙️[SSN] Your podcast as a dinner party

Published about 1 year ago • 7 min read

Insights on organic growth and the 'non' social elements of podcasting...

Welcome into SSN Behind the Scenes Vol 5!

Before we jump into today’s newsletter, I want to remind you about the Story Studio Network Podcast Accelerator.

This is so hush*hush right now, we can't even tell you what this accelerator will be called - yet.

But we can tell you that it's for you if you want to launch or revamp your podcast in 2023.

If you want to get a step-by-step strategy to build your credibility, boost your visibility and grow an engaged community...


The accelerator event will be virtual over two days - April 11th and April 12th.


And it will take b2b business owners, service providers, coaches and consultants from 'Where do I even start??" ... to "Holy smokes, this actually works!"

If you're ready to focus your attention, finally build a plan for your podcast that you can action either on your own OR with the support of SSN, then fill out THIS FORM to be on the PRE-SALE list.


Presales will be limited, but will be at a special price and you need to be ON THE LIST to get an invitation. We will be sending them out in the next week.

Once a new podcaster gets over the initial ‘launch’ of a show…


….the next question that inevitably crops up is how do I grow that podcast audience once I have it?

Let’s talk about podcast audiences; specifically about growing them.


It’s the creator’s perennial challenge; to keep moving forward with a podcast that serves the current audience, while also growing the show and bringing it to new people.


How does a podcaster, brand or organization even begin to tackle the beast that is audience growth?

Well, not to oversimplify this, but it truly does start with the audience you want to create for your show.

To grow any podcast (or any content asset for that matter), you need to be where that audience already is.

Show up where they show up and hang out in the places where they hang out.


In the podcast business and at SSN, we call this the strategic act of Audience Development. In layman’s terms, it’s basically the act of building solid and meaningful connections and relationships.

So this is where we start today’s deep dive.

Enter the “Your podcast is like a dinner party” analogy.

Before we get too deeply entrenched, I want to set the scene a little more.

In mid-November 2022, just before heading to Miami to speak at a business conference on the power of podcasting, I asked my Instagram audience the following poll questions:

If you have a podcast, where do you struggle most?

  1. Monetizing
  2. The technical edit
  3. Audience growth
  4. Something else

Now, this was not scientific by any stretch of the imagination. My Instagram audience is diverse and I have about 5,000 followers. I’m not what any would call an ‘influencer’, nevertheless the results were intriguing to me.

Next to no one struggled with the edit. (12% of respondents)

A few years ago when I asked that question, editing was always top of the struggle bus list.

However, I’m happy to assume that since podcasting has grown in popularity and effectiveness, more and more creators and brands are outsourcing this part of their production to the professionals.

Basically, my sense is that folks who are serious about podcasting have learned that editing is the one thing that can, and should, be taken off the creator’s plate.


Hardly anyone was interested in monetizing. (12% again).

And I will admit, the question was a bit too simple given it was an Instagram poll. But, the whole idea of monetizing resulted in a slew of Direct Messages asking ‘what does that even mean?’.

Alas, I sense I’ll be writing an entire newsletter on this very topic sometime soon.

The sidebar to this is my sense that the majority of podcasters are leaving revenue on the table by not fully understanding the opportunities for monetizing.

But the rest of the poll votes were clearly in the camp of ‘I struggle with audience growth for my podcast’.

I messaged almost everyone who selected that option and asked them what they were experiencing with their show growth.

To be clear, these weren’t major brands with big budgets.

The group of respondents were mainly self-starter podcasters, small business owners or service-based entrepreneurs. They were all, for the most part, trying to use their podcast to activate sales in their businesses.

All of them- every single one - said they launched their show, had a great first month, saw a dip in audience listening and then plateaued on their downloads.

Every. Single. One.

This trend of a fiery launch and then a plateau is incredibly common.

I think the reason it happens is because too many podcast creators assume their show will behave similarly to a social media account.

But imagine your social media accounts like a conga line.

You start it by waving your hands in the air, doing fun things, dancing and being a leader…and then you amass a following that will follow your lead.

But your podcast is more like a dinner party.

To get people to come, engage and stay, you actually need to send out invitations (and likely more than one reminder).

Here’s the thing about podcasts that makes audience development so much less gimmicky than social media.

→ You’re not fighting an algorithm (other than the searchability and brand recall of your show’s title).

→ You’re not forced to create any assets to fit certain parameters. As in you’re not bound by length of your clip, number of voices, length of characters or any of that.

You are in a decentralized digital environment.

That means your podcast can be discovered and found in any number of ways.

It can be found using Google, a website, a landing page, an episode page, searching on any of the podcast catchers and apps out there like Apple, Spotify, iHeart and so on.

Versus social media where you are stuck searching within and on the specific app or platform for that individual.

I know this is quite nuanced, but it’s important to understand how your podcast exists in the digital space before you set out to grow an audience.

Because growing a following or an audience on Instagram is a very different strategy and process than growing a podcast audience.

Your podcast won’t go viral.

I could go into the wild and wily world of the concept of the viral co-efficient here, but suffice to say the podcast environment isn’t an infrastructure that even supports the concept of virality.

Your podcast won’t catch fire like a TikTok trend or even like a YouTube sensation.

No matter what happens, your podcast audience will grow one listener at a time.

You need to break the thinking that your audience is faceless (as it can feel on social media) and visualize that every single listener has a relationship with you.

The only thing you should be aiming to do is bring those new listeners in the door at an increasingly rapid rate.

To follow the dinner party thread, you actively need to write invites, send them out, follow up and then be a gracious host once they accept your invitation.


What does this look like in practice?

Here are some things to consider to grow an audience.

→ Network - digitally and in real life

There’s no better way to get a new listener than to meet them in person and actually talk about your show.

→ Guest - your guest engagement strategy is key to your podcast’s success

Invite guests to your podcast who will enhance your audience’s life and experience and who you want to cultivate a relationship with for the future.

Use an audience tracker such as SparkToro (we love this tool at Story Studio Network and use it for every single show we produce)

This tool is invaluable for understanding your audience and for busting down your own inherent biases and assumptions about them. All of our audience research starts here.

Audit and evaluate your perceived podcast competitors (examine charts and top ranking shows)

I don’t like to say the podsphere is a competition, but the reality is your listeners only have so much time in their week to dedicate to listening.

You want to understand the competitive landscape (what other parties are they being invited to?!) and make sure your value and relationship proposition is strong.

This can look like titling your episodes using key phrases your audience already uses and tackling timely topics.

→ Pitching sponsorships and/ or using a paid strategy

I’m a big fan of building leveraged audiences.

Brands who want to play in the podcast space, but don’t want to have their own show do well by joining forces with a creator to sponsor a show.

This is win-win-win (brand-creator-audience), because the show is funded, the brand gets good values-aligned content, the creator gets to provide awesome shows to an audience and the audience is engaged.

So tell me, are you now thinking about your podcast growth a bit differently? Any party invites on the way?

Thoughts? Questions?

Hit reply and ask away.

Like our newsletter? Consider sharing this with your colleagues and encouraging them to sign up!


That’s it from me this week,

Erin Trafford

Founder, Chief Strategy Officer, Story Studio Network

Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

Want to work with Story Studio Network to launch your podcast?

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Work through some of the niggly questions you might have about how a podcast could work for your brand or business, the production cadence and so on.

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