Podcast Maps by Graham Brown

This recording comes from my regular Podcasting for Brands webinar.

In this webinar, I share 3 key trends shaping the Podcast Market globally:

1) Where podcasts are growing today (a look at high growth markets, consumer demographics and consumption patterns)

2) Changing Spotify and Apple algorithms (and what you need to change to stay in the rankings)

3) The Audio boom: how will Clubhouse, Fireside and Discord impact podcasting?

This webinar features

1) The latest market data from our 2021 Podcast Market Report

2) SEO trends from my Podcast SEO Guide

3) Data on optimum audio publishing lengths and how often you should publish

What makes Gary Vee's Audio Experience podcast a success?

In episode 6 of Podcast Maps, I look at the importance of publishing cadence for your Show. Gary Vee publishes 30 episodes a month. That's a lot! You might not be able to publish every day, but you need to go beyond simply publishing 1 a month. It's getting harder to simply rely on one good episode a month.

That's why you need to understand Podcast SEO. SEO performance of your podcast back catalogue is key to long term success. This is evident from the performance of The Startup Podcast on Singapore store today, coming in at at Top 5 position despite the podcast not publishing a new episode on Apple since Feb 2020 (after acquisition of Gimlet Media by Spotify).

Your back catalogue is a gold mine of SEO potential. Start thinking about how you can optimize your keywords and focus driving more traffic ON store than OFF.

How often should publish my podcast?

This is the most often asked podcast question of all time at our Podcast Agency - Pikkal & Co. While most think that once a month is enough (or sometimes too much), the average number of episodes published in the Business category isn't 1 a month, it's 6.3! That means the average business podcast is publishing at least 1 episode a week (Gary Vee publishes 1 a day!). In this episode of Podcast Maps, we go deeper into the world of Podcast SEO and analyze podcasts Tim Ferris, Business Wars, Gary Vee and TED.

In this episode of PodcastMaps we will also look at the:

- 2 week traffic window

- How to hack your cadence with Mezzanine episodes

- How 10% growth episode to episode will result in doubling your traffic in 7 episodes

- Optimizing your podcast for the Apple & Spotify algorithm

In today's Podcast Maps, we look at the chart-topping Business Wars podcast.

Business Wars is Wondery's most successful podcast and according to Podminer Podcast Authority Index the #1 Business Podcast in the world. Business Wars gets (roughly) between 2 and 5 million listeners an episode. How?

The key to understand the success to Business Wars and business podcasts is the difference between working "in" your podcast and working "on" it. Most amateurs rely on guests to build their audience but this strategy is short lived and often results in disappointment. Pro podcasters, by contrast, focus on organic traffic.

To build organic traffic, you need to focus on not 1 but 3 metrics of success. Of course, Audience, but also Rankings and Keywords SEO. I discuss the ARK metric stack in Episode 4 of Podcast Maps and look at podcast analytics, podcast SEO and successful podcast case studies.

For more info on Brand Originals podcasts, I recommend Episode 9 of Podcast Maps: What are Brand Originals Podcasts?

Did you know the 3 key metrics for Podcast Success?

1) Audience... of course. But there are 2 more - potentially more important metrics to track. These are 2) Ranking and 3) Keyword SEO.

If you're only tracking audience numbers you're stuck with the black box that is podcasting. You need to focus on the big picture of podcast metrics. Last time, in Episode 2 of Podcast Maps, I introduced the importance of Working "on" your podcast vs Working "in" your podcast. Today I'll share insights into how to actually do that with the right podcast metrics.

In Episode 2 of Podcast Maps, I talk about the importance of working "on" your podcast as opposed to working "in" it. The difference is key. Many podcasters rely on a "spiking" strategy to grow their podcast audience i.e. get good guests, get guests to share with the audience. The problem with this strategy is that it rarely translates into organic growth. Each guest attracts an audience only interested in what the guest, not other guests or the host, has to say.

Organic growth comes from working"on" your podcast. In Episode 2, I discuss where you need to start with your organic audience building strategy. Step 1 is identifying your podcast category. You'll be surprised how many hosts don't know which category they are in on Apple Podcasts. This data is critical to Podcast SEO. Consider, for example, that there are 16,345 Podcast Shows in "EDUCATION" and 3,351 in "GOVERNMENT", 2,613 in "NON PROFIT". There are many podcasts that could be in multiple categories, but Apple only lets you choose one. And choosing the right category is key to competition. (All data from Podcast Maps)

By working "on" your podcast you can take the necessary steps to optimize your organic growth.

What started primarily as a US-based trend has now evolved into a global phenomenon. More than 500 million people listening to a podcast every week. Despite its size, podcasting is still at an early stage in its adoption curve. We are moving into the Early Adopter space, characterized by a polarization of market behavior (heavy users vs critics). Business models are still relatively underdeveloped. Data from Episode 1 of Podcast Maps comes from my Podcast Market Report 2021