I imply, Ahrefs is a reasonably mature model within the search engine optimisation trade, and most of our channels are measured in hundreds of thousands:
So after we reached that 10k milestone I felt each pleased about it, and upset concerning the quantity being so low. It was kinda just like the “third Place Celebration Meme” scenario (which I believed can be very becoming to re-create for the event on LinkedIn):
My most important takeaway: getting a podcast off the bottom may be very, very laborious.
It doesn’t compound in the best way search engine optimisation does and the format of “Zoom interviews” doesn’t carry out very nicely on YouTube.
So should you have been pondering of launching a podcast, I can provide you 10 compelling the reason why you shouldn’t do it:
I’ve seen that too many individuals deal with podcasts as “straightforward content material”—get on a name, file, publish. Completed!
Properly… for us at Ahrefs, the precise interview is possibly 40% of work.
Inviting company, scheduling time with them, doing first rate analysis, creating a fascinating introduction, designing a thumbnail for YouTube, transcribing, including timecodes, writing titles and descriptions, importing to a bunch of podcasting platforms, chopping out snippets for promotion, writing copy for these snippets…
Working a podcast is A LOT of labor (if you wish to create a top quality present, after all).
I can’t think about doing Ahrefs Podcast alone. It’s a staff effort from fairly a couple of folks:
- Michelle (our group supervisor) is doing many of the heavy lifting by way of researching company, enhancing the recording, and managing the entire course of end-to-end.
- George and Nikita are those producing these cool intros.
- Sergey is designing thumbnails for YouTube.
- Helen helps with uploads.
Sure, you may reduce corners right here and there. However you danger compromising the standard. And a low-quality present will make all of your promotional efforts lots much less efficient.
Earlier than beginning Ahrefs Podcast I did most likely over 100 interviews on different folks’s podcasts. And I can let you know that being a number is a lot more durable than being a visitor. The strain to make the interview fascinating is completely on you, not the visitor.
The visitor is generally in a “reactive” mode—they simply must reply no matter is thrown at you. However the interviewer is the one in the end accountable for the success of an interview. You need to keep sharp all through, ask fascinating questions, and know the place to dig deeper (and when to vary topic).
Too many podcast hosts like to chop corners right here and simply default to asking each visitor the identical set of generic questions, with out attempting dig a little bit deeper into the solutions they get.
I like how Ryan Vacation described it:
“They’ll ask you a query, you’ll give a solution after which you may virtually hear their eyes scan the paper they’ve in entrance of them as they transfer on the subsequent query on the record.
It’s disrespectful to the visitor, however that’s not my actual drawback with it. My drawback is that it makes for actually boring audio. Who needs to take heed to somebody actually cellphone one thing in? Why must you take heed to a dialog that the host isn’t even listening to?”
You would possibly disagree with me on this one, as a result of there are positively some good brief podcasts out there.
However once I tried interviewing my company for one hour, I spotted that it was not sufficient to squeeze some actually good info out of them. Particularly when your visitor may be very talkative and so they prefer to digress—that may simply throw your complete interview plan off the rails.
However getting folks to decide to talking with you for 2 hours is a giant ask. Many excessive profile folks gained’t chunk until your podcast is rather well recognized.
And when you do get somebody to spend two hours with you, staying sharp and alert for this lengthy and not using a break could be fairly difficult at occasions.
Some folks assume that touchdown a giant identify is all they should get their podcast off the bottom, and that may routinely assure views. No, it gained’t.
Should you search round on YouTube, you’ll discover many podcasters who interviewed all the massive names within the digital advertising area. And but the views on these episodes are principally in double digits.
However my largest gripe is individuals who demand that their company assist them promote the interview. As soon as the episode is revealed, they observe up with a visitor, asking them to “please share it along with your viewers.”
Sorry, however no.
I did 5 podcast interviews this month, and so they have been all almost the identical. And if I have been to share every one in every of them on my social channels, I might solely irritate my viewers. And moreover, most social networks don’t actually prefer it whenever you submit hyperlinks, so the engagement and attain on these sorts of posts is tremendous low.
In case your solely promotion technique for the podcast is “my company will assist advertise”—I’ve unhealthy information for you. They gained’t.
Take any “huge” visitor that’s in your thoughts and go seek for their current podcast interviews. They most likely did a couple of dozen of them simply this 12 months. So why would anybody be all in favour of YOUR interview with that particular person?
There are solely two causes:
- You’re an fascinating particular person your self, so of us would take heed to you even when it was a solo podcast.
- You’re excellent at selling (extra on that later).
my very own habits, 80% of podcast interviews I take heed to are by hosts I already know and respect: Nathan Barry, Eric Siu, Dave Gerhardt, Kipp Bodnar & Kieran Flanagan, and so forth. Solely 20% are by hosts I haven’t heard of earlier than, however they promoted the episode nicely sufficient to get on my radar.
Podcasting is a reasonably ineffective method to develop your personal viewers and recognition. However, quite the opposite, it’s a reasonably good method to leverage no matter current viewers and recognition you have already got.
I think about your finish objective is rising your small business. Which means it’s essential to develop your gross sales. Which suggests it’s a must to pursue probably the most high-converting advertising techniques accessible.
Properly… a podcast will not be one in every of them.
Throughout my two-hour-long conversations with my company, there’s really little or no alternative to squeeze in some form of Ahrefs gross sales pitch. I attempt to point out related use circumstances the place it suits the dialog, however there have been fairly a couple of episodes the place our product didn’t get any shoutout at all.
A podcast is a good instrument for branding and constructing belief along with your target market. However I’m not anticipating any gross sales to come back from the episodes that we’ve revealed so far.
Should you want gross sales, you’d be higher off sponsoring some related podcasts in your area of interest (however even then, we tried it and didn’t see many gross sales from it). It’s an effective way to lift consciousness, however not make any instant gross sales.
Every episode must be centered in your visitor and THEIR enterprise. I imply… you didn’t invite some high-profile particular person on a name to only discuss your self for a pair hours, proper?
And moreover, if you’d like the episode to land, it’s a must to concentrate on making your visitor look good. Your listeners are right here to study out of your visitor, and it’s a must to be certain that they’ll study a lot.
In my very own interviews, I attempt to dig actually deep into my company’ companies and careers. I’m genuinely all in favour of what they do, why they do it, and the way they do it. The complete dialog is all about them.
In consequence, my company have loads of room to advertise themselves and their enterprise with out feeling salesy. That’s one of many most important the reason why they comply with be interviewed within the first place: they need to faucet into my viewers and promote their factor.
So in case your objective is to advertise your personal factor—it’s essential to be a podcast visitor, not a podcast host.
Evaluate podcasts to search engine optimisation. An article you revealed 10 years in the past can nonetheless carry you guests (and gross sales) at present. However as quickly as you cease publishing new episodes of your podcast… everybody will neglect about it.
We simply crossed a measly 10,000 downloads. It took us 3 months, 10 episodes, and a TON of promotion to get there. And Ahrefs already has a fairly large viewers. If I have been ranging from a clean slate, I might have barely reached 1,000 downloads by now.
Why is it so laborious to advertise? Properly, we mainly mentioned many of the causes above:
- search engine optimisation doesn’t work for podcasts.
- “Zoom interviews” don’t fly on YouTube.
- Your company are not often eager that will help you advertise.
- Podcasting platforms don’t have an excellent “discovery engine”.
In different phrases, with out an current viewers to faucet into, it’ll take you a large number longer than three months to succeed in 10k downloads.
So there’s that.
“However Tim… if podcasting is so troublesome, why are you doing it?”
Properly… I didn’t say that podcasting was utterly ineffective and completely not price it. I merely shared 10 the reason why you need to assume twice earlier than stepping into it.
There’s clearly the opposite aspect of the coin. I’ll share my 10 the reason why YOU SHOULD begin a podcast as soon as we attain the 50k milestone. Keep tuned! 😉