Podcasters Are Making It Too Hard For New Listeners Wide [Episode 179]

Play This Episode

0 Votes

This content was created just before the big WWDC — World Wide Developers Conference — from Apple kicked off All around the world podcasters just like you and me will be watching live to see how the company that controls something like 85 of all podcast episodes downloaded around the world will change podcasting Again Over the weekend The most talked-about assumed change was that iTunes is going away and what sorts of changes podcasters would need to implement on their website — quickly — to preserve their listeners after this dreaded change Two things on that Yes you should change your website podcaster especially if you reference iTunes in any way Get rid of any reference to iTunes everywhere on your website You know like Apple and anyone worth their salt in the podcast world has been telling you for the better part of the last two years nbsp nbsp Calm down Apple is not a stupid company When they do kill off iTunes they aren t going to start throwing 404 errors when people click on your legacy links to iTunes They ll all redirect to Apple Podcasts At least for a while But even if they do work you should change them See 1 So yes make the changes But before get in there to make the changes let s talk about a way to improve the experience for the brand new listener Because maybe those big company-provided listen with app aren t as helpful as you might think Apple amp Google Branding vs A Better Listener ExperienceBoth Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts have given podcasters branding guidelines of how they would like us to represent their apps on our pages You ve probably seen a consistently branded Listen with Apple Podcasts button and a Listen with Google Podcast button podcast websites Those all look the same because Apple and Google and a bunch of other apps provide the button for easy integration I think it s time to reconsider our reliance on those auto-generated buttons Specific to our consideration Are those auto-generated buttons helping our listeners or just helping big tech companies with their branding efforts When Apple finally kills iTunes they ll put a lot at least I hope so of marketing effort into the brand change If Apple starts advertising Apple Podcasts more people will be aware of Apple Podcasts And in turn the logic is that they ll start looking for the Apple Podcasts branding Because that s how branded advertising works But I don t think that s a likely scenario I just don t see your average person having any recall around Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts as an app Not anytime soon Also I don t think it s incumbent upon podcasters to do the work of running branding campaigns for big tech companies Our primary focus should be on our listeners making it easy for them to consume our content And for the 70 who don t listen on a regular basis talking up Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts isn t leading them to giving your podcast a shot So let s shift who we re working for podcasters Until such time as Apple or Google or someone else puts out a significant branding campaign that leads to high awareness and recall of their branded apps let s tie the listening experience to brands they are familiar with Listen On Your Mobile Device 85 of all podcast episodes are downloaded directly to a mobile device Create two buttons for your website I m working on this today that reference either iPhone or Android Perhaps something as simple as Listen on your iPhone and Listen on your Android does the trick where the first links to your show s listing on Apple Podcasts and the second to Google Podcasts I d present these two options first Every reasonable person can easily sort themselves into those two buckets We ll cover the exceptions in a moment And there s no uncertainty that comes with thinking about installing another app even if they don t actually have to install it Listen The Way You Support this podcastClick here to visit this podcast episode