How to Grow a Successful Podcast
In July of 2020 we entered the podcasting world and signed the Career Competitor podcast, hosted by Steve Mellor. After a rebrand and relaunch, Career Competitor grew its listener audience by 75%.
In September we signed one of the most listened to podcasts in the health and coaching categories, Champion's Mojo hosted by Kelly Palace and Maria Parker.
Growing a podcast takes a team. The market is competitive. Building an audience takes consistency over a long period of time.
Here are a few things we've learned along the way
Secret sauce = Host talent: Our clients would go on Champion's Mojo or Career Competitor and we kept hearing the same response, "that might have been my best interview ever." A successful podcast requires a host who is dedicated to their craft. Podcasting is a competitive sport. You have to constantly be reviewing your performance to find small ways to improve. Once we found our hosts who were deeply passionate about the power of their message, our job became simple: amplify it.
Specific audience > large audience: Champion's Mojo and Career Competitor share a similar goal. They want to help the people who listen to their shows. Finding the audience where you can make the biggest impact is key for a podcast. Initially your audience will be close friends, family and the fans of your guests. Your audience builds when listeners have a meaningful connection to something said by the host. Some of our most popular episodes have been led just by the hosts, with no guest. That's called brand power, baby.
Be patient. Be humble. Be consistent: In my opinion this is where Kelly, Maria and Steve crush the competition. They are SO consistent in their process, content, research and delivery. When a podcast signs with CG Sports we put our marketing, video editing, social media and advertising muscle behind the show. However this cannot be effective without one key ingredient: consistent quality content from the hosts. Consistency is what attracts advertisers and its why both shows signed sponsorship deals in 2020.
If you want to learn from the best, be sure to follow and subscribe to Champion's Mojo and Career Competitor podcast.
