How to Deal with a Sudden Drop in Podcast Listeners

I delivered a talk at Podcast Movement back in 2015 and during the session I made a quip about podcasters like myself waking up, making a coffee and firing up their download analytics to check the downloads that happened overnight.

I then went on to state that when I was a new podcaster I'd not only do that myself, but I'd check them every single hour throughout the day.

It got plenty of laughs and more than a couple of head shakes from the seasoned podcasters in the room.

It was a flippant point to make and was aimed at being self-deprecating – I wanted to show that I understood how every podcaster feels when they launch their show and heck, even way beyond that as they become a “veteran” podcaster.

In the early days of a show, the numbers go one way – they have to because nothing existed before. We ride the continual high of growing downloads and seeing our trends all being in the green within Captivate's podcast analytics dashboard means that we rest easy: our podcast is growing.

But then the growth stops.

The production hamster-wheel that we put ourselves on the second that we begin creating a podcast isn't enough to sustain the natural “inner-circle” growth that we see in the early days – the days where producing something and letting those close to us know about it is enough to sustain progressive growth.

How do we handle our podcast's pre-teen years? The years where growth appears to have stunted and our show hasn't hit its startling growth trajectory yet?

For many podcasters, this is where we quit.

Why?

We're told that consistency is key to a growing podcast and I agree with that. But what no one tells us is that it's not only consistency in producing our show that we need to maintain and it's not even consistency in promoting our podcast that we should focus on, it's consistency in growing our marketing that we need to give more attention to.

Don't worry, this isn't another “do more marketing” message – this is about building a framework to manage download dips and slowdowns in your podcast's growth.

I liken this experience to training at the gym, in fact.

As a middle-aged former skinny-guy-turned-pot-bellied-podcaster I have experience in hitting a plateau in weight training.

At age 31 I was 6 foot 1 inch tall, weighing 150 lbs. At age 33 I was 6 foot 1 inch tall, weighing 210 lbs.

In two years I trained hard, ate cleanly and added lean mass to my frame to help with my fitness and general mindset – it was something I wanted to achieve to prove that I could do it.

But it wasn't a straight line. If I were to draw my progress on a line graph, it would be littered with plateaus and dips in progress and oh my, is it disheartening when it happens.

But there was one course of action and it's something that I learned from those around me who were more experienced than I and which helped me break through a plateau every single time: you have to shock the system into changing itself – you have to do something so that the thing you're trying to develop has to change in response to new stimuli.

From a training perspective that was a tweak to the diet or a new regimen of exercising that pushed the muscular and cardiovascular systems into having to work on something fresh, thus developing itself progressively with each change.

The same can be said for your podcast.

When you see a dip in your podcast downloads, you don't need to be dejected or assume the worst.

No one likes your podcast any less.

You haven't lost fans – you've more than likely lost lurkers: those who dip into your show for a few minutes but don't deep-dive.

That's alright – unless you're converting them to avid listeners (per my favourite visual of this process, the listener acquisition flow – something that warrants a full discussion) you don't need to worry about losing them right now.

But if you hit a plateau or even see a dip in downloads the thing you need to understand is that something has changed and the only way to break that plateau is to change it again – force your podcast to develop and push it to progress.

What changed, though?

There's a range of things that could cause a plateau, from changing your publishing schedule to a change in the social algorithms within the platforms that you promote your podcast to; from a new podcast launching in your niche to you exhausting your “inner circle” of people who listen; from seasonal commuter changes to global lockdowns.

This can be summarised as: there is something that has changed or exhausted and that you can no longer rely upon to bring you new listeners.

At this point, you must change.

You must find one new thing to test, try and measure.

Podcasters don't do this, though. The usual reaction is to double-down on production, making it even harder to expose your podcast to new prospects because you're even busier producing even more content.

The other reaction is to go nuclear on the podcast and start thinking about a rebrand and a relaunch. In fact, I know podcasters who have been podcasting for years and have relaunched their show every single year for this reason.

This is the exact opposite of being consistent.

One more reaction that I see to a download-dip is one that feels amazing but that is unrealistic: I'll start marketing in ALL these places, TOMORROW – I HAVE to fix this!

That is an overreaction.

The goal is to try one new technique at a time and measure how it performs.

For example, if you have never used Instagram to promote your podcast, one hour strategically and purposefully spent there each week as opposed to spending that extra hour producing more podcast episodes would put your back catalog in-front of thousands of brand new prospective listeners instead of making you feel good about doing something, anything with little return.

I'm not advocating that as the path you take, I'm advocating for a calmer, more measured and strategic approach to overcoming a download plateau or dip so that every time you experience one (because we all do!) you will feel more confident in slowing down, taking stock and moving forward purposefully with your next podcast growth spurt.

Your next steps

I teach podcasting a lot, and usually for free. So, here's what I'd recommend you do next:

• Watch my free podcasting tutorials on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/rebelbasemedia
• Learn how to launch your own podcast the right way, for free (plus a comprehensive download-and-keep crib sheet): https://www.podcastsuccessacademy.com
• Ask me anything at all about podcasting over on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/MrAsquith

P.S. you can start engaging with your listeners using AWeber. It's free, no credit card required: https://www.MarkAsquith.com/AWeber