‘Tis the season: Time to take a break, decelerate and recharge for the brand new 12 months, they are saying. Until you’re a podcaster, that’s.
When you’re interested by taking a break in your podcast publishing schedule over the vacations this 12 months, you would possibly wish to rethink.
Some new knowledge has emerged from The Podcast Marketing Academy, suggesting that, if final Christmas is something to go by, the vacations are an excellent alternative to spice up downloads.
Right here’s what the information tells us, and how you can make the most of Christmas downtime to develop your podcast.
Podcast Vacation Listening Pattern Information
Jeremy Enn’s annual Podcast Advertising and marketing Traits has a complete load of different nice insights – you may check out the full report here.
However what caught my eye within the report this 12 months was this notable pattern concerning vacation listening.
The examine, which surveyed 500+ podcasters about their present knowledge, revealed a dip in episode publishing over the vacations, however a rise in listener downloads at the moment.
In reality, the examine confirmed December because the second busiest month of the entire 12 months for downloads, whereas the common variety of episodes printed was at its lowest stage.
Variety of episodes printed per 30 days
Downloads per episode by month
So, whereas many podcasters are taking that much-needed break on the finish of the 12 months, the demand for content material remains to be sturdy.
Why Folks Nonetheless Need Podcasts Content material Throughout Holidays
Understanding content material demand developments over the vacations isn’t straightforward as a result of why individuals select to hearken to podcasts is a private matter. Nonetheless, there are just a few sensible assumptions we will make.
Whereas taking downtime to disconnect is essential, not everybody needs this. And for many individuals, podcasts don’t rely of their festive digital detox, as audio content material doesn’t contain display screen time.
For a lot of listeners, podcasts are such an integral a part of life that they don’t wish to ‘swap off’ from listening throughout this time. Spending time with the hosts they know and love may even be a comfort to some people throughout what generally is a tough and lonely time of the 12 months.
And on the alternative finish of the size, different listeners would possibly discover they want a break from their households and the chaos that may include the festive season. Listening to podcasts is how many individuals unwind and take a while for themselves.
And lastly, we all know that commutes are the most well-liked time of the day for listeners to tune into their favorite exhibits. What different time of 12 months do you could have a mass commute, when listeners around the globe are travelling to achieve their households, and doubtlessly lengthy distances too?
When you consider all of those (admittedly nuanced) vacation eventualities, you may see how essential it may be to point out up on your listeners throughout these weeks.
And the excellent news is, you may nonetheless make the most of this fashionable season with out lacking out on that downtime for your self.
Take Benefit of Vacation Season As a Podcaster
Listed below are just a few concepts on how you can give your listeners what they need for Christmas (extra content material!) with out burning your self out.
Keep constant together with your schedule
When you may not be capable of create extra content material than traditional throughout this fashionable time, it’s a good suggestion to stay to your traditional publishing schedule.
When you’ve ever switched on the TV to look at your favorite program and located it’s been changed by some Christmas film you’ve seen one million instances, you’ll know the way disappointing that may really feel.
When you usually publish new episodes on a Wednesday, however Christmas and New 12 months’s Day fall on at the present time, don’t let that put you off working a brand new episode.
We all know that listeners crave consistency in relation to podcast consumption, and (if the brand new knowledge is something to go by) you would possibly discover you could have much more listeners tuning in that day than traditional.
Create episodes upfront
The beauty of podcasting is that nothing is stay. So, not like radio hosts, we’re dab palms at creating our content material upfront.
Nobody expects you to be behind the mic whereas the turkey’s within the oven (you’ll in all probability spark a festive household feud if you happen to do!). So if you happen to can, schedule some content material to exit when you’re ingesting Bailey’s in your pyjamas at 12pm.
Repost previous content material
If developing with new episode concepts throughout the holidays feels out of your attain proper now, don’t fear – you could have different choices.
Acquired a specific episode that you just suppose deserves extra consideration out of your (particularly newer) listeners? You possibly can at all times republish it with a recent intro saying why it’s price a revisit. Reruns truly go down fairly effectively with listeners – which is why so lots of the massive gamers (This American Life, for instance) do them.
Or, if you happen to’re as much as slightly bit extra enhancing, you can at all times create a pastiche of some of your highlights of the year.
Promote your again catalogue
When you suppose you’ll battle to seek out the capability to publish recent content material and even edit collectively a rerun episode, you can promote previous episodes together with your listeners as an alternative.
Whichever method you usually promote new episodes – by e-mail e-newsletter, social media channels, and so on. – use this house to advertise some spotlight episodes out of your again catalogue that listeners may not have listened to but.
Strive one thing completely different
Why not make the most of this time of 12 months’s much less ‘enterprise as traditional’ vibe to strive one thing out of the atypical?
For instance, if you happen to usually publish long-form deep-dive episodes as soon as a month, strive recording 4 shorter episodes and scheduling them to exit weekly over the month of December. In case your episodes usually run beneath the 30-minute mark, why not strive a deep dive and see the way it resonates together with your listeners?
Mixing up your codecs is an effective strategy to experiment with new approaches with out jarring your viewers. In any case, they’ll be grateful you’re publishing something at all around the holidays.
Collaborate in your Christmas single
When you’re eager to report and schedule some content material for the vacations, now’s the right time to achieve out to different creators in your area of interest.
What different podcasts, YouTube channels, blogs, or social accounts cowl the identical (or an analogous) subject as you?
Virtually any content material creator will likely be open to getting some low-barrier (however helpful and memorable) materials within the financial institution to serve their viewers over Christmas and New 12 months. So go on the market and discover the Bing Crosby to your David Bowie.
Wrapping Up: Be the Not-So-Secret Santa
If listeners are writing “more podcasts” on their Christmas lists, while podcasters are perpetually asking the big man for “more listeners,” then it makes too much sense not to publish something over the holidays.
So, what approach will you take?
And remember, this is just one takeaway from The Podcast Marketing Trends 2024 Report—there are a great deal of different insights, classes, and observations to discover over there. An enormous because of the PMA for placing it collectively!
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