270 How to Increase Podcast Engagement Using Your Ideal Listener’s Language

Why Isn’t My Podcast Connecting With My Ideal Audience?

Your podcast may not be connecting with your ideal audience because the content, language or level of conversation doesn’t match where those listeners are right now. If you’re talking over their heads, they may feel lost. If you’re explaining things they already know, they may get bored. The goal is to understand what your ideal listener already knows, what they care about and how they talk about their problem, then meet them there.

When you’re an expert in something, it’s really easy to forget what it’s like to not know what you know. You’ve been doing this for years, maybe decades, and you’ve probably reached the point where you can talk to someone else in your industry using acronyms, shorthand and insider terminology without giving any of it a second thought.

That’s great when you’re talking to your peers. It can be a problem when you bring that same language to your podcast and the person you’re actually hoping to engage isn’t another expert. And when I talk about podcast engagement here, I’m not just talking about getting more downloads, comments or five-star reviews. I’m talking about keeping the right person engaged. The person you actually created this podcast for. If they’re constantly trying to figure out what the hell you’re talking about, they’re probably not going to stick around long enough to discover how brilliant you are.

Leave No (Ideal) Listener Behind

Back in my radio days (before I became a podcast coach), we were always told to “leave no listener behind.” Radio was broadcasting in the truest sense of the word. We were talking to a broad audience, so we couldn’t assume everyone knew the backstory, understood an acronym, or had any idea what some industry term meant. If a guest said something that might leave part of the audience scratching their heads, it was my job to give them enough context to stay with us.

Because once someone doesn’t understand what you’re talking about, or they’ve lost the thread of the conversation, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve lost them too. In radio, they could literally tune out and change the channel.

I carried the ‘leave no listener behind’ rule with me into podcasting and hung on to it for a long time. But after more than a decade as a podcast coach helping entrepreneurs improve their podcasts, I’ve changed my thinking a little. Or rather, I’ve updated the motto to:

Leave no IDEAL listener behind.

That’s a pretty important distinction because most entrepreneurs who are using a podcast to grow their business aren’t really broadcasting at all. They’re narrowcasting. You don’t need to make sure that every random person who stumbles across your podcast understands every word you’re saying. You do, however, need to make damn sure the people you actually want listening do.

Are You Accidentally Creating a Podcast for Your Peers?

We saw this really clearly with a client we were coaching recently. They had signed up for the Podcast Tune-Up Program because they wanted to generate more qualified leads from their podcast. They had a good podcast with a smart host, interesting guests, and genuinely good conversations. There was nothing obviously “wrong” with it, which is exactly why the problem was so easy to miss.

When we stepped back and compared the show they were creating with the clients they actually wanted the podcast to attract, we realized the host was talking to the wrong audience. They were talking to their peers. They were inviting people they wanted to talk to, discussing things at their level of expertise and creating the kind of podcast they would probably enjoy listening to.

There’s nothing particularly strange about that. Of course experts enjoy talking to other experts about interesting things. The problem was that their clients weren’t their peers. Their ideal client had significantly less experience.

Imagine you’re in ninth grade and you accidentally sit down in an AP Physics class. And if you’re wondering what AP means, it’s Advanced Placement (I’m not going to write an article about leaving no ideal listener behind and then leave you behind).

You’re sitting there while everything flies over your head and everyone around you seems to know exactly what’s going on. Even if the teacher is fantastic and the material is fascinating, you’re probably not thinking, Wow, I can’t wait to come back tomorrow.

Now put the AP Physics student into a freshman science class and you’ve got the opposite problem. They’re sitting there thinking, Yeah, yeah, I know this. Can we please get to something I don’t know?

That’s what happens when the level of your podcast doesn’t match the level of the person you’re trying to attract. And if that person could also become a client, you’ve lost more than a listener.

I’ve talked before about How Repelling Listeners Can Actually Boost Your Podcast ROI. Your podcast doesn’t need to be for everybody, and frankly, it shouldn’t be. But there’s a big difference between repelling someone who was never right for your business in the first place and unintentionally repelling exactly the person you hoped would listen because you’re talking over their head or at too basic a level.

Find the Level That Fits Your Ideal Listener

So how do you know how much to explain? Start with what your ideal client actually knows when they find you. If you’ve been working in your field for twenty years and they’re relatively new to the problem you solve, give them the context they need. Explain the acronym. Don’t throw a bunch of inside baseball at them and assume they’ll figure it out.

And please don’t confuse making something understandable with dumbing it down. You can share very sophisticated ideas without making someone feel stupid for not already knowing them. In fact, I’d argue that being able to make something complicated easier to understand is a pretty great way to demonstrate just how well you know your stuff.

But this works the other way too. Maybe your ideal client has been doing this for ten years. They know the basics and the terminology, and they’re coming to you because they want someone who can take them further. If you keep stopping to explain things they already know because you’re worried that somebody out there might not understand, your ideal listener is going to get bored waiting for you to get to the good stuff.

Sometimes insider language is exactly what you should be using. When the right person hears you talking about their world the way they talk about it, there’s a little recognition that happens: Oh good. This person gets it.

If somebody else doesn’t understand, that’s okay. You’re not making the podcast for them.

Think About Your Ideal Customer’s Journey

One way I talk about this with my podcast coaching clients is to imagine your customer’s journey as the alphabet.

Maybe the whole journey runs from A to Z, but your business really helps people from G to Q. That’s your zone, so you need to understand and serve the person who’s arriving at G.

You don’t need to keep dragging them back through A, B and C every episode just in case someone brand new happens to show up. And you don’t need to take the conversation all the way to Z because that’s not the part of the journey you’re there to help with.

Know the part of the journey you serve, and speak to the person who’s there with you.

Your Ideal Listener Should Shape More Than Your Language

Once you start thinking about your podcast this way, you’ll probably notice that this isn’t really just about whether you explain an acronym.

It’s also about your content. It’s the topics you choose, the guests you invite and the questions you ask. It’s about shifting your podcast paradigm to being Listener-Centric.

The client I mentioned earlier wasn’t deliberately trying to create a podcast for their peers. They were simply choosing conversations that were interesting to them, which is an incredibly easy thing for an expert to do.

But you’re not the listener. Let me say that again because I think it’s important: if you’re using podcasting as a marketing tool for your business, your podcast is not for you.

So when you’re planning your next episode, put yourself on the other side of the microphone for a minute. Would your ideal listener have enough context to follow this conversation? Is it about something they actually care about? Does the language sound like the language they use? And is this episode helping them move forward from wherever they are right now?

That’s what I mean by listener-centric podcasting. It isn’t about making your show understandable or interesting to everyone. It’s about understanding your ideal listener so well that when the right person presses play, they pretty quickly think, Yep. This is for me.

Speak their language. And leave no ideal listener behind.

Is Your Podcast Speaking to the Right People?

Here’s the tricky part. It can be surprisingly hard to tell whether you’re doing any of this when you’re sitting this close to your own podcast. You’re the expert, so everything you’re saying makes perfect sense to you.

That’s a big part of what we do inside the Podcast Tune-Up. We step back and look at who your show is actually speaking to, the level of the content, your messaging, your guests and how all of that connects back to the clients you want your podcast to attract.

If you’re wondering whether your podcast is speaking to the right people at the right level, click here to learn more about the Podcast Tune-Up program and how we can help.