New Show! Red Riding Hoods
A team of “Final Girls” – sole survivors of a horrific event – join forces to hunt malevolent entities while uncovering the apocalyptic conspiracy uniting them. Listen to the trailer today! Coming on Oct 4. 

 

 

A delightful comedy about the sometimes funny, sometimes awkward, and often confusing adventures of Father Ben and his rather unusual congregation. Listen now!

 

 

Ninja Podcast Growth Trick
Many of us are aware of the power of promo swaps. This is where two creators agree to give a shout out in their show for the other show. It's a simple trade and a very effective way to expose people who already love podcasts to a new podcast they may not know about.

 

And I've talked quite a bit out how a feed drop swap is an even more effective way to grow a podcast. This is where two shows agree to drop an episode of each other's show on their feed.

 

But I don't often get a chance to speak about the single most powerful way to move listeners between two shows: a collaborative episode – two shows come together to create an episode (or multiple) that bring some aspect of the two shows into a single storyline.

 

For this to work, the shows need to have a very strong overlap with the audience they target and also a way for the two worlds to overlap. Though I will say that the latter can be quite fun to overcome when it isn't immediately clear how the two storyverses might connect.

 

One of the best at collaborative episodes is The Amelia Project. They have created so many amazing crossovers like the epic live show with We Fix Space Junk or the amazing collaboration with Forgive Me! (Or the one I'm doing with them and Civilized in about 6 days).

 

Let's break down why a collaborative episode is so effective at building audiences for both shows.

 

A promo spot or host endorsement works by encouraging listeners of a podcast to go and sample another show. But the number of people who are going to stop listening to a favourite show and take the time to go find a new show in their podcast apps is quite small. But of the people who do, a decent percentage of them are going to consider hitting that follow/subscribe button.

 

Which leads us to a cardinal, and often overlooked, rule of podcast growth marketing – you can't make someone become a subscriber if they haven't listened to your show yet.

 

Our job is to get people to sample our show. And this explains why feed drops work better than promo spots. Listeners don't have to remember to go find your show. It's right there in the feed of a show they already subscribe to. And it has a great endorsement from a creator they trust right off the top.

 

I don't know about you, but I can't eat a single potato chip. It's the same with a story. If a story hooks me, I have to find out what happens next. I'm going to subscribe and likely marathon my way through the show.

 

So why does a collaborate episode work so much better than a feed drop? The answer has to do with how many people download a collaborative episode vs a feed drop.

 

 

In the image above, you can see a feed drop in the Civilized feed. It is an episode with the title, "Introducing StarTripper!!". An amazing show, by the way, that you should check out.

 

A portion of the Civilized audience will skip this episode. Some might be in a marathon listen of the series and so they are going to skip non-canonical episodes. Others may not know what this is, and without hearing our endorsement, decide to skip it for now. Or maybe they just aren't in the mood to listen to a show they don't know yet. We don't know exactly why, but we do know what feed drops see anywhere from a 10% to 20% drop in downloads compared to a normal episode. 

 

But this is not to say feed drops don't work. They work insanely well because they convert at a much, much higher rate than a promo spot. But it does help to explain why collaborative episodes work even better.

 

A collaborative episode is like a bonus. It's a special episode of the show listeners already love, only with a twist. There's some new characters in there. And often include an introduction that explains why the creators are so excited to be working with this other show.

 

When I hear a great collaborative episode, I am now hooked. I need to know what happens to these new characters I just met. I want more.

 

Collaborative episodes take quite a bit of work, but they can generate the single highest transfer of audience possible. And in a non-zero-sum way. Both shows gain new listeners.

 

I hope this helps explain what a collaborative episode is and why it is one of the most powerful tools in a fiction podcaster's arsenal. And one that can and should be embraced by all indie creators. 

 

 

Sean