Where do we listen to podcasts? How are we promoting them, and what are our thoughts for the future of podcasting?
Podcast listener engagement study
A sample of 264 people aged
- 18–25 = 13.6%
- 26–35 = 42.8%
- 36–45 = 18.6%
- 46–55 = 17.0%
- 56–65 = 7.2%
- 66+ = 0.8%
completed an online questionnaire. The majority of the sample was
- male (51.9%)
- 43.2% were female
Where participants were listening:
- 50.8% resided in the United Kingdom
- 51 (19.3%) in the rest of Europe
- 47 (17.8%) in the United States of America
- 32 (12.1%) in the rest of the world
According to the study, we listen
- outside when its light. Not bothered about cold
- Indoors when its warm, incl at home
- in the evenings
- with moderate background noise
- when out walking in nature
How does this match up to you?
High income podcasters favour email, blog posts and LinkedIn over quick visual networks
Most people understand that posting on social media doesn’t directly translate to an increase in downloads. They know it’s important to be there, posting, interacting, and engaging, but are slowly learning that time spent doesn’t correlate to increased downloads. I think there’s actually a lot of opportunity in cold (and then hopefully warmer) outreach.
— Arielle Nissenblatt, SquadCast
How many downloads should I be getting?
According to a recent mini-survey by Capsho, the sweet spot is 250-500.
Video podcasting in 2023
Youtube is great for talk show podcasts, but it likely won’t take off for other genres like narrative documentaries or fiction. At the end of the day, as a podcaster, it’s important to stay true to audio, in addition to understanding other platforms like Youtube — not every podcast can be adapted naturally into video and that’s okay!
— Bella Ibrahim, Marketing Director, Kerning Cultures
Links
Mark Steadman
Mark is a podcast consultant, producer and coach. He’s the founder and developer of Bramble.