Podcasts are fun to listen to when driving to work, taking the subway, or doing household chores. If the podcast is engaging and the conversations are interesting, the podcast will gain a large audience and a loyal following. But, as a host, it can be challenging to keep conversations engaging for your audience. Moreover, you might start feeling burnt out or face a creative block limiting your ability to think of new ideas.Â
In addition, beginners in the industry struggle more to find engaging topics and keep the conversation flowing. Monetizing the podcast is yet another challenge beginners experience during the initial phases of their journey as podcast hosts.Â
Building an engaging podcast and a loyal fan base will take time but, you must not lose focus. You might have the script for podcast, but capturing the listener’s attention and impressing them will always be challenging. However, if you are consistent and provide good content, your listeners will start enjoying your podcast and wait for each episode to be released.Â
Here are tips to help you create more engaging content for your podcast.
1. Focus More on the Things You are Interested inÂ
As a rule of thumb, you must choose topics or niches you are passionate about. It will not only help you talk better, but it will also help you to produce content regularly. Once you start talking about your interests, it will be much easier to develop new ideas or themes for each of your podcasts.Â
2. Always Keep Your Target Audience in Mind
If you are looking to please everyone with your podcast, you won’t get anywhere. So, it’s important to pick your niche audience and tailor your podcast to their interests and preferences.Â
Create an audience persona or demographic in your mind and discuss the topics they are more likely to engage with.Â
To get insight into your audience, go to relevant forums, online groups, read comments on your podcast, social media channels, direct messages, or conduct a few online polls. Listening to what your audience recommends will show that you, as a creator, care about their opinions and preferences, thus building a sense of loyalty and community.Â
Once your listen time increases, you can assume that your content strategy works with your audience.Â
3. Share Stories
You might think that opinions sell better on the internet, but that is mostly not the case. People will get bored of your opinions over time, and some of the views may not even bode well with your audience members.Â
So, as a podcast host, your focus should be on sharing stories and encouraging the guests to share stories as well. Stories are much more engaging than anything else as they can spark interest and help the audience connect with you.Â
Each story must have three basic elements: setup, confrontation, and resolution.Â
You can pull stories from your personal experiences or report on what’s going on in the world. However, ensure that the stories you are telling are genuine and relevant to your audience.Â
4. Help your Audience
The audience will engage more with your podcast if it is helping them or filling some sort of knowledge gap in their lives. It will give followers a reason to wait for the next episode and tune into it.Â
For instance, if you are an established comic, you can chart topics related to your career and the industry. This will help budding comics as they will learn a thing or two from your show.Â
Additionally, you can also bring in other professionals from the industry on your podcast to share things about their careers.Â
5. Engage With The Audience
At this point, you must know the benefits of keeping your audience engaged. Podcasts are a one-way communication channel, and making your audience feel included is challenging. However, the more welcomed you make your audience feel, the better it will be for your podcast.Â
For example, if you are streaming live, you can answer some of the questions by audiences, or start a live poll, host giveaways, or ask them to tweet their views on a certain topic that you then share with the rest of the viewers.Â
When writing the script for the podcast, ensure that you include specific phrases or pointers in the script to remind you to engage with the audience.Â
6. Invite Great Personalities on your Show
When discussing great personalities, that does not necessarily include celebrities but rather other industry leaders with interesting professions or personalities. When you have a guest on your podcast, you will get some of their fans listening to the show and sharing it with their network.
Invite people your audience would like to hear from to be guests on your podcast. Talk about the things that truly matter to them and add value. It will help you differentiate your podcast from others.
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