Hannah Clark Of The Product Manager: Top 5 Strategies for Growing Your Podcast Audience

An Interview With Chad Silverstein

Make a strong first impression with a stellar intro. You have a short window of time to capture new listeners and keep returning listeners interested. You need to craft a succinct and compelling introduction

In an era where the podcasting landscape is more crowded than ever, growing an audience requires not just consistency and quality content but also smart, strategic planning. Today, we’re diving deep into the growth strategies of a podcaster who has successfully expanded their reach in this competitive space. With a background that blends unique storytelling with savvy marketing techniques, our guest has mastered the art of audience growth. They’re here to share the top five strategies that podcasters can use in 2024 to increase their listener base, focusing on leveraging social media, optimizing for SEO, making the most of guest appearances, and more. I had the pleasure of interviewing Hannah Clark.

Hannah Clark is the Editor of The Product Manager. Following six years of experience in the tech industry, she pivoted into the content space where she’s had the pleasure of working with some of the most brilliant voices in the product world. Driven by insatiable curiosity and a love of bringing people together, her mission is to foster a fun, vibrant, and inspiring community of product people.

Thank you for joining us. To start, could you share your “origin story” with our readers? How did you begin your podcasting journey, and what challenges did you face in the early days regarding audience growth?

I got into podcasting through my work as the Editor of The Product Manager. The publication was producing a podcast before I came on board, but it had a limited run and was deprioritized. After six months of the podcast going silent, the CEO approached me because he wanted to revive it, and it occurred to him that I would be a good fit to step in as the host.

I jumped all over the opportunity. To be honest, I’d contemplated a career in radio when I was younger, so this was kind of a childhood dream come true. I also greatly enjoy talking to people and building relationships, so getting into podcasting felt like a natural fit.

Revitalizing a dead podcast is a double-edged sword. We were lucky that we had a small baseline audience of hanger-on subscribers, but even that made me apprehensive. A new host effectively means a new show, so we anticipated that many of our subscribers would churn when we started releasing new content that was starkly different from the episodes prior. Mitigating this meant that we had to persuade former listeners that we were different in a good way so that they’d give us a chance.

With that in mind, we kicked off the relaunch with an intro episode in which our wonderful and fabulous producer, Becca, interviewed me. It was a great opportunity for me to introduce myself to folks and explain the new direction of the show that listeners could expect.

Social media is a powerful tool for podcast promotion. Can you share your most effective strategy for leveraging platforms like Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook to boost your podcast’s visibility?

Leveraging your guests is the most effective strategy. They can be your most powerful distribution engine. For all of our podcasts, we produce social media graphics that we post on our channels and share with our guests to make it easy for them to promote their episodes.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be a game-changer for podcasts, especially when it comes to discoverability. What SEO tactics have you found most beneficial for attracting new listeners through search engines?

Each month we have a broad topic that we focus the majority of our content on, including our podcast episodes. We actively seek out guests who are subject matter experts in the topic of the month. This way, we systematically build topic authority on the topics that matter most to our business. There are a lot of opportunities for interlinking with each piece of content that exists on the site, and the podcast becomes part of this robust ecosystem.

This ties into my second tactic: make your transcript into a blog post. When I interview guests, I am mindful to connect the conversation to the core topic and use many related keywords in my questions. The transcript ends up being rich in semantic keywords and covers many relevant search intents, which makes it easy to interlink related content from our website.

Guest appearances, both on your podcast and on others, can significantly expand your reach. Can you discuss how you’ve approached guest appearances to grow your audience? What’s your strategy for selecting guests or shows to collaborate with?

Many of our guests are inbound. They approach us because they like the show and see the opportunity to collaborate. Often, these make the best guests because they are passionate about their area of expertise and the show itself. That energy is palpable during the interview.

On the flip side, I’ve also had representatives pitch their reluctant C-Suite executive clients to be on the show as a PR opportunity. In some cases, clients see the interview as an obligation, and that always comes through in our conversations. The energy is low, the content tends to be dry, and the conversation feels forced. While these conversations can sometimes yield good nuggets of information, we’ve made the decision in the past to scrap episodes over this. The guest wasn’t engaged, so why would the audience be?

One tactic I use to minimize occurrences of situations like this is by having two calls. The first is a short “pre-call” to evaluate if they’re a fit for the medium, understand where their expertise is, and nail down where the episode might fit into our editorial calendar. The second call is the actual recording session for the show.

Networking within the podcasting community can open up opportunities for cross-promotion and shared growth. How have you engaged with other podcasters to support each other’s audience growth?

To be honest, we are newly exploring this path. We have been kind of loners in the podcasting scene, focusing more on building relationships with leaders in our niche. But lately, we’ve started exploring more collaboration opportunities with other podcasters, which is very exciting. As much as I’ve learned about podcasting since getting started, I know there’s always lots more I can learn from others in the space.

Beyond these methods, is there one more strategy you’ve employed that’s been particularly effective in growing your podcast audience in 2024?

Having an episode template has been paramount to our growth. How that model should look for other podcasts depends on the most effective method of delivering what your audience wants. Since we produce a career — and B2B-centered podcast, we made the decision to hone in on what the listener is going to learn. Our podcast is all about time-to-value — we want to cover as much useful content as possible in a tight, efficient timeframe. For us, that means developing an effective hook and keeping the conversation very focused on audience takeaways.

The middle of any growth journey is often where the most learning and adaptation occurs. Reflecting on your experience, what’s one major lesson you’ve learned about audience growth that you wish you knew when you started?

Don’t neglect episode analytics. While it is imperative to examine your overall performance metrics, also examine the metrics tracking listeners’ behavior during the episode. These are insight goldmines.

For example, when analyzing ours, we noticed that a lot of listeners dropped off when we had guests who went on a long saga about their experience and expertise. So while, yes, that can be edited down, I still like to communicate to my guests to keep their origin story to 30–60 seconds max — just enough to connect their expertise to the topic at hand.

Looking forward, what emerging trends or platforms do you see as having the potential to impact podcast audience growth in the next year?

This may not come as a surprise, but AI. It has disrupted virtually every digital product, and we’ve especially been impacted in the digital content space. One area that I think is overlooked is how AI tools can improve audio production. Things that before would kind of impact your audio quality can often be rectified with AI. For example, you can use AI to eliminate background noise. You can use AI to smooth out a weird thing that you said that you would otherwise have to edit out. You can use it to correct the quality of your voice.

Podcasts are a single-sensory medium. Subscribers are only taking the content in through their ears, so if it is not a positive listening experience, you will lose people. In years past, not having the resources to buy great equipment, book studio time, or master top-line editing equipment was a limiting factor for who could succeed as a podcaster. In that respect, AI is leveling the playing field.

For podcasters who are just starting out or struggling to grow their audience, what advice would you give to help them stay motivated and focused on their growth strategies?

Oh, gosh. Have fun. It’s the single most important thing that I can recommend, because the more fun you’re having, the more motivated you’ll be to improve, and the more your audience will connect with you.

Let your personality shine. Get exuberant. Try unexpected ways to introduce yourself, your episodes, or your guests. When you’re having fun, your guest will have fun — and that lays fertile ground for them to share their best insights. For career content to be effective, it needs to be entertaining, and you can’t entertain without having a sense of humor!

Could you list and briefly explain “5 Key Strategies for Growing Your Podcast Audience” based on your experiences and insights?

Audience growth isn’t just about marketing and getting eyeballs. You want consistent growth, and that is gained through creating listener-centric, consistent, and organized content. Here are my top strategies:

1. Make a strong first impression with a stellar intro

You have a short window of time to capture new listeners and keep returning listeners interested. You need to craft a succinct and compelling introduction. It has taken some trial and error, but here’s my go-to formula:

• Instead of a simple greeting, aim for a provocative opener. Treat it like an attention-grabbing email subject line.
• Immediately establish why this episode matters to the listener by addressing a problem they might be facing and hinting at how our discussion will offer solutions.
• Then, introduce our guest, emphasizing their qualifications and expertise, and how their insights will help address the aforementioned pain point.

I do all this within the first 60 seconds of every episode.

2 . Familiarity breeds adoption

The best way to develop familiarity is by having an episode template. Without a plan, your episodes are at risk of becoming shapeless conversations. Listeners won’t know what to expect, what they will learn from it (if anything), and if the guest provides value to them.

If a listener doesn’t know if there will be information that is relevant and helpful to them, why would they stick around?

The consistency principle applies to the format as well as logistical elements such as the podcast length. Having one episode run for 25 minutes and the next for an hour will throw listeners off.

3 . The podcast is here to serve them, not you.

While you chat with your guest, develop the interview questions, and ultimately conduct the recorded interview, keep referring to how the discussion benefits your listeners.

By consistently tying questions and topics back to your audiences’ interests and needs, you ensure that the content remains relevant and valuable.

4 . Study your metrics

While I mentioned episode metrics earlier, it is important to also analyze your other data. See what episodes did well and try to understand why they were successful. Was it part of a two-part conversation? Did you talk about a controversial topic? Did you have a high-profile guest on the show? These are valuable learnings for future content.

If your listenership is stagnant or declining, why? Keep in mind there are often quieter times, such as the holidays and summertime, so I recommend looking at patterns over a 90-day period or longer.

5 . Engage Your Guest in Episode Planning

After having a preliminary call, share the interview questions with your guests and encourage them to tailor and refine them. This collaborative effort ensures your guests feel at ease, ready, and enthusiastic about the forthcoming interview. It also cultivates a stronger sense of ownership and commitment to the conversation.

The journey of growing a podcast audience is filled with both challenges and milestones. Can you share a particularly rewarding moment or achievement in your audience growth journey that stands out to you?

Near the end of 2023, just six months after we started back up, it became clear that our show was starting to gain momentum. Our producer, Becca, and I regularly look at the analytics and make note of what did well and what didn’t gel. It was during one of these analytic sessions that I realized we were really growing — we were gaining a hundred new listeners each day. And you need to remember, we are a niche B2B podcast, so that felt pretty great! We decided to set a goal to reach 7k monthly listeners by the end of the quarter, and we reached that goal weeks before we anticipated. Those moments stood out to me as validation that our choice of strategy was working, and that people were responding to our hard work.

As we wrap up, how can our readers follow your work and stay updated on your strategies and insights for podcast growth?

I would encourage your readers to listen to our podcast. Check out how we do our intros and pay attention to how we keep bringing it back to why it matters to the listeners. They can also learn about new episodes by subscribing to our newsletter or following us on LinkedIn.

Your journey and the strategies you’ve shared today provide a roadmap for podcasters looking to expand their audience in 2024. Thank you for offering such valuable insights into the art and science of podcast growth. We look forward to seeing how your podcast continues to reach new heights, and we wish you continued success in connecting with listeners around the world.

About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com