Like anything to do with the internet you need to have some way of measuring the success of Podcasts.
Why? Well, to start with while Podcasting works for almost anyone in almost any market.
However, you might just find that you're the exception that makes the rule.
Plus podcasting has been becoming less and less popular over the last few years...
or so the theory goes.
And you need to know when you to stop.
Finally, like any marketing technique there are things that work better than other things.
Having analytics (in other words measuring the success of podcasts) will help you to identify those things that your audience likes.
That way you can do more of them.
So how do you measure the success of a podcast? First off, you need to start by knowing why you are producing a podcast in the first place.
Always start with the end in mind is as important to marketing as it is in any other aspect of your life.
There are many reasons you might want to create and distribute podcasts.
Each of the reasons will mean that you need to focus your measurements on different things.
Having said that here is a list of five ways to measure the success of a podcast.
You will need to pick and choose which ones apply in your case.
Plus you will probably want to add measures to cover your particular situation.
1.
Number of Downloads This is the basic information you need.
How many people are listening to your podcast? After all, if no one is listening it doesn't much matter why you are podcasting.
It isn't working.
2.
Percent of New Listeners Podcasting is a repeating product.
In order to win with this type of product you need to be constantly growing your audience.
Replacing audience doesn't cut it.
You need to add new listeners but you need to keep your audience in order to get the most response.
3.
Percent of Returning Listeners This is a little more complex measure.
How many of the previous podcast's listeners returned this week? If you are adding more new listeners without losing previous listeners then you are doing great.
But in reality some of your listeners will be lost from week to week.
You just want to make sure you are talking about only a few.
4.
Number of Click Throughs Typically, podcasts are used to drive traffic or cause your audience to act in some manner.
So with this measure you are trying to determine how effective you are at accomplishing this task.
5.
Traffic Pattern Of course, one off measures are important but each of the above need to be tracked over time.
The patterns are often more important than a single measure -- especially since a mistake in one podcast won't show until the next podcast at the very least.