If you've never explored the psychology behind podcast listener behavior, you're missing out on a wealth of insights that can help you attract new listeners. In this episode, Courtney Elmer shares the subconscious triggers that influence why someone clicks play on your podcast and how to use persuasive language that compels them to keep coming back for more. Get ready to discover the psychological "secrets" that will help you title your episodes to increase listeners and create an addictive podcast experience people can't stop raving about!
00:00:15 - Introduction 00:01:41 - Increasing Listens 00:05:16 - The Four Solicitations 00:07:52 - Subconscious Triggers 00:09:47 - Understanding the Ideal Listener 00:10:58 - Persuasive Language 00:15:22 - Understanding the Value of Your Content 00:16:17 - The Importance of Listener Psychology 00:16:47 - Overcoming Struggles as a Host 00:17:20 - The Power of Language in Podcasting
Timestamped Summary:
00:00:15 - Introduction Courtney Elmer discusses the challenges podcast hosts face when their episodes don't receive many downloads. She highlights the importance of understanding listener behavior and shares that increasing listens is key to growing a podcast.
00:01:41 - Increasing Listens Courtney explains that increasing listens from current listeners is crucial for attracting new ones. She emphasizes the need to step into the mind of the ideal listener and address their pain points to capture their attention.
00:05:16 - The Four Solicitations Courtney introduces the four elements that act as gatekeepers to capturing a listener's attention: cover image, title, description, and episode titles. She emphasizes the importance of making a strong first impression within milliseconds.
00:07:52 - Subconscious Triggers Courtney dives into the subconscious triggers that cause someone to hit play or scroll past a podcast. She explains the need for hosts to communicate on a subconscious level and understand what motivates their ideal listener.
00:09:47 - Understanding the Ideal Listener Courtney emphasizes the importance of understanding the specific problem, underlying cause, failed attempts to fix the problem, and the meaning the listener associates with it. This understanding forms the foundation of a successful podcast.
00:10:58 - Persuasive Language Courtney introduces the concept of persuasive language and its application in podcast titles, descriptions, and episode titles. She encourages hosts to focus on addressing the listener's pain points rather than simply highlighting the benefits.
00:15:22 - Understanding the Value of Your Content Learn how to effectively communicate the value of your podcast content to your ideal listener by addressing their pain points and solving their problems.
00:16:17 - The Importance of Listener Psychology Gain a competitive advantage by understanding the subconscious triggers influencing listeners' decision to listen to your podcast. Adjust your language to effectively communicate the value of your show and keep listeners coming back.
00:16:47 - Overcoming Struggles as a Host Many hosts struggle with understanding listener psychology, but by implementing these strategies, you can overcome these challenges and experience the satisfaction of making a positive impact on your listeners' lives.
00:17:20 - The Power of Language in Podcasting Discover how adjusting your language can create an addictive podcast experience. By speaking directly to your listeners' pain points, you can effectively communicate the value of your content and create a loyal audience.
You're listening to Podcasting Made Simple. I'm your host, alex Sanfilippo. For this episode's guide and resources, please visit podprosecom. And now let's get to the episode.
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Have you ever spent hours planning a podcast episode that you know is packed with value, but it only gets a handful of downloads when you publish it? Why is it that some episodes get higher engagement than others? Why is it that some podcasters grow faster than others? Why is it that, even though you know you have tons of helpful knowledge and insight to share, your listeners overlook your podcast in favor of other, more popular shows? I'm Courtney Elmer, and today you're going to discover the answers to these questions that every podcast host has asked themselves at one point or another. And if you've never delved into the fascinating psychology behind listener behavior, then you're missing out on a wealth of insights that can help you attract and engage new listeners. And by the time we finish here today, you will know the psychological secrets that will help you increase listens week over week. Plus, you're going to walk away with a deeper understanding of the subconscious triggers that influence why someone clicks play or not, and how to apply persuasive language to keep them coming back for more. Because, despite what you might have heard, growing a podcast is not about increasing your listeners as much as it is about increasing your listens, and when you know how to get the listeners you currently have listening to more episodes. Guess what? Your listens will go up and that, in turn, will help more listeners find your show. They'll start listening. That'll increase your listens even more. And as more and more people start listening to more and more of your episodes, you will create, in essence, a flywheel of organic growth to attract more and new listeners to your podcast. But how do you increase listens? You're already pouring your heart into every episode you create and every interview that you host, yet you still can't seem to figure out how to get people to understand that if only they would listen to the episode, they'd fall in love with your show and they'd become fans for life because they'd be getting tons of value. And to solve this problem, we've got to step into the mind of our ideal listener and look at your podcast experience, the experience that you're giving them through your podcast, through their eyes.
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Because there's two massive mistakes that hosts make that prevent people from engaging with their podcast, even though the content they're producing is highly valuable. Number one they assume that people will listen if they spend a lot of time making the episode content great Overall. That's why people listened to Joe Rogan and Andrew Huberman or Amy Porterfield right, great content. But in their eagerness to be like Joe or Andrew or Amy, most hosts completely overlook the four things that helps listeners understand that your content is great. Mistake number two is centering your titles and your episode notes around the benefits of what your listener will get out of that episode, rather than on the pain that will get resolved when they listen to that episode. See, what most hosts don't realize is that your listeners are not looking to gain a benefit from listening. What they're really interested in is solving the very real pain and problems they're experiencing in their life right now. When Andrew Huberman does an episode on sleep, he's not talking about the benefits of sleep so much as he is talking about the problems that you're experiencing right now from a lack of sleep. That will be solved when you optimize your sleep. You see the difference. It's subtle, but it is powerful. Understanding this is going to be key for you when it comes to increasing your listens For the remainder of our time here together.
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Today, we're going to look at this problem from inside the mind of your ideal listener, which is what will set your show apart in your category and in the podcasting space as a whole. To do that, you've got to take off the host glasses. Go ahead, take them off with me and put on the glasses of your ideal listener, because it's time for you to start seeing your show through their lens. When a podcast listener is browsing their app for new shows to listen to, what do they see first? Your cover image, and what do they see next? If you said your title and your tagline if you have one you're right. Now. If a new listener is intrigued enough by those two things, they might click through to read your show description, which would be the next thing they see. If they read that, what would they look at next from there, your episode titles.
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Now I call these four elements the four solicitations, because capturing the attention of a potential new listener doesn't start with the meaty good stuff you're putting inside your episodes. It starts with the four solicitations, the four chances you have to earn a new listener's attention your art, your title, your description and your episode titles, and in that order. Now, these four solicitations, or invitations, act as the gatekeepers of your amazing content. If a listener can't get past the gate, they're never even going to give your amazing content a chance. Now let's look at this from the perspective of an existing listener, someone who's already been following you for a while. They know who you are, they know what you stand for, they like you. And each week what happens when you release a new episode? If they're following your show, they get a notification on their phone with the title of that episode, and if the title of that episode grabs their attention enough, they will feel compelled to listen. If it doesn't, they will skip that episode. Doesn't mean they'll stop following your show altogether, but they might not listen to that episode, which, over time, compounded decreases your number of overall listens.
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So, if you're with me, let's continue, because whether it's an existing listener deciding if they want to listen to your latest episode or a new listener deciding whether they want to listen to your podcast, the golden thread that ties all of this together is a first impression, and if you were to Google the stats on how quickly first impressions are made, the answer is within seven seconds. But that's with a normal face-to-face interaction. When you move that online, the stats get far worse. Did you know that you have just 50 milliseconds 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about you that determines whether they'll stay or leave? That's about the amount of time it takes to glance at your cover art or read the title of your latest episode, and if you fail to capture their attention within those milliseconds, you lose them. I know that might sound a little alarming, but in order to solve this problem and not let it be the thing that causes you to lose podcast listeners, let's take it a step deeper.
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What are first impressions made of? First impressions are made of subconscious triggers. This is why they happen so fast, because in those split seconds your brain makes thousands of computations that you aren't even aware of. It happens subconsciously and in an instant. The question you need to be asking yourself here isn't how can I make a better first impression, but how can I adjust my four solicitations to better communicate to my listener the value they will get in listening to my show? And the way to do that is by understanding the subconscious triggers that cause someone to hit play or scroll right past. And this is the part where you need to apply some simple psychology and start speaking to your ideal listener on a subconscious level. This will be an invisible part of your show that no one else will ever know is there.
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But when you have this in place. Suddenly you and your listener will be communicating on the same plane, because right now, your listener is judging your show from a subconscious level, so in order to win their attention, you have to also speak to them on a subconscious level. This is where most hosts go wrong, because they're trying to logically, consciously communicate to their ideal listener why they think their show is so valuable. But their listener is processing that communication in a subconscious way, which is why your listeners aren't receiving it as valuable, because it's not being communicated in a way that their subconscious mind understands. But when you learn how to communicate with your listener on a subconscious level, you will give yourself a vast advantage over thousands of other podcast hosts, because your listener's subconscious mind won't be able to ignore your content.
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If you're ready to learn how to do this, listen closely to my voice right now, because we're going to do a bit of reverse engineering here, because in order to communicate to your listener on a subconscious level, you first have to understand what motivates your listener on a subconscious level. Now, this is not a logical thought process where they're sitting there and they're evaluating your episode and they're spending time deducing whether it's not worth their time to listen to Now. This is an unconscious, automatic process, and to interrupt that automatic pattern, you first need to understand the thoughts that drive their behaviors, so that you can position your content in a way that gets their unconscious mind to pay attention. The way you do this is by asking yourself and answering four simple questions about your ideal listener. Number one what specific problem is my ideal listener experiencing right now? Number two what is the underlying cause of this problem? The real cause, the root that, when uprooted, will cause the other problems to disappear? Number three what have they already tried to fix the problem that hasn't worked? And number four what are they making this problem mean about them?
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This is the very first process that we walk our clients through when we're helping them develop a podcast that's worthy of being in the Apple Top 100, because the inner workings of the mind of your most ideal listener is the foundation upon which the entirety of your show should rest. Because once you understand your listener's subconscious triggers, then it's just a matter of using persuasive language that speaks directly to this part of their mind, which will make your message, your brand, your show magnetic, because you'll be describing them so accurately that their subconscious mind won't be able to ignore you. Now. There are dozens of persuasive language patterns that you could use throughout your podcast and especially inside your episodes and your episode titles, but for our purposes here today, we're going to talk about one that's the simplest and easiest to apply. Now you should be applying this concept to as many of the four solicitations as you can, including your show title and your tagline whenever possible, and non-negotiably to your description and your episode titles, because this persuasive language is what gets people to say I need to listen to that. Now I'm going to give you some examples here in just a moment, as well as the exact plug-and-play resource that will help you apply these exact principles to your show in a matter of seconds, because, as I mentioned earlier, most hosts make the mistake of focusing on the benefits of what your listener will get rather than on the pain that will get resolved when they listen. And when you can address these core problems and pain points in your show title, your description and your episode titles, you'll see a dramatic increase in your lessons.
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Let me give you a real-life example. There was once a high-level consultant whose original show title was Move Forward, anyway. Now his show was full of incredibly valuable wisdom geared toward helping people achieve their deep-rooted dreams, the dreams that they had put on the back burner but that wouldn't leave them alone Now. The problem was he'd had his podcast for two years, he was still only getting about 30 to 50 downloads per episode and his show had just reached this painful plateau. Now, because his original title didn't immediately tell his listeners what they'd gain from listening to his podcast, we changed the title from Move Forward Anyway, to Stop Doubting your Dream, to directly address the biggest underlying pain point that was getting in the way of his ideal listeners achieving the dreams on their heart Self-doubt. Next, we shifted the focus of his description from all of the cool things that would happen when someone achieved their dream to directly address the thing that was getting in the way of them achieving that dream right now, calling out the problem in a way that his ideal listeners' subconscious mind could easily relate to, where they could self-identify and say that's me, I have that problem. Then we revised every single one of his existing episode titles to increase overall listens by focusing on the problem and real pain that his listeners were experiencing right now, for example, for one episode about the risk of not using your gifts in pursuit of your dream. We changed that title from Acknowledge the Gifts You've Been Given.
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Two, the surprising mistake that costs most people their dream. Or for an episode on self-worth and personal value, we change that title from learn to see yourself for who you really are to why do some people achieve their dreams but not others? Same content inside the episode, but remember, if a potential listener makes it past your cover art, your title and your description, your show titles are the final gatekeepers of your content. It's the wrapper around the gift that you have inside for your listener. And there are three very simple psychological formulas for framing binge-worthy show titles. Number one help your listener avoid pain. Number two help them avoid pain and see how avoiding that pain will help them achieve some sort of benefit. And number three ask an open-ended question that opens a loop in their mind that they have to listen to the episode. To close, now, if I were creating an episode about how to get more engagement, I would structure that episode title to highlight the problem that keeps people from getting more engagement and title it that way Three surprising content mistakes that are costing you clients. Do you see the difference? So the key takeaway here and the two questions you need to ask yourself. Number one what problem does my episode solve? Number two how can I title this episode to better communicate this to my listener? Now I will say there is one caveat to all of this If you haven't gone through extensive training on neurolinguistic programming or language patterns, all of this is going to feel really foreign.
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So here's the part where I make it really simple for you.
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I've got a very special gift for you.
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This is something we only ever give to our clients, and it's quickly become a cult favorite among them, because it is a mad lib style plug and play guide with over a hundred plus title templates that have these psychological principles baked in.
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You simply fill in the blank with your specific topic and in a matter of seconds you will be on your way to communicating the value of your content in a way that your ideal listener understands, based on the pain points you're solving for them. So to get a copy, make sure you go to antifragileentrepreneurshipcocom. To sum all of this up, the key to creating an addictive podcast experience is to understand the listener psychology that's at play. Ignoring this fact is only going to continue to stunt your growth. Most hosts are going to continue to struggle with this, but you now have the distinct advantage of understanding the subconscious triggers that influence your listener's decision to hit play, and how to start adjusting your language to communicate the value of your show in a whole new way Listeners will notice and, in return, you will experience the deep satisfaction of knowing that your work really is making an impact on the lives of all you touch through your podcast.