752 WORDS | READ TIME: 2.8 MIN |
Hi friends,
One year ago (to the day, weirdly), I published the first-ever Podcast Marketing Trends Report.
The report was the result of a small, nagging question gone wildly and wonderfully wrong.
See, for years, I'd measured the growth of my own and my client's shows, email lists, and businesses in terms of month-over-month growth rate.
ie. 3,000 downloads in January → 3,300 in February = 10% Monthly growth rate.
The only problem was that I had no idea if the growth rates we were seeing were "good"... meaning I had no idea if our marketing strategies were better than simply doing nothing.
Kind of a big problem.
So I decided to do a small internal survey of a couple dozen of my clients and Podcast Marketing Academy members to collect the previous 12 months of their download data, crunch the numbers, and establish some growth benchmarks.
Once I had the survey set up, however, I thought to myself:
"Well, if the survey is already set up, I might as well send it out to my newsletter subscribers..."
Then:
"Well, if I'm already sending it out to my newsletter, I might as well see if other folks in the industry would be willing to share it more broadly..."
Then:
"Well, if I'm already collecting the monthly download data, I bet I could cross-reference it based on dozens of variables to find out what works in podcast marketing more broadly and make an actual public report out of it..."
Then:
"This is starting to sound like a lot of work."
And it was.
The first report took 140 hours to create.
What's more, I spent several thousand dollars on a data viz designer who delivered a set of underwhelming designs that left me having to learn the fundamentals of data viz to clean up and expand their designs to ship the finished report.
And as I slogged toward the finish line, downtrodden, demoralized, and dead-near defeated, I swore I was never doing it again.
But then I published the report.
And the positive feedback started rolling in.
And a few weeks passed.
And I started to think to myself:
"Weeeeeeell, now that I have the templates for the data viz design...
"And the website is already built and just needs to be updated...
"And I actually know what I'm doing this time around...
"I bet the second version won't take anywhere near 140 hours!"
And I was right.
This year (so far), I've spent 290 hours on the report and everything around it.
And I am most definitely doing it again next year.
Somehow, that annoying, nerdy little question about podcast growth benchmarks has turned into an obsessive side hobby.
And today, you can check out the product of that obsession—the finished version of the 2024 Podcast Marketing Trends—for yourself.
Like last year, I collected month-by-month download data from hundreds of podcasters and then cross-analyzed their marketing practices, show mechanics, and more against both the show size and the show's growth rate.
The question at the heart of the report:
What do high-growth shows do differently from low-growth shows?
So if you’ve ever wondered…
- Which marketing channels high-growth shows focus on that low-growth shows don't
- How your show’s growth rate compares to the typical show
- How much you can expect to grow in a given year
- How many episodes it typically takes to reach 1,000 (or 10,000) downloads/ep
- The impact of episode length, publish frequency, and show format on growth
- How budget impacts growth
- Which categories tend to receive the most downloads
- How the growth benchmarks compare to last year
- And a whole lot more.
…the report has you covered.
👉 View the Podcast Marketing Trends Report
In addition to the data, I've provided plenty of context and insight into what the numbers mean for you and your show.
I’ll be offering more analysis of the report on an ongoing basis (including a new season of Podcast Marketing Trends Explained), but for the time being, go check out the report for yourself.
Then hit reply and let me know what stood out to you most, if it changes the way you think about marketing your show, and/or if there’s any data you’d love to see in next year’s report.
I'll be sharing a series of reader insights in the newsletter over the next week or so along with a link back to your show, so please send them in!
👉 View the Podcast Marketing Trends Report
|
Stay Scrappy,
On Monday, I announced a handful of changes I'm making in my business, starting in 2026, as I work towards my goals of building a business with:
- $500k in profit
- Lean 1-2 person full-time team (including me)
- Limit calls to 2 days a week
- 4-day workweek as the default
- Not reliant on launches or sales calls
- 3 Months (12 weeks) off every year for surfing, cycling, snowboarding, climbing, and motorcycling adventures (split throughout the year)
You can find the full post updating my master plan and breaking down the thinking behind the strategy here.
But if you'd prefer the TL;DR version, here's what I'm working toward in 2026:
- Narrow my positioning further to helping expertise-based business owners generate $30k/mo. Specifically by developing Infinity Loop podcast-centric ecosystems.
- Become more prolific with a ruthlessly narrow focus. Increase my output of offers, workshops, and content, with a hyper-narrow focus on expertise-based business owners.
- Rebrand the PMA Membership, double the price, and put a hard cap on member count. The current name doesn’t reflect either the value or experience of what is, in reality, a highly personalized mentorship space with a lot of individual attention from me. This will be remedied in 2026, and the goal is to turn this into a $250k revenue stream with a hard cap of 50 active members. In addition to the cap, members who are not active regularly over the duration of their membership will not have the option to renew, providing space for new, hungry members who will make the most of it.
- Default to “No” to all external requests & obligations. Unless there is an ultra-compelling reason, say no to all partnerships, collaborations, and projects that follow other people’s timelines and deadlines. They’re a distraction from the work that matters, and my business doesn’t need them.
- Reduce my podcast audit capacity and increase the price. In 2024 ,I burnt myself out doing 53 podcast audits, charging $3,000 each. In 2025, I did 26 audits at $4,500 each. In 2026, I’ll further reduce the number of audits to 15 at a price (for now) of $5,000. Ultimately, I want to reduce my audit capacity to 8/year at a price of $10k.
- Double down on the Craft. Average work is a waste of my time, my clients' time, and the audience's time. Instead, we’ll double down on creating truly exceptional content that gets the attention and trust of the right people.
- Publicly Launch Overdrive coaching program. In 2025, I introduced a new coaching tier where I work with my clients directly to elevate their podcasting Craft by working with them hands on to develop their best episodes ever. For one episode each month, we identify themes, design the episode structures, sequencing and arcs, and identify questions, stories, and metaphors to incorporate. Then, I’ll provide a monthly post-mortem with notes on their execution. This is the most fun work I've done in my career yet and I'm excited to build this offering out further.
- Launch Logic-Based Offers. A new training based on my work with my clients around how to design offers that sell themselves based on their obvious “internal logic” rather than persuasion or pressure.
- Launch The Mechanics of Thought Leadership. A new training breaking down the path and practice of becoming a thought leader that changes the course of your niche or industry over a 10+ year period. Ambitious, long-term, anti-hype, not for hacks or wannabes. I’ve got it all mapped out and planned for release mid-2026.
- Pour fuel on the fire via paid advertising. With the business generating a significant amount of excess profit, I want to reinvest significantly in advertising this year, specifically by hiring an ad manager so I don’t have to manage the ad creative myself.
- Write and release at least two books on podcasting. One, on how to engineer word-of-mouth growth via your show design is already in progress. Another, on the mechanics of podcasting, is more or less wireframed.
- Develop a highly exclusive, premium pricing business. My plan is to work with ~500 clients over the next 30 years. This narrow focus will allow me to develop deeper expertise in my specific niche than anyone else, leading to predictable, almost guaranteed results and zero alternative, interchangeable competitors. The result: I can be highly selective about who I work with and demand significant prices while delivering exceptional results.
If this matches where you're looking to go and you'd like my help in getting there faster, hit reply with the words "Master plan" and I'll share some details about how I can help.
|
Thanks for being a PMA Member!
Jump into the community and let us know what you need help with... or if this issue sparked a question you'd love to discuss further!
Reply anytime, I love hearing from you!
|
🤘 This email was crafted by a human (that’s me), for a human (that’s you) 🤘
|
|