How Cool is Word of Mouth Ad.

[guscave]

Word of mouth is probably one of the best forms of advertising you can do for your podcast. A few weeks ago I gave my listeners a small challenge. I asked them that once a week they tell one person about a podcast. It didn't have to be about mines, but about any show that they thought the other person might like.

I asked them not to get too technical in describing it, just saying something like "have you heard about the ____ show?". When they asked when is it on, to tell them, "you can listen to it anytime you want, just go to their website.

Well the result of that has been a big increase in the amount of downloads I've had lately. In the last week I've seen a 192% increase in downloads. This has worked out well at just the right time, since A Better Day is part of the HBO ad.

So pass the word.. :wink:

[girl600_show]

A 192% increase, I'll try that. A video podcaster friend of mine ordered business cards today but I like your free testimonial idea. I always try a show out if its recommended to me. How long have you been in it? I guess I can find out from your site, it they are all up there.

[guscave]

I started in August, and my podcast is about health & fitness, but I also play podsafe music so it attract a dual audience group. I basically do the same thing everyone else does. Become an active member in forums that relate to my show, I posted flyers at gyms. Those that wouldn't allow me to post inside the gym, I would stick a flyer on the car windsheilds. I try to get the word out to people any way I can, but I figure why not let my audience help out too. :wink:

[Hittman]

I liked your advice up to putting stuff on car windshields. That annoys me to no end, and I never, ever do business with anyone who does that.

[guscave]

unfortunately not all forms of advertising are always accepted by everyone. I'm ok with it. :wink:

[ferg]

You know...I've been pushing word of mouth for awhile. I feel like it's the most natural way for the show to grow. I also feel that, since I know our show isn't for everybody, it's a good way to reach people that are more likely to like the show (friends of current listeners) as opposed to simply people that we HOPE will like the show.

I must say, though, that I haven't been as successful as 192%. In fact, I don't get a lot of people who say..."A friend told me about you". As it turns out, most of our growth is iTunes related, or because a high profile show (such as DSC) played our promo.

I guess it's a numbers game...if a chunk of our few-hundred listeners tell friends and a couple of them subscribe, that doesn't really compare to say, several thousand random people hitting your podcast. Sure, the word-of-mouthers might stick around at a higher percentage, but, since the base numbers are so much lower...

I guess that's why I continue to ask for w-o-m referrals, that doesn't stop me from trying to promote the show in other ways.

[guscave]

What I've been able to do on the show is share a few stories people have emailed me about thier experience in telling others. One guy told me he was able to get a date with this girl he met at the gym, from telling her about a podcast.

I shared that story with my listeners, and I got a few emails from people saying how cool that was, and from there things just got rolling.

[podcastmayhem]

can you challenge your listeners to see how big of an audience they can get on my community site? ;) . . . please?

btw . .great podcast!

[MikeSzyszka]

I totally agree with the word of mouth concept of advertising. I did a test with my latests podcast... I published it ONLY to iTunes and put it up online so people could play it from the web without subscribing.

My results:
550 Subscribers in 4 weeks (4 episodes published)
over 1500 total downloads (including subscribers and direct downloads)
20+ emails a week from listeners.

The only thing I pushed was that if people liked the show, to tell their friends about it. That being said, I have now started promoting the show in other ways o get the listeners and subscribers up, but my test of the "Power of word of mouth" proved very successful.

Thats an awesome idea to ask all your listeners to tell a friend about one podcast they like, and being that they are listening to yours, more than likely I can seem them promoting you.

NICE JOB! ON THE 194%. Thats AWESOME!

[larrylujack]

Word of mouth does work...but low-key ad campaigns are better pocketspots.com did 10 for me...they are great.

[guscave]

Like I mentioned in one of the episodes, My father established his furniture business more than 35 years ago on word of mouth advertising.

Whenever he would advertised on newspapers or other similar media, he would loose his shirt in cost and time. People would call him up because they saw the ad and ask him a bunch of questions but it usually would not turn into a sale or even a future client. By establishing a good reputation and name thru his existing clients, he would be guaranteed a much higher success rate in future sales.

The company I work for now does the same thing. Other than the internet, they have no other means of advertising except thru word of mouth.

[thefly]

I totally agree with the word of mouth concept of advertising. I did a test with my latests podcast... I published it ONLY to iTunes and put it up online so people could play it from the web without subscribing.

My results:
550 Subscribers in 4 weeks (4 episodes published)
over 1500 total downloads (including subscribers and direct downloads)
20+ emails a week from listeners.


Are you sure it wasn't your podcast alley avatar? :mrgreen:

The WORST thing you can do to your numbers is change your feed or website. I dropped my old domain and registered another one. I must have dropped from numbers in the 500's to 80's. :cry:

Still trying to recover from that.

[SFEley]

The WORST thing you can do to your numbers is change your feed or website. I dropped my old domain and registered another one. I must have dropped from numbers in the 500's to 80's. :cry:

The mistake you made wasn't registering the new site -- it was dropping the old one. The way to make it work is to keep both URLs active and pointing to the same material. Escape Pod has gone through three different URLs since we started; we haven't lost any listeners because all three still work. The older two are mirrors of the "main" one.

The only annoyance we've had is that with a few different feed addresses, we get duplication in some directories such as Yahoo's. But all those locations redirect to the same Feedburner feed, so it isn't really harmful.