How Listener Location Data Can Unlock Podcast Growth Opportunities

In this episode, we answer the question, how do you use use listener location stats and explain why they are more than just a cool metric! We share three practical ways to use location data to get sponsors, plan in-person events, and create content that builds a real connection

If you have questions about your listener location stats, reach out to us on the Podcaster Success team by email support@buzzsprout.com. 

Keep podcasting!

Transcript

Welcome And How Q&A Works

Cara Pacetti 0:00

Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you by the people at Buzzsprout. I'm your host, Cara Pacetti, and I'm bringing you the best tips and strategies to keep you podcasting with confidence. If this is your first time joining us for podcasting Q&A, first I want to say hello and welcome. I want to share just how it works. Every episode starts with a question from a podcaster like you. If there's something that you're stuck on and you just can't figure out on your own, go ahead and click the send us a text link in the show notes and send your question to me. I'd love to answer this on a future episode. Today we're answering a listener question and it reads How can I use listener location stats for my podcast? Location stats tend to be underutilized and overlooked. Outside of being just a super cool listener metric, these stats can actually unlock some really powerful opportunities for your podcast. So today I want to walk through three practical ways that you can use this information. First, you can use listener location stats to attract better sponsorships. So when you pay attention to your listener location metrics, the conversation with potential sponsors tends to go a little differently. Instead of letting them know that you're getting a thousand downloads every 30 days, you can let them know that 60% of your listeners are actually coming from a specific area. The appeal of these stats can be way more valuable for a local business. This works especially well if your audience tends to cluster in specific areas or you have a niche audience that's tied to a certain region. Using this metric is also really helpful if you're a smaller podcast or you're just getting started. Maybe you're not seeing a thousand downloads every 30 days. Use these location stats instead to work for you and to build a sponsorship relationship. For example, say you are a fashion podcast and you're going through your location stats and you happen to see that you have a cluster of listeners that are tuning in in Austin, Texas. They're loyal to your podcast. They tend to come from that same area. And so through a quick search, you find out that there's actually a local fashion boutique that is pretty popular and maybe on the main strip in Austin, Texas. Well, what if you reached out to them and you let them know, I have hundreds of listeners that are tuning in from your area? Is there some sort of sponsorship that we can work out? So running a sponsored ad on your podcast with your hundreds of listeners who will generate foot traffic into the owner's store actually becomes really compelling. So that's one way that these listener location stats can really help you to not only have the confidence to approach somebody and even ask for the sponsorship, but also it gives you creative ideas and creative ways of making sure that these businesses know that your podcast is the right place to be sharing about what they offer. So moving on from a monetization standpoint, I also want to share how listener stats can help you when you are planning a live event or a meetup. Listener location data can tell you where to show up in real life. If you notice that a big cluster of listeners are consistently showing up in a certain city, that may be the perfect place. You could host a meetup, you could do a live recording, or even attend an event where your audience already is. This is such a fun and creative way of connecting you with your audience. Even if the location stats are not creating enough evidence to give you the confidence to purchase a plane ticket to this city, you can still use that data to put the idea out there. Maybe you want to do an in-person meetup. And so you add a call to action into your episodes, letting your listeners know what you're thinking and where you're thinking of hosting it, and ask for some listener feedback and engagement. They can engage with you through fan mail or email or even on your social media channels and see what the response is. If you're getting a lot of engagement and your listeners are really excited about you possibly coming to their area, then that will help you to decide where is that best place to host a meetup. We actually did this recently through Buzzsprout. We were hosting a Buzz Sprout meetup for our team. And the Buzzcast team actually put it out there on their podcast to let listeners know they could see that a lot of our listeners from BuzzCast were tuning in from a certain city. And when we were planning our team meetup, we decided to also have a podcaster meetup in that city. And it was a great success. A lot of podcasters showed up. And so using that location data and putting it out there, seeing how your listeners interact, engaging their response can really help you to again build that confidence to move forward and plan that in-person meetup or whatever it is that you are planning so that you can connect with your listeners. All right. So if you have reached this part of the episode and you're thinking, well, this is not helpful because I'm really not in need of any new sponsors and I'm really not trying to plan a meetup at this time. So how can I use location stats? Our third use of location stats might just be what you are looking for. And this one is so underrated. Your listener location stats can actually inspire new, hyper-relevant content for new episodes. If you have a lot of listeners in a specific region, you can actually tailor your content to their interest. You can do this by highlighting local stores, trends, or even challenges that are going on and are specific to what is happening in that culture or area. Another move that might catch your guests off guard, but that would be one to remember is to actually bring on a guest from that specific area. Think about it from your listener's perspective. You're listening to your favorite podcast, the content is relevant, and it's actually even a little bit relevant to your area. And then all of a sudden, somebody who is well known from your region appears on the next episode. To me, that just screams intentionality from you as the podcaster. And it really communicates that you care for your listeners and you really want to connect with them. Another super easy way to implement this is to create a specific episode for a city that you're seeing that cluster of listeners. You can even begin the episode by saying, I saw a lot of you are tuning in from Miami. So today, this episode is for you. That kind of specificity builds connection fast. I want to share a little pro tip when it comes to reading those location stats and kind of how to interpret them. So in Buzzsprawl and probably many other podcast hosts, you can set the parameters to view your location stats based on your last episode. Checking the latest episode location stats every time you release a new episode. So within the first seven days, will actually give you a picture of where your current listeners are tuning in from. For podcasting Q&A, for example, when I ran this, it looks like we have a lot of listeners that are tuning in from Melbourne, Victoria, Los Angeles, California, and Columbus, Ohio. So hey guys, and thank you for tuning in. I'm so glad to know where you are located. If you have questions about your location stats or how to use them for your podcast, reach out to us on the Podcaster Success team by emailing support@buzzsprout.com or you can submit any question using the fan mail link in our description. Be sure to join us every Monday to kickstart your week. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, keep podcasting.