Test New Episode Formats Without Losing Listeners

We answer a listener's question about trying new episode formats for their podcast. We walk through how to communicate changes clearly and how analytics and listener feedback can help you decide what to keep.

Resources Mentioned: Setting Up Your Buzzsprout Subscriptions

If you have questions about switching up your episode format, reach out to us on the Podcaster Success team by emailing support@buzzsprout.com. 

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Transcript

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Cara Pacetti 0:00

Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you by the people at Bussproute. I'm your host, Cara Pacetti, and I'm bringing you the best tips and strategies to keep you podcasting with confidence. Today's listener question is pretty specific, but I think we can really learn a lot from it. The question is all about the best ways to include different episode formats for your podcast. Our podcaster does a weekly show where they typically record a long interview. They're thinking of switching things up to include different episode formats. What is the best way to include these different types of formats into one podcast? This is such a great question and honestly really relatable. I feel like podcasters find themselves in a rhythm that's working and they're getting comfortable. And as they do, they're curious and they want to expand and try different things. And really, I encourage that. I do think that you need to try out different formats. Maybe what you started with uh is working, or maybe there's something out there that's better. But until you give it a try, you'll never know. So I love that our listener is asking this question. And I think that there's a really smart and intentional way of trying this out. And so I want to walk

Revisit your why and check in with your audience

Cara Pacetti 1:17

through that today. So before you make any changes, I want you to, of course, revisit your why. So why are you doing this podcast? What is your end goal for this podcast? If you can revisit that, that is always going to be the foundation of any decisions that you're making. So if all of a sudden you want to start offering different types of episodes, your why is a great place to start to make sure that you are in line with the goal for your podcast. Next, there's a big difference between changing up your episode style versus your episode content. So it's one thing to change up your style. So going from a solo episode to an interview episode, it's another to change the topics completely. So if you start out as a world history podcast and then all of a sudden your next episode is on pop culture, you need to ask yourself, is this actually a part of my current podcast? Or is the information that I'm trying to communicate now a better fit for a brand new podcast? If your podcast has always been an interview podcast, maybe with school teachers talking about world history and your episodes tend to land around 30 to 45 minutes long, I don't recommend that you start incorporating those 10-minute solo segments that are focusing on the latest and greatest in pop culture. Instead, if you wanted to add a different episode type or a different format, you could take the information that you've gathered from those long interviews that you've been doing and maybe every now and then release a new 10-minute solo episode that kind of summarizes what it was that you were talking about in those interviews. That's one way of incorporating a new episode type. But the main takeaway is make sure that your new episode types are still making sense for your niche audience. If they're not, that is totally fine to start a second podcast with these episodes. But this is that intentionality and just taking that time to analyze and plan before implementing these new styles. The last piece in this, when it comes to trying out new formats, is to actually get listener feedback from what you're currently offering. So, what is that saying? Don't fix something that's not broke. Uh, so I recommend put it out there to your audience, whether you use it as a call to action, maybe you put it out there on your social media platforms, you can put a poll out there or even request some fan mail. There's many ways of engaging with your listeners, but I recommend asking them, are you enjoying what I'm currently putting out? Are you enjoying the formats? Are they too long? You can be as broad or as specific as you'd like in your question, but starting with your listener feedback, just like starting out with your why, is a great foundation to help you make this decision on why it is that you want to switch up the episode formats in the first place and which format would be the best to try. So once you've gotten that feedback and you've made your decision that it's worth pursuing and you're gonna go ahead and give it a try on your existing podcast,

Keep communication about changes clear & consistent

Cara Pacetti 4:19

you wanna keep things clear and consistent. Make sure your listeners know what to expect. To do this, you need to be strategic about when you're trying out your newly formatted episodes and let your listeners know they're coming. You can use some dynamic content to add to your existing fullback catalog to let your listeners know that there are new styles of episodes coming and that you want to give a try. I mean, if you think about it, it can be really jarring for your listener if they turn on their favorite podcast and they're expecting a full 45-minute interview with a special guest that you have handpicked, only to find that it's only you and the episode is only 10 minutes long. And while I hope they would not be disappointed, I do think they would be caught off guard. And so it's better to just go ahead and communicate that from the get-go. I always like to think of my listeners that they are in this with me. I am learning as I go, I'm trying new things. It affects them ultimately. And so their feedback is welcomed and I want to let them know when I'm giving something new a try. Another creative way of offering these newly formatted episodes is to offer them as maybe like a secondary or a bonus episode. So listeners usually get into a pretty consistent rhythm. And so they look forward to hearing their favorite podcasters' new episodes, whether it be their favorite day of the week or maybe their favorite day of the month. They look for your new releases. And so what you can do is add in this second episode as a secondary release. If you publish a new episode every week, you can let your listeners know hey, every other week that I'm not sharing a full-length episode, I'm actually going to include a quick solo episode. So if you want to hear that, go ahead and tune in next Monday and just let your listeners know when they can tune in, make it exciting, maybe build some anticipation around it. Another creative option for this is maybe even putting those newly formatted episodes behind a paywall using Buzz Sprout subscriptions. And so your listeners can only hear those new episodes if they are subscribed. And so that's an option. I'll go ahead and include our subscription help article in the show notes if that's something you want to give a try. Really anything goes here and it's left to you to experiment, but you just want to really be strategic about the way that you are communicating these new episodes with your listeners. My last piece of advice here

Test things out before committing to the change

Cara Pacetti 6:37

is to test before you commit. So you don't have to fully switch things up right away. Run some tests. If you're nervous about making a change, try releasing new formats as bonus or limited episodes, like I mentioned, and get your listeners involved so they know what to expect. Of course, you're gonna track your downloads and your listener activity on these new episodes so you can pay attention. Am I getting more downloads for these newer episodes than I was for my original longer episodes? If I look in Apple Podcasts at my statistics there, am I seeing that the listeners are dropping off after a certain time? So maybe the shorter episode formats would work better. Just pay attention to those analytics and have them work for you. So when you're planning, it can help you shift and adjust accordingly. And you definitely want to be realistic when it comes to testing out these new episodes. Like I mentioned at the beginning, hopefully you've reached a rhythm that's comfortable and you're releasing new episodes on time. Otherwise, I would say that you do not have the capacity to give this a try. But if you have everything going and your processes are in place and they're working seamlessly and maybe even effortlessly, um, then that might be the right time to go ahead and give these new episodes a try. And as you're trying them, I want you to be honest with yourself. Am I enjoying this? Is this still fun? Or is adding this new format causing way more stress than it needs to? Because ultimately the thing that you're having fun with is the thing that you're going to continue. So while it's hard work and it might be a little bit of a learning curve, it should still be exciting and fun so that you don't start to lean into pod fade. And so I just want you to be aware of that. I want you to be realistic about the workload that is required to offer these new episodes and just make sure that you're keeping a pulse on that so that you can offer these new formatted episodes without being overwhelmed. So when it comes to offering new episode formats inside of your podcast, I want you to first examine your why and make sure these new episodes bring value to your current audience and get a pulse on what your listeners want. Second, come up with a clear plan for when and how you'll release these new episodes and of course communicate their arrival to your listeners. And last, don't forget that you don't have to commit to going all in on this new format without publishing some episodes and examining the results first. It is always okay to pivot and it's always okay to try things out. If you have questions about your podcast, please reach out to us on the podcaster success team by emailing support @buzzsprout.com. We are a team of real people who are eager and excited to help you with any questions that you have. And while we're actually talking about episode formatting, I actually have a question for you. So I have both interview style and solo episodes that I produce here in Podcasting Q&A. And I'm curious if you prefer one over the other. I'd love to hear from you. You can click the Send Us Fan Mail in the show notes to let me know. Be sure to join us every Monday to kickstart your week. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, keep podcasting.