When does a private podcast make sense?

When should a podcast be private? In this episode of Podcasting Q&A, we explain when a private podcast makes sense, who can benefit from it, and how it can be a great tool for your niche audience. You'll also learn when keeping your podcast public may be the better strategy and what to consider before making that decision. 

If you have questions about creating a private podcast, reach out to us on the Podcaster Success team by emailing support@buzzsprout.com. 

Keep podcasting!

Transcript

Welcome to Podcasting Q&A

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. Each week we answer your questions. So if you have a question that you'd like answered on a future episode, send it to me using the Send Us Fan mail link in the show notes. Today, we're talking about private podcasts. Our listener question says, I've heard some friends talk about offering a private podcast to their listeners. And now it has me wondering, when does a private podcast make sense? I love this question. It really opens our minds to think outside the box when it comes to how we're using our podcast to connect with our listeners. When it comes to offering a private podcast, there are many ways to approach this. In some ways, offering a completely private podcast is the best way to serve your audience. And in other cases, it's best to allow most of your content to be available to the public while only making a small portion of your episodes private.

Exclusive Content That Feels Special

Cara Pacetti 1:10

Since there are multiple ways to approach this, let's break it down. A fun way to offer a private podcast is to create something people can't get anywhere else. So we're thinking exclusive content for engaged listeners. This is where private podcasts can provide an opportunity to really connect with your already engaged audience. Your public podcast might be where people go to discover you, but your private podcast is where listeners go to just get a little bit more. So what counts as exclusive? Maybe your public episodes answer a big question while your private episodes give listeners a deeper dive on the subject you're covering. An example here is say you have a podcast about reality TV in general. You could have private or bonus episodes that review a specific reality series, like, you know, that really popular one, Survivor. For most of your engaged listeners, these niche review episodes would be a real treat, but they're not necessary to be included in your overall public listing. You could also offer private episodes in the form of bonus episodes or maybe extra interviews or a behind-the-scenes content. You could offer the extended cuts of your episodes and the bloopers. And you could even offer exclusive question and answer episodes. Like I said at the beginning, this can be offered as private episodes within your public feed, or this could be offered as a completely private podcast. Basically, just think of this as any content that you want to say to your listeners, I've created this just for you.

Private Feeds For Niche Audiences

Cara Pacetti 2:49

If you find yourself creating content that is not necessarily exclusive in nature, but you know only a certain audience would benefit from it, this may be served best as a private podcast. So if you have a specific niche audience in mind, private podcasts work really well. So some examples of this would be maybe employee trainings. If you are a business owner and you have new employees that are onboarding into your company and you really need to get a lot of information to them, but it's way too much for a PowerPoint or an email, you could create a private podcast. It's information they need, but you want them to be able to consume it passively, maybe even during their commute to work. Offering a private podcast in this way means that you're only sending it to the people who would really benefit from it. There's no need to list this on Apple Podcasts and have new subscribers. You are sending the link to those who would benefit most from the information there. Another way of offering a private podcast is if you are a coach of some sort and you have clients that would benefit from the content that you're creating. You could actually use this to monetize your podcast. So you don't want to add these exclusive episodes that are recorded for your clients, but instead you can create a private podcast and then put it behind a paywall so that your paying clients have access to this private information in the form of a podcast. A private podcast can also be a really great tool if, say, you're a classroom teacher and you have students who would really benefit from receiving the lessons that you're teaching over multiple podcast episodes. So this is a great use of a private podcast that isn't available to the public, but that can be sent to the students who need it most. So if you know the exact audience that you're creating your content for, a private podcast or even private episodes makes a lot of sense.

Public Versus Private Podcast Tradeoffs

Cara Pacetti 4:45

One thing I want to advise here, if you are thinking about creating a private podcast, is I want you to be really intentional with why you are offering the private podcast and also the implementation. Just because you've heard of podcasters offering private podcasts does not mean that that's the best route for your audience. Private does not always mean better. If your content could help someone discover your podcast, grow your audience, or answer a question that your ideal listener is searching for, it's actually better to keep it public and accessible to anyone who's looking. Just like creating a public podcast, you really need to spend some time identifying your why. So why are you making this podcast private? Who are you serving? Who is the audience? And what are the benefits of removing this podcast from the public listings and only offering it in a private manner? You also need to consider your workload here. So if you're already struggling to publish your regular podcast consistently, then adding a private form of your podcast may not be the best next step. If you'd like to create some exclusivity around your podcast, consider repurposing some of your existing content and making that private. A good rule of thumb is if creating any more content is going to leave you feeling overwhelmed, then it is completely okay to skip it. Give yourself that permission. So naturally, the next question here is okay, I've given this some thought. I have identified my why, and I think a private podcast would be best for me, but how do I actually offer one? We're actually going to cover that on a future podcasting QA episode. We're going to look at different ways you can offer your private podcast, including making it completely free, putting episodes behind a subscription or a paywall, or even offering it as a part of a private community. So if you're considering a private podcast, make sure to subscribe to Podcasting QA so you don't miss it. So if you have really strong answers to questions like who would benefit from this private podcast and can I handle the workload that comes with it, then a private podcast could be a great addition to your podcasting strategy. And if you don't, that's okay too. You can keep creating great public content and focus on growing the audience you already have. If you have questions about offering a private podcast, reach out to us on the podcaster success team by emailing support at buzzsprout.com. Be sure to join us every Monday to kickstart your week. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, keep podcasting.