Hey, welcome back to cubicle to CEO, the podcast where we ask successful founders the business questions you can't google. If you're watching this on YouTube today, you may notice something a little bit different. We recently gave our podcasts a much needed tech glow up. So what you're seeing on screen is our new camera and lighting and mic setup. And I hope you enjoy and notice the difference as much as I do. If you are watching this on YouTube, what do you think? Leave your feedback for us in the comments below about our new setup. Also, if you've never checked out our youtube channel before, and you like watching these interviews, as much as you enjoy listening to them, then YouTube is the place to go for the video version of our podcast. We'll make sure to link that below for you in the show notes.
For today's bonus episode, I wanted to share seven of my favorite takeaways from Podcast Movement, the largest in person conference for podcasters. All over the world, I recently got to attend my very first podcast movement in Denver. Thanks to a free ticket that I actually won at an in person podcasts meetup hosted by the cofounders of Podcast Movement. So shout out to them. Thank you so much for the free ticket, I really, really got so much out of my experience, I will definitely be back for future years of Podcast Movement. And so I had pages of notes, by the way, but I cherry picked through them and found seven key things I wanted to share with you all today for all of my fellow podcasters, who listen into our show as seven things that I think you can implement right away, regardless of what niche your podcast is in, or how you utilize your podcast, whether your podcast is a way to drive sales to your main offers or whether like us, if you're a media company, or a full time content creator, maybe the podcast is your actual product. Regardless, these seven tips will apply. So let's get right into them.
Tip number one. This is a concept that I heard over and over again at Podcast Movement. So I want to just start with it. Feed drops. Now if you have never heard that concept before, feed drops are essentially where you will publish an external audio file. So an audio file that maybe somebody else created. Maybe it's an episode that was previously aired on someone else's show. Or maybe it's just you know, a brand new audio file that someone else created that you are publishing as a native episode on your own show. So it's like they're literally taking an outside episode and just dropping it into your own feed. I hope that makes sense. So feed drops are really cool for four main reasons. And I'm just going to quickly run through all the use cases I see for feed drops, we've actually done this ourselves, both paid feed drops, as well as unpaid feed drops. So I'm going to kind of talk about that real quick.
The first reason I really love the drops is they are a great way to collaborate with your fellow podcasters. If you're looking to grow your show, with new listeners who already listen to podcasts. So this is something I've said before, but if you are trying to grow your podcast, the easiest way to do that is to attract existing podcast listeners and get them to add your show to their weekly rotation. Right. It's much harder to pull somebody into your podcast who doesn't already listen to podcasts because it's asking them to adopt a brand new behavior. So with feed drops, it's really awesome because you can collaborate with someone else in your space, or maybe even someone outside of your niche, who shares you know, a similar demographic or psychographic for the people you would like to attract to your podcast as listeners. And you can publish one of your episodes on their podcast feed so that it gets delivered to their listeners.
And I think the best part about this is unlike a podcast ad where the host is vouching for you recommending their listeners go check out your show, with a feed drop their listeners get to actually experience what it's like to be a listener of your show. They get to hear an entire episode they get to see or I guess not see, they get to hear what you're like as a host. They get to know your interview style if you happen to be an interview show, or just the way that you deliver content if you are a solo show, but they really get to actually experience what it's like listening to an episode of your show. And then at the end of that episode, if they enjoy what they hear, they will likely go search out your show and actually become a new listener or subscriber. So feed drops are just a really great way to get your podcasts out there in front of new listeners and allow them to fully experience your show.
The second reason that I think the drops are amazing is because it's an opportunity for you to monetize your podcast outside of podcast ads. So if you play at all in the sponsored content space, if you are interested in pursuing brand deals or partnering with brands, fee drops can be a really great way for you to test the waters of that. So instead of someone paying you to record a 30 to 6o second podcast ad, for example, and aired on your show, instead, someone might give you a full length episode, or audio file for you to publish as an episode on your show as a feed drop. And they'll pay you for that placement, they'll pay you for that distribution of their content to your listeners. So if you already do brand deals, or maybe you're considering doing brand deals, think of this as an additional deliverable that you can propose that you can add to your packages that you're presenting to brands as a monetization option.
Now the third way I've seen feed drops work really well is filling content gaps. When you have an off week, maybe you're on vacation, or maybe you're just running a little bit behind on your content schedule. And you don't want to miss a week, right? You want to stay consistent for your listeners. So instead of just not publishing an episode, that week, you can utilize a feed drop to kind of fill the gap in that content calendar. So this actually happened in real time. While I was at Podcast Movement, I was hanging out with my friend Natalie Franke, who is the host of The Independent Business Podcast, one of my favorite shows. And she happened to have exactly that a gap in her publishing schedule, where she didn't have an episode prepared for the week that we were at the conference. But then, because we were hearing all about feed drops, she was like, "Hey, why don't I just take one of your episodes from cubicle to CEO like one of your listener favorites." So we ended up giving her the podcast interview that we did with Amy Porterfield, because he was loved that case study. I'll link Amy's episode below in our show notes if you haven't listened to that one yet. But it's one of our top reviewed case studies.
So I gave Natalie's team, the audio file for that episode. And then she republished that episode on her podcast, so that that case study can now impact a whole new set of listeners and hopefully introduce some of her listeners to our show. So that's another great way to fill those content gaps either for yourself or to help another creator, another friend in need, who may need, you know, to take a break, take a vacation, and they, you know, might lean on you to provide some content for them in those gaps.
Now, the fourth reason that I love feet drops is because if you have a show that's similar in format to what I do, so as you know, cubicle to CEO or Monday episodes are always case study, guest interviews. So I am typically as the host, always in the interviewer role where I'm asking the questions of our guests. But when I get invited to be on other people's shows, I have the opportunity to be interviewed on those shows that I get to kind of flip seats and actually be the interviewee and be the one answering the questions instead of asking questions. So there are many times where I've come away from a podcast interview on someone else's show where I shared a story or helpful insights that I've maybe never had the chance to talk about on our own show. And I've gone back a few times before to those podcast hosts and said, hey, could I republish the interview that you did for me on your show on cubicle, the CEO, I would love to give our listeners a chance to hear what I shared. And it's a really great way if you are a host of an interview style show for you to shine in the interviewee see, and actually be able to share your expertise. And it allows your listeners to hear you in a different light, too, right. So I think those reasons, our why feed drops are so versatile. And again, they can be paid or unpaid. So I hope if you've never done this before, that you can run with this concept and try it sometime in 2023 or 2024.
All right. The second takeaway that I want to share with you all this one was so interesting, I had never heard this before, but it makes total sense, especially given you know, the the background or the experience that we've had pitching to press. And it's this idea that if you get an exclusive, so maybe an exclusive interview with a guest or maybe a guest who shares exclusive information or data or insights on your show that they've never shared anywhere else. If this guest is a notable guest This is a perfect opportunity for you to actually pitch this exclusive interview to the media. So you can pull out maybe a juicy quote, or tidbit and actually pitch a journalist and say, Hey, we've got an interview airing in, you know, four weeks with so and so on this topic. And in our interview exclusive, they shared some really juicy insights. And I wanted you to have the first opportunity to cover this right.
And the way that I think about it is it's similar to how TV shows or movies will preview their works, their, you know, their new episodes, or new season or their new film to critics and members of the press before the public gets to see it. Because when the press gets to preview these shows in these movies, they get that first look where they're able to essentially have their write up or have their coverage of the new show airing or the new film that came out, they have that story or the article already written so that when the actual movie gets released, or the show gets aired, they can drop their article the same day and be the first on the internet to report on whatever that new content is. So the same could be applied to your podcast, right? Your podcast is just another media channel, it's just another form of content. And so if you have an exclusive, something really juicy that, you know, a lot of people would be interested in, don't be afraid to pitch, an exclusive nugget or a first look, preview to the press. And just make sure that you're finding press platforms or you know, specific newspapers, specific magazines, specific online blogs that are relevant to the actual topic at hand, you want to make sure that their readership or viewership would actually care about, you know, what it is that you are sharing. But this is such a great way to get extra eyeballs, and again, new listeners to your podcast by borrowing other existing audiences.
Alright, number three, this is another kind of like think outside of the box tip that I really loved from Podcast Movement. And it's this idea of using your podcast as a resource for in person organizations. So I can't remember what the person on the panel said. But I'm just going to kind of give like a more broad example that kind of goes along with what the original example was, let's say you have a very niche podcast where you talk about, I don't know, like a, like a very specific, let's say chronic condition, right, maybe only a few 1000 people in the country have this same chronic condition that you do, and you created a whole show about it. And let's say there is a support group out there for this chronic condition or a professional organization, if we were to extrapolate into something a little bit more prevalent, unfortunately, cancer, right?
Like, let's say, you have a podcast for families of cancer survivors, or people who are going through treatment, and maybe you reach out to the American Cancer Association. And you say, Hey, I have a really great podcast resource for families who are going through this right now, is there a way that we can partner to bring this content to the people that you serve in your professional organization? So that's a way to like think outside the box of who could be a beneficiary essentially, of the content that you create on your podcast? And how can you reach them in ways offline? How can you reach them in the groups that they're already part of in person? So that's one concept.
This other idea is thinking about? Where is audio consumption already a natural behavior. And one of the most common examples of this would be if you're in the car, right? A lot of people listen to podcasts in the car, when they're driving places when they're commuting when they're on road trips. I think podcasts are becoming more and more popular to listen to, as an alternative to listening to music. And so when you think about it this way, an idea that I heard surfaced at Podcast Movement was there, I can't again, I'm apologize that I can't remember the specific people who shared these thoughts or gave these examples. But I remember there was one person who had a podcast, they had found some way to partner with a rideshare app. It wasn't Uber or Lyft. I know that it was like another more novel, one, maybe a newer one.
But they were able to partner with this rideshare app and essentially, have their podcast be the default playlist that would play in the app of this particular rideshare service provider. And so the drivers who drive for this rideshare app, you know, they have the app open literally, between you know, four to eight hours a day depending on how many hours a day they're doing Driving people around. And if your podcast is the automatic playlist that's playing in the background, can you imagine how many listen hours how many downloads you're getting every single day from that just running in the background for hours and hours, you know, seven days a week, 365 days a year across so many different cars. It's mind blowing. And again, this is an example of being able to think outside the box in terms of podcast growth. So that was a huge one that just like totally blew my mind. I never had even thought about it. But now it's really got me thinking like, what are some native app integrations or partnerships that we can really be looking out for to, again, get our podcasts in front of new people, but not necessarily rely only on online channels, social media channels.
Oh my gosh, I feel like we already did a masterclass and like podcast growth in the last 15 minutes. But the fourth thing that I wanted to share from Podcast Movement is, this is more of a just like a quick tip to be aware of Apple Search. This is really important for discoverability in the Apple podcast app, right, the Apple podcast app is still the number one app where people listen to podcasts. And so the easier you can make it for someone to find your show, the better off you'll be. So something to note is that in Apple Search, like when people are typing in, you know, a keyword or a name, and they're trying to find something, Apple searches only looking at the keywords that you put in your show and episode titles. In your author fields. That's the only place they're pulling from when someone is doing a keyword search. They are not pulling keywords from your show description or your show notes. So this is really important. And this comes back to being really intentional with how you name your podcast episodes, you want to think about what might someone be typing into the search bar that I would want this particular episode or my show to show up in.
So you really want to optimize keywords in your episode and show titles and also make sure that you're tagging your guests in the author fields. So that those are also their names are also coming up in search results. But it's less important trying to optimize for keywords in the show notes or your descriptions because those are actually not pulling into the search process. Another kind of quick add on to this is someone on a panel shared like if you have the word, the at the beginning of your podcast title, maybe consider removing it if it doesn't necessarily add extra clarity to your show.
For example, our podcasts used to be titled the cubicle, the CEO podcast. But we realized that was really redundant because obviously first of all, if someone is searching our podcast name in a podcast app, they know it's a podcast, right? Like we don't need to tell them that. And then second of all, our brand name is cubicle to CEO. Our brand name is not the cubicle to CEO, right and so adding the word VA was not only not necessarily congruent with what our brand name actually is, but also it's making it more difficult for people to find us in search results. Because you know if the is the first keyword in your podcast title, when someone searches for example, let's go back to our podcast name. It's now cubicle to CEO but back when it was the cubicle to CEO podcast, if someone typed in CEO, even though that's part of our podcast name, because the first word of our podcast title was not SEO. It wasn't even cubicle it was just a random arbitrary word, the right, we didn't show up in search results when people were typing in, like SEO or cubicle, or at least we weren't showing up at the top. And so again, you're really wanting to think of how can I make my show more discoverable to new listeners. So maybe just something to quickly audit about your own show, see if you can remove that or remove really any unnecessary words from your podcast title to make it easier for people to find you.
Number five, this one was a huge aha moment for me, but it also requires a little bit of extra context. So this is why I wanted to bring this one up. I learned that what most impacts search results and rankings. So if you care about being on the charts, if you care about showing up higher on the list when people search keywords that are related to your show, what Apple looks for is the total number of all time followers on your show. That's The metric that they're basing those rankings in search results off of, not the number of ratings and reviews on your show. So this is interesting, because if you notice you listen to any podcasts, including ours, we're guilty of this as well. Almost always, the call to action for supporting the show is, hey, can you rate our podcast? Can you review our podcast, right? And Apple's basically saying, Look, you can get all the ratings and reviews that you want. But ultimately, we're looking at the total number of subscribers to your show, or especially new subscriber growth. And that is what's actually impacting your ranking on the charts. So this is really interesting.
First thing to clarify, too, is that both Apple and Spotify are moving away from the word subscribers. When it comes to people who are subscribed to your show, it's the same action, but they're calling it followers now. So you may have already noticed that we have, you know, started referring to the action that way, like follow our show, but because it's still kind of like a newer term, and people still refer to people as like, subscribe to our podcast, just know that if you're follower or subscriber, those terms are kind of interchangeable. But the terminology Officially, the way that the apps are actually moving towards is followers. For example, in Apple podcast right now, if you go to follow a show, it's the plus button in the top right hand corner. So actually, while you're listening to this, if you don't mind, double check that you have clicked that plus button on our show. If you have, it means you're subscribed. So you'll see a checkmark, replace the plus button if you are successfully subscribed to someone show, if you go to someone's show, and even if you're listening to their episodes, even if you're a regular listener of their episodes, if you see a plus button in the corner, it means you're actually not subscribed. So make sure you take the time to hit that plus button and look for the checkmark. And that means that you are officially subscribed to that person's podcast, because that is actually the best way according to Apple itself to support your favorite shows.
Now, what's interesting here is in the new iOS, that's going to release soon, Apple is going to add the word follow next to that plus button to make it a little bit more intuitive to podcast listeners. Because as you can imagine, a plus button is not intuitive, necessarily to everyone, as the way to subscribe to someone show or to follow someone's show. So they're going to actually add the word in there to make it crystal clear. That is what they want you to press to follow someone's job. So that's just a heads up for all of you podcasters. As you're thinking about your call to actions, make sure you're using the right terminology, make sure you're telling people to hit the Follow button, not the subscribe button, when you're asking them to subscribe your show. Again, same action, just different wording.
Now, back to this idea of how new followers and total followers is what really dictates your chart rankings. So if you take that at surface level, it's easy to then assume Okay, so ratings and reviews don't matter period. Like we should just stop asking for that. And only focus on getting new followers to our show. And actually there was someone I think on a panel at Podcast Movement who said something to that effect. But I actually strongly disagree with this. And I'll tell you why. I think that this is a great example of why always preach over and over again, that context is Queen, context is everything. When it comes to filtering through the many tips and pieces of advice that you'll get in your business, including what you're hearing on our show today. I always encourage you to look at everything through the lens of context, right. So in this particular case, followers is something you should be striving for if you want to rank on the charts, and that is going to be a big focus for us moving forward. Now that we understand how that metric directly affects our rankings, and how high we show up in search results.
That being said, it does not mean we're going to totally ignore ratings and reviews because the truth is, even though charts don't care about your ratings and reviews, there are other parties who do care and who are affected by the number of ratings and reviews that you have. And to right off the bat that I can think of our new listeners. So like when a new listener comes to your show and looks at your show page for the first time in Apple podcasts, whether or not they're consciously aware of it, the number of ratings and what your show is rated like if your shows rate of five stars and you have hundreds or even 1000s of reviews. Your show automatically has more credibility in the eyes of that new follower or new subscriber right they're much more likely to give your show a chance. It's just that instant, brand or instant show credibility in the same way that media feed jurors and press mentions give brands more authority more credibility. So same idea here, right, it matters in making a good first impression to a first time show listener.
Now, the other party that I can think of that is very interested in your ratings and reviews, is if you ever want to monetize your show, with ads, or with brand sponsorships, brands also will look at and use your ratings and reviews as a metric to reflect how successful your show is, and what kind of audience engagement you have on your show. It's also really helpful for brands to actually read the reviews, and hear what exactly your listeners are resonating with when it comes to you as a show host, as well as the content that your show produces. So just keep that in mind that even though ratings and reviews may not necessarily directly impact chart rankings, it still does have merit. And so you do want to think about how you prioritize your call to actions and maybe thinking about, you know, switching things up from time to time, but keeping in mind both aspects, asking people to follow your show, as well as rate and review your show.
By the way, shameless plug here. If you have not rated our show at this time, please take a moment to go to ratethispodcast.com/cubicletoCEO. And you can choose between Apple and Spotify, it will automatically recognize based on your device. And please take a moment to give us a five star rating, you don't even have to write us a review. Of course, we would love to hear from you if you have thoughts to share. But if all you have the energy for is to tap five stars and give us that one click, it would mean the world. So please take a moment to do that. And of course, like I said before, make sure you have hit the Follow button wherever you're listening to this podcast.
We're almost to the end friends. So two more tips that I want to make sure that you know about first Spotify. So we talked a lot about how you get on the charts. For Apple for Spotify, this is something I was not aware of at all, you can actually add engagement polls to your episodes. So it's like native to the app. I don't think we've done this yet, because I literally just learned about this, but I'm just making you aware as well. You can add engagement polls to your episodes, and the more people who interact with your poll, the better chance you have of ranking on the Spotify charts. So that does directly impact Spotify chart rankings. So make sure you're aware that that feature even exists and start using it.
Now, the final takeaway from Podcast Movement I wanted to share is a simple one. This was actually directly from Spotify, they, you know, shared all this amazing data. But one of the things that stood out to me most is that of all the possible ways that technology has evolved to allow us to discover new podcasts and new shows, word of mouth is still one of the top two ways that people are discovering new shows. This is so key because we often you know, try to look for gimmicks and fancy tactics to get our show out there. But the truth is word of mouth is still the reigning way that people are finding out about your show. And that all comes back to the quality of the content that you produce consistently for your people and the depth of the connection they feel to you. Right, we are always more likely to want to support and want to share our friends or people that we care about that we feel some sort of affinity or loyalty to. So make sure that you're really thinking about how can I deepen those relationships with my listeners? How can I make sure that I am producing the best possible content consistently for them content that is so good that they cannot help but want to share it with their peers, with their friends with their family? So that's my word of encouragement that I want to end on is just thinking about how do I really just simplify back to the basics and think about how can I create a show that is worthy of being shared by word of mouth?
All right, thank you all so much for tuning in to another bonus episode of cubicle to CEO. I will catch you guys in our next episode on Monday. Thank you
