How to Define Your Podcast Audience and Listener Persona
Raise your hand if you've heard the term "listener persona." Now, raise your hand if you've heard the phrase and have no idea how it's supposed to apply to you and your podcast.
I'm guessing a lot of you raised your hands.
Don't worry, you've come to the right place for answers to all your questions. First, we're going to lay out the steps on how to develop a listener persona. Then, we're going to discuss how that helps you define your larger podcast audience. By the end of this guide, you'll know exactly who you're talking to.
✴ What is a listener persona?
The term is based on the traditional business phrase, buyer persona: "a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers”. Basically, it's a composition of all your customers, represented as one singular ideal buyer. For podcasts, the term has been adapted to be a "listener persona" as you're likely more concerned with who's listening than buying.
✴ How to develop a listener persona
To define your listener persona, you'll want to create an ideal listener.
Not to fret if you don't have any market research at your disposal for this. Even if your podcast is in development, you can still make an educated guess about your listener persona by employing this fun exercise.
In this exercise, you create a fictional character who would be a diehard fan of your podcast. Someone who never misses an episode and would potentially pay a subscription to listen or receive exclusive content.
This is to be a single ideal listener. You're not defining a section of your audience; so, no phrases like "recent graduates" should appear here. Instead, you'll be thinking in specifics, like, "Becky from Los Angeles."
Step one, think about your general target audience. Now, imagine one person from that group. Got someone in mind?
✴ Let's answer some basic questions first:
What's this person's name?
What's their age? Occupation? Education? Family situation?
What's their financial situation?
✴ Then, we can dive into some more nuanced questions:
How would you describe them? (Helpful tip: to be super quick and clear, think in two-word descriptors. For example, a conscientious parent, an outdoorsy adventurer, or an ethical entrepreneur.)
How would they define themselves?
What are their priorities?
What do they do in their free time?
✴ And finally, some questions geared towards your podcast:
Why do they tune into your podcast every week?
What value are they gaining from your podcast?
How do they engage with the podcast and its community?
Helpful hint: if this exercise is proving difficult for you, think of someone you actually know who you think would love your podcast. Choose someone who would be a fan, even if they didn't know you personally (not someone who would just listen because they're supporting you). Have someone in mind? Try answering these questions based on them.
✴ An example listener persona
Looking at those questions above, let's create a listener persona together. For example's sake, let's say you're hosting a podcast about turning side hustles into full-time businesses, and your focus is on helping women through this process. That's a pretty broad concept, and you're going to have a ton of different types of people listening in. So remember, this is just an example of one of those listeners. Someone who matches up with your intentions at every checkpoint.
With that in mind...let's create our ideal listener.
We'll go with Becky from Santa Monica, California. She moved from Colorado to California when she got accepted to USC's Roski School of Art and Design. Now, she's 39, married with two kids under ten, and working as an interior designer. She and her family live in a charming duplex. Right now, her side hustle is her passion project: she wants to build her own brand of home decor.
Becky is an efficient businesswoman, but also a heartfelt creative. She wants to not only create beautiful and affordable (like, actually affordable) decor for the house, but also to help young and busy moms like herself find little ways to incorporate design throughout their lives. Professionally, her priority right now is to her day job; she can't afford to quit outright. And she's not willing to sacrifice her family time with her kids and husband. So her passion project has to be done in the early hours or late at night. But that's okay with her--she's willing to set the alarm clock for 5am. If she ever has an hour or two to herself on the weekends, she enjoys gardening, baking, and reading autobiographies of great women in history.
On her commute, Becky listens to every episode of the podcast for two reasons: she loves the host, who feels like both the cheerleader and the no-bullshit friend she needs, and because every week she is given a challenge to complete. There's no self-help fluff here, just actionable advice to help her take advantage of the few hours a week she has for her business. Becky especially likes the Facebook group, where she can connect with other listeners of the podcast. Every week, they all chime in on how the challenge went for them, which keeps her accountable.
Whew. That was a lot, right? But you can see Becky in your head, can't you? Now, when you sit down to think about your podcast, you're not talking to the nebulous void. You have a real person you can target your words toward.
Now, try this exercise again. And one more time. And one more after that. Ideally, create 3-5 listener personas, so you have a range. Don't make them all working moms like Becky. Make one for the college student who's working on a business proposal while still in school. One for the retired teacher who's finally pursuing her passion.
Don't get bogged down with too many, but create enough personas to get a sense of the different facets of your audience. Speaking of your audience at large...
✴ How to define your podcast audience
Now that you have an idea of your listener personas, you can expand upon that to get a better understanding of your more general audience.
Take a look at your listener personas. Note the similarities between them. Are most of them women? Moms? Recent graduates? The answers will depend on what your podcast is about, but despite the differences between the personas, you should start to see trends.
From this, you can define your podcast audience in the broader sense. It's helpful to do this after you create listener personas, though, because those ideal listeners give you the specificity to identify who you really want to reach. It's not just "moms" but "young moms who are working full-time jobs." Or maybe it's not "recent graduates" but instead "recent graduates who are entering the financial field."
Whatever it is, in defining your audience, never forget about the specific listeners. Once you have a good grasp on this, you'll never have to wonder if you're going off-topic. Just ask yourself, would Becky find this useful? If the answer is yes, then you know you'll get another five-star review.
Want to kick start your new podcast? Our checklist helps you launch your podcast in 30 days. Grab it here.
LIKED THIS ARTICLE? DOWNLOAD OUR FREE PODCASTING GUIDES
Guide to Growth & Monetization The Best Podcast Equipment 2022 The Ultimate Production Checklist Vocal Warm-ups for Podcasters Target Listener Persona Template The Best Podcast Tools 2022