How to Determine and Showcase Your Podcast's Competitive Advantage
It's no secret there are a lot of podcasts out there today. In fact, it's a dilemma that often stops would-be podcasters in their tracks--if there's so much content already, what else is there to be offered?
It's a valid question to ask, but it shouldn't be a deterrent. Instead, it should help motivate you to find a way to differentiate your podcast from the crowd. Everyone is unique, and therefore, everyone's podcast has the potential to be, as well. Your uniqueness is your competitive advantage.
Now, it's just about learning how to determine your competitive advantage and then finding a way to showcase it.
✴ How is your listener persona unique?
If you try to cater to everyone as your audience, you'll end up having no one in your audience. You need to be specific and know who you're talking to.
In other words, how is your listener persona different from everyone else's?
You can read our guide on how to create a listener persona for a more in-depth explanation, but for our purposes here, a listener persona is an imaginary audience member who is your ideal listener. This isn't a general idea of an audience, like "twenty-something women who want to live a healthier life." This is much more specific, like "Ashley, a 22-year-old recent graduate who wants to live a healthier life, but is constricted by budget and time."
Being specific allows you to differentiate your podcast from all the other podcasts about healthy living that are geared towards twenty-somethings. Your specificity is what gives you a competitive advantage because you're differentiating yourself in a way that can make you the go-to destination for your particular brand of content.
So, ask yourself, how can you cater to your specific ideal listener in a natural, authentic way? That will help you showcase your podcast's competitive advantage.
✴ What is your persona?
As important as the listener persona is the person who they'll be listening to--you. (Or, whoever is hosting your podcast. But we'll assume that's you for now.)
What is your personality? Unless your podcast is a really whacky topic, you're likely to be talking about subjects already covered by someone else. That's not to say don't do it; it's just to say that you have to bring something unique to the table if you want people to sit down and listen.
That usually comes from you being unique and original.
The Crooked Media team, no matter your thoughts on them, do a great job of differentiating their podcasts and showcasing their competitive advantages through their hosts' personalities:
Hysteria -- Host Erin Ryan is both a political commentator and a comedy writer, giving her particular take on the news.
Keep It! -- Host Ira Madison III, cultural-critic-turned-podcast-host, draws on a wealth of pop culture knowledge to dissect the news of today.
Lovett or Leave It -- With a lot of self-deprecation and dry humor, Former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett has built up a devoted following as he dissects the news in hilarious weekly breakdowns.
All of these shows are covering the same topics as a hundred other podcasts, but they build a loyal audience because their hosts are speaking directly to a specific group. Crooked Media is like a Netflix of podcasts: they don't care if everyone is watching all of their shows, so long as enough people are listening to each of them.
✴ Build an engaged audience
The keyword here is "engaged." To have listeners is great, but to have engaged listeners is the ideal. It's like the 1,000 true fan philosophy. If you have 1,000 true fans, you're golden.
To continue our case study of Crooked Media, this is one of their strong points. Their listeners aren't just listening, they're engaging daily. Which ensures they come back to listen to weekly podcasts, attend live events, and buy merchandise.
How can you build an engaged audience? By interacting with them authentically. This will likely take place via social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You might also start a Patreon account and interact with listeners through exclusive behind-the-pay-wall content.
If you're just getting started, a Facebook group is a great place to start. You can build a community where listeners can gather and discuss your podcast and other related topics. You want to make your podcast and extended community feel like a place where people can have real relationships. If you can do that, you can pretty much guarantee your show will start to stand out from the crowd.
✴ Content is king
All of this aside, content is still king. You could have an ideal listener persona and know what your personal persona is, but you still need quality content. If you don't, people will realize it sooner rather than later and tune out.
A great way to see if you're adding value? Listen and learn from others. No one creates in a vacuum. If you're hosting a self-help podcast, I'd bet you've listened to a thousand other self-help podcasts and felt you could add something to the conversation. But now that you are, really reflect on your content and compare it to some of your favorite shows. Are you providing the same level (or, ideally, even more) value to your listeners?
Make sure every episode you put out into the world is filled with valuable content. What's considered valuable runs the gambit--it could be providing informative investigative reporting, or it could be presenting an entertaining comedy show. Whatever it is your audience is tuning in for, though, make sure you're delivering.
✴ Bring on high-value guests
If you really want to establish a competitive edge over other podcasts in your field, bringing on the right guests can help differentiate you a ton. Especially if you have unusual connections that your competitors don't.
Step one here is to vet your guests and make sure you're bringing them on for the right reasons. Do your research ahead of time, know what they'll bring to the table, and don't feel like you have to bring on every potential guest you come across. Your audience will be appreciative of you bringing on exciting guests, but if you start filling the slots with people who don't provide real value, your audience will turn to someone else’s podcast.
✴ Don't overlook the basics: a good title, attractive logo, clean copy
Last but certainly not least: never underestimate the power of a good title and an appealing logo. Yes, we've all heard to never judge a book by its cover--but let's be real, we all judge books by their covers.
The very first thing a potential listener will see is your podcast title and art. These alone might not be enough to convince someone to listen, but if they're done poorly, they're certainly enough to convince someone not to listen. You don't want to give a potential listener any reason to skim over your podcast before giving it a chance, so make sure to choose these with care.
After the title and art, an excellent podcast description will do wonders to help showcase your podcast's competitive advantage. You want to give potential listeners just enough information to convince them to press play so they can learn more.
✴ The takeaway
At the end of the day, the best way to determine your podcast's competitive advantage is to determine what makes you and your message unique. After that, it's about executing your plan and adding value to your audience's life.
If you can do all of that and manage to do it in a way that creates a loyal fan-base, you’ll be on your way to the top of the charts in no time.
If you want to start building your Listener Persona today, we have a free template to help you get started. Download it now.
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