How the coronavirus is impacting podcast downloads

Travis:   0:00
today on five minute Mondays, we'll talk about the impact that the Corona virus is having on podcast listening around the world. Welcome to five minute Mondays. We bring the best tips and strategies for building a podcast in five minutes or less. So if you're new here, consider subscribing. And this week I wanted to talk about the Corona virus. Not because no one is talking about it. Everyone's talking about it, but because it has had an impact on podcasters has had an impact on podcasting in general. And so I just wanted to let you know that if you've seen a shift or a change in your download numbers, or how your podcasts and being consumed, you're not alone. And so I just want to dive into what some of those effects are. And some things that are gonna continue to be important moving forward. And the first big takeaway for podcasters is that this is impacting everyone around the world. This isn't like an isolated thing where it's only happening in one country or another. This is a global pandemic, and so as a result, everyone is being affected. And not only that, but as countries are locking down there, keeping people from even going toe work that's disrupting everyone's habits specifically, in our case, there listening habits. So if you go to the gym and that's where they listen to their podcasts, they're not anymore. If podcast for what kept them interested in entertained on their way to work, they don't have a commute right now. And so right now we're seeing the brunt of the impact simply because everyone is developing new schedules, new habits and trying to figure out how to operate in the coming weeks. Now, in the future, we will go back to work. People will start listening to podcasts more consistently again. But those new habits that are formed during this Corona virus during these quarantines ah, lot of those will stick. Ah, lot of people will no longer be going into the office because now they're just gonna continue working from home. Some people will let their gym membership expire and they won't go work out anymore. That's gonna happen. And so if you're down, low numbers are lower. Think they normally would be? That's normal. That's we're seeing that across every single podcast, every single genre, except for the few that have popped up specifically talking about the Corona virus. So you are not alone were all experiencing that. But then the second thing that I want you to take away from kind of what we're seeing in the podcasting face right now is that you're loyal. Listeners are still listening. If you're getting any downloads at all those air coming from people that, in spite of everything that is going on has said, you know what? This podcast is so important to me. I'm gonna make sure I listen to new episodes when they come out. So you can very clearly see just with the difference in your down low numbers who your loyal fans are now. A couple of years ago in Europe, this happened with email addresses where, you know, online marketers and businesses were they would get your email address one time, and then they'd hold it forever and continue to send you marketing materials. Well, Europe said, No, no, no, no. If you're gonna send somebody something, they need to give you direct consent saying yes, I want to hear from you. And so what happened was a lot of these giant enormous email lists got pared down because they had asked people, Do you want to stick around? Do you still want to get these emails? And only a small percentage of them said, Yeah, I do want to keep getting those e mails. And so on the surface, it felt like a step backwards because the, you know, if you had an email list that probably shrunk down. But then when you realized is that e mails are now much more valuable, whereas before you could get you know what, somebody's email address? A dime a dozen. Now, when someone gives you their email address and says, Yes, I want to hear from you that email address is much more valuable, and the same thing is gonna happen with listeners and with downloads. And so the people that continue to listen to your episodes, those of the people that really appreciate what you're doing, and they're the reason you should continue to make episodes. If you've been considering going on a break, I would encourage you to do everything you can to continue to show up for your audience because they're counting on you. They want a sense of normalcy. They want a sense of, you know, just normal life, what they're used to and for a lot of people. They're looking for an escape, something they can listen to that takes them out of the current situation, where you don't have to be thinking about the latest infection numbers or things like that. They just want to hear your wrestling podcast. They want to hear your golf podcasts. I want to hear your home schooling podcast. Whatever it is that you do, that's what your listeners want to hear, so continue to show up for them, continue to serve them. And then when we get through this on the other side of this, podcasting will come back. People will start listening again. Your numbers will bounce back. Everyone is experiencing this together, and so you're certainly not alone. Well, that is it for today. Hit the subscribe button. If you're watching this on YouTube, or you can subscribe to the five minute money's podcast on your favorite app to squeeze even more podcast related content into your life. And then if you have something you'd like for us to cover our future episode of the podcast, we've actually just moved over to speak Pipe Speak Pipe is a software that allows you to leave us a voicemail, and then we can take that audio recording and actually use it in the podcast episode. So I have to do is go to speak pipe dot com slash buzz sprout, and I'll live a link in the show notes as well, so you can click on over, send us your question, and we would love to incorporate you in the future episode. Thanks for listening and is always keep podcasting.