Klaas from the RPG Heroesasks, "Do I need a custom website for my podcast?"
TL;DR While many podcasters are under the impression that getting more reviews in Apple Podcasts leads to a higher position on the podcast charts (or even inclusion in the New & Noteworthy section), those things are not influenced by the number of podcast reviews you have.
So what purpose do podcast reviews serve? Podcast reviews are one way to see what your listeners think about your podcast and serve as "social proof" to encourage new podcast listeners to subscribe.
The more 5-star reviews your podcast has, the more likely someone new is going to download an episode of your podcast and become a dedicated listener.
The best way to track your podcast reviews is with www.MyPodcastReviews.com. There you can see all of your reviews, from every country, and every app that allows listeners to leave you a review (Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Castbox, and Podchaser).
In today's episode, you'll learn how to get more podcast reviews and Where to Find Them. Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, where you learn the best tips and strategies to launch, grow and monetize your podcast. This week's question comes from Klaas.
Klaas :
Hey Buzzsprout its Klaas here from RPG heroes. I have a question. How do I easily see what kind of reviews people have left me on different platforms? And I guess as a follow up question, how do I actually get people to leave reviews especially on iTunes?
Gilon :
Thanks. Thanks for your question, Klaas. So podcast reviews are one way to see how your listeners Think about your podcast. They also serve as a sort of personal endorsement that encourages new listeners to subscribe. So in this episode, we're going to look into how to see all of your podcast reviews as well as how to encourage your listeners to leave a review. Easiest way to see all of your podcast reviews is with the software called my podcast reviews. This lets you easily see all of your reviews from Apple podcasts, Stitcher, cashbox, and pod chaser, also, it lets you see all of your reviews from all over the world, not just the country that you're in. So if you're in the US and someone from your audience in the UK leaves you a review, there's no way that you're going to be able to see it, which is a total bummer. Instead, if you use my podcast reviews, they allow you to see that review from your listener from the UK, you can capitalize on that and use it in your podcast or however you'd like to use it. I have personally used my podcast reviews to see the reviews left on my podcast. In addition to all the other benefits that we've already talked about, I personally really enjoyed that I would get an alert or an email whenever a new review is left on my podcast. A lot of times if you're not checking up on your podcast and the review section, you're not really sure when people have left in your review. My podcast reviews lets you know these are the new podcast reviews that have been left from these different areas in the world. And I really enjoyed that feature. So feel free to check it out. You can try it for free for 14 days to see if it's something that you would really like to use for your podcast. So now we're gonna get into three strategies to encourage your listeners to leave you that solid five star review. So strategy number one, ask them at the end of every episode, sort of like a call to action. What I like to do with my podcast is I get to the end of whatever plan content I have. And then I say, hey, if this has been good, if you've enjoyed this, Hey, why don't you just leave us a review on Apple or Stitcher wherever you listen that allows you to leave a review. One of the things that I've learned to do is to give people some sort of direction on how to leave a review on the different platforms that they listen to, because sometimes people don't know how to do it and they're not going to they don't know how. But if I tell you hey, on Apple, this is how you leave review on Stitcher. Go here, click this button, hit submit. They're much more likely to leave a review and tell me what they're thinking about the podcast. Strategy number two, read high quality reviews on your podcast. So on a particular podcast that I listened to called the how married Are you podcast, they make an entire segment with really great music behind reading people's reviews that they've left on public. caste and it's a really cool way to get people to leave a review, but it also builds some really great community around the podcast, I think people are really encouraged to leave a review, especially with the hope of getting on the podcast and having their review read. So reading high quality reviews is a really good strategy. Strategy number three, you can run a review contest. So this is where you offer a basic incentive, right? So you can say at the end of your episode, Hey guys, we're going to pick one lucky reviewer and they're going to get like a podcast t shirt or some sort of merge for their review, or something a little bit more cost effective. Hey, you get to pick a future episode topic for the podcast. And this, my friends is how you can get eight avalanche of five star reviews. Thanks so much for your question. Klaas. If you have a question that you would like us to answer on a future episode of the podcast, please go to speak pipe comm slash Buzzsprout or you can click the link in the show notes and leave us an audio message Podcasting Q&A is available in both audio and video formats. So if you like watching video, definitely subscribe. to the Buzzsprout YouTube channel. If you prefer podcasts, Podcasting Q&A can be found in your favorite podcast app. And please leave us a review in pod chaser to let us know how we can make the show even better. That's it for today. Thanks for listening and as always keep podcasting