In this week’s episode of The Podcast Trapper, I discuss something that I hope you’re super familiar with…
Podcast listener reports.
Wait! If you don’t know about these yet, welcome to the wonderful world of podcast listener data. And this data is very important. Because these stats have great power to us Podcast Creators.
The most popular source for these reports is Edison Research, and I will specifically be discussing the Women’s Podcast Report as it was released in December 2022. You are going to want to subscribe to Edison’s survey newsletter to receive these reports in your inbox.
What are Podcast Listener Reports?
These are surveys about important podcast statistics. They are fascinating and informative, because they give creators and producers important info on who’s listening and how.
I want to give you some amazing examples from these reports that inspired me to assess our production and marketing strategies here at Adode Media.
Stat: 74% of women are listening to podcasts with a video element
Okay, this is interesting - because it is confirmation of my Podcast Predictions for 2023. It really does seem like listeners are craving video and short-form content. This is great information for anyone starting a new show this year. If you’re not considering adding a video element, why not? Could you figure out how to pivot and add video as part of your listener experience?
Stat: 40% of women listen to podcasts with headphones
You might be like, okay, why is this important? Well if you’re someone who is obsessed with audio quality like me, you’ll see that this can affect how you control your volume. This tells us creators that we may need to be extra thoughtful about how we produce our sound, because no one wants to have their ears blown out!
Stat: 48% of women listeners say they would feel more favorable about a brand if they knew it advertises on podcasts hosted or produced by women.
This is great info because it can affect the advertisers we choose. Sure, we hear lots of people promoting the predictable ones, the BetterHelp ads, the Squarespace ads. But this could be great news for small businesses and local shops who are curious about advertising to podcast listeners. As we know, women make a lot of the buying decisions in families - and if they’re the ones with the power to buy, advertisers need to take note.
Okay, so now you can clearly see WHY these stats are essential to being a top podcast creator. We’re getting some solid information that we can use to our advantage!
But Wait! Where are the People of Color?
The thing is, these stats are…a little bit vague
“Women listeners,” okay, cool! But like…which women? As someone trying to work towards an equitable and diverse future, I would like to glean information about who’s tuning in.
A lot of people might be tempted to say, this is good enough. This information is fine. And it is fine. But it’s not amazing! And I see some exciting opportunities for improvement.
I said it myself in this week’s episode: “When it comes to race, our culture plays a big role in how we listen to content and what type of content we’re listening to. When people report on women, and report on certain demographics, they don’t usually include anything about how many of these women are black. Or how many of these women were hispanic. Or how many of these women were white women. It’s important because it ties into the type of content we listen to!”
I want to know if Black women are listening in, and how. Are Asian women listening differently than white women? Are Hispanic women consuming different content than Black women? Maybe, or maybe not. But we would not know, because we don’t yet have this type of detail in our reports.
In the past few years, there have been like one or two reports that get a bit more specific. I’m referring to the Latino Podcast Listener Report of 2022 and the Black Podcast Listener Report of 2021.
They caused a stir, and it was exciting and inspiring - and then it died down. There is no consistency in how we gather data about race and demographics for podcast listeners, and I argue that we should be gleaning as much as possible from survey responders.
All of this said, I love Edison reports. They’re doing an excellent job gathering this information for us! I’m not bashing anybody.
But let’s have the conversation about how we can drive this industry forward, because I think our community needs this information! It’s essential, and it affects how we do business and create content for our listeners.
Who is Asking the Questions, and Who is Answering Them?
So I’m an avid reader of these reports. But…guess who has never once received a survey asking me for my listening habits?
ME.
Not ever! Not one time! In fact, if you’re reading this, please tell me whether or not you’ve received them. Maybe it’s time to do a survey on who is being surveyed.
My suggestion here is, what if organizations created surveys and asked community leaders to disseminate them to their listeners? I would be so excited if an organization came to me and surveyed Black podcast listeners.
This data could really make a difference.
Thanks for tuning in
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