10 Ways To Keep Your Podcast Listeners Engaged

We explore the top 10 ways to engage podcast listeners while sharing insights from personal experience in the podcasting world. The discussion reveals why authenticity trumps production quality and how building community can transform your podcast marketing strategy.

• Ask for feedback and reviews once you've built an audience beyond family and friends
• Encourage listeners to share your podcast on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Alignable
• Partner with sponsors through value exchanges like the Michigan Renaissance Festival ticket arrangement
• Consider offering exclusive content and early access to episodes for dedicated listeners
• Host live events or Q&A sessions where listeners can interact in real time
• Create community spaces where listeners can connect with each other and with you
• Minimize editing to maintain authenticity and save countless production hours
• Remember podcasting is a long-game strategy requiring consistency and commitment
• Focus on finding your unique identity and voice rather than perfect production
• Stay committed—most podcasts fail after just three episodes

Check out the Michigan Renaissance Festival and come network with us at Networking with Kids, first Thursday of every month at Jungle Java where business people can bring their children while making valuable connections.

“Whistles In The West” was written, recorded, and produced by Durracell, exclusively for use with Trader Stu’s platform, always rocking the cowboy hat. The track is protected under U.S. Copyright rights to use have been granted specifically to Trader Stu for content and promotional use related to his brand and media presence.

contact:
 📧 durracellmusic@gmail.com
🌐 www.durracell.com

The Michigan Renaissance Festival
Experience the Michigan Renaissance Festival, where history and fantasy collide!

The thoughts and views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and do not reflect the official policy or position of Metro Trading Association. Although the host is an employee of Metro Trading, this podcast is intended to educate entrepreneurs on the benefits of professional trading, regardless of their location. Additionally, the host reviews various pieces of camping gear due to the association of trade, barter, and prepping.

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction and Sponsors
• 4:07 Top 10 Ways to Engage Podcast Listeners
• 6:42 Sponsorships and Content Monetization
• 14:31 Building Community Through Live Events
• 19:18 Interactive Content and Listener Submissions
• 23:31 Contests, Meet-ups and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

Hello and welcome back to the Trading Post. I am your host, trader Stu. Welcome to the show. Alright, take two. I did it. I'm that guy. I recorded.

Speaker 1: 0:38

So my microphone wasn't plugged in. I plugged it in, but my recording app that I use I use Camtasia did not recognize that I plugged in my microphone and didn't manually select it. So I recorded a whole episode off of the microphone, off my laptop, and it sounded like garbage and generally see, when you're new you kind of get away with this because no one's going to listen to your stuff. Maybe, probably. But you know you got three people and you're just like whatever, screw it, I'm going to upload it, just to upload it. But you know you got three people and you're just like whatever, screw it, I'm gonna upload it, just to upload it. But you know, here we are, I'm re-recording it anyway, real quick.

Speaker 1: 1:15

This episode is sponsored by the michigan renaissance festival, so if you haven't been there yet, check that out. My tickets are coming to me soon for giveaways, hand handouts et cetera. It's also sponsored by the Metro Trading Association. I'm recording this at lunch and so I figured they're sponsoring it because I'm using their time. So there's that. And then what else Networking with kids.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Come on out First Thursday of the month, jungle java, where I am hosting an event me and actually uh, dr uh mary with suzy hughes kids are hosting an event where you can bring your kids networking with you and pass out business cards and they can watch you network or learn how to network, or they can just go play and, uh, there's a basketball court there, so, and, of course, the tunnels and slides, so kids of all ages toddlers area too actually can come and if you want, you know, watch the kids and uh pass out business cards. And, of course, get prepped. Why are they? Uh, I mentioned them. I'm gonna be in her video game. She's actually writing me into the video game. I'm going to be the trader at the trading post. That's pretty cool and if you haven't considered it yet, if you're looking for a marketing piece, check her out. And she's an alignable. It's called Get Prepped, where she will write you into her game for a fee and then your business will be, or billboard will be, in the game, and an average lifespan of a game is five years. She said so for the amount of I think it's 20 grand you can get in your video, this video game that's going to be played by millions of people and you get big name recognition in it. It's kind of like when disney bought was that, I think, 20 million dollars or something that they spent on an island in fortnight, something crazy like that. It's a disney island and, uh, you, it's not that much money, but you get to get in the game and so, in exchange for telling people about the game, I'm getting written in her game and I get to be the trading post guy, the trader. So very, very cool and what else we got here.

Speaker 1: 3:38

I want to go over a few things with you, actually. 10. I came across an article about the top 10 ways to engage your podcast listeners. So this podcast is being recorded on the season and episode for network marketing and podcasting. I haven't decided yet, you know what. I didn't mention the season yet because I don't know if it's going to be my experience on season three podcasting and how it works out for using a podcast for marketing, or is it going to be the sales, marketing and networking season? Definitely not season one, which is trade, education and member spotlights. But yeah, I haven't decided yet where this is going to go yet, so it doesn't really matter. Let's get into it All right.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Number one they said ask for feedback and reviews. Now, this will work if you have some kind of audience, at least more than your mom and dad and maybe your brother and sister or whatever but at least this gives you a better understanding of what your listeners like and don't like about your podcast. One thing to consider, though you can't please everybody, so be careful on what you do, because you can't like it doesn't. You can't appease everybody, right? So you're going to chase your tail all around if you, every time someone has a suggestion for you and you go for it and you bite. You can't do that. It's not how that works. Okay, so maybe get like a few.

Speaker 1: 5:09

If, like, you get a trend and they'll say you know, hey, maybe you should talk about this instead, or I don't think you know enough about this topic, maybe you're whatever, I don't know, and uh, so you know, at least you have a way of once you get your podcast rolling. I don't mean, like, you got three episodes, you haven't even really got started yet. You got to get past three, because most podcasts fail at three. So the cool thing is, if you follow numbers, I think there's like 250,000 podcasts worldwide, right, but only like 70,000 of those, or something like that, are active and that's worldwide. Then you niche it down a bit more, then you only got maybe a thousand, a couple thousand. That's doing what you do. Then you niche it down a bit more, then you only got maybe a thousand a couple thousand. That's what doing what you do. Then you niche it down a bit more. So that's why you got an. You know, get it down, whittle it down to what you want to talk about and and make it so you can always talk about it for a predetermined amount of time, enough episodes once a week, every other week, and then go from there. But yeah, anyway, I digress Encourage listeners to share your podcast with their friends on social media. Of course that helps grow your audience and get some more exposure.

Speaker 1: 6:16

Well, yeah, so my idea was when I first started Stew in the D, which was where I was going around Metro Detroit and doing all the different festivities, activities and things to do. I wanted to have local artists do the background track right, or the intro music or whatever, and I can mention them. Like the intro that you heard with the whistling that was brought to you by Duracell. He's in the description. You can click on his link. He also does first sale marketing, which is, uh, he builds websites. But he's also singer, songwriter, guitarist and, uh, he wrote this, the jingle for me. Um, just a deal we made right, so, and he's also part of metro trading Association as well, so it's working.

Speaker 1: 7:10

I mean, I don't know how much business he's going to get from me, but I hope that he says hey, one day. This will be so cool. And if he ever says hey, someone said they heard me on your podcast and they wanted me to do an intro music for them as well. And you know, thanks, cool, that's all I need. Dude Like perfect. Then it worked. You know, maybe that's all I need. Dude like perfect. That didn't work. You know, maybe.

Speaker 1: 7:32

Now on to the next artist that wants to get involved and gets the name out there. So, by the way, our business is right across the street from one of the fire departments in Rochester and for some reason, rochester has a very active fire department. I used to live across the street from the other one, down the road, and it seems like seven times a day these guys are going out. Man, it's crazy. So when you get your friends or your listeners share their podcasts with your links on social media Facebook, maybe, their LinkedIn I'm unalignable, mostly You'll find me there and, yeah, great exposure. Anyway, let's not get too wrapped up in that.

Speaker 1: 8:11

One number three is what I was talking about. Michigan renaissance festival sponsored my podcast. In an exchange, I get tickets right and I get to go to their uh, admin, not admin um, their media media night and, which is cool, it's, I think, open a couple nights before they actually opened the park, which is only for people that they've worked with to sponsor the you know, the Renaissance Festival media. So radio and newspapers, and I've referred them out to other people that I know that, like you know, they're like hey, you know, actually she said the Michigan Renaissance Renaissance Festival ladies like hey, if you want, I would love more marketing. So we're doing podcasts now, uh, and we always do newspapers. If you know anybody else you know that wants to get involved, I'd love to. You know, trade tickets with them, perfect. So I gave their name out to go do that, um, so, and then if I get these tickets, I can offer them to hand them out and, as far as content, I can offer the content and perks behind the scenes access or early access to new episodes. So, let's, I want to talk about this one for a minute. I'm going to get me a drink here and take make this one happen. All right, here's my take on this one. Hmm, all right.

Speaker 1: 9:40

Exclusive content I think that once you get a staff and you get more, that once you get a staff and you get more maybe help with script writing or marketing or whatever you might have more time to do more content and only do content. People that one of pay for it. And then perks I don't know what perks would be. Maybe if you get famous enough, meet and greet, or if you know a business owner and they contact you, maybe you can give them some free episode or free airtime for commercial, something like that. Maybe access I don't know, I don't understand that behind the scenes access and early access to new episodes. So early access to new episodes I I am not in that ballpark, I guess, unless you would do something to where you have some new approach to linkedin and you're like, let's's just say, on LinkedIn, hey, if you do this when you want to connect with people, you'll get a 10% more rate of a lead or a sale or whatever, and you're like you know what that's worth it.

Speaker 1: 11:00

I would like in on that early access because I want to do this for a week or two or whatever, before anybody else has power this kind of power as well to wield around. So that one, I see I get that one, I get that early access on something like that. But I'm one to where I can wait for the movie to come out or even to get cheaper. Instead of paying for it for 25 bucks, I can wait for it to come out for five, sometimes even free. So I'm not, I'm not, I'm not in there. So I'm gonna talk about something and pitch something and support something that I don't know. But, matt, I know, don't know about, but I don't care about, I guess. And behind the scenes, um, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 12:35

If you wanna bring somebody to your podcast, that'd be cool. Yes, one day I'd love to have a mobile podcast studio and get like a, maybe a RV to where I can go to people's buildings and stores or whatever, and then we can do a podcast together and big, overstuffed leather chairs and the class C or the super C my dream would be like a super C. I go with a freight liner, you know truck and have it all decked out in old school like trading post, like log cabin, you know brown leather and like, maybe old, like, like, looks like lanterns on the walls and wood flooring and knotty pine cabinet doors etc. Etc. Etc. Right, make it cool. But also it's a million dollar rig. So I'm long way from that.

Speaker 1: 13:21

Unless I I win the lotto, then maybe I'll just treat myself to my own podcast studio. It's mobile, anyway, I don't know. If you have that kind of money, do you even want to work anymore? Maybe you do. Maybe you work as like, yeah, I make great money doing this podcast, but you know people they don't know you win the lotto Anyway, hosting live events or you can do a Q&A session with your listeners that can interact with you in real time. So I like that.

Speaker 1: 13:47

If you do live podcasts, that is, of course I could do live podcasts. I might try that, because I don't edit anyway. Like I literally upload this into Camtasia, don't edit anyway. Like I literally upload this into Camtasia, I might take out the beginning, if there's like a second or two of like dead air to where I just don't talk right away, or at the end of it. Maybe I didn't end it fast enough, you know, and then I'll just shrink that timeline down, but I don't do any of the like like these sirens in the background. I'm not gonna go back and edit that out. Are you crazy? Who cares? Nobody cares.

Speaker 1: 14:26

And also, by the way, I've noticed I don't like overly produced podcasts. I don't like the ones where you tune in and they got like a 30 second intro. Who cares? Yeah, I mean, you know, or maybe longer than that. It doesn matter. But, like, all I'm saying is it's a big, big to do and everything's like perfect and they, I don't know you can just tell it's edited, edited and chopped up.

Speaker 1: 14:49

And, by the way, if you're trying to get into podcasting and you're also working full time and you're also trying to do this for a, you know, marketing thing, you don't want to over edit, you want to know why. You know how much time editing takes. It's forever, especially the video. If you do video podcasting, my God figure. It's almost like if you get real good, maybe 10 minutes per minute of airtime. Or when I was doing stuff for Snow X, where I was doing the hands-on thing, I would teach how to do everything and then do all the scripting and the writing and the editing and the voiceover. It was like an hour per minute. It was crazy. I was up upstairs in this office for hours for days for a five minute video or whatever you know. So I highly suggest, if you can, don't, don't edit or minute or edit minimally. Besides that, it's more real anyway. So, yeah, I can host, live on to that point.

Speaker 1: 15:46

Uh, creating a community of listeners, uh, for the listeners to connect with each other and with you. Uh, through social media groups, yeah, forums and your websites and through dedicated apps. Okay, okay, I want to talk about this real quick because I've been wanting to do this and I haven't pulled the trigger yet. I don't know why, because why not? But, as I said, I'm big on Alignable and Ambassador and all that stuff right, and I have that. Networking with kids is through Alignable, it's through the group.

Speaker 1: 16:14

I want to do a talking session, q&a, about trade, bartering, whatever, and then that way people can ask me, without being pitched to and salesy, how they could utilize it for them, in front of everybody else, maybe. Or you know, and do Q&A and maybe somebody that's part of Metro Trading Association, you know, comes on and says, hey, I use it for this, and not even that. It doesn't got to be Metro Trading Association, because Alignable is a national program, I think, partially international. I mean, I don't know where they're in Canada, but there's trade groups, several sometimes per state, right. So it doesn't matter if someone's in Colorado and, by the way, we're real closely with the one that's out in Colorado and it's like hey, I'm in the Colorado group and this is how I use trade and this is why I love it and this is why how I use it, this is how I save overhead and time and money. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Perfect dude. Yup, you have the floor right, so I will.

Speaker 1: 17:20

I might do that now that I'm talking out loud. See, this is why I do podcasts sometimes. Sometimes, when you just talk out loud and get out of your own head, you're like you know what? Screw it, I'm gonna do it. So that's a community. You know, there, it's alignable as a community.

Speaker 1: 17:34

And, uh, I'm gonna record that session. So there's the other thing of it too. I'll do the thing with the lineable, I'll record it. And people don't worry about being on video or on youtube because they're. There's no camera, I'm not doing the screen recording. I'm recording the audio and just upload it, and maybe that'll be god. What season would that be, though? If it's, if it's long enough, it might be a season four here. I wanted to keep this thing to season three. I do the seasons for categories, not for seasons, but to make everything so you can kind of click through, although I've noticed that I don't see any of the podcasting platforms that allow you to search by season. It's just a chronological order. Anyway, I digress. What else can we talk about here? Hmm, anyway, I digress. What else can we talk about here?

Speaker 1: 18:25

Offer listener-generated content, such as a segment where you read listener-submitted stories or answer listener-submitted questions. For me, because I don't see, maybe, that if I get an email and like, hey, you can go ahead and mention this on your podcast, and here's my story about being in trade or whatever, or how I used my success with using a podcast for marketing. It's a thing out there. People are talking about it, I've heard of it and nobody is doing it, it seems like because it's a pretty big time commitment and it's a long burn. Right, it's a long game. You got to be committed and you got to get the algorithms that like you to push your content and you got to stay consistent and blah, blah, blah. So I say, if you can do it, do it, try it, hit record, do 10 episodes and power through man, get her done. What else can we talk about here? Number seven Include interactive elements in your podcast, such as polls and quizzes.

Speaker 1: 19:38

I don't know about how do you polls, how do you do that? How do you do polls and quizzes? I don't know about. How do you polls, how do you do that? How do you do polls and quizzes in a podcast? Because generally, when I was doing a training for Douglas Dynamics, I was doing an app where you would get on your phone I'm trying to think of the name while I'm talking here, it doesn't matter and I was in class doing PowerPoint and they would do their answers as like a quiz to see. And I don't really ever see myself doing that with this podcast. I just don't. So I'm not going to talk about it no more, because I don't really have anything to say about it.

Speaker 1: 20:19

Here's what I do like a little bit, where you can encourage your listeners to submit their own audio recordings, such as voicemails or mini episodes Many episodes to include in the podcast. I don't know if I've ever heard anybody do that yet, have you? I don't know if I would even want to do that Like, so you'd have to have something so powerful of a message to say to reply to a podcaster that you follow. So you're like you know what, I'm going to comment on this and I'm going to send them the audio file, and then you're going to like, you're going to want to edit it, and then you're not going to like the way you sound, and then you're not going to like this and your cadence and your rhythm, and you sound stupid, or you said too many ums, and then it'll never get submitted. And I think that if you ask for these submissions, I think it'll never happen Because people are so self-conscious about doing it.

Speaker 1: 21:18

I can't tell you how many times I run into people at networking events and they're like oh yeah, it's a good idea, I should do it, I want to do a podcast too, and how do you do it? And I even had a guy buy me lunch and and I don't know if he ever started on it it was about, I think, being a handy man, or no, no, he was a handy man, but he had been to prison and he wanted to talk about the prison life, I think it was, and he was going to interview inmates about people who are wrongly convicted or wrongly accused. I guess convicted is where you're found guilty for serving time for a crime that they didn't do. It was going to be super interesting. And uh, cause I think he was, I think he was not guilty after he served time and they're like well, oh well, sorry, like I don't know. How do you, how do you say you're sorry, you missed time with your kids? You gotta, I guess they they get rid of your record if they find you not guilty. But still, I don't know how many years he was in, but you know years and you're serving something that you weren't, you didn't even do and no one, no one believes that you didn't do it. I guess wrong time, wrong place or whatever. But terrible, that's all awful, it sucks. So I can't even imagine dude doing something for, oh, brutal, missing time with my son. That would just tear me up.

Speaker 1: 22:43

Anyway, what's the last one here? Number nine? Oh, I got two more. Run a contest or giveaway for prizes to your listeners. The only way I can see myself doing. That is if I did something through Alignable and I would be like, hey, the first one to you know, give me this answer gets four tickets to the Michigan Renaissance Festival, and of course I hope that they're in Michigan, so that's my only hiccup with that. I never really thought that would work on me, but it does work on me because I like watching this one guy. He's a prepper and it's called City Prepper and I'm entertained by fear-mongering and prepping and the fantasy of not having to pay bills no more and just living man, just just surviving, trying to grow a garden and hoping the chipmunk squirrels and woodchucks and mold fungus and flies and beetles and worms don't eat your crop. People think like, oh, I'm going to be a prepper, I'm going to plant a garden, I'm all set, I won't starve, like you are so screwed dude. Anyway, I'm trying to do the gardening thing and I'm just getting it handed to me, put it that way. Anyway, I digress. Contest prizes there, I answered that one. Here's one that I got into.

Speaker 1: 24:06

Not a debate about, maybe a slight debate. Host a meetup or gathering for your listeners in your local area. This can be a great way to build a sense of community and get to know your listeners in person. Yeah, so it depends on what you do, what you talk about, who you are. Maybe Some people have an issue with letting the general populace know where they're going to be when, and I find that funny and interesting, because people on Facebook give live updates about like hey, I'm going to be in Disney this week, and then they post I'm saying I'm giving Disney a hard time right now, aren't I? I don't know, let's just okay, I'll change it up, it don't matter, I'm at Cedar Point this weekend and then you post live updates of you being at Cedar Point. Now, everyone knows you're not home. That's a bad idea, I don't understand, but people do that. No, everyone knows you're not home, your house is empty and you're in cedar point, two hours away, three hours away, and uh, I don't know. Just yeah, uh, I don't know. I got things to say about that one. So I like the whole community thing. People get to see you, meet you, whatever, if you think you're that important.

Speaker 1: 25:16

I'm really not that narcissistic. I mean, I know my name is Trader Stu, but that's for marketing purposes, um, and that was hard enough to deal with. Like, who am I, trader Stu? Like this is stupid. But now you gotta, if you're gonna be a podcaster or youtuber, I think you gotta. You gotta have an identity. You know I what I mean? So, as far as the hat and the beard, that was just me doing what I've always done. I've always had wore cowboy hats, that, uh, I used to be a big timeline dancer at a Coyote Joe's in Shelby township. I forgot everything now, but anyway it's. Everyone knew me for my damn hat. I had a black hat that I had. I had it formed pretty cool and, uh, a far stretch. So all I'm saying is making a dinner for yourself. You're gonna do a marketing thing for podcasting or YouTube, so you're identifiable and, yeah, let's get on it well. So what do you do out there, you guys? Be good or be good at it.