Podcast data can sometimes be a little… well, scarce. The analytics that you do receive for your podcast is pretty general: age, gender, location, listening platform, etc. And that’s also dependent on the distribution platform you’re using. 

To get insight into who your listener actually is, like their interests and hobbies, you have to get a little more creative. Throughout this article we’re going to provide you with four additional ways to learn more about your podcast listener.

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‍1. Podcast Surveys 

The first method is surveys. Surveys give you the ability to share a mass form with all of your listeners and ask the specific questions you want answers to. Questions can include things like: 

1. How did you discover this podcast?
2. What’s your favorite podcast genre? 
3. What industry do you work in?
4. Check off everything below that you’re interested in *add options below*. 
   

And the list can go on from there! Be careful not to overwhelm your listeners though. They’re taking time out of their day to support you by filling out your survey, so don’t make it take 20 minutes for them to finish. Also, don’t ask any questions that might make them uncomfortable to answer. That’s not fun for anyone. 

Sharing Your Surveys

You have a few ways you can (and should) share your survey. You can add it as a CTA at the end of an episode, directing listeners to your show notes for the link. You can also share it across your social media channels or through your newsletter if you have one for your podcast community. 

Hosting a Contest

Lastly, if you want to entice your listeners to fill out the form, or have a way to say thank you, run a contest around the survey! Say that you’ll be picking a few winners randomly selected from all participants. This will help boost the amount of submissions you’ll receive. 

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2. Social Media 

The second avenue for gathering more podcast data is through social media. Especially if you’ve created social media channels specifically for your podcast, it’s a great place for you to engage and connect with your followers. 

Communication 

Either you can direct message some of your followers to ask the questions you’re curious about, or you can send out mass posts to all of your followers for them to engage with and answer. This can either be more open-ended, maybe asking all of your followers to share their favorite pastime activities, or you can use tools such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram Story polls to ask questions that have set answers. 

Engagement

While you’re gathering more information about your listeners, you’re also building a stronger community around your podcast by interacting with your followers and making them feel seen and heard. It may even boost the dedication they have to your series! 

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‍3. Community 

Podcast communities can definitely exist on social media, and if that’s where yours lives, then great! You can reference some of the tips above for gathering podcast data, but if you want to build a community somewhere else and get to know your listeners a little more, there are a few ways you can do that. 

Overall, if you start building a community around your series it gives you an easy place to interact with your listeners and ask them any pressing questions. It also gives your listeners a place to interact with each other and opens the door to possibly building relationships that stemmed from your podcast (which is pretty cool). 

Platforms 

Some platforms you can use to build a podcast community aside from social media are: 

1. Slack; 
2. Discord;
3. Facebook Groups (I know it’s social media but it’s still a little different)

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4. Events 

And finally, there are events. We’ve seen podcast events thrown in the past that have done well and were able to gather feedback as well as learn a little more about their audiences. 

We understand that in-person events aren’t an option at the moment, but even if they were, it’s unlikely that all of your listeners live where you’re located. We recommend hosting a virtual event or even a virtual hangout and capping the number of listeners that can attend. This allows space for you to have a two-way conversation with your listeners, which is a pretty difficult thing to obtain. Use this event to build a connection with your listeners, ask them questions, let them ask you questions, etc. 

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Valuable Podcast Data 

Learning more about your listeners is incredibly valuable in finding sponsors, giving you direction for future content, and building a stronger following and community. 

Although figuring out this information isn’t as easy as pulling up your listener analytics, we encourage you to try at least one of these tactics to get to know your listeners a little better.