In an odd twist of irony, I'm about to have a chat with Mark Asquith from Rebel Base Media entitled “Creating Experiences that Inspire Loyal Communities”. It’s one of the first sessions happening at PHX Startup Week, and it's going to be very hard for me not to use Apple Podcasts botched Apple Podcast Subscription rollout as a negative example.

If you’re still basing your assumptions on podcasting experiences before 2018, your assumptions are terribly antiquated. And not in a good way.

When I talk about the experiences of podcast consumers, please understand I'm not just talking about their experiences with the audio they listen to. Yes, that’s highly important to get right, and it’s critical to provide a good in-ear listener experience. But you also have to pay attention to the full podcast consumption experience! 

Podcasting is going through another inflection point right now, and that means all of us in podcasting—podcasters and service providers—have an awesome responsibility not to cock it up. Again.

Though it’s still too damned hard, everything about listening to podcasts is a lot easier than it was at the beginning. Which means that switching costs are super low. At the risk of offending your life coach; it is unlikely that your podcast is irreplaceable, regardless of how hot your take. Seriously. Search on your topic in PodcastIndex.org and see how many other shows look and feel similar to yours. And probably sound similar too. Undifferentiated, perhaps, in the listeners’ minds.

How To Relentless Focus On Podcast Listening Experiences

• Start with the in-ear listener experience but don’t stop there!
• The in-app listener experience matters.
• Their experience with your website is important
• You’re responsible for the experience of your socially shared content, even if you’re not sharing it socially!  
• Focus on the listener experience of your online community, your emails… and in-person events (when we can again go). 
• Consider collaborating with a podcasting peers to do some reciprocal auditing of one another.

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A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/updating-your-podcast-listener-experience-assumptions

Follow @EvoTerra on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

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And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit Simpler.Media to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Evo Terra produces Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about.

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