How to handle the podcasting 'summer slump'!

They say everyone checks out in August.

Holidays, sunshine, the beach, the whole lot.

But what if you use this supposed slump to sprint ahead?

Over the next 10 minutes, I'm going to talk you through three simple moves you can make this weekend to keep your downloads hummingbird and your audience hooked.

Waiting for your very next words.

You ready?

Let's attain Pod Mastery.

Hello, I'm Neil Velio.

This is the show Podcasting Insights.

I am your podmaster and it's my goal to get you closer to Pod mastery for your personal goals, for your business goals.

Let me start with a quick story.

So last August I worked with a podcaster who'd hit pause during the holidays.

By the time September rolled around, their downloads had plummeted by 40%.

They figured no one listens in August.

But the truth is your ideal listener is on the beach with earbuds in and they're craving fresh content.

I know, I've been there.

I've been on a beach in August looking for stuff to listen to.

So if you stop creating new content, they're going to find someone else who hasn't stopped.

So here's our first lesson today.

Never mothball your show during the off season.

Here's my recommendation instead.

Treat August like a secret advantage.

Stay active, stay visible and you're going to outpace everyone who went silent.

Now you don't have to bring out your biggest and best content during this time.

You can just keep things trickling along, have bonus episodes in in mind.

It's an opportunity for you to start drilling down and getting more niche and test content to see how it works.

Either way, the fact that you've got fresh content going out when people are looking for it, you'll definitely gain an advantage.

Now in podcasting, there are a lot of people that share hacks.

In fact, in marketing in general that seems to be the case.

So let me give you some hacks.

Three things that you can record and post before next week.

Hack number one, a quick might micro episode.

Hit record on your phone for five minutes, share a single story, maybe a quick tip or even a listener voice note.

Cameo.

Label it summer special, release it midweek Wednesday afternoon.

Perfect time.

Now we're going for bite sized surprise content here.

It keeps your audience curious and coming back for more.

We don't have to go full production.

We don't even have to use music if you don't want, but just have something of value if you in your feed hack number two, a bit of sneaky repurposing.

There's a load of marketers out there that are selling repurposing as a thing, well, you can do it for free.

Pick your three best moments of the year so far.

Clip them into 30 second pieces.

Now here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna turn one into an Instagram reel, maybe a TikTok.

We're gonna write a 200 word blog post for another, and then we're gonna stitch the final two into a best of audio montage.

You've got three fresh pieces of marketing without any extra recording genius.

Here's hack number three hyperlocal live chats.

Schedule a 30 minute live Q&A.

You can do it on LinkedIn live, you can do it through YouTube live.

Do it through whatever you want.

But pick a peak time in your main listener zone, say 6pm London, 7pm Berlin.

If that's where most of your audience is, keep it casual.

Just like you're all chatting in a backyard somewhere over a couple of beers.

Then grab the best questions that emerge from that and turn each of them into its own micro episode.

As for recording anything this weekend, well, look, do it in your car.

That's a secret studio.

No one can see you, no one can hear you, no one can judge you.

You can do it in between shopping.

That way you're putting in minimal extra effort to get content out there, but it still sounds fairly decent.

Okay, so let's get this into an action plan.

Now your mission for this weekend, I want you to brainstorm three micro episode ideas.

Set a 10 minute timer.

We don't want any overthinking here.

We just want to to get this done.

Then block one hour for your repurposing.

Clip them, write them, post them.

Then we're gonna schedule and promote a 30 minute live chat.

During that 30 minutes, we're gonna get maybe four or five topics that emerge from the questions.

Again, bake these into their own individual bonus episodes.

If you play your cards right, you've got a whole month's worth of weekly bonus content here.

Give these ideas a go and then Tag me on LinkedIn.

If you do it, I'd love to hear what you come up with.

And if you want more ideas like this directly in your inbox, make sure you sign up for my Pod Mastery Insights tips every single week.

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Thank you.

There we go.

We got you a step closer to pop mastery, and I'm looking forward to showing up in your playlist or library really soon with the next episode podcasting insight.