The One Call to Action You Should Use on Every Podcast Episode

one CTA to rule them all

Earlier this week, I published the latest episode of my One Minute Podcast Tips show. In it, I spoke of the “single most important call to action to include on your podcast”, and you can listen to that episode below.

Now while the episode title may be a little dramatic - blame my high school theatre days! - I stand by my statement that there’s one call to action, above others that can be used, that should be present in every single podcast episode you publish.

And that’s asking listeners to recommend your show.

Yep, over asking them to subscribe to your newsletter. Or review your show. Or sign up for your course. Or any other call to action that you might use. Because while each of those calls to action mentioned are undoubtedly valuable, and rightly so, there’s a simple reason why asking for recommendations trumps them.

Podcasts Are Built on Listeners

There are a lot of ways to look at what marks a podcast growth. That can be downloads, sponsors, reviews, speaking invitations, how many shows you’re asked to appear on as a guest, etc - but there’s one key metric that ties all of this together.

Listeners.

Without listeners, you may as well just record yourself speaking into our phone recorder and listen back, since that’s essentially what your podcast would be - a destination for you to visit and listen to yourself speak.

And this isn’t a criticism - I’m not, and never will be, one of these podcasters who thinks you can only be taken seriously as a podcaster if you have thousands of downloads and you’re making money. Far from it. And if you want to just have a podcast for fun where it’s a test bed for you and getting ideas of your chest, have at it!

But listeners, whether we like it or not, are the key reason for many (most?) podcasters when first starting - you want others to hear you talking about the thing you’re passionate about, whether it’s a hobby podcast or one you’re looking to make a revenue generator.

And to get listeners, they need to know about your podcast. And to know about your podcast, they need help when it comes to hearing about it.

Reviews don’t do that - despite a popular myth that reviews on Apple Podcasts helps your show get found via search, Apple themselves clearly state:

Ratings and reviews do not influence Charts or Search, but they can help listeners discover and engage with your show as they explore new podcasts. Many listeners look at ratings and reviews before choosing to listen to or follow a show, and quality reviews can also help convey that your show has a community of committed fans. ~ Source

So, yes, reviews might help pique interest when someone stumbles across your show and sees a lot of good reviews or ratings for it, but they don’t help it get found when listeners are using search options to find new shows.

Newsletters can help, and a newsletter is one of the most effective ways of engaging with your listeners and fans. But then you need a podcast first to tell people about your newsletter - sure, you can ask people to sign up to your newsletter without a show (maybe as a pre-launch marketing tactic), but unless you already have a trusting audience who’ll sign up for news of something that hasn’t launched yet then that can be an uphill battle.

Having a podcast, on the other hand, where listeners trust the content you publish there, offers an audience already warm to you and your content, making them more likely to sign up for more content like that.

Organic Growth Through Trusted Recommendations

So this is why I always recommend having a call to action that encourages listener recommendation. Something along the lines of,

“Thanks for listening. if you enjoyed this episode, I’d love for you to share with others you feel would enjoy it to.”

This can then be tailored to the type of listener your show has, and encourage them to recommend to like-minded people. It’s why I ask listeners of One Minute Podcast Tips to recommend the show to other podcasters, since that’s obviously the key audience.

Because the recommendation is coming from someone they already trust (a friend, colleague, peer, etc), any potential new listener is more likely to think, “Alrighty, that sounds cool, I’ll check that out.”

And it’s this kind of organic, warm growth that can really help when it then comes to other goals that can then be additional calls to action - newsletter, reviews, support, etc.

Just be sure to not overcomplicate things - while it’s tempting to have multiple calls to action on your podcast, too many can confuse and therefore negate their effectiveness. Ideally, keep it at one and emphasize that regularly. If you do want more than one call to action, make it no more than two (this is what I do on One Minute Podcast Tips, with the intro being a call to action and the outro being a different one).

Keep your call to action simple and focused, and listeners will be more likely to take that action.

Until the next time, happy podcasting.