Specific is better than general if you want people to listen
Deciding on a niche for your podcast is important when you’re starting out because it can help people find your show.
If you don’t have an existing profile, potential listeners aren’t going to be searching for you, so you need to come up with other ways for people to find your content.
Finding a niche isn’t about being so specific you shut people out or limiting yourself so you’re only talking about one thing for the rest of your life.
It’s about making sure your concept is clear so potential listeners ‘get it’ immediately and have a reason to listen.
Deciding on a niche for your podcast is important because…
It will help people find your show via search
In the early days, you’ll be relying on every avenue possible to get new ears on your podcast.
Social media, friends and family and of course, the go-to for everyone’s investigative needs … search engines.
If you think about it, the chances of someone Googling “a podcast about everything” is pretty slim.
So, you want your show to be specific and defined enough so it fits into a content niche people are already searching for.
Having a website for your podcast with show notes pages for each episode will help build your visibility in search results and you can also utilise hashtags on social media to help people find your content even if they don’t know who you are.
Getting your podcast discovered by new listeners is one of the biggest challenges for all podcasters, so the more avenues you have for people to find your show (podcast apps, social media, Google, website, word of mouth) the better.
It will encourage people to give your show a try
If people understand your concept immediately, they’ll be more likely to press play, so you want your show to be as defined as possible.
“The Rachel Corbett Show” doesn’t mean much if you’ve got no idea who I am.
Even if you do know who I am it’s not very compelling because it doesn’t give you any idea of what the content will be.
With so much choice out there, you don’t want to give people a reason to turn away.
And if it feels like hard work to decipher what your show is about that can be enough to make someone move on.
It helps your show stand out from the crowd
This is particularly important if you’re creating a show in a category that’s overcrowded.
If you don’t have an existing profile and you’re trying to create, for example, a fitness podcast, it’ll be very difficult to compete with established shows if you can’t explain why you’re different.
This is where you need to think about what you bring to the table that’s unique.
Were you someone who was naturally lazy and hated exercise but found a way to love it? There are plenty of people out there like that, who don’t resonate with traditional fitness content so that might be a great way to set yourself apart.
It may feel like appealing to a smaller number of people is limiting but it’s actually the best way to build an audience when you’re starting from scratch.
What if you like heaps of different things?
If you’re a multi-passionate person and you’ve got a lot of really compelling but competing interests there’s no reason you can’t create a show for every one of your passions.
Even if you don’t have time to juggle more than one podcast, each show doesn’t have to go on forever so you might decide to release your show in seasons and oscillate between them. Alternatively, you might decide that an idea works best as a single season with a finite number of episodes.
If this is the case just make sure you keep your audience up to speed so they don’t feel blindsided when the show stops.
And if your show is full of evergreen content (content that doesn’t date) there’s no reason you can’t keep promoting it long after you’ve stopped releasing episodes.
On the other hand, if your interests are diverse but your content isn’t competing or contradictory you can make a show that touches on everything as long as it feels like it all fits under your umbrella concept.
This takes some creative thinking but if you mix things up in a way that makes sense to your show, it’s a great way to keep things interesting for your audience and for you.
Got a burning podcasting question you’d like answered? Send me an email.
Want to start your own podcast but need a little help? Download my “How To Start A Podcast” guide or sign up for my online podcasting course, PodSchool.
So far loving the read on my iPhone during my many breaks during the day. Lots more to read and think about I’m sure.