Building Listener Loyalty in Brand Podcasts

In this episode of Showmakers, Ed Barker from Studio 1878 discusses the importance of building deep engagement and loyalty in branded podcasts rather than just chasing reach or vanity metrics like downloads and followers. Ed explains how loyalty, consistency, and respecting your audience's time are key to creating a podcast that listeners return to regularly. He emphasizes the value of designing episodes to reward listeners, involving internal audiences, creating habits, encouraging participation, and leveraging other marketing channels for a two-way dialogue. Finally, he highlights the importance of focusing on listener loyalty to naturally drive growth and build meaningful connections.

00:00 Introduction 

00:33 Building Listener Loyalty

02:05 Designing Valuable Episodes

02:53 Nurturing Internal Audiences

03:29 Creating Habit-Forming Shows

04:10 Encouraging Audience Participation

04:37 Utilizing Signature Segments

05:31 Integrating with Other Marketing Channels

06:16 Common Mistakes in Podcast Growth

06:52 Final Thoughts on Loyalty

07:20 Preview of Next Episode

About Your Host

Ed Barker has been producing and recording podcasts since 2009. After a long career as a corporate marketing and strategy executive (and then a VC), Ed launched Studio 1878 (www.1878.studio) in early 2025 with the goal of making brand and business podcasting much better. Ed is a Brit, working out of Seattle, and podcasting worldwide. 🌎

Studio 1878

A podcast development studio for the modern brand. We believe everyone has a story worth telling. Specializing in business and brand podcasts, we’ll help build your story from ideation to distribution, transforming concepts to real connection with your audiences. We produce our own shows but our core proposition is in helping businesses and creators produce something truly compelling and authentic. We’d love to help you tell your story. 😈

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