Does My Podcast Need Its Own App?

David Jackson  0:00  
We always want to make our podcast as easy to consume as possible. And one of those ways is having your very own app for your podcast. Now that's going to come at an additional cost. So Dave, is it worth it?

(intro) Welcome to your podcast consultant, small lessons with big value. Now he wants to work with you. He's your podcast consultant, Dave Jackson.

I was on a call with a member of the School of podcasting. And he brought up this topic should I get an app? For my podcast? And like many podcast questions, this one begins with the phrase, it depends.

And I'll give you an example. A friend of mine, Glenn Hiebert, runs the horse radio network. And he'll be the first to admit that when he first started his podcast a while ago, horse, people are not the most technically savvy people. And so he got an app for his show. And he knows that people were using it because I think we all know how to download an app, you go to your phone, you go to some sort of App Store, you search for something, and you click download. And then from there, you just click play, or you have to create an account or something like that. And I think we're all there.

When it comes to subscribing to a podcast. If you're on, let's say, an Apple phone, they do have Apple podcasts built into it. So they don't have to search, they have to search their phone, but it's a native app. If not, they can always search for it, then they have to search for your show, which at times in some apps can be a little challenging because the search isn't as great. I will say Apple Search has definitely improved over the last couple of years. And then they have to know to click the little plus sign to follow your show. Now, Google podcasts again, I wish it was but it's not.

It's not native to Android phones, I really wish they would do that. So they have to search for Google podcast, and then search for your show, etc, etc. So it does depend on who your audience is. Now I have an app for the School of podcasting. It's called podcasting tips. And I never promoted ever I have it because I occasionally need to demo it for people when I'm promoting Libsyn, because that's who provides that app along with a host. But my audience doesn't need it. My audience is a bunch of wannabe podcasters. And they've already are using things like cast ematic, and Apple podcast in overcast and Pocket Casts. And anything else I like, if you go to the website, new podcast apps.com, you'll see there are a ton there that you can choose from. So my audience doesn't need an app. And what's interesting is I never promoted it. And I probably get somewhere between two and five downloads a month of that app. So that's just people organically finding it in the app store. The one thing I want to point out, I don't believe it's one of those golden tickets. And what I mean by that is some people think, Oh, if I only do this, I would get millions of downloads. And unless your audience is really technically challenged, and if they are really technically challenged, they may not know how to download an app. So it's another way to get found. And there are a lot of searches going on in those app stores. So that can help you grow your audience. So it's really going to come down to is it in the budget, because it is going to be an additional fee. And you need to figure it out. And that's where sometimes it's kind of a hassle, because you have to set up different things with Apple and Google to actually create the app. That's the other thing you want to look at. Do you own the app. And for me, I think most people today, now that it's 2022, as I record this understand podcasting much more than they did say 10 years ago. So in the end, it's up to you, who's your audience, what's your budget, and from there, you can make your decision. Realize you can always launch without an app and add it later. If you have other questions. I would love to hear from you the website podcast consultant.com. I'm Dave Jackson, and I want to be your podcast Consultant.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai