Why Isn’t Your Podcast Growing? (5 Strategies to Fix It)

If you’re frustrated that your podcast isn’t growing, let me get straight to the point: The number one reason your podcast isn’t growing is because you can’t grow a podcast with a podcast alone.

That’s right—relying solely on posting episodes in podcast players won’t get you the exposure you need.

While there may be some rare exceptions, this is the reality for most podcasters.

But here’s the good news: it’s not that you’ve been doing everything wrong, and it certainly doesn’t mean your audience isn’t out there. It just means that you haven’t connected with them yet using the right strategies.

In this article, I’ll share 5 podcast growth strategies that will transform how you podcast and help you attract the audience you’ve been trying to reach.

Why Your Podcast Isn’t Growing

Podcast players, like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, don’t have the built-in mechanisms to promote your show consistently.

You may be passionate, skilled, and dedicated to producing great content, but relying solely on these platforms won’t yield significant growth.

Instead, you need a more strategic approach that offers a bigger return on your time and effort.

Now that we’ve identified the main issue, let’s dive into how you can take your podcast to the next level.

5 Podcast Growth Strategies:

1. Exaggerate Everything

One of the simplest and most effective strategies for podcast growth is to exaggerate everything.

By this, I mean you should enhance every aspect of your podcast, from your persona to your production.

Exaggerate Your Persona

Let’s start with your persona—the way you present yourself on your podcast. Why do you follow your favorite podcasters or influencers? It’s probably because they offer an engaging experience.

You can do the same by amplifying your on-air personality.

Here’s how:

• Appearance: Consider wearing signature colors or outfits that make you recognizable.
• Branding: Develop a consistent look that reflects your personal brand.
• Status: Imagine the most successful version of yourself—how do you look, act, and talk in that dream future? Now, bring elements of that version into your current podcast persona.

The more confident, charismatic, and engaging you are, the more your audience will connect with you.

They’re not just tuning into your podcast—they’re tuning into the experience you create.

Why This Works

Your voice isn’t the only thing your audience picks up when they listen. They feel your energy, hear your perspective, and sense your confidence.

By exaggerating your persona, you’re inviting your listeners into a more exciting, elevated version of your story.

Enhance Podcast Speech or Voice

2. Exaggerate Your Production

Next, focus on exaggerating your production quality. You don’t necessarily need expensive equipment to do this—though upgrading your microphone or hiring an editor can help.

Instead, think about how you can improve your production process and workflow.

Common Podcast Workflow:

1. Write or outline your episode.
2. Record, edit, and export your audio.
3. Upload the file to your podcast host, add a description, and share it on social media.

While this process is time-consuming, most podcasters stick to it week after week.

However, you can exaggerate your output without adding more time to your schedule by tweaking your process.

The key here is efficiency.

The Best Way to Exaggerate Your Production

Here’s the tip you’ve been avoiding but need to hear: turn on the camera. Yes, video.

Adding a video component to your podcast won’t take much extra time, but it can dramatically increase your reach.

• Record your podcast on camera while you’re recording audio.
• After editing your audio, edit your video and upload it to YouTube and Spotify.

Now, you have both an audio and video podcast, which opens you up to a larger audience.

3. Exaggerate Your Promotion

Now that you have a video podcast, let’s talk about promotion.

Most podcasters promote their episodes by sharing a link on one or two social media platforms, hoping for clicks. But that’s not enough to grow your show.

What You Can Do Differently:

• Instead of simply sharing a link to your episode, create video snippets from your full episode. These short clips can be repurposed for YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok.
• Focus on sharing engaging content that showcases the best parts of your episode. People love to see podcast microphones and digest short, snackable content.

This strategy will give you 10x the exposure compared to a simple link post, and it doesn’t require much extra time—just a shift in how you think about your promotional workflow.

4. Exaggerate Your Strategy

You’ve already enhanced your persona, production, and promotion, but there’s still more you can do: exaggerate your strategy. Here’s how:

• Create systems that allow you to work smarter, not harder.
• Set up a content calendar to ensure consistency across platforms.
• Use tools that automate parts of your workflow, like scheduling posts and generating transcripts.

By building a solid strategy, you can ensure that your podcast continues to grow with less effort on your part.

5. Exaggerate Your Consistency

Lastly, the biggest key to growth is consistency. Exaggerating your consistency means sticking with these new practices week after week, month after month.

Consistency builds momentum, and over time, that momentum will snowball into exponential growth.

Final Thoughts

If you take just one of these strategies and put it into practice, you’ll start to see growth in your podcast. The more you exaggerate—whether it’s your persona, production, promotion, strategy, or consistency—the more your audience will grow.

Ready to take the next step?

Start exaggerating one element of your podcast today, and you’ll be amazed by the results.