Episode 11: How to Crack the Apple Podcast Top 100: Strategies for Health Shows

Welcome back to the Healthy Profits podcast. It's your host, Sammy Shoebox Moses. Here today we are covering a very important topic that I've seen drown the success of so many podcasts and really deflate the creators or the hosts of many a show. And that is how to get into the 100 or the top 100 in Apple. And when people don't get into this and they've been doing their podcast for years, that's when I've seen this really take the wind out of the sails of have many, many a podcaster. So we do not want that to happen to you. Funny story is we were working with, and we still work with this amazing client, Betty Murray, who had a podcast that was formerly known as this Thriving Life. Not a bad title, not a one that I would shriek. I thought it was a great title at first. What we found out is that that was not helping create a ravenous audience because they didn't know, what does this thriving Life really mean? And what we helped her figure the power of her next iteration of her show, which was menopause mastery. And now you know exactly what you're getting with the show. So by repositioning the name and doing a couple of these tips, I'm about to tell you, we were able to see her rise in her show and her numbers and to get her in the top 100 very consistently and the top 150. So it started there and it's been exciting to see. But these four tips that I'm about to give you are really going to help you stay ahead of the curve. And ahead of the curve with the Apple algorithm is a funny thing to say because no one knows exactly what the Apple algorithm is, what really takes a show and makes it go. These four tips, though, will definitely help. So that's why I wanted to share them with you. So the first thing we want to really cover is encouraging follows. And when we say that, I know that seems really basic and I know that seems like, oh, my gosh, encourage follows. No kidding, right? Well, here's the difference to just encouraging follows. We want to help you with your audience, with your new show as you're starting or relaunching. We want you to have a very simple single call to action, and that is to follow the show, go on to Apple and be very explicit when you say, here's what I need you to do to follow. You need to say, please subscribe and follow this show if you really love it. And all you have to do is click the save button and Follow and get reminded of the shows every week. You have to explain it in that way very succinctly and very specifically. And you don't have to do all throughout the show, but you do definitely need to do it right in the beginning. As your show gets going, make sure that you follow and hit the bell to be reminded of the shows that are coming out. If you don't do that, you're missing an opportunity to just get that little plant in their head to make sure that they stay aligned with you. And that takes us into what will happen when you really start getting the followers and you really start having a consistent fan base by inviting them. You have to invite them. But the second thing that is really important, which will help the algorithm really love your show, is by making sure that the completion rate or the consumption rate on your podcast is high. And there's a couple things you can do with this, but one of the big things you can do is make sure that you stay within a podcast length that allows your audience to complete that in a single sitting and or in their commute, especially as you're getting going. Because what really drives the algorithm is a high consumption rate followed by new listens. So if you have new listeners consuming the podcast and that number boosts from, say, 0 to 200 and the consumption rate's high, the algorithm loves that. So let me give you an example. Let's say you have a podcast and you have a thousand people that listen to the podcast, but only two, like a thousand people, 200 people listen to the podcast all the way through, meaning that the consumption rate is in the lower percentage versus, let's say you had a podcast that had 300 listens, but over 250 of those people went all the way through the show and listened to it. So the consumption rate was maybe over 70 or 80%. Apple will often favor the show that has a higher consumption rate with lower listens. The reason being is Apple knows that those people are going to come back and listen again if they've gotten all the way through the show. Consumption rate is so, so important, and that's why we really encourage that. If you're looking to find where your consumption rate is, that is in the Podcast Connect section of Apple. And if you want to know how to find that, we'll drop a little loom in here for you guys so you can see what that looks like. That's a little link that we'll put inside the show notes. So, consumption rate, remember that you want to make sure that the consumption rate is over 70%. And that leads us into how you get ratings and reviews. It's so much easier when the consumption rate is high because that means that your fans are listening all the way through the show. And then once you have a high consumption rate, it's much easier to put on the back end of that show. Please rate and review this. So you're going to want to ask them to subscribe, rate and review at the end, don't ask them to rate and review the show before it's even started. I hate when people do that in shows. It's like, hey, look at this is like sitting down for dinner and hey, telling your customers, if you were the waiter, it said, hey, make sure that you give us a five star review on Yelp before you even try the meal. Right? That's what people do all the time. They say, hey, rate and subscribe to this show. But you can ask them to subscribe to the show, but don't ask them to rate the show before they've even listened to it. And that happens all the time. Now, when your consumption rate and you've noticed is over 80%, that is the time to ask for a little favor because they're already consuming your episodes or consuming the whole thing. And that's a great time to ask for the ratings and reviews at the end of a show that has over 80% consumption rate. All right, and the last piece, this is number four. We see this happen time and time again, especially when we do a deep audit. Make sure that all of your podcast information is optimized and make sure that you have the ability to measure what is in the optimization window. So for example, if you are putting all of your content into Apple's notes and you are filling out all of the boxes and you've got all of the categories, categories down to the subcategories really labeled and really put in a systematic file that you have on the back end that will allow you to know when you switch categories, what changed for you. And that's what we mean by optimization. Suggest a an example of this would be when we had Betty, we had her first in the thriving life, that name changed to menopause Mastery. We went into the categories that she was in. We moved it from health and wellness. We sub categorized that down into holistic health and wellness. And I don't even remember the third one, but you can go in and try those new things now. We found out that didn't work and so we switched the subcategories for her and we saw that kind of lift. And the only way you can do that is if you optimize your podcast information in a very clean and concise way. And so we have some documents and some sheets that we use with our internal clients to make sure that they know how we are going about changing sub categories with their shows, making it so much easier to figure out what made it lift when they moved into a different category, if that actually helped them. So we're going to actually go into a deeper dive on how to podcast, optimize and optimize your shows inside the subcategories, because that's a whole episode in and of itself. But for, for this particular episode, I just want to reinstate and make sure that you remember these four things, which is encouraging your listeners in a very clear way to follow your show right as you're going. That's the simplest way I can explain. Just have them follow your show and ask for that up front. Two, measure your completion or your consumption rate, making sure that you have a way to get it over 80%. And then once that happens, once you have a show that is rating really high, that's when you can start asking for those really genuine ratings and reviews. And then lastly, make sure that all of the boxes, all of the places inside your podcast are optimized. And we're going to go into that a little bit deeper. But optimization is simply, as you can say, is make sure everything's just filled out. All right, so those are my top four tips on how to get yourself into the Apple top 100. Now for more of this, we're going to be going into each one of those categories and going deeper on each one of those in the next episodes here with the Healthy Profits podcast. But remember, it doesn't have to be that hard. Just get yourself into the consistency of remembering those four things. So if you can always say in your template, hey, if you love this, make sure that you follow this show, because we, we do all of these amazing things every week. So just like you guys, if you like these tips here at the Healthy Profits, make sure you follow the show. And you can click on the three little dots at the top of your podcast player and that will ask you to follow it. Make sure you do that and listen to the whole thing. That's why we make them kind of short. So your consumption rate will go, or our consumption rate will go through the roof. And hopefully you guys will love leaving us ratings and reviews. That's the other thing. And if you notice all of the boxes and things in our show are ticked and checked. So the optimization for our show is as best as it can be. So I hope those four tips really help you out. If you guys have any questions or want anything else from us, we are always here to take audits for you guys. But most importantly for this show, get yourself a follow and follow us and we'll follow you back on our podcast. If you have a podcast right now on Apple, make sure you share that with us too. So that is our big four takeaways for how to get yourself into the top 100. Hope you liked it and we'll see you guys again soon on the Healthy Profits podcast. Now that was a great episode. Thanks for joining us and tuning in to the Healthy Profits Podcast.

Sami and I are here to help you turn your health podcast into a treasure trove of opportunity for your listeners and your business. So join us twice a week as we unleash our favorite tips and strategies that have helped our clients out of all podcasting turn their show into a thriving part of their business.

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Until next time, stay healthy and keep thriving.

Bye.