Trick or Treat? A/B Testing Your Podcast Marketing Strategies
Trick or treat? When it comes to podcasting sometimes you have to go through a few tricks before you are hitting your treats, especially with marketing.
You never know what works and what doesn’t work until you test it. Unfortunately, just because something works for one podcast, doesn’t mean those same strategies will work for another.
That’s why you have to experiment and figure out what works best for your audience, so continue reading for our tips for testing your podcast marketing strategies.
Understanding A/B Testing in Podcast Marketing
Before you get started with testing, let’s discuss what A/B testing is.
Basically, A/B testing is “a way to compare two versions of something to figure out which performs better.” (Harvard Business Review)
This is important so you can see what performs better and can figure out what is resonating with your audience, providing better conversion rates and just better return on investment overall.
Experimenting with Different Marketing Tactics
Now that you know what A/B testing is, it’s time to start experimenting with different marketing tactics. You can do A/B testing with…
Social Media such as trying different copy, images, calls to action, or even who you are targeting.
Email marketing such as with subject lines, the content inside (longer/shorter form content), or your calls to action.
Your website pages such as different designs, your headlines, the copy you use, and again, your call to action.
Your podcast itself (especially if you do replays) such as episode titles, cover art looks, descriptions, and calls to action.
There are many areas when it comes to marketing your show that you could do some tests, experiment with some or all of them (not all at once to not get overwhelmed) but to start figuring out what works and doesn’t work for your podcast.
Setting Up A/B Tests
But how do you set up A/B testing?
Here are the steps I would take -
First clearly define your goal and what the objective of the test will be. What are you going to be testing?
Create the variations (A and B) and make sure there is a key difference between them so you can see what is working (or not working) on the test.
Begin tracking and measuring the results of the tests, wherever you are testing check in the analytics regularly and make notes on each of the tests to see what the results are. For example, review click-through rates, conversion rates, feedback you are receiving, etc.
As you are reviewing your tests consider additional factors such as the time of year you are doing this, audience demographics and where you are doing the testing as this could impact results.
Once you’ve started getting results, it’s time to optimize your strategies.
Continue doing what is working on these marketing channels.
Make changes to what is not working (or eliminate it all together).
Continue testing to always refine your strategies - things are always changing so unfortunately you can’t just stay “content”.
Best Practices and Tips
As you get going, here are some additional tips to help you implement A/B testing in your podcast marketing efforts
Test duration: I would test for at least 3 months before making major adjustments/changes. Unfortunately, marketing tends to be a long-term game and you won’t be getting great results if you instantly start making adjustments. So, be patient and persistent.
Test one thing at a time: As I mentioned above, to not get overwhelmed and be able to give all your attention to one thing - focus on testing one thing at a time. For example, if your testing episode titles keep everything else like episode descriptions the same.
Keep your timeframes the same: When running tests, keep the same time duration and try to aim for the same time period to ensure that your results are consistent and don’t get skewed from factors like holidays or major events.
Your podcast is always going to be an experimentation. Embrace it and continue to monitor results and refine your marketing tactics.
If you are wanting an even deeper dive into A/B testing for your podcast I would recommend checking out the CoHost Podcasting article.
And let me know in the comments, where you are planning to experiment with your podcast marketing.
Aleea
