Three podcast trends for 2023 that you should follow
Photo by Planet Volumes on Unsplash
It’s so easy to be swayed into following the latest trend by a persuasive Twitter post or an authorative-sounding news site, but deciding which trends are right for your show can be a tricky process.
Here are my top three trends that I think will be big this year, why you should be doing them too, and how.
Video first for promotion
I love an audio-only podcast. As an on-the-go listener, I like to be hands free, listening as I walk, cook, clean or craft. But I find a lot of new shows from the videos I watch in my day to day life. From Instagram Reels to Youtube to TikTok, video is incredibly popular right now, and can be a key discovery tool for your show too.
How can you do it?
Create audiograms using an app like Headliner and short sections of your show, to share on social media.
Make short videos for Reels or TikTok with behind the scenes material about the show - share your excitement about an upcoming guest, or your process of planning an episode.
Post your episodes to Youtube - you don’t have to have your face on camera to utilise Youtube’s search power. Instead, create a video version of your audio with your show’s graphics and your transcript as captions, for maximum searchabililty.
Overlapping content
No-one should be making an episode of a podcast and just putting it out into the world on it’s own. Overlapping your content with other methods, an email newsletter, a blog post or a webinar, spreads your message to a wider audience easily and effectively.
How can you do it?
When planning your next episode, think how else you can share the material. Could you have a blog post that goes deeper into the subject, or shares a story you didn’t have time to include?
Do you have a webinar or conference talk already given that you could draw upon for an upcoming episode. Maybe look through your slides and pick three to talk from for a solo episode, or re-edit the audio from a recording for an easy production week.
Substack will continue to be popular this year, with more and more people creating material on their platform. Why not create a podcast and newsletter pairing, hosted on Substack? You even have the potential there to create a subscription-based private feed for members too.
Mixed format
Last year saw a distinct rise in micro-episodes, especially in news and current affairs shows. Shorter episodes are a great way to fit your show into your listeners’ busy lives, but you don’t have to change the format of your whole series.
How can you do it?
Take a break between seasons without losing your audience, by publishing short summary episodes from previous shows, or a quick highlight reel of your upcoming content.
Alternate in depth interview episodes with lighter solo episodes to help your audience get to know you.
Build in regular magazine-style episodes to cover developments and trends in your own industry alongside your own content.
