During World War II more than 3,500 merchant ships traveling through the Atlantic shipping lanes were sunk. In an addition, another 175 Allied warships were destroyed by German U-boats in The Battle of the Atlantic. It wasn't until 1941, when the Allies captured U-110, things began to turn around.
Inside U-110 the Allies found The Enigma Machine. This machine was used by Germans to transmit coded messages to one another. At the time this code was thought to be unbreakable. When the Allies captured U-110 they also found a copy of the Germans code book. The tactical advantage belonged to the Allies once the Germans messages were decoded.
Sometimes figuring out what our audience wants can seem impossible. Every day we battle for their attention. How can we turn the tide in our favor? We need a decoder.
Today we'll discuss 3 tools for decoding what our audience wants:
- The 2 vital pieces of information
- 3 tools we must have
- Winning the Battle
The 2 vital pieces of information we need to decode our audience
The allies wouldn't have been able to decode Germans communications if they hadn't captured their code book along with The Enigma Machine. Likewise, we need two vital pieces of information to know if our podcast is working. The first thing we need to know is what we want our listeners to do. One of the biggest mistakes people make is not knowing what action they want their listeners to take after listening their show.
Recording an engaging show is not enough. When we've done our job correctly, our audience will want more. We have to tell them what to do next. Whether it's going to our website to book a call or messaging us on social media. We need to plan the action we want listeners to take before recording a singe word.
The second thing is knowing what our listeners need to believe so they can take action confidently. Don't over think this, they only need to believe that you can help them solve their problem and they'll be ready to move on your offer. Now let's look at the tools we'll need to make this happen.
3 tools we must have to unlock our audience code.
Much like the Allies couldn't break the Germans code without The Enigma Machine, we need the right tools to figure out what our audience wants. Luckily, all the tools are readily available to anyone online.
- First, we need to make an offer on our podcast. The best way to do this is using The B.A.L.A. Method explained in this article.
- Second, we need a landing page that is only available to podcast listeners.
- Third, we need some sort of analytics. (Most landing page software has this built in.)
Quick Note: Everything doesn't have to be so “High-Tech.” If you do most of your business by phone, you can simply use a dedicated phone number where you can receive calls and texts from your podcast listeners.
These three tools will allow you to measure the response rate of your offer. When you get the right offer to your listeners it'll be confirmed by the amount of people who respond. Before moving on, we should talk about two big mistakes people make with their offers.
Two big mistakes that will sink your show
If you want to ensure a victory decoding what your listeners truly want, you'll need to avoid these two catastrophic mistakes. First, every offer isn't going to work. That's why we need to measure the response rate. Second, test different offers often. Even if your offer is working, constantly testing new offers will give you a better idea of what your audience wants. Now let's look at the last piece we need to decode our audience.
Winning the Battle
When the allies waged war against the U-boats in The Battle for the Atlantic, they knew they must decode the Germans communication if they wanted to win. They paid the ultimate price losing 175 warships and their crews. When we're running a podcast we must know what we're fighting for. We must consider the best and worst results before we get started. We want to go into this prepared for whatever happens.
Before we record a single episode we must map out the best and worst case scenarios to make sure we can win the war for our listeners attention. We covered a lot today, let's have a quick review.
The battle to decode what your audience wants
To decode what our audience wants we must have 2 vital pieces of information. First, we need to know what action we want our listeners to take. Second we need to know what they must believe in order to take that action. The only way to know for sure is to make offers and measure the response to each offer.
In the beginning your odds may seem beyond scary. But if you plan ahead, and figure out the best and worse case scenarios, you'll know what you're fighting for.
Now that you have the tools to know what your audience wants…
In this article you got some tools for decoding what your audience wants. After you know what they want you can use your podcast to get more clients. For a training on how you can use podcasting to pickup clients go to https://thepodcastfactory.com/dwp014/
And, when you're ready to use podcasting to win the battle for listeners attention, I can show you how we've done it for over 50 experts just like you. Book a 30 minute call at https://thepodcastfactory.com/start/
