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(By Joe Stone) If you’re interested in having someone invest in your podcast, metrics matter. That’s according to Erica Mandy, host of “The Newsworthy” podcast. Mandy was a presenter at Podcast Movement’s Evolutions last week.
Mandy says there are 4 things she uses to track what does and doesn’t work: Clear goals - Have clearly defined goals, a plan, and spend time where it matters. Charting Progress - Track downloads, listens per episodes within 24 hours, listens per episode within 30 days, and unique listeners month over month. Also, track sponsorships and ads. Consistency - Keep up with charting progress and activity so you can make projections. Change - Make adjustments as needed.
Mandy said to track other metrics as well to include giveaways, promo swaps, and paid marketing campaigns (which you should use trackable links for).
Also on the panel was Podfund’s Nicola Krozenko who said tracking metrics gives her organization clear idea of what sort of return on investment they can expect. “If you’re just launching, things are a little different and you have to do a lot of projections.”
Two of the ways Podfund invests in podcast entities are what they call PodREV and PodSAFE. PodREV is where they invest with their return being a percentage of revenue for a fixed period of time. PodSAFE is where they invest for a percentage of equity in the underlying company.
In summary, you have to stay on top of your numbers if you hope to get your podcast funded.
Joe Stone is an Army veteran turned multimedia producer and is the Head of Audience Insights at Jam Street Media. You can email him at joe@jamstreetmedia.com or find him on social at @joestonemedia.