Podcast Summary: Creator Science – Episode #273

Title: How to create a scrappy industry report that elevates your brand | Guest: Jeremy Enns
Release Date: September 9, 2025
Host: Jay Clouse
Guest: Jeremy Enns, Founder of Podcast Marketing Academy

Episode Overview

This episode of Creator Science is a masterclass on elevating your creator brand by publishing industry reports—even if you start small and scrappy. Jay Clouse interviews Jeremy Enns, who for three years has published the annual Podcast Marketing Trends Report. They dissect in granular, candid detail not just the why, but the entire how-to—covering process, challenges, design, survey strategy, promotion, sponsorship, and the transformative impact such reports can have on your authority, opportunities, and business growth.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Genesis and Motivation for Creating Industry Reports

• Frustration as Catalyst: Jeremy got fed up waiting for existing industry reports to answer his core question: how fast do podcasts actually grow? Since no one else published this data, he gathered it himself.
  • Quote: “If nobody else is going to do it, then I guess I’m just going to have to go out and collect this myself.” — Jeremy (00:00, 73:12)
• Original Purpose: Initially to benchmark growth rates for his clients and himself, he soon realized the data’s broader potential.
• Unmet Need: Unlike social platforms, podcast analytics are private, so creators lack context: “Most people, I think, assume everybody is way better than them, when actually a lot of those people are doing pretty well.” — Jeremy (03:20)

2. Early Challenges & Snowballing Scope

• Start Small, Then Scale: Began surveying his clients, then his newsletter list, then reached out to industry connections to share the survey.
• Scope Creep: The project rapidly escalated in size and effort—hundreds of hours, multiple contributors, and near overwhelming production requirements.
  • Quote: "It just kind of snowballed into this phenomenally huge project that took hundreds of hours to do." — Jeremy (05:25)

3. Benefits of Publishing Industry Reports

• Immediate Upside: Massive positive response; invitations to podcasts, media features, citations, and new business.
• PR and Positioning: Reports legitimize creators, elevating them to industry authority status.
• Evergreen Content & Compound Value: Each subsequent report builds on the last—showcasing trends over time is uniquely powerful.
• Unexpected Bonuses: The companion podcast unpacking each report became a pillar of Jeremy’s business—often more valuable than the report itself.

4. Sponsorship and Partnerships

• Sponsorship Insights:
  • Secured sponsors even before publishing the first report by selling the premise and providing visual mockups.
  • Multiple sponsorship tiers (headline sponsor, silver, etc.), but found highest leverage with a few key partners rather than many small ones.
  • Some sponsors contribute questions and gain data access, enabling their own thought leadership content.
  • Quote: “If you have a premise that is really clear and enticing... you can get sponsors for it where they’re like ‘oh, this data doesn’t exist’.” — Jeremy (16:17)
• Partnership Value: Promotion and distribution assistance can be more valuable than cash.

5. Decision: Free, Gated, or Paid?

• Open Access Ethos: Jeremy makes his report completely open (ungated), in contrast to most others who require an email or put it behind paywalls. He believes this increases goodwill and shareability.
  • “A huge part of my ethos is doing the opposite of what other people do… I want more of this to be a brand building tool.” — Jeremy (15:00)
• However: A full data set (with emails) can be offered to top sponsors/partners.

6. Year-Over-Year Evolution & Process Refinement

• Operational Efficiency:
  • Year 1: Heavy lifting, design from scratch, learning survey/data analysis.
  • Year 3: Systems, SOPs, handoffs—dramatically fewer hours required.
• Consistency Brings Power: Keeping survey questions stable allows for valuable year-over-year trend analysis.

7. Survey and Data Collection Tactics

• Survey Design Fundamentals:
  • Multiple choice, Likert scales, and minimal open-ends to reduce cognitive load and improve completion rates. (40:30)
  • Use of conditional logic to only show relevant questions.
  • Incentivization: Prize draws, extra entries for submitting "annoying" but crucial data like month-by-month downloads. (45:15)
• Sample Size & Partner Selection:
  • Aiming for hundreds of responses, but quality (e.g., advanced creators, not just beginners) beats quantity.
  • Partner with those whose audience matches the report’s target demographic.

8. Data Analysis and Visualization

• Approach:
  • Export data; de-duplicate and remove troll responses (e.g., all identical numbers).
  • Identify cohorts (e.g., by growth rates, years active) and analyze within/against these segments.
  • Start with Google Sheets and basic graphs; more sophisticated viz if budget or expertise permits.
  • Gather inspiration by reviewing existing industry reports (“swipe file”).

9. Narrative, Reporting, and Amplification

• Narrative Structure: Sequence findings to build a story (intro, benchmarks, sections by theme, conclusion).
• Interpretation & Takeaways: Provide not just raw data, but thoughtful analysis and “key findings.” Encourage others to share/cite these takeaways. (62:20)
• Content Repurposing:
  • "Sell your sawdust"—extract bite-sized lessons for email, social, and guest content.
  • Create podcasts, mini-reports, and guest posts from the data (even those that didn't make the core report).
• Promotion Strategies:
  • Leverage partner networks, industry newsletters, and direct outreach to maximize distribution.
  • Build anticipation (not just a single “launch day”).
  • Provide ready-to-share assets and summaries for partners and press.
  • Quote: “A launch isn’t a day, it’s a year.” — April Dunford via Jeremy (67:40)
• Evergreen Utility: Each report solidifies authority, boosts inbound requests, and creates compounding PR/networking benefits.

10. Addressing Imposter Syndrome

• No Special Credentials Needed:
  • If you’re driven by curiosity and act with integrity, you’re qualified to publish an industry report—don’t wait for permission.
  • ChatGPT and other tools make data analysis approachable even for non-experts.
  • Quote: “If you go into this with good intentions and you are careful with thinking about it in a logical way, I think the likelihood of there being any kind of blowback is actually pretty low.” — Jeremy (73:12)

Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• On Starting:
  “If nobody else is going to do it, then I guess I’m just going to have to go out and collect this myself.” — Jeremy (00:00, 73:12)

• On Elevating Authority:
  “...these industry reports, they just feel legit, they feel substantial, and they elevate your brand into entirely new conversations.” — Jay (00:24)

• On the Design Trap:
  “I probably boxed myself into doing a lot more work...by wanting certain things out of it. But I would say, most people could do a report...much faster than I did it.” — Jeremy (35:56)

• On Survey Fatigue and Partner Reach:
  “When you play the partnership game, if you don't have the audience, you're kind of at the whims of, you know, their own release schedules.” — Jeremy (49:43)

• On Repurposing:
  “Sell your sawdust...In the process of creating that, you're going to have stuff that doesn't make the cut...that becomes your short form strategy.”— Jay (69:36)

• On Approachable Marketing:
  “Nobody knows—we have data here, but we have to draw our own conclusions and run our own experiments.” — Jeremy (63:08)

Tactical Guide: Step-by-Step Creation Flow & Considerations

1. Establish Premise and Positioning

• What is the core curiosity? How will the report reflect your brand’s unique POV?

2. Design Your Survey Thoughtfully

• Focus on actionable questions; minimize open-ended responses
• Use conditional flows to keep response burden manageable
• Incentivize participation appropriately

3. Recruit Participants

• Start with your own audience
• Partner for reach with aligned creators/platforms
• Set a reasonable target (Jeremy: 500+ responses)

4. Clean, Analyze, and Segment Data

• Remove trolls, duplicates, and junk data
• Separate cohorts (by tenure, success, etc.)
• Analyze for actionable trends and narratives

5. Visualize & Structure the Report

• Start simple, level up as skills/resources grow
• Sequence insights for clarity—move from general to specific
• Embed narrative and key takeaways/calls to action

6. Publish and Launch

• Decide on format: open, gated, PDF, web, companion podcast
• Prepare media/press assets, summaries, and partner share packs
• Tease findings, build anticipation, don’t limit to a single launch day

7. Repurpose and Activate

• Leverage sections for blogs, social, emails, podcasts, guest posts
• Use report for pitches—guest on shows, present to communities
• Continue to layer on findings throughout the year

Conclusion: Core Takeaways

• Scrappy industry reports, even small ones, provide disproportionate authority, inbound opportunities, and community goodwill.
• Anyone curious, honest, and organized can do this—don’t wait for credentials or permission.
• Focus as much on promotion and narrative as on the survey itself—reports are only valuable if seen (and re-seen).
• Use each annual iteration to refine, simplify, and deepen your impact and positioning.

For More

• Learn more about Jeremy: podcastmarketingacademy.com
• Join Creator Science Lab: creatorscience.com/lab

This summary skips all ad reads, generic promos, and non-content sections for focus and clarity.