211 | Are You Targeting the Wrong Audience? - Grow The Show

Summary

Grow The Show - Episode 211: Are You Targeting the Wrong Audience?

Host: Kevin Chemidlin
Release Date: February 11, 2025

Introduction

In Episode 211 of Grow The Show, host Kevin Chemidlin delves into a critical mistake many podcasters make when defining their audience. Titled "Are You Targeting the Wrong Audience?", this episode provides valuable insights for podcast creators striving to grow their shows effectively by accurately understanding and targeting their ideal listeners.

Identifying the Common Mistake

Kevin begins by addressing a prevalent issue observed among his clients and members of the Grow The Show Academy: the over-reliance on demographic proxies, such as age and generation, when defining an audience.

Kevin Chemidlin [00:01]: "I want to point out a mistake that you might be making as you work to define your audience."

He explains that many podcasters declare their target audience based on broad demographics like "women who are Gen X and above the age of 40," which leads to vague and ineffective audience definitions.

Case Study: Misaligned Audience Definition

To illustrate this point, Kevin shares a conversation with a Grow The Show Academy member who defines her audience as:

Kevin Chemidlin [00:50]: "I am looking to reach women who are Gen X, who are above the age of 40 and who want abundance in their life. They want authority and personal brand and these types of things."

Kevin critiques this definition, highlighting that such broad demographic terms often encompass individuals who may not be the ideal fit for the podcast's content.

Kevin Chemidlin [03:15]: "What most people do is they use age and generation as a proxy. ... you are using age and generation as a proxy for what you are actually there to help with."

Through further probing, he helps the member realize that her actual target audience should be defined by specific psychographics rather than merely age and gender.

Kevin Chemidlin [07:30]: "Wouldn't you say then that your audience is women who are established in their career and want to establish a personal brand outside of their career?"

This refined definition focuses on the audience's professional status and aspirations, providing a clearer and more actionable target.

Demographics vs. Psychographics

Kevin emphasizes the distinction between demographics and psychographics in audience definition:

Demographics: Concrete, slowly changing attributes such as age, gender, marital status, and location.
Psychographics: Dynamic aspects like mindset, desires, pain points, fears, and hopes that directly influence content consumption.

Kevin Chemidlin [10:45]: "A demographic is something that is concrete and rarely changes... Whereas psychographics, which is your mindset, the situation that you're in in life, your desires, your pain points, your fears, your hopes..."

He argues that psychographics provide a deeper understanding of the audience's motivations and needs, enabling podcasters to create content that resonates more effectively.

Benefits of Defining Audiences by Psychographics

By shifting focus from demographics to psychographics, podcasters can:

Enhance Clarity: Clearly articulate who the show is for based on their experiences and aspirations rather than broad age groups.
Increase Relevance: Develop content that directly addresses the audience's specific challenges and goals.
Improve Growth and Monetization: Attract a more engaged and loyal listener base, making it easier to grow the show and generate revenue.

Kevin Chemidlin [15:20]: "If you can convey your podcast in that way, this show is for people who are here and instead want to be here. It's going to be easier to grow your show."

Actionable Steps for Podcasters

Kevin offers practical advice for podcasters looking to refine their audience definitions:

Evaluate Current Definitions: Examine if demographics are being used as stand-ins for psychographics.
Define Psychographics: Identify the specific mindsets, desires, and challenges your ideal listeners face.
Articulate Clearly: Communicate your target audience based on their experiences and aspirations to attract the right listeners.

Kevin Chemidlin [18:40]: "Think about what demographics are you currently using to define your audience, and how can you look past those demographics to convey a psychographic, to convey a symptom and an outcome?"

Conclusion

In this episode, Kevin Chemidlin effectively highlights the importance of moving beyond demographic-based audience definitions to embrace a psychographic approach. By doing so, podcasters can better understand and serve their true audience, leading to more meaningful engagement and sustainable growth.

Kevin Chemidlin [24:10]: "No matter how long you have been in the game, the second you start articulating this stuff more clearly is the second that it becomes easier to grow your show."

Kevin encourages all podcasters, whether new or seasoned, to reassess and refine their audience definitions to ensure their content reaches and resonates with the right listeners.

Key Takeaways:

Avoid using broad demographics as proxies for defining your podcast audience.
Focus on psychographics to understand your audience's desires, challenges, and motivations.
A well-defined audience based on psychographics leads to better content relevance and podcast growth.
Regularly reassess and articulate your audience definition to maintain clarity and effectiveness.

Grow The Show continues to empower podcasters with actionable insights to transform their content into powerful business assets. Stay tuned for more episodes packed with strategies to elevate your podcasting journey.

Transcript

Kevin Schmidlin (0:01)

This is Grow the Show, the podcast that helps you grow your podcast. My name is Kevin Schmidlin. I am your podcast growth coach. And in this quick episode of Grow the Show, I want to point out a mistake that you might be making as you work to define your audience. So by the end of this episode, you will know if you are making this extremely common mistake that folks are making these days when trying to define their audience. And if you are someone who's making this mistake and you correct it, your show is going to be easier to grow because you will be better at understanding your audience. And the reason I'm making this episode now is because I have had this conversation with several Grow the Show accelerator clients. So my one on one clients and also several members of the Grow the Show Academy as well, this keeps coming up, particularly right now. Recently, I was having a one on one welcome call with a member of the Grow the Show Academy. They had committed to a year up front, so they got the bonus one on one call. And on that call we talked about their audience. Now, this Grow the Show Academy member has been working on her business for several years. And so I asked her, who are you trying to reach with your podcast? And she immediately said, I am looking to reach women who are Gen X, who are above the age of 40 and who want abundance in their life. They want authority and personal brand and these types of things. And by the way, I'm adjusting the premise a little bit just to allow this number to stay anonymous, but that's essentially what it was. So to me, when I heard that, I said, okay, I know that what I have to push back on, because first of all, that podcaster's premise sounds like pretty much every other podcast that I hear these days. There is a significant percentage of podcasters that I help who say that their show is for women who are Gen X and who are above the age of 35 or 40. And it's something that I often push back on. Now, credit to this particular Grow the Show Academy member, I started poking her audience definition and saying, why is it these people, why is it women who are above the age of 40? And she said, yeah, I've had this conversation a lot and there have been a lot of men who have said to get more specific around this. And I was like, okay, cool, I hear you, I'm a man, but hear me out, because I am here to help you and I think you can do better than this. And so I poked and I prodded it and I said, okay, have you ever Served a client who was a good client who was below the age of 35. And she said, yes. And I said, okay, so why did you let them buy your stuff? If you are here to serve women who are above 35, shouldn't you have disqualified this person? If your audience is women who are age 35 and over, doesn't that mean it is not for a woman who is below the age of 35? And she kind of laughed and she said, well, that's not true. No. This particular client was mature and was very successful in her career and she was looking to establish a personal brand outside of her career. I said, ah, okay, so wouldn't you say then that your audience is women who are established in their career and want to establish a personal brand outside of their career? She kind of chuckled and said, yeah, I guess so. I said, okay, cool. And so where we got to was the actual situation that this academy member's business and podcast is there to help with. And so I said, while I agree with you and I grant to you that probably most of the women that you serve are over 35, that is not actually your audience, because there are women who are over 35 who are not a good fit for you, and there are some women who are under 35 who are not a good fit for you. We need to define our audience in a way such that everybody who fits our definition is a good fit and anybody who does not fit our definition is a bad fit. What most people do is they use age and generation as a proxy. So I don't only hear this for women, I hear this for men as well. I hear tons of podcasters who say, my podcast is for men who are above the age of 40. Or I've heard my podcast is for boomers. I've heard that too. People often will say that their podcast is for an entire generation. And I always push back on that because what you're doing is you are, first of all generalizing a certain age. And the fact of the matter is there are so many different 35 year olds. There are so many different gen zers, boomers, millennials, men, women. They're all totally different. And so what you're doing is you are using age and generation as a proxy for what you are actually there to help with. And you can kind of get away with that because it's one of those things where, yes, probably most of your clients and customers are of a certain age, but that is not why they have come to you. That is not the main thing. And so if you use that proxy to define your audience. Your definition is not correct. It is not clear. And again, the test is, if you are saying your show is for people who are 40 and above, are you disqualifying people who are 39? If that is not the case, then you are using a proxy to define your audience. And what that means is your audience is not as defined as clearly as it could be. This is why I say all the time we want to get away from using demographics to define who our audience is. A demographic is something that is concrete and rarely changes. So that's marital status. That might be gender, age might be parenthood status. Where you live, these things are demographics. And these things change very slowly, if at all. Whereas psychographics, which is your mindset, the situation that you're in in life, your desires, your pain points, your fears, your hopes, those things, first of all, can change in an instant. And second of all, those are the things that indicate what content we consume online, not our demographics. Now, again, demographics can be used as a proxy for a psychographic because there sometimes is very common overlap. But my message to you today is to look past the demographics when defining your audience, if you can manage to do that. And instead of saying, my show is for women above the age of 40 who want to establish a personal brand, and instead say something more accurate like, my show is for women who have achieved success already in their career and are looking to get out of their career and establish a personal brand outside of the company that they work for. That is what my Grow the Show Academy student is actually doing. And so when she says that, then those women who are that exact fit, who have success in a career, want to expand past, but are afraid to establish an online personal brand, they're gonna see her show and be like, oh, my gosh, this is exactly what I was looking for. I can't believe this exists. And so my challenge to you today, regardless of how you currently define your audience, is to think about what demographics are you currently using to define your audience, and how can you look past those demographics to convey a psychographic, to convey a symptom and an outcome? What is it that your audience is currently experiencing and what would they rather experience instead? And if you can convey your podcast in that way, this show is for people who are here and instead want to be here. It's going to be easier to grow your show. And the thing is, your audience isn't even going to change. You're going to go from saying, my show is for this demographic or this generation or this ethnicity or identity, and you're instead going to say, this show is for people who feel this way and would rather feel this way. And again, your audience isn't going to change that much. It's just going to grow because it's going to be so much more clear how your show can serve that audience. So whether you're in the early stages of defining your audience for the first time, or you might be doing the show for years and years, it's still always a good opportunity to challenge your understanding of who it is that you're serving and say, can I be more clear here? Can I have a more clear understanding? And can I articulate this more clearly to my audience? Because no matter how long you have been in the game, the second you start articulating this stuff more clearly is the second that it becomes easier to grow your show, easier to grow your audience, and easier to make sales because your show is attracting the people who are best suited to follow you and buy from you. So that's gonna do it for today's episode. I hope you enjoyed My Name is Kevin and I will see you next week. I have two things for you before I let you go. Number one, real quick, if you've ever gotten any value from the show, please, if you haven't yet, leave us a five star review. I get a notification every single time reviews come through and they almost always make my day. So please, please, I would love to hear from you. It really, really helps us. And then the second thing is if you are a podcaster who needs help with production, if you are struggling with all the time it takes to make these things and you haven't yet, definitely set up a conversation with Podcast Boutique. They are the team that I've been working with for five, six years. They're my most trusted production agency and recently they added an incredible service that you're going to want to hear about. They call it Record and Forget. I've been using it for months. It amazing. You just record your episode and send it to them. They do the content editing for you. They create titles, show notes, they can make it into an amazing YouTube video clips and of course high value production. So the content editing piece is the thing that I know people have been asking for for a long time. It is unbelievably good. All I do is record. I send it off to them. They handle the rest. And by the way, they're also closely in lockstep with me. So anytime I discover something that is working to grow and monetize a podcast, I immediately share it with them. We work to implement it with my show, and then they implement it with the other shows that they work on. So if you're spending time yourself doing any of the editing or post production, or if your current post production team isn't cutting it, maybe they're an internal team that doesn't know what they're doing, or they're an external team that's either too expensive or does not keep their promises, which is very common. Check out Podcast Boutique. You can go to podcastboutique.com let them know that I sent you. All right, I'll see you in the next episode.