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Podcast reviews. Do they actually help?

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Welcome back everybody to Podcast Answers. It has been a few hot minutes since I've been on this

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show, guys. I am super sorry about that. I've been meaning to get on. There's a topic that I was

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going to discuss and it just didn't come together like I wanted it to come together. And so,

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now you get me. Now you're here. What do I do? What does this show all about, guys? This is

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a show where I help people start and grow their podcasts, answering any podcasting questions along

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the way. And that's right. I really want to help you grow your show and start your show.

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So if you've had any podcasting questions that you've been dying to ask, I would love to answer

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them. But today, like I said, podcast reviews, does it even matter? Does it matter that we have

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ratings and reviews? I hear a lot about ratings. I hear a lot about reviews. I hear people say

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things like, "Review our show. It helps people discover the show." But does it really? Does it

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really? Well, first guys, we will get into that topic. But first, I wanted to let you know that

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we are going to be changing the time. I think I'm going to be changing the time of this show.

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I do record this show live and it's during the day. And so I don't get a lot of feedback during

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the show. It's usually when I'm on my lunch for work. And so I just don't get a lot of people

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talking back with me, watching live, joining with me. So I want to change that.

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So I'm going to be changing the live recording to happening Tuesday evenings at 9pm Eastern.

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So again, you heard that again, Tuesday, 9pm Eastern is when we are going to be doing this

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show live from now on on YouTube. You can find our YouTube channel at podcastanswers.com/youtube.

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That'll get you over to our YouTube channel. But again, we're going to be doing this show

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live on YouTube and it's going to be... Yeah, we're going to do it 9pm Eastern on Tuesdays.

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That way we can hopefully get a little more people in there. But I wanted to come during

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our regular time this time. So you missed it. If you're joining us now, it's not here. So

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with that, yes, next time we record, we will record 9pm Eastern.

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So we're talking today about ratings and reviews. And again, like I said, I hear a lot of people say

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things like, "Hey, rate and review our show. It means a lot to me. It will help people find the

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show." Part of that statement is true. It means a lot to me. That is where people are. Yes, people

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love hearing ratings and reviews. But does it really help people discover the show? So a couple

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different things. Why are ratings and reviews so important? Social proof. So if you don't know what

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social proof is, essentially, it's when you look at that Amazon, you're searching on Amazon for

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the next greatest blanket that you want to buy. I don't know. Give me some room here. I don't know

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why you'd be looking for blankets. But if you are, you're looking for that next great blanket and you

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say, "Hey, there's no reviews here or there's one review here." You don't think it's probably that

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great of a blanket, do you? You have no experience of it. You can just read what the description says,

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but you don't know if it's going to be a great blanket or if it's going to be a terrible blanket,

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because you have no experience with that. Because the only thing that you see is one rating.

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So social proof is just that. When you look at an item on Amazon, say you're looking for,

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again, a blanket and you come on this listing for this blanket that has 100 reviews, and

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75 of them are good, but maybe 25 of them are bad. You still are going to probably buy that blanket,

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right? Because the bad reviews outweigh or don't outweigh the good reviews. The good reviews outweigh

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the bad ones. And so honestly, you are going to be doing that. And you're going to buy those.

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That's what social proof is. It's the idea of regular people like you,

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reviewing the product and saying it's either good or bad. That's social proof in a nutshell.

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So social proof is, you're seeing socially, whether that's on Facebook or Instagram,

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or the review comment of a website, you're seeing the comments and people coming in,

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you're seeing that where people want to see the show they want, they want to come in and they want

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they want to, they want to view your show because people, other people have said that, yes, this is

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good. You should listen to it. A show that doesn't have any, any reviews is probably going to be

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skipped over when people are looking at it because there's no social proof. Also, why can, how can

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reviews be important? It's listener feedback. You're getting direct insight on what your audience

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enjoys about your show. Yes, that may come with some downsides that may come with some things

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where people are saying, Hey, I don't like this show. This voice guy's voice stinks,

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or it could be made. This is, you know, this is terrible quality, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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That's not really great yet. I mean, it's an opportunity for you to take those feedback

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and get direct insight on what the people are saying about your show. So maybe you are,

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you do have bad audio quality. Maybe you do have something that can be

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improved, or maybe you are doing a great job and, and your people are going to tell you in the

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feedback. That's what reviews do. They are reviewing your show. And so your listeners

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are giving you direct feedback and insight on what you, they like, they are telling you

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what they like right away. They are telling you. And so use this as a chance to get feedback.

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Maybe that even means printing those out and hanging them on the wall behind your camera,

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behind your microphone so that you can look up and see when you do have a bad review.

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Oh, there's one bad review, but there's 100 good positive reviews.

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So that's, that's what the listener feedback allows you to do. It allows you to get that

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feedback. It also helps attract sponsors. Sponsors are going to look at your reviews when,

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when they're looking for to sponsor your show. They're going to say, Oh, podcast answers has

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no reviews. Maybe it's not a show that we actually want to do because we don't know that

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he's actually there are actually people listening to it or podcast answers has 150 reviews or 3000

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reviews. This looks like a show that a lot of people are listening to. And so it actually

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helps attract sponsors. So yes, it does matter in that. Does it really help though, with the

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algorithm people? That's what I'm hearing. People say a lot. It helps people find our show.

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If you're meeting social proof, if you're meeting listener feedback, attracting sponsors, then yes,

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it does do that. But Apple has said over and over and over and over again, it does not help

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with the algorithm. Just because you have 3000 likes and reviews does not put you higher on the

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charts for us to display your show. There are a lot of other things that Apple takes into

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consideration when they're going to recommend your show, but not necessarily the feedback

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and ratings and reviews. So does it really help that? I'm going to say no, I'm going to go out on

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a limb and say no. Yes, it helps you. It helps you get the warm and fuzzies inside to know people

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like you. It helps social proof. It helps people see it. No. Yes, it's gonna be a good show.

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But it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be delivered more on the recommended charts or

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things like that. So how do you go about getting reviews? Reviews can sometimes be scary because

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you have to actually, a lot of times ask for them. A lot of times when I'm listening to a podcast,

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I don't think I should go out and rate and review this podcast unless I'm actually asked.

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So that's where a call to action or a CTA comes into play. Keep it simple and tell them exactly

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what you want them to do. If you've not heard our episode on CTAs or calls to actions, we did an

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episode a while back about that. And one of the most important things is to keep them simple.

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Don't have like three or four calls to actions in your podcast because people aren't going to do them.

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You can maybe get away with one at the top and one at the bottom. But most of the time,

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just have your call to action at the bottom. Tell them what you want to do. Keep it simple.

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So along with keeping it simple, it could be something like, "Hey, rate and review our show.

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It really just helps other people know that this is a great show." Or "It helps give me

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warm fuzzies. Helps me know that you guys love this show." But keep it simple and then also

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make it easy. Provide direct links to your review pages in your show notes. So show notes are super

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helpful. If you're not familiar with show notes, a lot of times you'll hear people say, "We're

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putting that in our show notes. We're putting that in our show notes." Well, what exactly are show

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notes? Show notes are that in your podcast app, you can click and see the description. It's a

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description of the episode. So you have a title, something like on this episode, it's going to be

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podcast reviews. How important are they? But then the description is me saying, "This is what I'm

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talking about. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." You can put your links in there. Most playing apps will

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allow you to click those links. But even if they don't, having them in there and having them super

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simple is easy. And again, if you've not heard our episode on URL shortenings and short shorteners,

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do that. Listen to that episode because that's a good episode as far as how to keep your links

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simple and brand your links. So keep it simple. Provide an easy, provide the direct links to your

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review pages in your show notes. Because again, while they're listening, they can go in,

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click the link and be taken right to the review page, whether that be on Apple podcasts, Spotify,

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YouTube, Podchaser, those are all places to get reviews and many more. But put a few of those

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links in your show notes. Again, give them instructions because maybe people don't know

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how to leave a review or that they can leave a review or where to leave a review. So make sure

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that when you're telling them not just go and rate and review the show, tell them how, tell them how.

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Say, "Hey, there's a link in the show notes. Click on that. Leave us a rating. Leave us a review."

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Both matter. Engage with your reviews. This is a super important topic here. Engage with your

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reviews. When you get a review, mention it in your show. Give a shout out on your show.

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People love hearing their names said on a podcast. It's amazing. Guys, podcasting, anybody can do

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podcasting. I'm a firm believer. Anybody can do podcasting. And I think that they should, if they

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have something to say, but anybody can do podcasting, not in the days of old, where you had

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to become trained in radio, you had to go to a studio, you had to get hired by a radio studio

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and do a radio show. Anybody can do a radio show now. And so people still think that you're famous.

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You're doing a show and it makes them feel warm and fuzzy when you say their name on the show.

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So you can say something like, "John Huvogoviak just sent him a review this last week.

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And he said, "Loving the show. It's such a great help for me when I'm trying to make my podcast.

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I've learned so much from Andy." And say, "Thanks, John, for sending that in. We love to hear you.

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We love making the show for you." Engage with your reviewers. Give them shout outs. They love

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hearing their names on the show. They love hearing their comments on the show. One of the other

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things you can do is incentivize your reviews. And by incentivizing, I'm meaning doing a contest.

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Give something away. Say a contest like, "Hey, we're running a contest for the next two weeks."

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And everybody who puts a review in gets their name entered into a contest to win the next

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RODECaster Pro or whatever. That's not a contest I'm giving guys. That's not a contest. But you

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could say something like that. Or, "Gets a free consultation with me for doing podcasts." Or,

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whatever. So you could do a contest and say, "I'm going to give away one of these things. I'm going

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to give away a free hour of consultation with me on how to build your podcast or starting your

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podcast." Or whatever. For the next two weeks, anyone putting in a review gets entered into the

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drawing. That's a great way because people want to win things. And so if you are giving away things,

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they're most likely, more likely, to enter in and actually put those in. Now again,

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you're not buying them. People are honestly putting their reviews in.

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The other thing that you can do to get reviews is using your network. We all have those people. We

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all have people we know. Mom, dad, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives. We all know people

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that may or may not listen to the show, but they can be good inspirations to tell them that. Say,

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"Hey, listen to this latest episode that I did and go ahead and put it on review."

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They're going to probably do it because they know you and they want to help you out with

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your endeavors and your endeavors being starting your show, starting your podcast. And so they want

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to help you with that. We all have those people. We all have parents. We may not all have spouses.

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We may not all have kids, but we all have parents. We all have friends that you can ask and say, "Hey,

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go over to my show and leave a rating and a review. I would love it if you would do that."

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Also, you can collaborate with other podcasters that are in your niche. Ask them to review.

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You know, like I'm doing this podcast about podcasting and there are 150 other podcasts

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that do podcasts about podcasting. I'm not the only one. And so you can ask those other

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podcasters, say, "Hey, would you mind reviewing my show and giving me a like, subscribe,

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review or rating?" That also helps social proof too, because if people see, "Oh,

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this podcaster who is talking about the same topic likes Andy's podcast,"

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they're likely to give it a try. Now, they may not stick around, but they may.

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You can also promote it on social media. Ask people in an IG or a Facebook story,

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do a YouTube short, something where you're saying, "Hey guys, if you like our show,

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if we've given you any value at all, go ahead and give us a like, a subscribe,

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whatever, a review. Give us... And here's how you do it. Click on this link right here in this story."

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And again, you could go ahead and set a page on your website. And that's actually probably

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the best way to do it. So have a page on your website that says like, you know,

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slash rate and review. So podcastanswers.com/rateandreview. And then you can have all

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the ways in there. Say, "Hey, are you an Apple podcast listener? Click here. Are you a Spotify

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listener? Click here. Are you a YouTube subscriber? Click here." These are how you can go and rate and

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review our show. Do not listen to any of those. You can go and do it on Podchaser.

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Because that way it allows them to choose what they want to review it in.

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Their podcast app of choice promoted on social media. Now, where can you focus on getting

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reviews? I've mentioned a lot during this episode already. You can go to Apple podcast.

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That's like one of the largest directories around. It's Apple podcast. Lots of people have Apple

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phones, iPhones, and they will, would love to review your show. Spotify is another great thing.

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Spotify, now they don't allow for written reviews, but they, but you can rate your podcast. So give

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them a five star or whatever. Podchaser is not really a app of to listen to podcast him, but

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what it is is it's like the IMDb of podcasts. So if you've heard of IMDb before, it's where you're

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watching a show and you're like, "Hey, I think that that actor was in such and such an other

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show." And so you go back and you look at IMDb, it's the internet movie database. Podchaser is

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like that. It's like the IMDb of podcasts. You can look at a specific podcast and you can see who

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was guesting on it. You can look for specific people and see what podcasts that they were on.

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It's a great tool. It also allows you to rate and review podcasts. Go there, check and see if your

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podcast is in podchaser. If not, you can submit it. If you do video, like I do for this show,

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I'm this episode, this podcast is on YouTube. Encourage people to comment on the YouTube video,

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comment on the YouTube video and let me know what you like about it. So you can tell people,

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"Hey, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you comment on this video. Tell me how much you like

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the content of this video in a comment." All right, guys, that is pretty much what I have as far as

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as far as ratings and reviews go. But I want to remind you quickly,

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don't... These are some mistakes. Don't do that. Don't beg or sound desperate. It kind of shows

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that you are whining. Like, "Help us! Help us show out! Please, please, please, please, please,

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please!" Don't do that. Don't do that. People read that all day. People will see that and say,

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"I'm not going to do that." They're just begging. The other thing you don't want to do is pay for

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reviews. Do not pay for reviews. It's not only not ethical, it's not honest, but it can get you banned

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from a lot of the shows. So don't pay for reviews. So guys, with that, I want you to know if you've

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not rated this podcast, do that as soon as this episode ends, right? If you're listening to Apple

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podcast, go to the show and leave us a rating or review. So this is my call to action right now.

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If you've not rated this podcast, go ahead and do it as soon as this episode ends. Because

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I would like to see your ratings or reviews. I'm just gonna be honest. I would love to hear what

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you know about... Like about the show. What you don't like about the show. If you're in Spotify,

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click the rating. Let us know. 1 star, 5 stars. If you're on YouTube, leave us a comment or go

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to podchaser.com and search "podcast answers". I would love to see the comments that you have

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about this show. And just in general, what you enjoy about this show.

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So guys, thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. If you have topics for us,

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make sure you send us in the topics. We would love to cover that because again,

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this is a podcast answer show. This is a show where you ask questions and we answer them.

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Guys, have a great week and keep podcasting.