Your audience’s feedback is a crucial part of your podcast’s success. The more positive reviews you have, the more likely others are to give your show a chance. However, convincing fans to take the time to leave a review can be harder than it sounds.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be a struggle. By following a few simple tips, you can start increasing audience engagement where it matters most.

In this article, we’ll talk about why positive reviews are so important to your podcast’s success. Then, we’ll walk you through three tips to help you collect more of them. Let’s dive right in!

The Importance of Positive Reviews

If you’ve ever received a glowing review, you probably know how rewarding it can be. However, positive feedback can also help you take your site’s listener count to the next level.

This is especially true if you have a large number of good reviews. This indicates that you appeal to a wider audience – even if the reviews are short, as Fun and Gains shows:

This general consensus of quality can help you attract more listeners. Additionally, it can help you understand what your audience likes most about your show. As a result, you may be able to make improvements with greater precision.

Finally, positive reviews are also helpful if you want to impress sponsors. They show brands that you have loyal fans who are happy to engage. This can act as social proof that your followers will also be willing to check out the products that you promote.

How to Get More Podcast Reviews (3 Easy Ways to Grow Your Audience)

Now that we understand how positive reviews can help you grow your audience, it’s time to look at how to obtain more of them. Here are three tips to help you increase the number of positive reviews for your podcast.

1. Help Your Users Get Started

Unfortunately, leaving a review isn’t always at the top of your audience’s mind. Your followers might not understand how it works, or how helpful it can be to your site. As such, we recommend that you spend some time talking about reviews with your audience.

The first step is to tell them where they can leave reviews. For example, Apple’s reviews are near the bottom of the show’s page. This might go unnoticed by casual listeners. Simply telling them where to find the review section could help you earn more ratings.

You might also want to let them know why it’s important. A lot of people want to support their favorite podcasters. If you tell them that positive reviews are a simple way to make a big impact, they might be more inclined to write one. This can also boost engagement.

If you want more detailed reviews, you may want to consider reaching out to your biggest fans directly. These users are probably more enthusiastic about your content than the average listener. A simple email may encourage those who are most familiar with your show to share their thoughts.

2. Offer an Incentive

Even if your users understand the importance of reviews, they might still not be willing to write one. In this case, it’s not a bad idea to offer incentives for those who do. This can benefit both you and your users.

If you’re still growing your podcast, you might want to consider offering on-air shout-outs for those who submit reviews. They’re easy and fast to create, and can make your audience feel appreciated for their contributions.

You may also want to take it a step further by hosting giveaways. Each review can count as an entry towards a contest that you’re running. You can consider the Bystanders Podcast as an example:

However, incentives don’t only have to apply to your audience. You might want to reach out to fellow podcasters in your niche to swap reviews. This way, users will see a recognizable name and may be more inclined to leave a review.

In addition to gathering more reviews, this technique can be a clever way to promote your show. As such, we recommend that you pair it with other marketing strategies for maximum impact.

3. Keep in Contact

Finally, let’s talk about responses. Some people may not want to write a review because they feel it’s a one-way street: they spend time leaving their thoughts and receive no response. Therefore, you may want to consider a few ways to make them feel more appreciated.

For example, you could send follow-up emails. Even if it’s just a quick thank you, this can go a long way towards showing your appreciation.

We recommend that you stick to your show’s branding even in your communications. This can be especially important if it’s a large part of your online presence. The high-fantasy show Hello From the Magic Tavern provides a strong example of this consistency:

On the other hand, not all of your reviews will be entirely positive. You may also want to reach out to those who weren’t impressed with your content. This can show that you care about listeners while also collecting practical feedback.

Conclusion

If you want your podcast to succeed, reviews should be a big part of your marketing plan. However, gathering feedback isn’t always the easiest task. Fortunately, a few key strategies may be all you need to start receiving more reviews.

Getting more reviews depends on how easy it is to leave those, and if you bring this to the attention of enough people. A good example of a review-enabler platform is Podcastpage.io, where your audience can post new reviews directly on the site, but they also pull reviews from Apple Podcasts and Podchaser. Mentioning reviews to your audience during the show is always a great idea, and nowadays all major platforms (Apple/Spotify/Google/Podchaser) support reviews.

In this article, we showed you three ways to get more reviews for your podcast:

1. Talk to your users about leaving reviews and show them how to get started.
2. Offer an attractive incentive to make it worth their time.
3. Keep in contact to show your appreciation.

A podcast review can be influenced by the user’s experience of your website. Check out a few of our podcast themes that can help take your site design to the next level.