How Long Should My Podcast Episodes Be?
It’s one of the most common questions clients ask me. How long should my episodes be? The question comes in many forms:
“Are my podcast episodes too long?”
“Are my podcast episodes too short?”
“What’s the standard podcast length?”
“What’s the average podcast length?”
There’s one important point to remember, though. It doesn’t matter how long your episodes are, it matters how long people are listening, and there are many, many variables that affect that. First, right off the bat, the consumption rate of your average podcast – that is how long people are actually listening for – is 70%, no matter how long your episodes are.
From there, let’s take an audience first approach to thinking about your ideal episode length, because ultimately it’s all about what makes sense for your audience, not someone else’s. Here are a few questions two consider:
Who’s listening to your show?
Where are they listening?
What do you imagine they’re doing while listening?
Why are people listening?
Why do you want people to listen?
If you can’t answer any of these questions, especially the last two, you’re probably going to struggle with your show, no matter how long it is. Email me, and let’s schedule a free coaching session to chat. Sometimes having the space to dream out loud is all we need to define what we’ve been struggling to define.
Ready with your answers? Let them drive your thought process! Say you recorded an amazing interview, and it lasts about an hour with your intro and outro. If you’re making a podcast for busy parents, you might wonder if that’s too long. You could add chapter markers, so listeners can consume your content in smaller chunks, but that can be cumbersome for you and your listeners. Here’s an alternative. Break the interview up into smaller chunks, say 5, about 20 minutes long. Set each up with its own intro/outro, and release each as a stand-alone episode. You’ll increase your discoverability factor with more content, more posts, and more text for Sir Google to index. You might even expand your audience, since it’s guaranteed that different parts of the interview will appeal to different types of people. By releasing multiple episodes, you are niching down even further into the interests of your audience, providing individuals with content more tailored to their personal taste. What a win!
OK, next question. How fast are your listeners listening to your episodes? You can’t tell from any of the podcast analytics, and if I’m wrong I’d love for you to tell me (unless you’re reading this like 10 years from now). So how do you figure this out? You ask of course! If you have an email list, poll your listeners! If you don’t (and you really should think about it) you probably DO have social media. Share links and promote your survey. Talk about it in your intro and outro for a few episodes. Ask for feedback from your listeners so you can deliver what they want. Then, go out and do it! If you find out your listeners are listening at double speed, well what you think is an hour of content turns into 30 minutes. What a difference that makes!
The bottom line here, is know your audience, know why you’re speaking to them, and what you want them to get out of it. From there, make great content first, and deliver it in a way that makes the most sense based on – once again! – who your audience is, why you’re speaking to them, and what you want your audience to learn from each episode.
