82: Stop Asking for Ratings & Reviews (And Do This Instead)

Written By Britany Felix
 
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Listen to just about any podcast episode and there's a very good chance you'll hear a request for the listener to leave a rating and review. That request is frequently followed by an explanation that it will help the show be discovered by more people.

Simply put ... that's not even remotely true and you're basically wasting your breath.

Take a listen to this quick episode to find out exactly why you should stop asking for ratings and reviews and what call-to-action you should have in your episodes instead.

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Transcript

Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more. Welcome to Episode 82, of podcasting for coaches, it's pretty clear from the title of this episode, what the topic is going to be. And I am just gonna go right into it. Because this actually ties in with my episode for next week about podcasting pet peeves, because one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to any podcast that I listened to, and even my own client shows, is having your main call to action, be asking for the listener to leave you a rating or review. To put this very generally and bluntly, you are wasting your breath. If you do this, I feel so strongly about this. So apologies in advance if I get a little bit passionate and a little bit aggressive with this. But I desperately need you to please stop doing this. If you are just starting your show, you can ask for ratings and reviews in the beginning if you want to. But as soon as you get to like six reviews, 10 reviews, stop, you are good. There are still some people, not a whole lot of people, but some people who when they discover a new podcast, they do go look for those reviews, they want to make sure that they're there that other people have good things to say. But they generally only read a few, they're not going to sit there and read through 2050 reviews, they just need a couple to know that they're good, and then they're gonna check it out. So once you have those first few reviews, stop, you're done, you don't need any more. And we want to start using that call to action for something that is going to be much much much more beneficial for your podcast and your business. Now, you may be saying well, but it helps me get discovered by new people. And it helps me people find my show. And it helps me get higher rankings and apple. None of that is true. If you think about it, where have you gotten that information from? How do you know that it helps new people discover your show? How do you know that it gets you a higher ranking in apple? And how do you know that that higher ranking is actually going to do anything for your show? What data do you have that backs that? Or have you just heard that so many times in other podcasts that it's ingrained in your brain? And now you just think that it's general knowledge, everybody knows that ratings and reviews help your show get found by new people? It doesn't, it absolutely does not. The only way that it helps you with new people is if they already find your show. And then the ratings and reviews can convince them to maybe hit play if they're on the fence because you haven't done a good enough job with your description and your show titles. And as far as the rankings go, Rob Walsh, who is the vice president of podcaster Relations at Lipson the hosting company that I recommend everybody use for their podcast, has done the research, he has looked into the data he has tested this. And he says and I'm gonna do a direct quote here, that the apple podcast rankings are, quote 100%, about the total number of new subscribers in the past seven days with a weighted average for the last 2448 and 72 hours, and quote, nothing about ratings and reviews. To further this. Daniel J. Lewis from the audacity to podcast who was another guy that I highly respect and knows what he's talking about, also did a deep dive into this. And he took a look at the top 12 shows in all of Apple podcasts. This was this past December 2019. And he compared the ratings and reviews for each one of those shows to see if there was any correlation to them being in this top 12 and the order that they were in and there absolutely was not. There were shows that had fewer ratings and reviews that were ranked higher than shows that had hundreds of 1000s more reviews. So it does not have an effect on ranking. And it does not get you in front of new people. Again, the only thing that these ratings and reviews do is maybe convinced people who are on the fence to actually hit the play button and serve as social proof slash testimonials for your social media and on your website. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It's great to have some testimonials that you can plop on your website for people who are saying you know what you're talking about, and you're engaging to listen to, and you've really helped them. And it's obviously wonderful to have those things you can post on social media as well. However, think about this for a second, can you tie any one testimonial? And any one Instagram image with some positive review of your podcast back to revenue for your business? Can you say definitively that because someone left you this one specific review, that you now have new revenue coming in, that you've now signed a new client? Or would it maybe be more beneficial to have a call to action instead, to purchase your course, purchase your product, sign up for a discovery call with you. And then if they do those things, if they purchase that course, or product, if they do that discovery call and then sign up with you as a client, which one do you think has more definitive and impactful results for your overall business, it's obviously going to be the call to action that will result in direct revenue, not in some field good review, that not very many people are ever actually going to read. And here's another thing to keep in mind about ratings and reviews. It's not like people can only leave these things, if you ask them. If you are putting out quality content, if you're actually really truly helping people, they're going to leave a review, not everyone, obviously, it will be a very, very, very small percentage. But you will still have reviews come in periodically. So it's not like you're never ever, ever going to get a rating or review. But again, it has to be quality content, you have to actually really put out a good show that people enjoy, that people want to rave about, that people want to tell others about. They want to share good news, they want to share stories of how you help them, they're excited about it. If you're not doing that, they're not going to leave those ratings and reviews, even if you ask them to. So think about it in terms of if you purchase something off of Amazon, if it's a mediocre item, it's an item that did exactly what you thought it was going to do. It wasn't something that like changed your life. It's not revolutionary, but yeah, sure it did the job. Do you go leave a review for that item? Or do you go leave a review for the item that far exceeded your expectations, you have no idea how this thing doesn't cost four times as much as it does, because it absolutely would be worth every penny, it has made this one particular area of your life so much easier. And you cannot believe you've lived without it for all of these years. And you think everyone needs to be aware of this thing. That's what your show needs to be. Your show needs to be the Amazon product that far exceeds expectations. And they cannot believe that you are giving this content away for free. So to recap, ratings and reviews are not nearly as important as you think they are, they are a waste of a call to action most of the time. And you don't have to sell your firstborn child soul to the devil just to get them as long as you're actually putting out good content. Instead, what I want you to do, once you have those six to 10 ish reviews, start selling your own stuff. It's really not any more complicated than that. If you are listening to this right now, it's because you are probably a coach or consultant, which means you have products or services to sell. So you need to actually sell them. You can't just constantly give away content and give it away and give it away and give it away and not ever explain how anybody can ever work with you are higher you are purchasing from you. That is how you serve your audience. Yes, give free content, but you still have other ways to serve them. And it just so happens that you get the money in return. That's the whole point of your business. Otherwise, you would just be working for free all of the time, which if you want to do that, that's great. That's why we have this podcast, it's a way to also give back. But you need to be able to sustain your business. And that means money coming in. So I want you to get comfortable with selling. And I want you to actually talk about the products and services that you offer that your audience needs. They need these things from URLs, they wouldn't be listening to your show. So give them that give them what they need. Give them what they're looking for, give them the solution to the problem that made them seek out your podcasts in the first place. Okay, so I'm off of my little soapbox tangent there about ratings and reviews. You're going to hear about it again, very briefly in next week's episode where I go over the podcasting pet peeves that people have, not just me, a lot of people. But I want to switch gears really quickly right here at the end and say, speaking of selling, which is a terrible segue, and I totally get that but it actually does relate. A couple of episodes ago, I referenced a free training that my own business coach is doing around the topic of selling and she had to change the dates for it at the time because some things came up and a lot of people were saying that the dates didn't work and she wanted to accommodate them. So She's running it now. And the signups are happening through this weekend. And it will start on Monday. So if you are a new or struggling business owner who wants to keep your selling process super simple, or maybe you're just fed up with how you've been selling, it hasn't really been working. Maybe your Tech Challenge or time challenge, you hate the idea of doing anything that might be seen as spamming. Or honestly, you're just like sick of analyzing all of these processes and trying to come up with these different strategies, and you just want to make some cells right now, then this free program is going to be for you, it's a three day training in like a pop up Facebook group. So it's going to be super easy to attend. And over the three days crystal is going to cover how to bypass sales styles and systems that just make you feel really gross. And just learn how to just be honest and sell from the heart while being authentic, because you actually care about the people you're trying to serve. She's also going to talk about how to sell out every single space and your highest price offer without like a single Facebook post or a paid ad. And then she's also going to cover how to run a cost free business so that every single sale goes straight into your dream lifestyle. I absolutely love crystal, I have been working with her for a few years now. She has helped me literally 10x my one on one rates for my launch clients. So she will get you to have the revelations in there, if you actually show up and put in the work. So if you are ready to take your selling to the next level, I want you to check out this program, the 24 hour secret sell out, which by the way I have used myself it works. And I'm gonna be in the group as well going through it again with you because even though I go through her content, I always get something new from it every single time I go through it. So I will be there interacting with her and the content. And you know, the signups for this and on Sunday at 6pm eastern time here in the States. And then the program starts on Monday. So again, the program itself totally free. But I do want to make a mention because I believe in being 100% transparent and honest, I am an affiliate for crystal, just in general, because she's my business coach who I absolutely love and adore. And I have gotten so much from her that it's kind of a no brainer for me to be an affiliate for her. So there will be a link in the show notes for this episode, which you can find here in the podcast app that you're listening to or in the show notes on my website, which can be found at podcasting for coaches.com. Just click on the podcast tab in the main menu and then go to episode number 82. And then of course, there's also going to be a link to it in my Instagram bio, if it's easier for you to find it that way. If you have any questions about this, feel free to reach out. But again, signups do close Sunday at 6pm. And that's Sunday, May 24. So don't miss out on this. It's going to be a really, really awesome training. And I hope to see you in there. Thank you so much for joining me. Definitely come back next week so that we can talk about those podcasting pet peeves so that you can make sure you're not pissing off your listeners. It's never a good thing. Have a fantastic week. Hope to see you in crystals training. And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, you can do so on Instagram at podcasting for coaches. If you know it's time to finally get serious about starting your podcast, go to podcasting for coaches calm and click on the work with me tab in the main menu to learn more about my one on one launch consultation packages or my self paced online course. And I look forward to seeing the podcasts that you create and put out into the world.

 
Britany Felix
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83: Podcasting Pet Peeves (And How to Avoid Them)
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81: What to Do If You've Been Rejected by Apple Podcasts