Why podcast listeners rarely reach out

There's one thing about podcasting that's always bugged me. On the listener side, it feels really engaging. I listen to the same podcast week after week, but on the creator side, I've been doing my podcast for over 5 years, and it kind of feels like it's one way. We put all this stuff out into the world, and we rarely hear anything back. I can see the downloads, stats, but that's not the same as hearing from our listeners. We tried the normal stuff: email the show, reply on social, send us a Boostagram, but nothing really clicked until we added a text number to our show notes. In hindsight, this makes perfect sense. Texting is easy, everyone knows how to do it, and it feels really casual. So, that's why we built Fan Mail into Buzzsprout. It's a simple way for listeners to text your podcast. You don't have to expose your phone number to the world, just turn on Fan Mail, and when your listener sends a text, it shows up inside your Buzzsprout dashboard or on the Buzzsprout mobile app. We turned this on for our podcast, and we started getting way more replies. Some were questions, some were feedback, but a lot were just kind notes, people letting us know that they liked the podcast. Many just felt like perfect reviews of the podcast, so we added the ability so you could pin them to your website, kind of like a review or social proof. Once we started getting messages, I wanted a way to reply. Not like a full messaging app, but a way to just say thank you or answer a question or ask permission to read their comments on the podcast. And most recently, we added voicemail. Text is still the easiest way to reach out, but voice is useful in a different way. Podcasting is audio first, so hearing your listeners' voice sounds natural. They can record a reaction, they can tell a story, they can answer a question that you ask, and you can use that recording in a future episode. And that's why I love Fan Mail. Makes it easy for your listeners and mine to reach out to the podcast and let us know what they think. I'd love to hear how you're using Fan Mail. Comment below or leave us a voicemail on Buzzcast. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep podcasting.