This issue is presented by: ​One of these 3 shows... but which?​

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838 WORDS | READ TIME: 3.2 MIN

Hi friends,

Well, we've finally reached the end of our Hook Stacking Odyssey which we first started three weeks ago.

This exploration has been incredibly enriching for me, personally, and has opened up a whole new methodology and corresponding set of tools I'm developing to objectively assess and help improve client and student shows going forward.

I hope you've found it equally (or more!) enriching and that it's helped spotlight some of the reasons your show might not be attracting and converting as many listeners as it could be.

If you've missed the previous installments, you can catch up on them all here.

Over the course of this guide, we’ve explored a total of 35 distinct hook opportunities to attract, convert, and retain new listeners.

If you’re like most people, at this point you’re feeling both:

• Excited — About all the new opportunities to start implementing these hooks and improving your show’s level of attraction
• Overwhelmed — Because where exactly are you supposed to start? Which hooks provide the highest leverage and will deliver the greatest impact?

Fear not.

To close out this guide, I’ll walk you through how to think about how to prioritize your hook development and integration.

Self-Assessing Your Hooks

The first step is to do a self-assessment of your show to identify where the biggest gaps currently are at both the show level, as well as the typical episode level.

To complete the self-assessment, use the following rubric and give yourself a grade from 0-2 for each type of hook.

Scoring Guide:

• 0 = Hook is not relevant to my show, I’m not currently implementing it, or my current implementation doesn’t provide any real hook to a potential listener.
• 1 = Hook is dull and non-specific, likely too weak to attract, convert, or retain new listeners on its own merit.
• 2 = Hook is sharp, specific, and highly compelling. It's likely enough to attract, convert, or retain new listeners on its own merit, even in the absence of supporting hooks.

Note: It's unlikely any show could score a perfect 2/2 on every type of hook. That doesn't mean it's not worth shooting for however...

Once you’ve completed the self-assessment, you’ll have an objective baseline to guide your hook development and evaluate your progress going forward.

But where should you focus first?

Gateway Hooks: Refine Your Podcast From the Outside In

In general, I recommend sharpening your hooks from the outside in.

That is, starting with the most external facing touchpoints—the ones a potential listener is likely to encounter first and form an opinion about the show on.

Here’s why.

We can think of the series of 35 hooks as a long straight hallway divided by 35 doors.

Before a listener arrives at door 12 and faces the decision whether to open and walk through it or not, they must first encounter, choose to open, and walk through the previous 11 doors.

Said differently, there’s no point in optimizing the hookiness of the first minute of your episodes if you can’t get someone to click play in the first place.

And when it comes to convincing someone to click play, nothing matters more than your show’s concept, and the title and cover art that communicate it.

In my experience, developing these external facing hooks is the single most valuable marketing task for 99% of shows.

So if your primary goal is to attract more new listeners to the show, the most effective thing you can do is refine these outermost elements which do the heaviest lifting when it comes to new listener attraction and acquisition.

That said, there are a couple of considerations to keep in mind.

1. Changing up your show concept, title, and cover art are (usually) major undertakings that will likely take months to ideate, test, and complete.
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2. In addition to your existing audience, chances are there is a steady (even if it’s small) flow of new listeners who are already organically discovering your show who you want to do a better job of converting and retaining.

With these considerations in mind, it’s worth experimenting with making small, steady refinements to your episode-level hooks while working out the bigger questions about your larger show-level hooks.

These tweaks can not only lead to short-term improvements in audience attraction and retention but also plant the seeds of a skill set that will only compound in value over time.

The best place to start?

Developing better external hooks for your individual episodes.

Episode Ideation & Development

Chances are, there is a small (probably single-digit) percentage of your audience that will listen to every episode you release regardless of the topic or title.

The vast majority of your audience, however, are casual listeners, who tune in only when an episode particularly grabs them.

This presents a huge opportunity for growth.

Consider the math.

• Imagine you have a total listenership of 1,000 people and you release four episodes per month.
• Of those 1000 listeners, 50 people tune into every episode, accounting for 200 dl/mo.
• The other 950 might average one episode per month, accounting for 950 dl/mo.
• The result is a total of 1,150 dl/mo.

But what if you could increase the average number of episodes your casual listeners consume?

Or even better, convert more casual listeners into full-time listeners?

Let's do the math.

• If you were able to increase your average casual listener’s consumption rate to 1.5 ep/mo that would result in 1,450 downloads from your casual listeners alone (1,650 dl total), a 43% increase.
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• Improve your casual listener consumption rate to 2 ep/mo and you’d bump your total monthly downloads to 2,100, nearly doubling your starting download numbers.

In other words, it’s entirely possible to double your download numbers without bringing in any new listeners.

So how do you do it?

Unlike full-time listeners, casual listeners need to be won over with each and every episode.

In short, they need to be hooked.

Some of the lowest-hanging fruit, then, for increasing your downloads and listen time is improving the hooks around your episode topics… and the framing, concepts, formats, and guests that bring them to life.

Note that I didn’t mention improving your episode titles.

It’s true the title matters a lot when it comes to converting casual (and new) listeners.

But great titles are more often the natural result of an inherently hooky episode than something you can just slap on after the fact.

With that in mind, it's worth defining—before you ever hit record, start scripting, or reach out to a guest—what the hook for an episode idea is… and how you could sharpen it to become truly irresistible to your audience.

If you can’t define the hook upfront, you shouldn’t make the episode.

Simple as that.

YouTubers and the most successful podcasters, studios, and production companies live and die by this rule.

And one of the most valuable shifts you can make for the long-term success of your show is to adopt it yourself.

Start with the hook, then map out the content to deliver on it.

Thinking In Hooks

If there’s one thing to take away from this guide it’s this:

Your potential listeners aren’t looking for new places to spend their attention.

In fact, they’re actively guarding it.

Which means if you want to grow your show, you need to create as many opportunities to snag that attention in a way they simply can’t ignore, and then minute by minute, touchpoint by touchpoint, earn just a little bit more.

With each new hook you stack, layer, and weave into your show, you give your listeners one more opportunity to discover, connect with, and fall in love with your show.

Don’t waste them.

Stay Scrappy, PS. If you have a validated product/service valued at $1k or more and a show with at least 500 dl/ep, you're likely a few strategies, tactics, and best practices away from adding $1k–$5k/mo in podcast-driven revenue. If you're interested in identifying the hidden opportunities for your show, book a free Rapid Podcast Marketing Assessment with me to explore what's possible & build out a plan to get you there. ​ Think podcasting is hard? When it comes to creative mediums it could definitely be worse... ​

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