by: AskPat 691 Episode Transcript
Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here. Welcome to Episode 691 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week.
Here's today's question from Brad.
Brad: Hi, Pat. This is Brad. I have a website at 89days.net. I want to tell you that I really love everything that you're doing. Thank you so much for being helpful. I have really enjoyed your new book, Will It Fly? Also especially, thank you for the podcast videos that you made, as they helped me launch my podcast.
My question is about podcasts and asking for reviews. I notice that you don't do it normally every time. A lot of times when I hear podcasts, it's a little irritating to hear someone at the end constantly asking, “Please subscribe,” “Please review.” It's a little irritating sometimes. I know you do it once in a while. I'm not sure how often you do it, but I notice you don't do it every day. It reminds me of when my wife and I went to a restaurant. It was our anniversary, and it was a nice restaurant. The waiter kept asking us to fill out a questionnaire to give him a review and let him know how great he was doing. It kind of ruined our dinner. I think sometimes when there are so many times people ask for a review at the end of a podcast, it kind of ruins the thought of what's going on. What do you think?
My podcast is daily and it's called Proverbs In The Bible One Chapter For Each Day. It's just that. It's a daily podcast. On day, say five, you can listen to chapter 5 of the Book of Proverbs. It's really short,two or three minutes each day. I do not ask for reviews at the end because I just thought it was not appropriate. But what do you think about most podcasts people asking for five-star reviews in iTunes?
I'd love to know what you think, Pat. Thank you again for being so helpful. Bye, now.
Pat Flynn: Hey, Brad. This is an excellent question. This is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to podcasts that I listen to, as well. First of all, congratulations on your podcast, and also thank you for the shout out for my podcasting tutorial. You can all check that out, actually: PodcastingTutorial.com. It's helped thousands of people start their podcasts completely free, no e-mails required, nothing, PodcastingTutorial.com.
For me, I had listened to a ton of podcasts in my past. One of my biggest pet peeves was hearing that same call to action over and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. It just annoyed me in the same way that it annoys you, Brad, and likely most other listeners out there, too. I think that the reason people do this is because we want to drive in that message, that call to action is actually really important. I would not ignore that call to action. I just would not say it every single time.
With podcasts, a lot of people listen to one episode after another. I think it's okay to ask, but not all the time. For me, I have a number of different call to actions and I like to mix them up a little bit. I feel like at the end of a podcast Brad, if you have provided value, you have permission to ask them to do something. But like you said, it can get pretty annoying if you ask them to do something pretty big and time-consuming, and it can be pretty annoying if yo ask them to do something even if it's small, again and again and again.
I would mix it up and actually, I would make a spreadsheet or write down all the different calls to action that you would love people to do. You can mix it up. Since your show is daily, it might be easy to maybe only on Fridays, or Sundays might be better for religious purposes.
It might be a good reason to…or a day to…excuse me, I got a little off there…it's a good day to ask for a review, and you just do it only on your Sunday show. All the other ones, you have other calls to actions. They don't necessarily have to be anything that people have to go to a website to do, or type in anything.
A call to action can be as simple as, “Hey, go out there and find a stranger who needs help and help them today.” You're sort of training your audience to actually get to know you and to listen to you. Six days of things like that, and then one big ask, which is a review. It can go a very long way and it can work in everybody's favor. Obviously, you want to get to a point where you provide a lot of value and they're going to want to leave you a review.
I think this person who had served you at dinner probably just didn't earn it at that point. Maybe they could have blown you away with their service and you'd have, even without a call to action, have gone to their manager and said what a wonderful job they did.
Maybe they could've just known that it was your anniversary and went across the street and gotten you a cake with a candle on it and just wished you guys a happy anniversary that was not even a part of the menu. How awesome would that be? Do you think that if the waiter did that for you or somebody went that extra mile that you'd actually take the time to reciprocate and give back in some way, shape, or form? Maybe you would ask, “Is there any way I can help you out?” And then that's when that person goes, “Oh, yes. Actually, there's a survey you can take.” That makes much more sense. That's the way I like to approach this relationship-building that we all do online and with our podcast, too.
The final thing I want to say is asking for five-star reviews is a big no-no. You don't want to ever ask for five-star reviews. You want to ask for honest reviews and just believe in yourself and your product, or your podcast, or your content, and know that it's worth five stars. I think people understand that you want them to give them five-star reviews, but you don't have to say it.
If I were to say to everybody out there listening right now, “Hey guys, do me a favor. This would be really helpful. This helps with the rankings and the podcasts.” That's okay to say, but then you drop in the “Leave a five-star review for the show. It would be awesome. It would be really helpful.”
What if you wanted to leave a four-star review? If somebody wanted to leave a four-star review and somebody commanded them to give a five-star review, that review might be a three-star review, or two-star review. You don't want that to happen. Always ask for an honest review.
And here's the cool part. Even if it's a one- or two-star review, because you know it's honest, it's going to be helpful, hopefully. There are some jerks out there…haters out there who will just take that opportunity to slam you for stuff that maybe is just not even relevant to you, they're just going through some tough times in their own life. That happens a lot. But some of that constructive criticism can be extremely helpful for your show and its longevity.
Brad, I hope that answers your question. I hope you enjoy it, and I want to wish you all the best. Keep up the great work. Thank you. We're going to send you an AskPat t-shirt as well. I almost forgot to mention that. I'm really glad I did because you deserve it, and everybody else who gets featured here in the show definitely deserves a shirt because this show wouldn't exist without you.
If you want to keep the show going and help out in any way, shape, or form, my favorite way is to keep asking questions. Head on over to AskPat.com. You can ask your questions right there. Just hit the big record button, and ask away in that mic that you have at your computer. It doesn't have to be fancy. My job is to have the audio great. Your job is just to ask a great question.
Again, thank you all so much, everybody who has participated. It's always a lift to finish off these episodes with a quote. Today's quote comes from Oprah. She says, “The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success, but on significance. And then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.”
Such a good…oh man, I love that quote. Oprah, I love you. I hope you're listening to this. Probably not but hey, got to believe. Take care, guys. Thanks. Bye.