Launching a podcast comes with many decisions, one important one being how many episodes to publish on your launch day. At Gaffin Creative, we encourage all of our podcasts to launch with at least 3 episodes!
Posting multiple episodes when you launch brings a variety of benefits! Let’s explore those:
Show a Range of Content
The episodes you decide to launch with can range in topics or styles. Posting a variation of content can display the full breadth of what your show may cover. Doing this will give listeners a better sense of what your podcast is about, intriguing them to follow along and listen.
Additionally, it allows for you to reach a wider audience if they don’t necessarily resonate with a particular podcast episode! For example, when I launched Clocking In with Haylee Gaffin, I launched with three episodes:
001: 5 Lessons My Mom Taught Me About Money
002: How to Use a Podcast in Your Business
003: Tax Prep for Entrepreneurs
The idea was that I would reach three potential audiences through those three episodes:
001: People who were interested in money & finance (and my mom’s friends)
002: People who were interested in launching their own podcast
003: Entrepreneurs who need tax help
With the launch of those, episodes 001 and 003 had about the same amount of downloads, while episode 002 only got half of the downloads.
While a goal of my podcast was to drive traffic to my services, I’m also serving the audience I currently have, which doesn’t only include people interested in podcasting.
Downloads + Engagement
The engagement on your first few episodes is crucial for the growth of your podcast. Having more than one episode upon launching provides for more opportunity for your audience to listen to, engage, and share!
By launching with multiple episodes, you’re boosting your total downloads by nearly as many episodes as you release at launch.
For example, if you launch your podcast and have 50 people head to their favorite podcast app to download and listen, by launching with three, you’ve secured nearly 150 downloads on launch day compared to the 50 if you’d released with just one episode.
This helps with your ratings and can impact your rankings on the podcast charts!
More Content to Market!
This one feels obvious, but it’s an important one. When you have more content during your launch, you have more to promote. Promoting one episode to your audience can quickly become monotonous and uninteresting. Having a couple of episodes gives you more opportunity to market your show and remind your followers that you’ve launched a podcast!
If you’re ready to launch your podcast, but aren’t sure where to start, make sure you check out Podcast Launch Kit, the diy course for beginners!
Maybe you’ve launched your show, but an’t seem to plan enough content long-term? No worries! Gaffin Creative’s Quarterly Episode Content Planning Workbook helps you plan out your next three months of content! Check out this helpful digital workbook and more resources on Gaffin Creative’s Podcast Shop!
