Unlock the Power of Audience Demographics for Successful Content Creation

Anytime we hear the old adage “knowledge is power,” we can’t help but take its meaning a step further. It’s what you do with that newfound knowledge that can be so transformative and make a difference in your work, life, or world. That’s why this week we are focusing on the power of audience demographics – how to define them, how to access this treasured data, and what it can unlock for you as a creator to take your show and content from good to great!

We can all agree: creators are brands. You are curating your brand daily through your voice, show, videos, social presence, partnerships and more. You inherently know what topics, guests, partners are aligned and which are absolutely not. So like any strong brand it is imperative you know your audience. Your audience is your community – you create for them and, in turn, they continue to support you. It’s a beautiful symbiotic relationship that can keep you inspired and keep your audience engaged, entertained, and dedicated to you.

Let’s quickly cover off on what we mean by audience demographics and what information you’ll want to know about your community:

• Standard Listener Information: inputs like age range, sex or gender-identity, ethnicity, geography, household income, etc.
• Specific to Your Show: insights like how often they listen to your show, what platforms they listen or watch from, guests or topics they’ve enjoyed most/least, etc.
• Context Clues & Audience Habits: details like what other shows they listen to, websites they frequent, social media platforms they engage with most etc.
  

The biggest question we hear from creators is how to learn more about their audience. It’s a great question without a straightforward answer. However, there are many tools that can help you piece together the DNA of your audience. We recommend you start with these:

• Spotify for Podcasters: a free service that lets you get to know your podcast listenership on-platform. They’ll provide information like audience geographic location, age, gender, etc.
• ​​Hosting Platforms: hosting sites where you upload your podcast episodes may also have content analytics software you can use to learn information specific to your show like episode plays, devices used and more.
• Social Media: another free option to understand audience insights. Those who opt to follow you also engage with your content and are a great indicator of who is likely listening or watching your podcast or show. You can see audience insights within specific date ranges and get a lot of good standard demographic information like growth data, geography, age range, gender breakdown, most active days and hours of your followers, and more.
• Google Analytics: another great free option to understand data around those interacting with your website. Unlike social media, you have more creative control over your website and with Google Analytics you can use the demographic information as well as the impact and results of your digital marketing efforts to be able to make more informed decisions.
• Conduct a Listener Survey: a listener survey can be an invaluable tool. This option gives you the power to learn exactly what you want to know beyond the standard demographic information you may find elsewhere. Building out and sending a survey to your listenership helps you pull out responses that are specific to your show and learn those valuable context clues and audience habits that get you closer to painting a more intimate and colorful picture of your community. If you’d like to explore this route, Gumball now supports creators with a listener survey tool.
  

Once you have more insight into your audience, there is so much you can do with it. Here’s some immediate ways to leverage that data to uplevel your brand, show, and content:

• Monitor Brand Health: you and your audience are an ever-evolving partnership and learning more about them (their values, habits, or perspectives) can directly help inform how you can amplify your strengths while also getting critical about ways you can improve your content and general approach.
• Increase Audience Engagement: as you look to grow your reach and presence, understanding what resonates best with your audience can help you plan for more relevant episode topics, guests, content captures, or even more strategic and creative ways to experiment as you journey on.
• Strategic Monetization: audience insights are invaluable to attract and land brand sponsors. Sharing this information will be one of the first proof points for why a brand should work with you. Whether you have a large audience or a more niche community, you can leverage and craft the data around your audience as a compelling pitch for partnership. (Bonus: Who you partner with is such an important reflection on you, so knowing your audience will even help you decide which brands would be the most aligned and best fit for your brand, show, and audience.)
• Compelling Captures: another awesome way to use audience data is to include it in your Media Kit – a tool that encompasses all the most necessary information about your brand or show. Audience demographic information is integral to a Media Kit since you can use it as an effective way to pitch or respond to media, press, or brand inquiries.
  

We get so excited anytime we see a creator taking the time to understand their audience. It shows how passionate and serious they are about their brand, craft, and doing right by their community. We hope this helps you feel empowered to research and action whatever information you can find to continue to create successful content.

Gumball can now conduct listener surveys for creators on platform! If you’re interested in running a listener survey for your show, contact us at partnerships@gumball.com.