The most common mistake in podcast titles

Most podcasts fail because they prioritize vanity metrics over genuine audience connection. Cody Gough, Podcast Growth Strategist at NerdWallet, has scaled award-winning shows for global brands including Discovery and built Curiosity Daily into a top science podcast. He explains how authentic social engagement signals true market fit and why unsolicited listener feedback indicates sustainable organic growth. Gough demonstrates how to distinguish between genuine audience value and promotional noise when measuring podcast success. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth, and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iHereEverything.com.

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  Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

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  I'm Benjamin Shapiro, and joining me today is Cody Goff, a podcast growth strategist who also works at NerdWallet, and a longtime operator who's scaled award-winning shows for major brands. And today, Cody's going to break down what actually drives sustainable, organic growths in podcasting. All right, Cody, now it's time to move on to our lightning round, where I'm going to ask you a couple of Martech-related questions, specifically centered around your experience in organic podcast growth. Are you ready?

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  Probably not, but we'll try anyway.

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  All right, we're going to do it. We're going to force you into it. All right, here we go. What is the one, single, most common mistake you see in podcast titles? And what's the fastest way to fix it?

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  People use people's names when no one's searching for those names? Like, I talked today, like, the title will be like, a Katerina Moses from blah, blah, blah. And like, the thing is, no one very likely in the world is going into Spotify and searching a Katerina Moses, unless they're researching her for another podcast that they're about to interview her on, which I've done many times. So just don't do it. Just give the value, put the guest's name, unless it's a really, really high-profile guest, which I saw you did with the CEO of Reich. I think it was a former CEO of Reich or CMO of Reich. Or maybe no, HubSpot, it was HubSpot, the HubSpot guy. Yeah, you put his name in the title, because like, the dude was a huge deal at HubSpot,

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  which is a huge deal, right? If it's, if you're talking to the CEO of Microsoft, yeah, okay. But like, for the most part, most people at most companies are not being searched for like Brad Pitt or whatever.

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  Yeah, and it's funny, we have gone back and forth about this. How much should we be trying to own the, the guest's name and company combination, you know, in our organic growth strategy? Or how much should we be trying to own the topic? And for us, the companies tend to be more recognizable. But if it is not the chief executive something of a major company, right? When it was, when I interviewed Alex Schultz, who was the CMO of Meta, Alex Schultz, CMO of Meta, says blank is a logical title. If I am interviewing somebody who is the head of demand at a demand generation company,

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  I interviewed Sarah from Qualified.

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  I don't think people are, understand who Sarah from Qualified is. They might not even know Qualified, but they do understand AI. SDRs, and that's the hot topic and that's probably what people are looking for. So you have to use your judgment on how truly impactful is the person's name, the company, and then what is the actual topic? Generally, I lean topic. You know what my biggest no-no is? Stop putting the damn episode numbers in your titles. They don't need to be there.

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  I mean, I was gonna say that, but like, that's first, there's those two things on that. Yes, one, that's like amateur hour. Two, This American Life does it, which drives me crazy because This American Life is, for my money, the best podcast ever made, like, and it's not even close. It's just perfect. But it's, yeah, it's like 86. Now, as a side note, I actually really like that they do that because it's just a number. And I know when they run a rerun because they will put, because if I see in my feed 435, 436, 82, I know it's a rerun immediately. And I'm never interested in those, or very rarely interested in those. So they're the one exception, but that's like using Rogan as an example for anything. Like, you just don't.

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  The exception, not the rule.

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  Yeah, they're very much the exception. But yes, agreed. If you're not This American Life or Joe Rogan, please don't put the episode number in your podcast.

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  All right. Well, that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks for listening to my conversation with Cody Goff, a podcast growth strategist. He also works at NerdWallet. If you'd like to contact Cody, you could find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com. You can always visit his personal website, which is podcastgrowthconsultant.com. And if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, click the subscribe button in your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed next week. All right, that's it for today. But until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

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  Thanks for listening to the MarTech Podcast, an I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit iHearEverything.com.