You’ve probably heard either me or John talk about the importance of relationships and community for entrepreneurs and small business owners on several occasions.
Relationships are what Entrepreneurs On Fire was originally built on. Well, that and a whole lot of hard work, of course!
John knew that in order to create an audience and a following for his podcast he would need the help of his interviewees: successful entrepreneurs who people were going to find value in hearing from.
Those who had been there and done that when it came to experiencing failure, learning from their mistakes and struggles, and who eventually came out on the other side with a solid business idea and a strategy to get it off the ground. Someone with an inspiring journey to share.
Getting the word out
In the beginning, getting the word out about Entrepreneurs On Fire was in some ways dependent on our interviewees.
When we first started, EntrepreneurOnFire had absolutely 0 email subscribers, 0 Likes on Facebook and 0 Website views.
We have – since day one – always asked our featured guest to share their episode with their audience the day it goes live. This has proved very helpful when it comes to reaching audiences that we may have otherwise not had access to.
We’ve also found several other marketing strategies to help us build our audience, like providing value first through our blog, via our resources page created especially for our listeners, by writing guest posting on other blogs that we know our target audience frequents, and through creating products like Podcast Launch: A Step by Step Guide to Starting Your Podcast.
Guest Podcasting
And now, we’ve found yet another way to get our name out there and attract others to the podcast: John being interviewed on other podcasters’ shows.
John being featured on other podcasts exposes Entrepreneurs On Fire to a potentially brand new audience who hasn’t listened to – or who who may not even know about – Entrepreneurs On Fire and what the podcast is all about.
Recently, Entrepreneurs On Fire experienced this to a heightened degree when John was interviewed on Pat Flynn’s podcast, Smart Passive Income.
John was thrilled at the opportunity to be a guest on Pat’s show, especially because SPI is a podcast he has followed for many years. Some might venture to say this was a sort of like an “I’ve made it moment” for John.
We expected a spike in traffic to our site as a result, no doubt, but we didn’t quite realize the instantaneous nature of this increase on things like our email subscribers, our Facebook Fans and our Website visitors.
We like to call what I’m about to break down for you The Pat Flynn Effect.
The results we saw from guest podcasting
- From Aug 13th (three days before the interview went live) through Aug 19th (three days after the interview went live) we followed some key stats to see what kind of traffic John’s interview on SPI would bring.
- The day John’s interview on SPI went live was Fri, Aug 16th, which also happened to be the day EntrepreneurOnFire published our 300th episode – I mention this because it is something we took into consideration when reviewing our stats.
- Arguably, some of the traffic we saw during this time could have had been as a result of our 300th episode; however, because the numbers we’re focusing on in this post are our email subscribers, our Facebook Fan Page “Likes” and our Website visits, it’s unlikely that our 300th episode would have encouraged listeners who had already been exposed to the podcast to just now decide to 1) sign up for our email list, 2) “Like” our Facebook Fan page or 3) visit our Website for the first time (53.54% of our website visits during this time were from new visitors).
- For our Facebook “Likes”, I’ve included our total # of Likes in addition to the number of *new direct Likes for each day. “New direct” Likes are Likes from a direct visit to our Facebook Fan page – not via an “invite” to Like our Fan page or a “recommendation” to Like our Fan page.
A look at the numbers
Leading up to John’s interview on SPI
Tues, Aug. 13th
- 45 new email subscribers
- A total of 2,905 “Likes” on our Facebook Fan Page (*4 new direct)
- 1,224 Website visitors
Wed, Aug. 14th
- 48 new email subscribers
- A total of 2,911 “Likes” on our Facebook Fan Page (*6 new direct)
- 1,045 Website visitors
Thur, Aug. 15th
- 29 new email subscribers
- A total of 2,916 “Likes” on our Facebook Fan Page (*7 new direct)
- 1,058 Website visitors
The day John’s interview on SPI went live
Fri, Aug. 16th
- 86 new email subscribers
- A total of 2,948 “Likes” on our Facebook Fan Page (*21 new direct)
- 1,702 Website visitors
The after effects
Sat, Aug. 17th
- 78 new email subscribers
- A total of 2,969 “Likes” on our Facebook Fan Page (*11 new direct)
- 1,358 Website visitors
Sun, Aug. 18th
- 84 new email subscribers
- A total of 2,995 “Likes” on our Facebook Fan Page (*9 new direct)
- 1,376 Website visitors
Mon, Aug. 19th
- 102 new email subscribers
- A total of 3,025 “Likes” on our Facebook Fan Page (*7 new direct)
- 1,900 Website visitors
Why guest podcasting is powerful
After looking at the numbers, we found that from Thursday to Friday – Friday being the day the interview went live – we had a 66% increase in email subscribers, a 200% increase in new direct Facebook Fan page “Likes” and a 60% increase in Website visitors.
The following images capture stats from Aug 15 – Aug 19:
Pat Flynn, look at what you do to people!
But seriously, Pat has always been an entrepreneur we’ve followed – his blog is an inspiration to me, and his podcast is one that John has been listening to long before EntrepreneurOnFire was even a thought in his mind.
So we’re not only happy to introduce you to The Pat Flynn Effect – so that you can see the power of putting yourself in front of new audiences via podcast interviews (among the other techniques we’ve shared here to grow your audience) – we’re also happy to announce that we’ll be following in Pat’s footsteps by publishing Entrepreneurs On Fire’s Monthly Income Report, starting with September 2013.
In just a few days, we’ll be publishing a detailed report of the money we’re bringing in, and the money that’s going out, including notes on the projects we’ve been working on and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.
Why are we starting a monthly income report now?
Well, in addition to seeing the value and insights that Pat’s monthly income reports provide his audience by way of mapping out the projects he’s working on and what he receives in return for his hard work (not only from a monetary standpoint, but also from a “lessons learned” standpoint), we also recognize the inspiration his audience finds in having access to this information.
We know from first hand experience that when you’ve been working REALLY hard on that special project or getting your new website set up, it can be though to keep the end goal in mind. Let’s face it – we all need to make money in order to live.
We hope to show you through our monthly income reports that hard work does pay off, and even though we’ve run into failed projects and several frustrations along the way just the same way every other entrepreneur has, we continue to pick ourselves up and start again.
In order to try and provide you with the same value, insights and inspiration, we want to start the ball rolling right now: you can look for our September Monthly Income Report in just a few days.
