How a Broadway Podcaster Tripled His Downloads in Less Than a Year

How a Broadway Podcaster Tripled His  Downloads in Less Than a Year

What if you knew that you were about to have a great opportunity to make money from your podcast?

What if that opportunity would ONLY work for you if you played your cards carefully?

How would you prepare your show to be in the best position possible to monetize?

This was the situation that lecturer, artistic director, Broadway expert, and podcast host David Armstrong was in at the end of 2020.

He launched his podcast Broadway Nation just before the start COVID-19 pandemic.

Then, Broadway shows were temporarily shut down.

David knew that, eventually, the pandemic would ease and Broadway would open up again.

This would bring theater back to the forefront of his listeners’ minds, and put him in the perfect position to go all in on growing his brand and monetizing his show.

David knew that, in order to take full advantage of this opportunity and set himself up for podcasting success, he had to start preparing.


At a Glance: David’s Path to Podcasting Success

Podcast Title: Broadway Nation

Host Name: David Armstrong

Niche: Broadway History

Background: David Armstrong is the host of Broadway Nation, a lively and opinionated cultural history of the Broadway Musical that tells the extraordinary story of how Immigrants, Jews, Queers, African-Americans, and other historical outcasts invented the Broadway Musical, and how they changed America in the process.

The Game Changers:

For David, there were two game-changers:

  1. He used Targeted Daily Engagement to grow and expand his audience
  2. He built an online Facebook community to turn his current audience from listeners into raving fans.

Results:

David tripled his downloads within one year and launched a $50/month listener membership that now has multiple subscribers. Today, his podcast has almost 7x the total downloads it had when he joined the accelertor program about two years ago.


Then, David joined the Grow The Show Podcast Accelerator.

After joining and working with Kevin, David decided to take a two-pronged approach to prepare for Broadway’s comeback and set himself up for major growth and monetization.

The first prong was growing his audience. When he joined the accelerator program he had about 12,000 total downloads, and he knew that number needed to increase.

David addressed this by going all in on Targeted Daily Engagement, or TDE.

TDE is Grow The Show’s signature framework. It helps podcasters grow their shows by spending just 15 minutes per day on social media!

The second prong was increasing loyalty and engagement among his current listeners.

He did this by creating a Broadway Nation Facebook group that allowed them to interact with both him and each other.

Now, David actually was actually in between seasons of his show and on a 7-month hiatus while he was doing all of this.

Despite that, he managed to grow his show from 12,000 total downloads to 41,370 total downloads in the span of just 11 months.

And, his work increasing his listener loyalty quite literally paid off.

Less than a year after joining the accelerator program, David launched a premium listener membership. He was immediately able to land 5 high-ticket monthly subscribers at $50/per month.

Most recently, David launched season two of Broadway Nation. He is now adding more than 1000 downloads each week and continuing to monetize his show.

All of this was possible because David understood the need to prepare for the opportunities that were coming his way.

While you might not have a Broadway-based show, you and your podcast will eventually have similar monetization opportunities.

Do you want to be prepared to make the most of these opportunities?

Want to experience the same kind of massive show growth as David?

Kickstart your path to podcast growth and monetization by following these two steps:

  1. Apply to the Grow The Show Podcast Accelerator today! Once you apply, you’ll be connected with a GTS podcast expert who will help determine the best path for you and your podcast.
  2. After you send in your application, check out these FREE resources! They’re excellent summaries of the accelerator lessons that David used to grow his audience, and will help you build a great foundation of knowledge:

How to Turn Total Strangers Into Monetized Podcast Listeners

Targeted Daily Engagement: How to Use Social Media to Double Your Podcast Audience

How to Build a Community Around Your Podcast

Katherine Nails is the content manager at Grow The Show, where she works on the day-to-day audio production and editorial operations. Prior to joining Grow The Show, Katherine worked as a writer and editor for various Philadelphia-area print publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer. ​Katherine is a graduate of the University of Delaware, and is a recipient of the C.A. Tilghman Journalistic Award and the Woman of Promise Award for excellence in her field.