Welcome to Podcast Insider.

I'm Mike Dell, VP of customer relations here at Blueberry.

And I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist.

Today, we're talking about why niche podcasts are dominating in 2025 and most likely will in 2026.

How independent creators can lean into what makes their show unique?

Yeah.

I always said that about podcasting in general is you could have a really small niche subject that only a few people or, you know, in the hundreds rather than the millions listen to.

And and, you know, you can really get some traction with that.

You know, the famous story we always talk about is the brain surgeon we had that did shows for brain surgeons.

Okay.

He might had a 100 people in his audience, but that was a powerful 100 people.

Yeah.

People that are interested in this topic for a reason and will actually tune in every week or however often you're publishing new episodes.

You're listening to Podcast Insider hosted by Mike Dell, Dave Clements, and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow, and thrive through podcasting with all the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting.

Welcome.

Let's dive in.

There's a lot that you can do, you know, with a niche podcast.

But if if it's something that you're interested in, you're probably already part of that community.

And if anything, you'd just be be growing one.

Yeah.

And, you know, and the other thing is, you know, you get listeners that that can teach you.

And I found that in certain subjects that I've done shows about.

You know?

Again, I remember I'm the king of pod fade.

But, you know, I I do a show about something I don't know that much about.

And over the course of doing the show, my listeners teach me more about that subject, but with their feedback, and you get more feedback in a really niche space.

It's you know, it it is pretty incredible at times.

Like, you know, I'm doing a a new show.

Imagine that.

And I'm getting more feedback on that new show than I ever got on my main show, and it's because it's a subject and you know, or otherwise known as hyperlocal.

That's another buzzword a lot of people are throwing around, but I I think it applies to small niches as well as, you know, something that's really hyperlocal where you live.

Yeah.

You know, or, you know, one of the more famous podcasts out there that I I would call hyperlocal except for the people don't live where they're talking about.

It's a Las Vegas podcast.

They talk about, you know, being a tourist in Las Vegas even though they live in Minnesota.

But Right.

Right.

Well, I think the you know, everyone does kinda wanna be a tourist in Vegas, you know, once maybe in their life, and then they're like, oh, I never need to go back ever again.

I I lived there I lived there once, so I'm okay with not going there very often.

But, overall, the the niche will lead to what is also a buzzword is more qualified listeners, AKA someone who is, you know, very interested in this, is potentially already knowledgeable about this, or is just diving in.

And then they're like, let me let me go all in on this new thing and learn all about it.

So they're gonna go find your show.

Something like that.

It also means there's probably less shows that are talking about the exact same thing.

So you are kinda beating out the competition in that sense.

Yeah.

But, also, you know, people that are interested in a particular subject are gonna listen to more than one podcast.

So it may not even be competition, but it'll throw you in the ring in that niche, Definitely.

And you'll get, you know, you'll get some definite user engagement on a niche podcast.

You know, if you're trying to do a show for everybody, you're probably not gonna get a lot of of feedback.

But if you're doing a show you know, like, we do a show about podcasting, and we get some feedback about podcasting.

And we're a niche show here if you think about it.

Yeah.

We definitely are.

Yeah.

You know, podcasting about podcasting.

Something something's not quite right about that, is there?

It doesn't necessarily feel niche to us probably because, you know, we work in podcasting, so it's not exactly a niche.

And it's it's just because that world.

Yeah.

We yeah.

Exactly.

We live in that world.

So it doesn't feel that way to us.

But if I told my friends to listen to this podcast about podcasting, they'd be like, that's a little a little too much for me.

Thanks.

But they're like Yeah.

If I wanna learn about podcasting, I'll just ask you.

It's definitely not for everybody.

You know, the the old saying is a podcast for everybody is a podcast for nobody.

Yes.

Very true.

That has not changed.

I don't see that changing anytime soon.

No.

No.

For sure.

And, you know, and you can monetize the little audience, a small audience.

You know?

Very doable.

And and, you know, it doesn't have to be the traditional CPM advertising and all that stuff.

There's lots of other ways to do it.

You know, you could do affiliate marketing in your niche.

You know, you could sell memberships, you know, or in our case, premium podcasting.

Or you could do Apple subscriptions, you know, for, hey.

You know, if you want this show ten days early, here you go.

You know, sign up for this or whatever the the, you know, or you do Patreon and or, you know, there's a bunch of play things you can do in a small niche that you might not necessarily be able to do in a large, you know, a a more broad show.

Especially with the courses.

If you're doing something super niche, that you're you're trying to, you know, make more people knowledgeable about, a course goes great with that, where it's like, hey.

Buy this course, that will lead you through it, but, also, here's our podcast that is gonna give you even more detail of something that you might need.

I I feel like it's something that, you know, very similar to the brain surgeon.

I remember when my friends were in med school, their lessons were a podcast.

Yeah.

So very, very much doable in in a lot of different ways.

An affiliate, of course, you can do that with Blueberry too.

Whether or not you are, you know, a podcaster or not, if you have a niche that is not even something that you wanna do a podcast about, you can still be an affiliate to to your entire audience.

Yep.

Yeah.

And then, you know, that that gives me an idea, the course thing.

You know, we should we should have a course on how to podcast.

So ridiculous.

No.

We tried that.

Yeah.

Just having high value conversations and, you know, with an audience that you know is going to make you know, if you wanted to do advertising or or brand deals or anything like that or partnerships with with other brands and, you know, I think, was it Glenn has that show called Horses in the Morning, and that, you know, horses are kind of a small niche, maybe a little bigger than what I would call a small niche.

But he he has all kinds of, sponsors.

They're not even advertisers, and, you know, they come on the show and, you know, they pay for, you know, placement, basically, but it's more of a conversation.

So you could probably pull that off in some niches, you know, that would make it, you know, less like a commercial or an ad and more like, hey.

I use this, and this is cool, and here's the people that are behind it, and, you know, that kind of thing.

So Yeah.

It's also really good for people who are, you know, talking about any type of specific product.

That is absolutely something that companies will do is send you a product that you've said before many times that you use and really like.

They'll, you know, send you that or send you some for, like, a giveaway for your own listeners.

It's it happens quite a lot.

Yep.

That yeah.

For sure.

I used to get stuff, you know, and I was doing a a geek show.

I would get to like, I got the first Chromebook from from Google.

Mhmm.

They just literally sent it out of the blue.

Here.

Try this thing out.

And, you know, you get those kinda opportunities.

It might not make you a whole lot of money, but, hey.

You may get to play with some interesting products in your niche, if companies find you and, you know, they may not even advertise.

Hey.

Do a review on this, and here here's the thing, and you can keep it.

Yeah.

Exactly.

And, you know, it it doesn't have to be, a sponsor.

It really can just be that thing.

Yeah.

You're saving money somehow.

Yeah.

In Google, in their letter, when they sent me that Chromebook, it was a long time ago.

But, when in the letter, they said, yep.

You know, please, if you want to review it, and, we don't even care if it's a positive or a negative review.

Just review it.

Talk about it.

You know?

And I did.

And, actually, believe it or not, I think that thing has gotta be 15 years old and it still runs.

Now I But it still runs.

Yeah.

I don't remember when those came out exactly, but, A long time ago.

Yeah.

But Sometime in the realm of podcasting.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was, you know, it was it was back in a few days.

Anyway, yeah, not enough of that.

I'm stuck I'm stuck in the past sometimes, so sorry about that.

Well, if you think that your show is, you know, too small and that you don't have enough listeners or that it's just a little too weird and no one's gonna listen, I would say just do it anyway.

I remember years ago at a conference, I was speaking to someone that had a podcast about PEZ dispensers.

Like, that was it.

Yeah.

Their show was just reviewing and talking about, like, you know, new releases.

I like, old ones from, you know, forty year forty, fifty years ago.

And I was just standing there, like, this is something, I have I don't think about on a day to day basis.

However, this is someone's podcast.

Yeah.

And if you can think of a subject, chances are there's at least one podcast about it.

Yeah.

And if there's not, there you go.

There's where you you you make your niche podcast.

If you're interested in that subject, of course.

But, you know, as dispenser, how much can you say about that?

I guess I don't know.

But I should listen.

I spoke to them for quite a while, and they said I I just remember coming away from that conversation learning that there is a lot of drama in the Pez dispenser community of people collecting them and selling them on eBay and all these things.

And I was like, this is something I never would have known about.

This is fun.

Yeah.

There's a lot of Disney podcasts.

You notice that?

A lot of them talk you know, there's something they don't or they talk about the Disney World or Disneyland or both.

They they, like, tell you how to plan your trip, and they're like, here's the Disney insider secrets and stuff like that.

Yeah.

It's And I think we have several of those shows on our platform, I think.

You know, we got RV shows.

You know?

There's only a subset of people that'd be interested in living in an RV, and, you know, there you go.

There's another niche.

But Yeah.

I mean, for the hyperlocal one, I've listened to a podcast, like a Columbus podcast a handful of times here, and I'm like, this is, you know, something that I didn't know about my own city that is a mile away.

Yep.

I do I do one now, you know, for Traverse City.

And, you know, it's pretty niche, obviously.

You know?

I guess I I guess I could get some tourist people that wanna listen to it too, but, you know, it but, you know, we're a small town in Michigan, whatever.

And, you know, the feedback I get on that show I mean, I've only been doing it a couple weeks.

And, I mean, I I get more email from episodes of that than I have, you know, the whole time I've been doing my other show.

It's amazing.

Yes.

Yeah.

You, you got someone's attention, and they're getting other people's attention.

That's for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Something like that's word-of-mouth.

It's funny.

I had one listener email me.

He says, he says, you got competition, and it's there's another daily Traverse City show Yeah.

Here, and it's 100% AI.

He says he's like, yeah.

You don't have any real competition.

So So is is the voice AI with, like, a script?

Everything's AI.

I mean, it I think the AI even generates a script.

You know?

I I so it's it's interesting.

I've listened to it.

It's it it's got good information in it.

But That would not be a show for me.

I I I, you know, I wanna listen to people, not not the AI.

You know?

Not that against AI.

AI is good at what it's good at.

But it yet, it's it's not good for content creation completely.

And, also, AI is only as good as, like, you make it be sometimes.

Yeah.

You know, the first thing that AI spits out is not always the smartest.

Yeah.

You you cannot solely rely on it.

It is a it's a baby.

Yep.

It's a giant foot baby right now, but it's still in its infancy.

Yep.

So I got a question for you.

You're the marketing specialist.

How would I get the word out about my niche podcast?

That is where you, you tap into the community that already exists.

You know, you can make sure that you're participating in those platforms on social media already.

You're not just shoving a new show down their throat saying, here, go listen to this.

You gotta you gotta prove yourself a little bit before then, and that is just kind of the world that we live in nowadays because everything is an ad.

Yeah.

And, we're all just overlooking it.

So I would say definitely that, you know, just just share the word on whatever social platforms you're on, but make a presence for yourself before that.

Yeah.

What I've always said in the past is, you know, if you're gonna get on an online community about your niche to promote the fact you have a podcast, go in there and be useful first.

Yes.

You let them know you and then say, you know and and then, you know, someone asked a question about a certain subject and you had an episode about it, you say, hey.

You know, I did an episode about this and check it out.

You know, something like that.

Don't just come into a group brand new and say, hey.

I got a podcast.

Listen to it.

You know?

That just doesn't work.

The useful.

That's that's the important part.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Don't don't be a a spammer.

Be a use useful participant in the community.

Yeah.

I'd say do that.

If there are other shows that are somewhat in your niche, you know, you can always try the the advert the Promo swap.

Advertisement at the beginning.

Yeah.

The promo swap.

That one's easy enough to do.

Or even a feed drop.

I've I've done that before where you put one of your episodes in somebody else's feed, and you put one of theirs in yours.

Yeah.

Not done a lot lately, but you know?

It it definitely still happens with the bigger networks.

Like, NPR will do it.

Wondery will do it.

I would assume Barstool does it.

Like, it's they're gonna do it for their own shows.

Absolutely.

So that one's easy.

And, you're never gonna beat word-of-mouth.

You're really not.

Word-of-mouth, you know, especially with the hyperlocal.

It's, it's so this showed to, you know, they talked about the weather today.

Mhmm.

You know, whatever.

Reach out to the existing platforms, like, in that niche as well.

You know, like, I think one of the Columbus podcasts that I found was because they were tagged in a Columbus account that I already follow on Instagram.

And they were like, hey.

There's this new podcast.

Give it a listen.

You know?

Otherwise, I I don't know if I would've found it.

Right.

Yeah.

It's, like I said, it you know, just be creative.

Again, you know, be useful, be in the community, of your niche.

You know, don't don't do, what do they call it?

Clickbait eat topics, you know, or clickbaity titles in your show.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You see that on YouTube a lot more than you do in podcasting.

You know?

But, you know, it can happen in podcasting as well.

And and, you know, if if if it's in your title, talk about that thing.

Don't talk about 10 other things.

I think that's totally a side thing from marketing.

But No.

But that is part of what I was saying before.

Like, everything is an ad nowadays, so don't don't rub people the wrong way.

Because if you are and you're trying to, you know, kinda rage bait them a little bit Mhmm.

There that's gonna backfire on you.

We're just kind of in that age right now where that's not really gonna work.

Yep.

And, you know, the ads.

Oh my gosh.

I get so frustrated with Cannot escape them.

Yeah.

Ill ill placed ads too.

You know?

It's like, you know, you're you're listening to a show about whatever, fishing, and you get an ad for something financial.

Well, okay.

I don't need to switch banks.

I'm listening about fishing.

I'm kinda trying to forget my financial woes if I'm, you know, like podcast.

I don't wanna worry about bills.

Come on.

Yeah.

Leave me alone.

But, you know, there's ads everywhere, and they're incessant.

You know, I I don't know what it's like in Ohio, but in Michigan, every ad break on our traditional TV station is or a radio station is some casino app.

They are just in you know, just you know?

And and Yeah.

Sports Kings is Yeah.

Living large here.

Yeah.

Draft Kings.

Yeah.

We get MGM, BetMGM.

That's ad is just all the time.

And, you know, even our programmatic ads from Blueberry sometimes get some of those casino ads in there, just just happens.

You know?

They they they're the high bidder.

You know as a podcaster how a listener feels with with just consuming any type of content nowadays.

So the stuff that annoys you is probably going to annoy other people as well.

So try to avoid those things.

I I think that's what it comes down to.

Right.

And this is this is off topic, and we've mentioned it before.

But, if I land on your podcast website, if you use a website, you don't always have to.

But if I land on your podcast website and immediately a big pop up comes up in my face, sign up for our newsletter.

I'm leaving.

I'm sorry.

I, you know, I don't know you yet.

I'm not gonna put my email address in there.

But, anyway, that's off topic.

That's that's your little pet peeve for websites, and mine is just poor information on there.

Yeah.

Get to the point and make make it right.

Yeah.

Get to the point.

You know, an itch doesn't really limit you.

It it just keeps you focused in, what you have to say, make it meaningful.

And I think there's a a quote you put in the, show notes here.

Small ponds equals easier to become the big fish.

It really, really is.

We love working with podcasters of any size here at Blueberry, but especially, I think the, the niche podcasts live in our heart.

So, if you are looking to start a show, we're here to help.

Yep.

And, of course, for show notes and all the other informations about information about Blueberry and the podcasting world, you can take a look at podcastinsider.com.

We'll always have everything there.

Thanks, everyone.

Thanks for joining us.

Come back next week.

And in the meantime, head to podcastinsider.com for more information, to subscribe, share, and read our show notes.

To check out our latest suite of services and learn how Blueberry can help you leverage your podcast, visit blueberry.com.

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