Interaction is something fans crave. In a recent study we conducted among listeners, 73% said they are interested in finding more opportunities to interact with their favorite podcast hosts. Q&As on Spotify are a fantastic way to interact with your fans by letting them respond to a question directly on your episode page.

But not all questions bring the same level of engagement. While Spotify provides default options as thought starters, customized questions (the ones you personalize and are relevant to your content and topics) are 8.7x more likely to receive a response.

As audience responses roll in, creators can publish them on their show page, encouraging others to share their answers. Questions with published responses have a 2.3x higher response rate than those without.

Customize questions based on your episode's content to increase the likelihood of getting responses from highly engaged fans. Did you discuss a memorable movie? Ask your audience to talk about how it resonated with them or if it mirrored any experiences in their lives. Are you spotlighting a technological breakthrough or trend? Ask fans to share their firsthand experiences or opinions using that tech.

Also, be sure to publish the responses you get and consider reading them aloud during your episodes to inspire more listener participation.

When it comes to podcast growth, getting new listeners through the door is only half of the equation. Converting them to loyal fans may require some new engagement strategies—like Spotify’s Q&A feature. On average, listeners who answer a host’s question consume 2.35x more hours of the show per month than those who do not.

Use Q&As to show your audience you value their input and keep them coming back for more. You can consider promoting your Q&As across social media, in your show notes, and during the episodes themselves. Experiment with different question formats and engagement strategies to keep things fresh and pinpoint what makes listeners tick—start discussions about an episode’s topics, get to know listeners more personally, ask for topic or guest ideas, and get feedback on your podcast content.

Dive into your podcast analytics to understand your audience demographics and design a promotional strategy that caters to their way of discovering content. Impressions analytics help you understand how and when your podcast is shown to potential listeners on Spotify.

Also, make sure to fill out your show’s metadata (titles and descriptions), customize your show page, and create a podcast trailer to make your show easily discoverable on Spotify. 43% of podcast listeners say that reading episode or show descriptions is somewhat or very influential in deciding whether to try a new show, which is the second most important factor behind a host or personalities they’re already familiar with (64%).