🎤 Podcast Marketing (Issue 118) March 3rd 2023

Prologue

Celebrity in Marketing

Pharrell Williams, a songwriter and music producer, is now creative director of menswear at Louis Vuitton, a French luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854.

That doesn't make sense on paper. Until you consider that the attention he brings to the brand more than makes up for anything he's lacking in design skills. He's driving things forward, bringing big picture ideas and personality, not doing the hardcore design work.

"Celebrity" cuts through noise. This is why so many podcasters will fly across the country to do a five-minute "morning television" appearance that nobody will see, hoping to build it for themselves, and why so many podcasting companies will sign hosting deals with a celebrity's unknown Sister-in Law, in hope that some of that attention will come their way.

Podcast Marketing

Why Aren't People Listening to Your Podcast?

Here's why people think they're not getting listeners:

"Because I'm not qualified enough and I need to get more training."
"Because I'm not willing to brag about how good I am and people listen to those who do."
"Because I don't understand social media."

Most of the time, this is "head game" stuff. Yeah, maybe there's some truth to it, but once you let it take hold, these easy-to-fix issues become way worse than they actually are.

You can always get more training, get other people to talk about you (this is actually more effective than you doing it yourself), or hire somebody to do social media ... if social media even matters (it doesn't most of the time).

I've found these reasons why people aren't listening to your podcast to be more accurate:

Listening to your podcast is on the to-do list, and people want to listen, but they haven't gotten to it yet.
Your potential audience doesn't know how to listen to podcasts.
Because you're afraid of taking a position on anything and you're boring people to death.

The solutions to these are also simple. The first one is to be patient and keep showing up – people who "haven't gotten around to listening" will come around.

If they need to know how to listen, that's easy to fix. Making a short screencapture video on a service like Loom is a good start and may be all potential listeners need to get up and running with you.

As far as "taking a position" on something, that's probably the toughest one. This is risky. But it's also what people want – nobody likes (or listens to) a milquetoast podcaster.

If you're in this position, afraid to take risks for whatever reason, will you reach out to me via Twitter or Mastodon? I'd love to hear about your fears, so I can talk more about this in future issues of Big Podcast Insider.

Does Size Matter?

All the spam emails I get say that it does ... and they're right!

"A smaller community makes honesty possible."

This is a great quote and something to consider when comparing the size of your audience with those of other podcasts. A "big" audience is great, but you don't need massive numbers to do well as far as making real impact with your podcast or even real money.

I've got a "small podcast" issue of Big Podcast Insider coming next week. Until then, review this article about a guy who kicked out 90% of members of a group he organized – 4000 people down to fewer than 500.

I'll be talking more about this concept (and giving you ideas on how you can use it for your podcast) in the audio edition.

Want to be mentioned? Reach out to me via Twitter or Mastodon with your "small podcast" story.

Podcast Marketing Trends 2023

Jeremy Enns of Podcast Marketing Academy has partnered with severel people in the podcasting industry, including me, to put together the first (hopefully annual) Podcast Marketing Trends Report.

This is your opportunity to share your experiences with podcast marketing and help identify what's working now when it comes to growing your podcast.

More details here.

Podcast Production

Pro DJ on $99 Mixer – A Lesson for Podcasters

Talent and skill are more important than equipment.

Yes, it's helpful to have a quality mic for your podcast and Izotope RX is arguable "better" than the free, built-in plugins you get with Audacity. But listeners don't care what kind of equipment you use – listeners just want to hear something helpful and entertaining.

New equipment is fun. And getting new equipment is easy, because all we have to do is spend money – it's not like developing new skills, which require us to actually show up and work.

There's nothing wrong with having great equipment. But it's not going to help you get a lot of listeners or have a big impact if you don't know how to use it.

Personally, I love the podcasters who own the fact that they've got limited resources to work with. If you appreciate this also, you'll love my book trailer.

Podcast Name Generator

Is this podcast name generator a joke? Maybe ...

Public Radio Voice - Empathy. Honesty. Vocal fry. Each week a new guest finds out if they have what it takes to master the smooth, endlessly listenable voice that adds context to our favorite stories.

I Was Really There and It Wasn't That Fun - People who were actually alive and in attendance at famous concerts, parties and events tell us their sad, mundane, or deeply unsatisfying stories—to help us stop romanticizing the past and cure our crippling FOMO.

Slowly Doxxing Myself - A flailing comedian attempts to tell all of their life stories in this weekly podcast. By the end of it, you should know their blood type and home phone number.

Actually, some of these are pretty clever and may help you come up with ideas of your own.

You'll find this helpful ... Types of podcast names:

Host-driven (it's your podcast-put your name in it)
Descriptive / functional (this doesn't have to be dry; it can still be an interesting way of describing your podcast's subject matter or its vibe)
Eccentrically worded (hyperspecific, extra-long, etc.)
Community-driven (inside jokes, references, or puns that only your listeners would get, etc.)
Hodgepodge (combining or borrowing from any of the above naming conventions, as many great names do)

Again, something to think about when naming your podcast. I don't agree with #1, by the way. For the reason why (as well as more thoughts on naming your podcast), make sure you get the next episode of Build a Big Podcast.

Classifieds

Swell AI

Use Swell AI to automate your podcast episode summaries, time-stamped episode highlights, and long form articles based on the content of your episodes.

Riverside - Remote Recording Studio

Riverside records high-quality audio (and video) directly from your browser. No special equipment is needed and connecting with your guest is as simple as sending a web link!

You can try Riverside free (no credit card is needed) and, if you like it, save 15% on any paid plan by using the coupon code BIGPODCAST.

RocknPod Expo - March 17-19, 2023 in Nashville

RocknPod is the ultimate weekend gathering for rock music artists, podcasters, and fans.

The Wrap Up

Like this newsletter? Subscribe to the podcast!

If you like the newsletter, you'll love the podcast. It's called Build a Big Podcast and it will help you do three things:

Grow your podcast audience.
Get people talking about your podcast.
Make more money with your podcast.

You can subscribe for free.

On a desktop? Use your phone to scan the QR code above to make it easy on yourself! Or call me at 615-488-4321 and I'll send you the link via text.