🎤 Podcast Copywriting (and Copyright) (Issue 124) April 14th 2023

Prologue

How the Money is Made in Podcasting

Remember Call Her Daddy? It was a big deal a couple of years ago – a podcast that came out of nowhere to become arguably the top female-hosted podcast ever.

To be clear, Call Her Daddy is still a big deal. In 2020, it was the fifth most popular podcast on Spotify. In 2021 and 2022, it was ranked as the second most popular podcast on Spotify.

How much money is involved with a podcast like this? What other opportunities did those involved have?

If you're curious how the money worked, you may enjoy this interview with original co-host Sofia Franklyn.

Arguably, the brand and "heat" the podcast had initially was more valuable than the podcast itself. Lots of merch, spin-off shows, an alcohol company, etc ...

Something for you to consider as you grow your podcast.

Also worth considering ... how things can go sideways very quickly when money and egos get involved. Who keeps the copyrights and trademarks when somebody decides to leave the partnership?

In this episode of Big Podcast Insider, I've got some advice for you on how to grow an audience using words, both written and spoken.

Want the audio version with bonus material? Get it here.

Podcast Marketing

Want More Subscribers? Want More Reviews? Use This Word!

"Because" is a magic word when you want to get people to do something.

You've probably heard of the famous "copy machine" study related to this. A professor at Harvard had researchers request to break a line of people waiting to use a busy copy machine on a college campus, with each using three different, specifically-worded requests.

“Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine?” (Under 40? Look it up!!)
“Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine, because I have to make copies?”
“Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”

Did the wording affect whether people let the researchers break in line? Yes!

60% of people said yes.
93% of people said yes.
94% of people said yes.

What's the lesson for podcasters? Let people know why you are asking for something from them.

Want people to subscribe to your podcast? Let them know why.

Want people to leave a review for your podcast? Let them know why.

RELATED: You can susbcribe to Build a Big Podcast here. Why? I'm going deeper into this studio and how to make it work for you and your podcast on the audio edition of this issue.

Podcast Hosting Lessons from Great Copywriting

Going through this list of 17 copywriting tips it struck me how many similarities there are between the written word and podcast hosting.

First of all, the article itself is a great example of "No filler. No wasted words." It's always best to get to the point!

A few other "big ideas" that will help your podcast hosting:

BIG LESSON ONE: Don't kill your personality

People often ask me for a magic trick to growing a podcast audience. And if there was a magic trick, at least for the audience attraction part of this, it would be "personality."

In short, let them feel you.

Several years ago, when Napster turned the music industry on its head and "free music" was suddenly something a lot of people were talking about, somebody asked musician Busta Rhymes if he was worried.

"No," he said. "They can't copy me."

If we're honest about our podcasts, most of the content we publish is pretty similar to the next guy who talks about the same subject. So how can we compete?

Personality is what makes what we do stand out – it's the foundation that our podcasts are built on.

BIG LESSON TWO: Stories make you memorable

While personality is the foundation, it's stories that give your content structure.

We started this week with Easter. Even if you're not Christian, you've heard (and probably know) the story of Easter. Why? Because stories are memorable, they get passed around, and they put a handle on big ideas.

You can use this same technique to spread your message.

A story doesn't have to be elaborate – it could be as simple as a couple of sentences about Buster Rhymes.

WOO-HAH!!

BIG LESSON THREE: Think slippery slide

The purpose of a written headline is to make a reader keep going. The same is true for both the title of your podcast and its opening intro – make a potential listener want to listen, and a listener want to keep listening.

Need a good intro for your podcast? Here's a 3-part formula you can use on your next episode.

Get all 17 suggestions here. Every one of them is applicable to podcasting.

Podcast Production

Podcast Episode Title Analyzer Tool

This is actually a "headline analyzer" for copywriters, but it will absolutely work to analyze the episode titles of your podcast.

How does it work? Input the title of your podcast, hit enter, and get back a "Headline Quality Score" based on an algorithm built on the principles of Behavior Model theory and neuroscience and advertising research.

WUT?!

tl;dr The algorithm looks at more than 300 unique variables to help your titles capture attention, increase listens, and deliver a stronger impression.

For fun, I gave it some titles automatically generated by Castmagic (AI podcasting tool) for the audio version of last week's issue and here is what it said about them:

Recording People's Stories: The Importance of Documenting History Through Podcasting (Score: 70)
Interviewing Tips: David Hooper's Guide to Getting the Best Out of Your Guests (Score: 74)
The Power of Nostalgia: Using Memories to Connect with Your Podcast Audience (Score: 71)
Make Money with Your Podcast: David Hooper's Tips for Monetizing Your Content (Score: 69)
The Art of Interviewing: Tips and Tricks for Every Podcaster (Score: 72)

Do you agree? Let me know via Twitter or Mastodon.

Also, try it yourself and let me know the "best" title you came up with.

Podcast Humor

Let's Talk About "Podcast Editing"

I saw this comment from an editor last week ...

"As a transcription editor, Descript is great, but once it transfers to audio, it really shows how blunt of an axe it uses to edit tape."

He's right. Descript is great when you're looking at hours and hours of tape that you need to get clips from, because it easily allows you to search from a connected transcript, just as you would a text document.

But it's lacking as far as consistently making edits that actually sound good. It cuts off words in the middle and throws off the timing between words, which makes the "edited" audio sound choppy.

I'm not telling you not to use it – it has its place. But never ever release an edit made with Descript (or other similar tool) without listening to it.

Podcaster Spotlight

The Conscious Style Podcast on Ethical and Sustainable Fashion

Conscious Style Podcast is a great example of doing the opposite of what most people are doing.

If you've spent any time on TikTok or Instagram, you've likely seen "influencers" promoting inexpensive, stylish clothing.

What you don't see them talking about is the real cost of this clothing, which often includes unfair labor practices and unsustainable sourcing or materials.

Yeah, it's a buzz kill – which is exactly why people don't talk about it. Who wants to be reminded of dangerous working conditions and toxic waste dumps?

Actually, a lot of people.

You don't need to chase trends to do well in podcasting. In fact, you can do very well doing the opposite of what is trending.

Example:

Get Rich Slow
Non-Passive Income
The Anti-Diet

Anything else you've seen? Hit me up via Twitter or Mastodon and let me know.

Classifieds

Missinglettr

Missinglettr is an all-in-one promotion platform that turns podcasts into engaging social media posts and helps you solve distribution by finding the best influencers in your niche.

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.

Publer – Social Media Scheduler

Use Publer to schedule and analyze all your social media posts from a single dashboard!

The Wrap Up

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

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