Prologue
Call Me Daddy
NPR Music is celebrating Black Music Month with an array of brand new Tiny Desk concerts. If you're not familiar with these, imagine well-known musicians playing their songs in an office.
"Brenda, do you mind moving your laptop? Taylor Swift needs somewhere to put her keyboard."
If you've ever worked at a radio station, you've probably experienced something similar. In-office performances are very helpful in convincing station decision makers to put a song in rotation, so they happen a lot.
But I bring this series up for a couple of different reasons, both of which I think you'll find helpful for your podcasting ...
First of all, look at this video with Big Daddy Kane. This is about as minimalist as it gets:
- a steady beat with few (and minimal) fills
- a repeating bassline that never changes
- a keyboard player who plays maybe two notes per song (until his solo)
But it's compelling as hell and shows the power of just a voice. Consider this the next time you think you need fancy production on an episode.
Something else to look at ... Notice how Charlie Wilson introduces every member of his band ...
You should be doing the same thing with the people who work on your podcast.
In this issue of Big Podcast Insider:
- a way to make lemonade out of lemons
- a way to interact with your podcast listeners
- segment ideas to keep your episodes engaging
I'll have more stories in the audio edition, which is released via my podcast, Build a Big Podcast. You can subscribe here and never miss an episode.
Want to reach out? Hit me up on Bluesky, Mastodon, or Twitter.
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Steal This Idea
Math-Challenged Americans = Great Marketing Failure (and Opportunity)
This is the story of one of the greatest marketing failures of all time. And the reason it failed is quite funny.
Every "failure" comes with an opportunity and, because this one had time to simmer (and become legendary), that opportunity was bigger than ever.
But I think the even bigger opportunity for most podcasters is what opens up to you when you're able to laugh at yourself. People want to connect with people, not nameless, faceless companies, so any time you have to show you are human, including sharing any mistakes you've made, can be helpful to building rapport and connection with listeners.
But a word of warning ... Don't get in a situation like Homer's marriage class, where "failure porn" is your main strategy for audience growth. Yes, you can get quick attention doing this, but it won't be anything you can build upon.
Podcast Marketing
How to Make Fun Quizzes for Your Listeners
Looking to make your podcast stand out, get more people talking about you, and develop a better connection with listeners? Interactive surveys and quizzes may be a good option for you.
Be honest. Who of us hasn't ever taken one of these, other online or in a magazine?
Something like ...
- Is Your BFF Really on Your Side?
- Are You Enough of a Bad Girl?
- Can You Keep a Guy Intrigued?
- Do You Know When a Guy's Into You?
- Are You Good-Girl Hot or Bad-Girl Hot?
Just me on these? OK then.
Regardless, a tool like InvolveMe allows you to make custom quizzes and surveys that your listeners will love (and pass around to others).
For example:
- BuzzFeed-style Quiz
- Personality Quizzes
- Trivia Quizzes
- Knowledge Tests
- Scored Quizzes
This article will give you some ideas of quizzes you can do for your podcast. And you can use InvolveMe for free if you have fewer than 100 people taking your quiz each month (most people will).
Podcast Production
9 Podcast Segment Ideas
It's an article from Spotify, so I wasn't expecting too much in the way of great segment ideas, but there's enough here that will get you thinking about possibilities for your podcast.
RELATED: This $.99 book with 101 episode templates.
Easy to produce ...
- Q&A
- Stories
- Event Recaps and Commentaries
- Retrospective
These work for both segment ideas, but also full episodes.
Note that you can do a few of these, like retrospectives and Q&As, very quickly, almost as a passing though. For example, Danny Meyers and Ilan Fong do a "Flashback" segment within their music countdown podcast for adult nightclub DJs, basically saying, "Here's what was #1 five years ago ..." (or something similar).
Podcast Humor
Bad Pitch Response
This is a joke about podcast guest pitches.
#notreally
Want to see a really bad podcast guest pitch? Check this out.
Don't feel bad about ignoring these. If somebody isn't going to take the time to research your podcast and give you the info you need to make a good decision about a guest, you don't need to take the time to respond.
Classifieds
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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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