TPU EP:10 – 3 Most Ignored Parts of a Podcast that can make or, break your Show

Okay! I surrender.

I know I haven’t been a gentleman and that I didn’t keep my promise of coming back with another episode, the immediate next week after I published episode 09, about 5 weeks back.

But, then there can be circumstances and some of them can be uncontrollable. And I think that’s kinda okay to surrender to some of them, at times.

Anyhow..

Right now I am stuck in Kolkata at my wife’s parent’s. Our urgent and emergency trip to Kolkata led us into the nationwide lockdown that we are in.

And there came another disruption in my show.

Nevertheless.

I think some of these disruptions are inevitable and we have to live with it. But what I am feeling bad about is the break in continuity.

But then we did not really have a choice. Isn’t it?

So let us continue from where we left and look at how to get your podcast up and running.

We have travelled quite a bit on our podcasting journey and we spoke to a couple of guests as well to get the much needed motivation to start your podcast.

In the next couple of posts, we will be looking at some of the technical aspects of podcasting and some of the nitty-gritties that we often ignore.

3 Critical things before You start Your Podcast

Podcasting is a lot different from blogging. While blogging has the advantage of grabbing the attention of your readers using headlines, text decorations and enticing images, podcasting doesn’t have any of those advantages.

Hence, grabbing your listeners attention and then keeping him engaged throughout the show is a tough task.

While in the future episodes we will be discussing some of the ways in which you can keep your listeners engaged, in this episode we will be talking about 3 critical and preliminary things to keep in mind.

Podcast Artwork

A podcast artwork is your listeners’ first encounter with your show. It simultaneously, along with the name of your podcast is what could be the first reason for a listener clicking on your show in a podcast app.

The above picture is a screenshot of the Hubhopper Originals podcasts page of Hubhopper.

Look at how every show has an artwork and how it is displayed prominently on the page.

In fact, the title of the show looks a little hidden under the glare of the artworks. Isn’t it?

You would’ve got a fair understanding of how important an artwork could be, after looking at the above image.

Your artwork is where you first communicate with your “Listener Avatar or, Persona”. So it is important that they are able to relate to your show, the moment they see your artwork.

But how do you do that?

There are a few important things to keep in mind when designing an artwork. Let us look at each one of them first –

Unique and Visually Appealing

It’s a world full of noise today and what everybody is attempting to do is to grab attention and in order to grab attention you have to be unique, really unique.

This is applicable to your artwork as well. You artwork has to be unique and should stand out from the rest of the crowd.

It should be visually appealing too. Ugly looking, crowded graphics are one of the biggest reasons, people browse away from them. So ensure that your artwork doesn’t fall into that category.

The colors, the icons etc. all play an important role in how your artwork is received by your audience.

So, spend some time thinking through how your artwork should look.

And most importantly, if you already have a website and a logo then it is recommended that your artwork follows the design continuity.

Check out the below graphics for Dave Ramsey’s blog and his podcast, the Dave Ramsey Show.

You can see how his podcast artwork and website graphics have a consistency – the logo is consistent, the colors are consistent and so are the fonts.

Listeners who browse over to his website will feel a sense of continuity which is very important when it comes to building your brand.

Make the most of the small space

The size of a podcast artwork as specified by Apple podcasts is 3000px by 3000px. In fact the entire concept of an artwork was started by Apple podcasts and hence even today we design these artworks specifically keeping in mind Apple podcasts.

In spite of these artworks being about 3000px in size, they show up as a small rectangular square graphic of about 150px-200px on various platforms. You can see that in the above image of “The Dave Ramsey Show”.

Now, that’s a pretty small real estate to do anything with it. Isn’t it?

But, then when all that you have is that 150px, then you don’t have a choice but to make the most of it.

So, go ahead and make the most of it. Convey to your audience, what you would like to convey to them.

Put the most important message out there. While these could differ from show to show, the most common of them are –

1. The title of the show
2. The name of the host
3. The logo of your brand
4. A small one liner on the WIIFM (What’s in it for me) for your audience

Remember, that this is your first impression on your audience and you need to make the most of it.

And, whatever is it that you, just ensure that you are not overcrowding your artwork.

In case you wish to learn more about creating an artwork for your podcast, Buzzsprout has put together a nice post with some simple tips.

The INTRO for your show

This is the 2nd most important piece in your show – Your INTRO.

Just as in blogging, you have only the first 30 seconds to make an impression.

And, if in this 30 seconds, your audience is able to relate to your show and if they are made to believe that your show is what they were looking for, then you have a listener for life.

But, the question is – how do you do it in the first 30 seconds.

You do it with an INTRO.

If you have been listening to podcasts, you would have noticed that pretty much every podcast starts with an “INTRO”.

And almost all of these will have a particular pattern – an intro music, the name of the show, the name of the host, a short introduction to what you can expect from the show and a WIIFM for the audience.

Every successful podcaster starts his show with an intro and you will always see the emphasizing on the importance of that.

“The Audacity to Podcast” has a detailed guide on podcast intros which talks about what to include and what not, in your intros.

Here are some important points to keep in mind when planning for your podcast intro –

1. Keep it short and simple. Don’t stretch it too long, because your audience clicked over to your podcast not to listen to your intro only.
2. Use a good music that gels well with your show genre and the intro script. You should be able to find a lot of sites from where you can download royalty free music backgrounds by doing a mere search on Google.
3. If you are used to starting your show by introducing yourself, then don’t duplicate by doing that in the intro as well.
4. 2 things to mandatorily include in your show is – the name of the show and why it is the best place for you audience to be.
5. If your show includes explicit language or, is not fit for audience of a certain age-group, this is the place to give that disclaimer and advise listener discretion.

Another point that some podcasters have a varying thought on, is about using the same intro music in all the episodes.

While I prefer using the same intro music for all my episodes, a lot of podcasters prefer alternating them because they think that the same intro music can sound monotonous.

But that’s entirely your choice.

Another important thing to keep in mind is the legality of usage pertaining to the background music scores that you are planning to download and use. Don’t end up in an unnecessary legal battle. You can read more about it at this article at Search Engine Journal.

For background scores I use the below 2 sites – Free Music Archive and Audio Jungle.

The podcast OUTRO

The 3rd most important part of your show is the OUTRO.

Something that is important about the Outro is that, it necessarily need not be a distinct part o the show like the Intro.

Usually it is a part of the show but is made to uniquely stand out and gives the feeling of an end-credits in a movie.

This isn’t really a rule and you are free to play around with it, if you think that a pre-recorded outro just like an intro will do good to your show.

Whatever is the format that you choose, just ensure that you keep the below things in mind –

• Your Outro needs to compulsorily include a “Call to Action”. Your call to action could be anything like,
  • asking your listeners to rate your show
  • subscribe to the show
  • visit your website etc.
• Recap the episode in a couple of lines at the most
• Thank your listeners
• Give them a sneak peak into what they can expect in the next episode (this is a strategy I learnt from Andre Chaperon’s email course), thus creating an element of anxiety

The most important of all these is the first one – the call to action. And that is what a lot of shows don’t do.

You have given a lot of value to your listeners through your show. They are warmed up and waiting for more from you.

And this is the exact point where you need to tell them what to do next.

In fact, this is an opportunity to further engage with your listeners so that they enter into a long-term relationship with you.

If you have a website, then my recommendation is to ask your listeners to visit your website. Give them a reason to visit your website, like a free download of the transcript or, a cheat-sheet etc.

You can even capture email addresses, which is again something I recommend. Because that way you can be in touch with your listeners.

One question that I often get asked about the outro is, if we should use a music in the outro.

And my answer is “yes”.

Why?

Because, that’s how you will be able to differentiate it from the rest of the show and give your listener the feel of an end-credits.

Use the same music you used for your intro and blend it nicely into the end part of your show to give it an outro like feel.

In the next couple of posts, I will show you how to edit your audio in Audacity and I will also show you how to create an intro and an outro.

Thank You for Joining

That’s it for this episode.

I hope you enjoyed this episode, though the quality of the audio might not be as great as my earlier ones (because I recorded it with a simple headset with a microphone in it and that too a borrowed one).

I will be back again, hopefully the next week with another interesting episode.

Do subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app and get in touch with me in case you have any questions.

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