Do you know what is that one thing that podcasters like you and me spend the least time on?
It is in crafting a good podcast episode title.
Note the term that I emphasized – “Crafting”.
Why did I say “crafting”?
Because writing a good title is a craft.
I see so many good podcast episodes and blog posts with bland titles that have no appeal.
For somebody browsing for content, these titles never invoke curiosity or, the need to click over and read the post or, listen to the episode.
On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.
– David Ogilvy
Apply that logic from David Ogilvy to podcasting with a slight twist and it means that if your title is not attractive enough, you have lost 80% of your listeners.
Today we will discuss about writing a good episode title and why it is important for the success of your show.
But before we get into the details of a good podcast episode title, let me tell you a quick backstory.
It was in the year 2006 that Buzzfeed started and it quickly gained prominence. There were hundreds and thousands of readers that were reading their daily posts.
What started off as a side-project website using the virality aspect of articles is today a media house that is into many different dimensions of media.
Buzzfeed had no writers or, editors back then.
As per their founders, Buzzfeed was just an “algorithm to cull stories from around the web that were showing stirrings of virality”.
But then something that Buzzfeed did multiplied the virality aspect of the articles and helped them explode.
What was it?
It was their headlines. Their post titles.
I still remember clicking over to their website pretty much every day to read something they had published though that wasn’t really something I was browsing about to read.
One of those titles is still fresh in my mind. It read something like, “These 10 pictures were captured at the most inappropriate moment but turned out to be the best clicks”.
Now, does that title make you curious enough to click through?
Yes, it does. And so did I!
Most of Buzzfeed’s post titles were like that.
They wrote click-worthy headlines that you would be so tempted to click on that you would have sleepless nights if you didn’t.
They were absolutely criticized for those click-bait titles and the best SEO experts were all complaining about how it was unethical.
Why?
Because some of those were purely clickbait!
When you clicked over to the article, you wouldn’t find much inside it. While I wouldn’t call it extremely poor quality, at least that was what the big guys were calling these articles.
After much criticism, they corrected those clickbait titles to some extent, but their titles continue to be click-worthy.
Check out these titles –
- 15 Specific Things People Commonly Accept As Fact (But Are Actually False)
- 16 People Who Are Probably — No, DEFINITELY — Having A Much Worse Week Than You
Every one of those titles makes you so curious that you just don’t have a choice but to click on them.
Between 2006 and 2013, many more such websites popped up on the internet, and every one of those had the same strategy – Pick a viral article, write a clickbait headline for it and generate traffic.
Sites like BoredPanda and Upworthy followed the trend that Buzzfeed had started and made a windfall.
That was the time I was experimenting with many different things in internet marketing and I too jumped on the trend. I created a website that curated viral articles and used the same clickbait titles.
In less than 6 months the site was getting around 25,000 page views per month. I made some money running ads on the site and then sold the site off for $2700.
That’s a good amount of money for 6 months worth of effort. Isn’t it?
Writing a Good Podcast Episode Title for Your Show
Back to podcasting and podcast episode titles.
What is it that your audience sees first when they stumble upon your podcast or, any other form of content for that matter?
The title of the episode!
The decision to click that play button is taken only after that title pulls them in and compels them to click the play button.
So if you don’t want to waste all of that effort you put in to create a masterpiece of content then focus on writing good titles.
Don’t listen to those that keep crying about click-bait titles.
If your content can talk to your title and provide the value the title promises, then it is not a clickbait title.
So, go ahead and confidently write clickbait titles.
Wondering what goes into titles that get clicks?
The formula consists of just three things – Curiosity, Scarcity, and FOMO.
Some of the proven titles that have worked for me included – “How to” titles, “Mistakes to avoid” titles, and “Nobody ever told you this” titles.
Let your imagination run wild and experiment.
After all, it is about being rewarded for the efforts you put in to create that piece of content.
So how do you write those titles, if you aren’t as skilled as the writers at Buzzfeed?
It is simple!
Take inspiration.
Here are 3 simple ways that you can get excellent inspiration –
YouTube:
The first and easiest is to use YouTube.
Go to YouTube and search with a generic term. Then use the filter to sort by view count.
Go through each of the results and see if there are any titles that compel you to click through to the video.
Compare these two titles –
- Top 9 Podcast Interview questions to ask your Guest
- Top 5 Uncommon Interview questions to ask on your podcast or, video interviews
Which of these do you think is something that is compelling you to click and watch the video?
The second one right?
And that is probably one of the reasons why it has more views as well.
That is precisely what your objective is.
Find good titles and build a repository of them. You can customize it and keep reusing it again and again to write a good podcast episode title.
Alltop
Alltop is a content aggregator that aggregates content from different niches. You will find articles, posts, and news items from different niches, all nicely organized on Alltop.
And the best part, the collection only shows the headlines or, titles of these posts.
Irrespective of what niche you are in, I would recommend going to Alltop and browsing through the different titles out there. If you want to be specific, you can go to a specific category and do this.
But browse through the titles and see which one compels you to click through. Note it down on a notepad or, excel sheet.
Make a collection of these and reuse them. Of course, after customizing it to your needs.
Google Search
The third and easiest one is to do a quick google search with “headlines that get clicks” or, “good headline examples” or, something like that.
You will be able to find thousands of blog posts with sample headlines. Go through them and pick the one that you like.
Maintain a list of these and keep reusing them.
There is an excellent article on WordStream that has about 88 such examples and is a nice article that will teach you how to write good headlines.
That’s it for this episode.
Thank You for Joining
Thank you for joining me on today’s episode.
I hope you found value in the discussion on writing a good podcast episode title.
If you did, then do subscribe to the show on your favorite podcasting platform. The links to the prominent ones are mentioned below –
If you are new to podcasting, then you might want to subscribe to my FREE 10-day ecourse on “starting a podcast”.
Recommended Resources for Podcasting
Here are some tools and resources that I recommend for podcasting. These are the ones that I personally use and am satisfied with and hence am recommending them.
- Acast Podcast hosting – Acast is my favorite podcast hosting company. They have excellent customer support, have a pocket-friendly plan, and even have a free option with no limits.
- Behringer Audio Interface – You will need an audio interface if you are using an XLR microphone. This is my recommended audio interface.
- Zencastr – Zencastr is the easiest option to record interviews, both audio-only and audio+video. This is a must for an interview podcast. Go to zencastr.com/pricing and use my code “thepodu” You’ll get 30 percent off your first three months of Zencastr professional.
- Audacity – This is the best and the most feature-rich free audio editing software. It gives you a lot of options while editing your interviews.
- Blue Yeti USB Microphone – My recommended microphone
- Tidycal – My recommended calendar and booking solutions
- Fusebox – Embeddable Podcast Player
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