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8 Keys to Build Your Podcast Brand – Episode 187
Building your podcast brand is a big step toward audience growth. If you want to keep listeners coming back time and again, you need to build top-of-mind awareness. Your listeners need to think of you first when they think of your niche.
To build your memorable podcast brand, follow these 8 steps.
1. BENEFITS, NOT CONTENTS
It’s the Snap, Crackle, Pop … Not the Puffed Rice
Rice. Sugar. Salt. Malt flavor. Mmmmm. I can’t wait to get a bowl of that!
Your listeners aren’t attracted by the contents of your show. They don’t care if your show discusses money or business or politics or sports. All your listener cares about is the benefits they will receive from your show.
Here are a few podcast descriptions I found on iTunes.
“Those people that make videos on YouTube now have their own audio podcast. Hope you will stay awhile.”
“(unnamed podcast) produces original stories each week for families around the world. Each week on the (unnamed podcast), we’ll be sharing a free story from one of our original story series.”
“The world’s favorite podcast about old video games reaches its next stage! Join (hosts) and a variety of guests as they discuss the favorite games and topics of yesteryear.”
I’m sure these are solid podcasts. They were all listed in the “New & Noteworthy”. The content may be great, but the descriptions lack any snap, crackle or pop.
People get attracted to your show by the benefits, not ingredients.
Consumers buy the fun of the Snap, Crackle & Pop. They aren’t buying the puffed rice.
Listeners are seeking the fun of learning life’s lessons through stories, not original stories for families.
The audience wants nostalgic memories of teenage afternoons wasted in the arcade in front of Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac Man and Dragon’s Lair, not discussion of your favorite games and topics.
When a listener decides to listen to your podcast, they ask, “What will this podcast do for me?” If the answer is topics and discussions, your listener is probably moving on. If it is nostalgic memories and comedic bits of “name that video game theme”, you might just entice him to check out your show.
There is a reason the fun of the experience is on the front of the box and the ingredients are relegated to the side. You need to sell the fun.
2. BE WELL PREPARED, NOT SCRIPTED
You must know where you’re going before you can actually get there. That statement is true with a road trip and it is also true with your podcast. When you set out to record a show, you must have goals in mind. Once you’ve determined what you hope to accomplish, you can then decide how you will make it happen.
So many podcasters seem to record their show less than fully prepared. I hear hosts often search for details that should be right at their fingertips. There is no reason to lack the proper information while you are doing your show. If you’ve fully prepared for your podcast, the information should be right in front of you.
3. BE CREATIVE
Create “theater of the mind.”
The use of active language will stir the imagination of your listener and help you connect to your audience. Put the listener in the moment. Make the listener see the action you are describing.
“I’m walking in the bustling restaurant and shaking off the cold without even watching where I’m walking.” That is active language. In your mind, you can see me walking in.
Sure, your restaurant may be different from my restaurant. That difference is what makes theater of the mind great. You see it the way you think it fits best for you. Your scene doesn’t need to match my scene in order for the story to make sense. It is your theater.
Active language connects each listener to the story in his or her own way. It will create strong audience engagement. Active language during storytelling is a powerful tool you can use while you’re building your podcast.
Create a great podcast brand. Create theater of the mind.
4. MAKE THEM FORGET
There is a primary reason most people seek entertainment. They want to escape reality. Help your listener make their escape by making them forget they are listening to a recording.
People want to forget about their troubles of the day. To get away, they watch movies, go to concerts, watch television, listen to radio and spend time with your podcast. People get wrapped up in another time, place and story. This makes them forget about their reality, even if it is only for a short time.
Take them to another place with your podcast by using stories. Make your storytelling so strong that their imaginations put your listener in another time and place. That’s what great storytelling is all about. That’s what great relationships are all about. It is engagement.
So, how do you make them forget? How do you engage and entertain to the point where your listener is so engrossed with your content that they forget about everything else? What are the steps to create a great story?
The intriguing introduction. The vivid details. The powerful conclusion. Then, ask “what else?”
Take a few tips from movies and television. Tell compelling stories just like the movies.
[ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF POWERFUL STORYTELLING – EPISODE 129]
5. FEAR IS THE ENEMY OF CREATIVITY
Think about a speech you have given. When you have only rehearsed the speech a couple times, anxiety sets in.
Thinking about making a mistake makes you nervous. Your lack of preparation is the cause. You worry that you may forget something. You are not prepared.
On the other hand, when you have rehearsed the speech many, many times, you eventually know it by heart. You begin to feel much more confident. The worry isn’t present. You begin to relax.
When you relax, the spontaneity kicks in.
Spontaneity in your speech happens most when you aren’t worried about the mechanics of the presentation. Your mind is allowed to move naturally through the material.
This relaxation helps you become truly engaged with the audience and material. Wonderful, creative, spontaneous things happen when you reach this point.
The same can be said for your podcast. When you know the material, have defined a specific goal for the show, and have mapped out a plan to achieve that goal, your podcast will be filled with many “oh wow” moments.
When you worry about your content, you have no brain power left for spontaneous things to happen.
Where are you spending your time? Are you too busy thinking about the next question and blocking out the spontaneity? Is rehearsal really the enemy of spontaneity?
6. BE INTERESTING BY BEING INTERESTED
Listen to your guest. You become interesting by being interested.
Podcasters often ask how long their podcast needs to be.
Your podcast needs to be as long as it needs to be. As long as it is interesting, it isn’t too long.
You need to do your homework prior to the interview. You need to know what makes your guest interesting. What will make your guest engaging to your audience? Find that story, and help your guest bring it to life.
You become interesting by being interested. Listen to the answers your guest provides. Then, ask great, intriguing, follow-up questions.
7. TELL STORIES, DON’T READ
Walt Disney was one of the greatest storytellers of our time.
When you examine his work, you realize he wasn’t a great story writer. He was a fantastic story teller.
Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Jungle Book. All are stories written by someone else. Disney just turned them into great stories that sometimes didn’t follow the original exactly.
Snow White – “Snow White” is a German fairy tale known across much of Europe and is today one of the most famous fairy tales worldwide. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
Pinocchio – The Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial in 1881 and 1882, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883.
Fantasia – The movie was developed around the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a German poem written in 1797 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Bambi – Bambi, a Life in the Woods, was originally published in Austria in 1923 and written by Felix Salten.
Cinderella – This movie started as a European folk tale. The first written European version of the story was published in Naples, by Giambattista Basile, in 1634.
Peter Pan – Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie in 1902. Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, premiered on 27 December 1904 in London.
Jungle Book – The Jungle Book (1894) is a collection of stories by English author Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–94.
Even recent, successful movies created by the Disney company after Walt Disney’s death were based on stories written by others.
Hercules – Greek myth
Mulan – Chinese legend
Tarzan – 1914 book by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tangled – Base on Rapunzel published in 1812 Brothers Grimm
Model the Disney filter.
Walt Disney’s upbringing shaped his view on life and influenced how he told stories. According to the book “Walt Disney – Hollywood’s Dark Prince” by Marc Eliot, Disney’s life on his boyhood Missouri farm was harsh.
Walt was unsure of his father, because he had no birth certificate. He grew up in a very strict household where his father often used corporal punishment. Walt’s mother usually did very little to tame the strick hand of the senior Disney.
Growing up on the farm, Walt and his brother Roy were required to do chores to earn their keep. They would attend school during the day while working on the farm at night. There was no time for friends. Walt’s friends were the various animals around the farm.
The life Disney experienced on the farm influenced his films.
If you study the films created by Disney while he was alive, you see the evidence. Most of Disney’s feature-length films contain a protagonist with no father figure. The main character is typically a lonely outcast who has made friends with various animals.
Think of your favorite Disney character. Does that individual fit that description?
Cinderella. Snow White. Mowgli in the Jungle Book. Peter Pan. It is all right there.
Disney didn’t write great stories. He told great stories as seen through his filter.
Plan your story using your own filter.
Many podcasters believe that planning all of their content removes the opportunity for things to happen. Does planning remove the fun from your show?
Not at all.
When you spend less time trying to think of the next piece of content, you can spend more time thinking about how to make the next piece of content amazing.
Organizing your content is the key to allowing your content to become entertainment.
8. THE CLOCK
The one tool most radio hosts use to organize their show is a show clock. This is basically a schedule of what is to happen on the show and when those pieces of content occur.
The show clock becomes even more important when you have a co-host. The clock puts all members of the show on the same page. Each host knows exactly what is coming up and when it is supposed to happen.
You can download the PTC Show Clock template in the worksheet library online at PodcastTalentCoach.com.
Use these 8 steps to build your podcast brand.
Do you need help with your podcast? E-mail me any time at Coach@PodcastTalentCoach.com. Let’s see what we can do.
You can find my podcast and other tools to help you create great content at www.PodcastTalentCoach.com.
Let’s turn your information into engaging entertainment.