Whether or not it is a career or a paid interest, podcast hosts are at all times eager to monetize their ardour whether or not that is by means of adverts, visitor spots, or podcast merch.
However all of those doorways will likely be closed to you with no good podcast media package. With no well-crafted media package, you are not going to place your greatest foot ahead with potential advertisers, visitors, or merchandising companions.
On this submit, we’ll take a look at what a media package is, the best way to put one collectively, and the best way to use it to make the connections you have to develop your podcasting enterprise.
Free to make use of picture sourced from Unsplash
Your podcast media package is a useful little bundle telling potential advertisers every thing they might suppose to ask about your podcast, from listener stats, to episode highlights, to sponsorship particulars.
A well-structured media package ought to be like your podcast’s resume. It reveals advertisers and different potential collaborators what you carry to the desk, provides them an concept of your content material, and tells them every thing they might wish to find out about your viewers.
They is likely to be fascinated with shopping for an advert slot, getting their shopper to speak in your present, or supporting you along with your podcast merch. All of this may assist them decide about whether or not or not it is smart to work with you.
A podcast media package is barely totally different from a press package. The press package is a text-heavy bundle particularly for journalists. It would embody a press launch, detailed details about the podcast, and biographies of the important thing gamers.
Your podcast’s media package is totally different. It ought to be a media-rich doc with images, infographics, hyperlinks, and even movies. The meant viewers can be extra various. It might be anybody from PR representatives to podcast merch producers.
Free to make use of picture sourced from Unsplash
1. Collect data
To place collectively your media package, you will want to assemble collectively all the data you want, utilizing numerous knowledge assortment strategies to get qualitative and quantitative information. That can embody objects like…
- — Your podcast’s title, hyperlinks to your pages on all platforms, and the discharge schedule
— Your podcast’s pitch, as nicely an expanded description of your present and your viewers
— Demographic details about your viewers
— Consumer critiques throughout platforms like Apple Podcasts, and optimistic social media chatter
— Biographies of your hosts and the remainder of the group behind the podcast, together with headshots
— A few of your hottest episodes and any notable visitors
— Any monetization channels, resembling subscriptions or podcast merch
2. Define and arrange
After you have this data and knowledge, you can begin to place collectively your podcast media package. Your viewers are busy folks, so that you need a clearly structured, skimmable doc. Here is how you may preserve all of it organized:
Cowl web page
If the media package is like your podcast’s resume, it ought to include a canopy web page. This may embody the title of your podcast, your brand, and any social media handles.
Introduction
Introduce your podcast’s theme, format, and any distinctive “promoting factors”. Speak in regards to the hosts, their backgrounds, and what they create to the dialogue.
Viewers, analytics, attain
You can begin by describing the “personas” in your viewers: fictional representations of the sorts of people that hear. They might be key decision-makers at tech corporations or fanatics in a distinct segment like tabletop video games. Again that up with listener knowledge out of your web site, social media, and your podcast platforms of selection.
Highlights and media protection
As soon as you’ve got talked about your attain in sheer numbers, you may add extra colour to it by discussing what’s been standard or notable. These might be episodes that broke out of your common viewers, possibly since you had a widely known visitor.
You need to embody any media protection right here too. This reveals credibility and noteworthiness and offers the reader a bit extra context in your present, your viewers, and your home on the planet of podcasting.
Free to make use of picture sourced from Unsplash
Testimonials and critiques
Embody some selection quotes out of your listeners and reviewers, together with optimistic shoutouts on social media. This emphasizes how engaged individuals are along with your present, whether or not they discover it helpful for maintaining with their business or in the event that they’re listening to be entertained.
You may as well embody testimonials from sponsors and collaborators. Your media package’s viewers consists of potential sponsors, so that you wish to present that sponsors are proud of the outcomes they get from working with you.
Monetization
Should you’re reaching out to potential sponsors and enterprise companions, you’ve got obtained monetization in your thoughts. Should you’re already being profitable out of your podcast, it’s best to talk about that right here.
When you needn’t lay out all of your financials, potential collaborators would admire an outline of your podcast’s earnings streams. In case your most engaged listeners are all paying for an prolonged, no-ads model of the present, which may have an effect on the choice to sponsor. Should you’re doing podcast merch, it could assist to put out how a lot you are promoting.
Podcast Merch Concepts
Podcast merch is without doubt one of the greatest methods to monetize a extremely engaged viewers. It provides your viewers one thing tangible, and you are not interrupting the present with adverts for providers the listener might or might not care about. (In fact, the merch additionally acts as promoting in and of itself.)
Platforms like Printful and Teespring can deal with every thing from design, to manufacturing, to supply. Merch can embody something from tshirts and hoodies to extra impulse purchases like stickers and badges, hats, cellphone instances, and pop sockets.
Sponsorship and collaboration alternatives
As soon as you’ve got proven how a lot attain you may have and the way engaged your followers are, you may make your podcast pitch. Right here, you may define the choices out there to potential sponsors or collaborators. Should you’ve been doing this for some time, you will know the way a lot to cost for “merchandise” like an advert readout in your present or a paid visitor look.
Should you can standardize these choices and supply straight solutions on pricing, this part will likely be nice for readers who’re well-versed in producing leads with content material like visitor appearances. This part ought to assist them shortly resolve whether or not or not it is smart to work with you.
Free to make use of picture sourced from Unsplash
3. Provide you with a “advertising and marketing technique” on your media package
Like every product, placing collectively an amazing media package is simply half the battle. Now, you want a method for getting it in entrance of the precise folks.
Virtually, advertising and marketing is all about getting the precise message, to the precise particular person, on the proper time. Your podcast media package is the message; it ought to be knowledgeable partly by the viewers and the technique you are going to use to get it in entrance of them. So, what are your choices for “promoting” your media package?
Social media outreach
Relying in your podcast’s area of interest, nice visitors and collaborators is likely to be one DM away. Reaching out to people on LinkedIn, Instagram, or X with a brief message and a hyperlink to your media package would possibly do the trick. Your podcast’s title would possibly imply nothing to this particular person, so your message ought to reference overview numbers or shops you’ve got been featured in, if potential.
Use instruments like LinkedIn Premium to curate a focused checklist of contacts in your sector, and use instruments like Hunter.io to get their skilled e mail addresses. An unsolicited, “chilly” e mail will be efficient so long as your pitch is actually related to the recipient’s job and objectives.
Telephone calls
Chilly emails will not at all times work, and neither will follow-up emails. Should you’re attempting to get in contact with a possible visitor’s agent or PR particular person, their inbox is overflowing. On this case, their enterprise cellphone is an effective subsequent step, and the perfect auto dialer software program utilized by gross sales execs might help you get plenty of these cellphone calls out very quickly.
Networking
In case your podcast is in a distinct segment enterprise sector like cloud computing, networking occasions and commerce reveals will be an effective way to satisfy potential leads in particular person. You may carry a bodily copy of your media package with you, or simply embody a QR code to the media package on what you are promoting card. On this case, it is necessary that your media package appears to be like good on cell, and take into account when you want it to load shortly on a poor WiFi connection.
Different podcasters
When you’ve got good relationships with different podcasters who’re efficiently utilizing a media package, you may ask them for a heat introduction to potential collaborators. You may ask them to place collectively an e mail thread the place you may connect the package or give them a shareable hyperlink to ahead on to the precise lead.
Companies and networks
Should you do not wish to put within the legwork of monitoring down publicists and content material entrepreneurs day-after-day, there are businesses focusing on making these sorts of connections between advertisers and podcasts.
Networks like PodcastOne and AdvertiseCast supply providers that vary from a gradual provide of heat introductions to finish administration providers. When you’ve got good attain and the precise viewers, inserting your media package with networks like these can get your complete outreach effort taken care of for you.
Free to make use of picture sourced from Unsplash
4. Get on the market and promote
So, you’ve got crafted a top-notch media package. Time to get on the market and begin promoting your podcast and its useful viewers to potential sponsors and different companions.
Be strategic about the place you’re spending your efforts. Relying in your target market, that might be chilly outreach on LinkedIn or spending time in skilled areas like LinkedIn teams or subreddits.
Should you’re actually caught, you can begin by looking out “sponsorship alternatives for X” and go from there. One underrated technique is the old school means: phoning up publicists and different advertisers, which you’ll be able to velocity up by lining up leads with energy dialer.
Key takeaways
Your media package wants to indicate off how useful you’re to advertisers and different entrepreneurs by demonstrating how many individuals take heed to you, how engaged they’re, and why they’re related to advertisers. By constructing media package consistent with the outreach technique that is best for you, you may put your greatest foot ahead with potential advertisers, sponsors, and high-profile visitors.
