Did you know that what you say about your podcast is just as important as what you say in your podcast? The only way you are going to get podcast listeners is through clear podcast messaging. If people can’t easily understand why they should tune into your podcast, they won’t.
Before listeners ever hear an episode, they are reading words you’ve written about your podcast on your website, in an email, on social media, or in the show’s description. They are using those words to decide if your podcast is worth their time. The words you use are the gateway to the audio you create. If you want to launch a successful podcast, you have to be able to describe your podcast in a way that compels your audience to click play.
What is clear podcast messaging?
In marketing, we refer to messaging as the language we use to talk about your product or service. Unless you can clearly explain, in about 10 seconds or less, how your business can make a potential client’s life better, you are missing out on sales.
Your podcast works the same way. You need to be able to quickly and effectively explain the value of your podcast so people know why they should tune in.
Podcasting involves a lot more than a cool microphone and people to interview. There is actually a whole lot of writing going on behind the scenes of a successful podcast.
Professional, valuable podcasts need:
- Content focused on helping listeners achieve a specific goal or transformation.
- A clear, SEO optimized description of your show.
- A landing page or website.
- An outline of each episode’s content.
- Interview questions for your guests.
- SEO optimized show notes for each recording.
- Emails announcing each podcast episode.
- Social media posts promoting your podcast.
For all of that writing to be clear, streamlined and enticing to your ideal listener, you need clear podcast messaging to guide you. As Donald Miller, the creator of Building a StoryBrand, says, “Everybody wants to be taken somewhere. If we don’t tell people where we’re taking them, they’ll engage another brand.”
By creating podcast messaging first, you are defining where you will take your listeners. This helps you create helpful, organized content that actually addresses a problem your listeners have and takes them toward the solution.
That’s why, when one of our clients, Pine and Company CPAs, mentioned that they wanted to start a podcast, we started by defining and clarifying their podcast messaging.
Good marketing doesn’t depend on how many social media posts you create or emails you send. If your message isn’t clear, you are just making noise. No one likes noise. People want clarity.
5 Steps to Clear Podcast Messaging
To set your podcast up for success, follow these 5 steps to craft clear podcast messaging that concisely explains why people should listen to your interviews.
Step 1: Identify Your Ideal Client/Listener
Your ideal client and your ideal listener should be the same. Your podcast is an extension of your business. You want to attract listeners that you can help through your products or services.
You don’t necessarily need to dive deep into the demographic, and psychographic characteristics of your ideal client in this step. The most important piece to explore is what your customer wants to improve the quality of their lives. Once you know what they want, you can position your podcast, and your business, to meet that need.
Step 2: Define the Problem
What one problem is your ideal listener facing that your podcast can help them overcome?
Ask yourself:
- What is keeping them awake at night?
- What are the challenges they face each day?
- What are the biggest roadblocks to their success?
- If they had a magic wand, what would they wish for?
Write down all the ideas that come to mind. Then, choose one big, overarching problem that your podcast can help listeners solve.
Step 3: How is the problem affecting podcast listeners’ lives?
Now that you’ve defined the problem that listening to your podcast will solve, brainstorm all the ways that problem is affecting your client’s life.
Our problems generally show up in three ways:
- Externally: what you see on the outside.
- Internally: how the problem makes you feel.
- Philosophically: why it’s just plain wrong that you are facing this problem.
Write down a few adjectives or phrases that explain how the problem is impacting your client on all three levels.
Step 4: Define How Your Podcast Can Help Solve Their Problem
Next, outline how your podcast can help listeners overcome this obstacle.
Consider:
- What useful information will your episodes provide?
- How will listening to your interview make customers’ lives better?
- Why are you qualified to help listeners with this problem?
These should be tangible benefits that someone will genuinely receive from listening to your podcast conversations.
For example, we knew that the Hidden Money Podcast’s ideal listener was a high income earner who was tired of paying large tax bills each year.
The podcast helps solve that problem by showing listeners ways they can legally use the tax code to their financial advantage.
Working with the tax strategists at Pine and Company CPAs will even more effectively solve that problem because customers will have an expert team guiding them through their investment decisions.
Step 5: Define Success
It’s not enough to simply tell potential listeners what they will get out of your podcast. Your messaging should also show them what their lives could look like after listening to your podcast and applying what they’ve learned. This picture of success provides extra motivation for first time listeners to tune in.
For the Hidden Money Podcast, examples of success are:
- Be savvy with your money.
- Use tax to your advantage.
- Grow your wealth faster.
- Stop trading time for money.
Stay Focused on Your Listener’s Success
If you’ve followed these five steps, you’ve got a solid outline for your clear podcast messaging. Now, you want to use it everywhere — on your website, emails, social media, in communication with podcast guests. Everyone who learns about your podcast should immediately understand how each episode contributes to helping your audience solve their problem and achieve their goal.
In your podcast marketing, it may be tempting to showcase the great content in your podcast, name drop your guests, and list all their credentials. That information is important but it should never be your main focus.
People don’t buy, or sign up for things, based on features and information. We may use logic like facts and figures to justify our actions but what really gets us moving is emotion. If you can show listeners how your podcast content can make them feel better, they’ll be clamoring to listen.
Remember, in business you are always the guide. Your customers, and your podcast listeners, are the heroes.
Creating a podcast takes time. The last thing you want is to pour your energy into great podcast content only to have no one listen to the episode. Before you begin on your podcasting journey, it is essential to craft clear podcast messaging so that you explain your podcast in a way that entices people to listen. The words you use to talk about your podcast are what gets people to click play.
Your Podcast Marketing Guide
If you are thinking of starting a podcast but hate writing, don’t give up on your dream. Schedule a call with Guide MKTG instead. With our help, you can create a podcast without writing.
We will write your clear podcast messaging for you and then use it to create everything you need for a successful podcast launch — from your landing page and broadcast emails to your attention-grabbing intro. We’ll even partner with you on an ongoing basis to write your outlines, interview questions, and show notes. As your marketing guide, we are here to help make your vision for your small business a reality. Contact us to get started on your podcast today.
