Power of Podcasting #30 - Stand Out From The Crowd Day 3 of the Get Started Podcasting Challenge Hello and welcome to the Power of Podcasting, and today we have a very special episode. Recently, I just ran a 5 Day Get Started Podcasting Challenge and we had some great results including several people who recorded their very first podcast episode. So I actually wanted to release it here for all of you listening here and help you go through this challenge and get started with your very own podcast. Now, if you want to get all of the worksheets that go with the challenge and to go through all 5 videos of the challenge in sequence than head over to PodcastingChallenge.com where you can sign up and go through the challenge including all of the resources. But in today s episode we are going to actually dive into some of the training from the challenge. Good luck with the challenge and hopefully I ll hear from you soon about your amazing results. Let s dive on in. Hello and welcome to day three of the podcasting challenge. Now, hopefully, you have your solid foundation created for your podcast. You know what equipment you want to get and now it's time to really dive into how you can actually stand out from the crowd because, as you know, more and more people are diving into podcasting. More and more people want to create podcasts, and so it's going to be more and more difficult to actually set yourself apart and really attract the right listeners to your show. That's what we're actually going to talk about on today's video of the challenge, is we're going to dive in to how you can actually stand out for those right people, for
those right audience members, who eventually convert to paying customers and clients down the road. There are really three ways, three things, you really need to think about when we talk about standing out. They are how do you get found, how do you get listeners, and how do you get fans? For this very first one, we're going to talk all about how you can actually get found. itunes is, by far, the biggest podcast directory out there. This is where most people go to get their podcasts, or even if they're using some other podcast player, a lot of times they actually plug in directly to the itunes directory. We want to make sure that you are optimizing your podcasts in some ideal ways, doing correct search engine optimization because, really, itunes is a big search engine. It's very similar to Google in that way. We also want to make sure that you can be found on Google as well for some keywords that your ideal clients are really looking for. It's important to take some time and consider what are those five to 10 keywords or keyword phrases that my client, my ideal audience member, is looking for? That's really your preliminary step before you even move into some of this other stuff, is to really go through and figure what are those five to 10 keywords or keyword phrases that clients are actually searching for? That'll be your first action step, is to go, figure that out. Then, once from there, you're going to want to consider a few things when it comes to getting found on itunes. Those are your actual podcast title, those are your author name, and those are your episode titles. Really, those are the key areas we need to focus in on because descriptions aren't actually searchable in itunes. Then there's several other things that really won't benefit you but those three areas will. With your title, too often I see podcasters who want to come up with some very creative, fancy title. Creative titles can be nice, they can work well for you, but what you want to make sure you do is that even if you decide to go a creative route for whatever reason, you want to make sure you actually have some keywords there after that. I'll show you a few examples of some great potential podcast titles. All right, so here we are in the itunes business category. I just want to show you what the itunes store looks like and show you some of the different elements that are really going to stand out when we talk about getting found. First, before we dive into too much, you can see right here, the very first thing at the very top of the category, is new and noteworthy. New and noteworthy, your podcast is considered new and noteworthy if you are within the first 56 days and you're only competing, you're still... Same algorithm
applies, but you're only competing against other podcasts that are within that 56 day window. These are all newer podcasts. You can see some of the different titles, some of the different ones that are standing out. The title is very searchable, let's check this one. Here's Optimal Finance Daily: The Best of Personal Finance, Minimalism, and Investing. Very filled with keywords. Optimal Living Daily: Reading the Best... I think they did a great job with the title. I think their author name was not done very well, but it also depends. It looks like they're actually going out there and grabbing things, and just reading other people's blog posts. Interesting way to go about podcasting, but I haven't dove into it enough to actually know what they're doing or how this is actually working. I do like the way their title is filled with key... I think their title is a great title. This is an example of the new and noteworthy, but you're also going to notice under here, we have the what's hot. What's hot is basically the top podcasts. So here, let's check out these guys. Jordan at the Art of Charm. This is one of the first podcasts I actually ever listened to, back in 2007, I believe. Notice how their podcast title looks. I think that's an excellent one. Art of Charm, that really is not very creative. It kind of tells what they're going to be talking about. They're not trying to get too cute and too fancy while still, there is a little element of creativity there. Then they're also diving in with keywords such as social science, cognitive psychology, confidence, relationship advice, biohacking, and productivity. Then they have the name of both Jordan, who is the host, and then the Art of Charm, which is the business. Let's see who else we have here. Erik at Beyond the To Do List does another great job. Beyond the to do List Personal Productivity Perspectives, Erik Fisher, productivity podcaster, author and coach. That's not too bad of one in terms of adding keywords in his author name. Pat does a great job of this. Ask Pat, that is a more creative title, I guess, sort of. It doesn't tell you much other than that you're asking Pat. Many people might not have any idea who Pat is or what they would be even asking about, but the rest of his title does a great job of that. Your Online Business: Blogging, Marketing, and Lifestyle Design Question Answer Daily. That tells me exactly what is happening with this podcast. It's a daily podcast, he's answering these types of questions, it's also very keyword rich. Online business, blogging, marketing, lifestyle, design. Those are all keywords he wants to rank for. Then you have your author name here. Pat Flynn, again, getting more online business, another spot where they actually gain that keyword in. His title is phenomenally done really well there.
Oh, and look at that. There is actually a clients of ours. Let's just quick look at that since he's here. Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod, getting name a couple times in keywords. Then we talk about the keyword success, productivity, personal development, lifestyle, and business. Then we even get a few here, more, essentially, titles, but we also want to rank for author, keynotes speaker, and success coach. That's another example of how to help get found. There you have it, that's kind of the get found piece of itunes. As you can see, even for the creative title of the podcast, we are diving in and actually using keywords within that title to make sure that it is found when our potential audience members are searching. We want to come up very highly for those ideal audience members. The next thing you really want to consider is the author name. That is also searchable as well. You're going to do something similar. You're going to have your name, because we want to make sure that that is still prominent that people who are searching for your name, are going to find your podcast, because you will as you are growing your brand, growing your business, people are going to start searching for you specifically. We want to make sure it's easy for them to find you, so be sure to include your name. We've had that, I've seen that happen in the past, that mistake happened. Be sure to include your name. I would also recommend if you are going under a business name, for example for us, Your Podcast Guru, we also want to make sure that is in the author name somewhere. Then, if there's still room, if it still makes sense, we're going to plug a couple additional keywords like motivational speaker, or coach, or something else like that. We're going to help narrow down the market a little bit more so that we're still showing up when people are searching for those specific keywords. The other area that you really want to think about is that each episode title is also searchable. You're going to want to use keywords in your episode titles over and over again, as you continue to build up your episodes. Obviously, hopefully this is obvious, but don't just stuff keywords in your episode titles. You want to make sure that the content within that episode actually makes sense to be... And create a title that makes sense based off of the content that is in the episode. If you can add your keywords in a very effective way and really, because there are stuff that you want to be found for, a lot of your content should be created around your keywords. If you want to be found for business to business marketing, a lot of the content you're going to create is going to be based off of business to business marketing, so it'll naturally yield itself to being in your episode title.
While you want to pay attention to keyword and really think about how you're using, ultimately, what you're trying to do is create content that a person wants to consume, not necessarily play to the robots because the robots are continuing to get better and better and, ultimately, you are trying to get solid, high quality, listeners and you're only going to get that if you actually play to that human, to that individual. Those are the things to really consider when you want to get found in itunes. It's really podcast title, author name, episode titles. Once you really look at how you can actually be found through a search engine, then you really want to think about how do I get people to actually click and listen to the podcast? How do I actually go about getting listeners? There are really only three things that show up in a search for a podcast on itunes and that is the cover art, that is the podcast title, and that is the author name. Those are the three main things that show up when people are searching, generally, for podcasts. We want to focus in on how we can make those most attractive to people so that they click and will actually want to read a little bit more, read the description more, check out a few of the episodes, and then hopefully click subscribe or click listen, to actually listen to one of your episodes. Let's first dive in to that cover image. What is it that actually makes a good image for your podcast? Well, I also want to mention that we do have a worksheet that goes along with this challenge, that'll lay out a few of the dimensions, and few of the other criteria, and some more resources that will help you make your image. There are a couple things that you really want to think about when creating your image and number one is that you do not want to have too much text on your podcast image. Remember, people are looking at these in the itunes store where the images are small if they're looking at heir computer, or they're even looking at their mobile device, where the image is even smaller. You want to make sure that your title of your podcast can be read, but you're not going to be able to have too much other wording on there. If you have too much wording, it just becomes cluttered, just becomes a big mess. You want to avoid too much text. Number two, is you really want to make sure that it communicates the focus of the podcast. What are you going to be talking about, what is the main topics area, and you really need to make sure that your podcast image represents that in some way, shape, or form. That's going to be more difficult for some people, depending on what your topic is about, but you can get a general idea of some very...
If you're talking about fly fishing, there should be an image of a fish, a fly fish, or a fly on there, probably, fly fishing poles, stuff like that. You're talking about golfing, you're going to have golf gloves, greens, things like that. It's going to be stuff that is going to be very, very well based off of your image. If you're talking about goals, it might have a checklist or something like that. If you're talking about just entrepreneurship, maybe you lean more towards the money aspect. You want to make sure that whatever your image is, whatever your graphic ends up being, is that it is communicating the focus of your show. When we talk about communicating the focus, that's going to include what it's about, but also who it's for. Think about both of those areas. You need to communicate the topic and general idea of the show, but then you also want to communicate who the podcast is for. Sticking with communication, you want to make sure that it actually communicates the feel of the show. Is this going to be more fun, high energy, silly, type of show? Or is it going to be a more professional, very edgy, or what is that feel that you want to come across? That, when you think about feel, that's going to influence your color decisions, that's going to influence the type of graphics you use. Are you going to use more classic type of imaging and lettering, or are you going to use some more modern, edgy type? This is where being able to work with a good graphic designer is really going to help you out, or another great tool to use would actually be something like Canva. They have different pre-designed image and feel that really goes together well, so you can find some that really appeal to the feel that you want of your show, and select some of those templates to really at least get you started off in the right foot if you are deciding to go the create your own podcast image route. Really, the last piece you want to make sure you have is that it's actually eye attracting. This is one that is very subjective. It can be hard to decide if your podcast image is eye attracting or not, but the way I actually go about this with clients is we usually tend to mock up a few different potential podcast cover options. Usually, we have two to three, or sometimes even four. What we'll do is I'll go in and grab a screenshot of the itunes store, where all the podcast images are out there and I will take a little image, I'll take each of the cover options, and I will place them in different aspects of that podcast. Here, I'll show you an example. Now, let's talk about actually your image and how that helps make you stand out. Let's actually go from... Let's use some of the top podcasts and let's check out some of these. You notice there are a bunch of different images here and your eye is probably being drawn to certain ones that are really
standing out. I know which ones definitely draw my attention. Many of them I actually am subscribed to, which is kind of funny. You can see people use a variety of different podcast images. You're going to want to have one that is going to stand out, be more eye attractive, but here is how I actually go about deciding which podcast image to use. I will actually go through and create a screenshot. On a Mac, it is command shift and three, or command shift four. We can actually drag across and get a full screenshot of everything. I then go and open Keynote, drag that and drop that in there. I'm going to move that out of the way. This is if I'm doing this and sending to the client, we also have our graphics team that usually takes care of this now, but this is the way I have done it for a long time. I'll actually take the screenshot, put it in Keynote, make sure I can see everything. Then I'm going to go and get the podcast cover art options. Then I'll just drag and drop a couple of the potential images in, then basically just go through and resize them so that they are the exact size of the images there. We'll do this with basically all of our client's shows, then this is how we help the client when we send them the options. We help them see what it'll actually look like in the itunes store so that they can make a decision, a more informed decision, based off of what things will actually look like. We'll grab, say, three different images and randomly place them in three different spots within the itunes store. Then we'll also do the exact same thing on the mobile itunes store. We'll go through, grab a screenshot from an iphone, then go in and place the images just like so, just so you can see, get an idea, at least, of what the image is going to look like. Then you can see which one attracts your eye more. Generally, a person preference for me is I like to include an image of the person if at all possible. If we have good images, I generally lean towards including an actual image because I feel like you are more connected with the host of the show if the image is actually there. So, you can get an idea of which one your eye is most attracted to. Which one do you naturally see the soonest, the quickest, or do you need to just completely scrap the designs you have and go with a brand new design because none of them are that attractive? I recommend you do that for both the desktop or a laptop, get that basic screen of the itunes store, but then also go through and get one from your phone. Take a screenshot of the podcast app where you're searching through the podcasts, and replace that to see if your podcast cover is actually standing out from the crowd.
Now, when we're talking about podcast cover art, there are a few common questions that I get so I want to address one of those right now. That is should I use my image, or should I use a graphic representation? Well, my feeling is that, in general, it depends a little bit on what your overall objective is. This is, again, why we had that be part of the day one is we're actually figuring out the foundation. If your overall objective is to position you as an expert, to book more speaking gigs, to sell a very personal brand driven business, then I say most of the time, you're going to lean towards having your image as the cover art. The times when you're going to want to lean away from that is if you don't have good head shots or if you don't have good images that you can actually use in the cover art. Then you're going to want to stick to more graphical elements. If you're a very personal brand driven, personality driven business, then you're going to want to lean towards having the image up front as part of that personal brand because people are going to connect with you, they're going to want to work with you, they're going to want to build that relationship directly with you. I'd say, generally, speakers, coaches, more often than not, yes you should have your image as part of the podcast cover art. Now, still on the topic of actually getting listeners, the next big element you need to be concerned with is that actual description of the podcast. The description is, essentially, sales copy to get someone to get someone to listen to or subscribe to your podcast. There are a few elements that should be in any description. You're going to want to have some sort of leading hook right away, and this could be a very simple, one question, one sentence question that's intriguing, that draws people in. You're going to want to have something right away, up front, that's going to grab their attention and make them want to read the rest of the description. Then, in the description, you're going to talk about who the podcast is for. You're going to talk about why they benefit from the podcast. You're going to set some expectations. This is a weekly podcast delivered every Wednesday, and so they'll expect that. You're going to somehow set up expectations. That can be one that you can leave out if you'd like to, if you're not quite sure yet of when your podcast is going to be delivered, but I recommend you have that in there to set those expectations. Then, finally, you're going to have a solid call to action, which is basically telling them to go subscribe to the podcast so that they get the weekly episodes delivered to them. Our final piece to help you get listeners is to actually have unique episode image. For each episode you're recording, I think you should create an
image for that episode. Again, you could use a graphic designer. We'll have a few resources linked up in the worksheets connected to this day's challenge, or you can go to some place like Canva, they have where you can find a Facebook image, you can find several different templates for those different social media channels. What I think you should do is, basically, use your title as the headline of that post, as the headline of that image, then you should create a very engaging image. The reason you want to do this is because when you have an engaging image, people are much more likely to share that image on social media, to like it, to engage with it, to actually then follow the link connected to it and listen to your podcast. You want to make things as easy for other people share, other people to engage with. You also, if you have guests on your show, they're going to be more likely to promote your podcast, the podcast episode that they were a part of, if you actually give them these unique images that is very engaging, that is very appealing, that maybe uses their image to help promote that episode. You're going to want to hand those to people, to interviewees, so that they can share it with their audience, with their list, because that's naturally going to help get you more listeners back to your show. Creating a unique episode image just allows more people to share the content and bring new people, new potential listeners, back to your podcast and find out that you even exist. The more people you can get to share that content, the more people you're going to get as listeners. The last piece of standing out is how do you actually stand out and get fans? We want to, basically, be able to take that anonymous person, get them to click on something, get them to click on... Say the anonymous person is searching itunes, you want to get them from being that anonymous person to actually clicking on your podcast cover art, to read your descriptions, to click play, but then to actually go from listening to that very first episode to becoming a subscriber. That's generally the path. They go from searching to reading the description, to listening to one episode, to becoming a subscriber. The only way to really get them to click that subscription button is you have amazing, high quality, very engaging, content for them to consume in the podcast. That's your number one objective here is you need to create valuable, very engaging, content. Really, the second element to actually getting fans, is to make it unique. How do you go about making sure that you are different than every other podcast out there? Are you just following a template that you've heard on other podcasts, or are you actually creating your own unique spin, adding your own unique twists. Part of that could be in the way you ask questions, part of that could be in the environment you're recording your podcast in.
Maybe you're always going to different conferences and so you're at a different conference and meet people there, and record the podcast live at that event. There's multiple different ways where you can make your stuff unique. Maybe you're taking general business practices and talking about them with how nonprofits can use them, maybe you're... There's multiple different ways that you can actually stand out from the sea of other podcasters, but you need to really dial it in and try to think, "How can I find my uniqueness? What can I do to stand out from the crowd?" Then, that third piece, is to actually make it super easy for him to subscribe. Really, one of the best ways to do that is to have a call to action, for sure, at the end of your show. You can make even a stock one that you always use as part of your outro. Then just making the URL super simple. Remember, most people are going to be listening to the podcast while they're driving, while they're running, while they're doing dishes. They're going to be doing something else, in general, when they're listening to your podcast. You want to make it so easy for them to subscribe that they don't even really need to think about it. One of the best ways to do that is to use a plug in like Pretty Links and then go grab the itunes store URL and create a Pretty Link that is YourPodcastGuru.com/iTunes. Then that is the link that they use to get to the store and allows them to easily subscribe that way. That's how I recommend you actually make it super easy for people. The fourth way you really get fans is to actually go out there and reach them in their way. We talked a lot about itunes, we talked about how to optimize things for itunes, that is definitely one path. That is only one path to actually your content is through the itunes store. Another way could be through your blog. Another one could be through social media, whatever preferred social media channel. Another one could be through e-mail. Another one might even be through transcripts. Maybe they actually want to read about your podcast, rather than actually listen to it. You're just going to get a transcript of everything. You want to be thinking of all five of those different channels and how can you make sure that I have content out there and an easy path to my podcast to the content of my podcast in all five of those channels. It's not just about getting something up on itunes, it's about also making sure you have a blog post with show notes and URLs there, and a place where they can actually listen directly from the website. I know many people listen from mobile and from the mobile apps, but you'd be surprised that we're still getting some podcasts, especially, depending on the audience that they're talking to, some of our clients are still getting 60% of their podcast listeners coming directly from a blog post. They're listening to it on their
website, on a desktop computer, not while they're traveling about, on their phone. You want to make sure that you have that avenue for people. You want to make sure that you're reminding them about your weekly show in e-mails, you want to make sure that you're sending clear calls to action on social media where they can click from social media over to a blog post, or over to your itunes page. Then you also want to make sure you also have those transcripts there for people if they do like to read. It's a great way to get some extra SEO bump from it, but also make sure you're delivering things to them in the way they want to consume information. That's really what it's about, is about repurposing your content in several different ways so that it's easiest for your audience to engage with you. There you have it, those are really the three ways you can stand out. It's all about getting found, it's about getting listeners, and it's about getting fans. That is day three. What I want to encourage you to do is to actually go, grab that worksheet if you haven't done so yet because it's going to walk you through a few of these steps, a few other things to really think about when creating it because you're going to need to create your title, you're going to need to create your description, you're going to need to create your image. Now it's time for you to go out there and to actually take action. Go through the worksheet, get some of those things done. What I want to encourage you to do is to actually, once you get your image created, or even a couple of your first draft options created, go follow the link below and leave a comment on the Facebook page showing us your image, so that you can get the feedback from the Power Podcasting community and really, I want to help you make sure to tweak those podcast images and really get feedback because that is going to be the key to getting those people to first take interest in to you. You need to grab their attention with your podcast cover art. Be sure to go get that created. Use a resource like Canva or use a designer, and then share it on the Facebook group. I'm really looking forward to day 4, we have day 4 coming up tomorrow, because we are going to talk all about how to actually record your very first episode. Yep, tomorrow, we are hitting the record button and we are putting content out there. I'll walk you through everything in tomorrow's challenge. Until then, go out there, take action, and maximize your impact, and your income! Thanks again and until day two it's time for you to go and take action and maximize your impact and your income.
And thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the podcast. Again, I just wanted to remind you that if you d like to get all of the worksheets that go with each day of the challenge and actually go through the challenge in the five day order simply head on over to PodcastingChallenge.com and you can sign up for the challenge there and it will be delivered over the next five days. Until next episode it s time for you to go out there take action, and maximize both your impact and your income.