Product packaging for podcasts
Podcasters tend to focus on their audio. That’s a good thing. High-quality, creatively brave audio is a must for any successful podcast.
That said, many potential new listeners will form their first impression of your podcast long before they’ve heard a single second of audio. Every podcast has several important non-audio elements. I think of these as your show’s “product packaging.”
Like it or not, many listeners’ first impressions of your show will be based on its packaging, not its audio content. Let’s look at a few of these elements.
Show artwork
Strong, visually compelling podcast artwork is a must.
Start by doing your research. Browse the front page of Apple Podcasts. Look at the front page of Stitcher. Open the Discover page of Pocket Casts and see what’s featured. These apps typically don’t feature crummy podcast artwork.
Keep researching. Look at podcast artwork from other shows in your category. Look at artwork from shows that appear in the search results for terms related to your show. How can you stand out from the pack, visually?
Great podcast artwork tends to be simple, legible, and iconographic:
Crucially, your podcast artwork must scale gracefully. It needs to work well in a variety of contexts, at a variety of different sizes:
If you want to see what your podcast artwork will look like in context, I recommend the Preview Your Podcast Artwork tool.
Avoid:
- Tiny or illegible text
- Podcasting tropes (e.g. microphones, headphones)
- Stock photography
A word on logos: Often, brands have a strong desire to include their corporate logos in podcast artwork. For some shows, a logo from an established media brand can add value (think about The New York Times branding on The Daily’s artwork). For other shows, a brand’s logo can act as a speedbump that may keep some listeners from sampling. Be extremely careful with corporate logos, especially if they become tiny or illegible when scaled down.
Show category
At my local supermarket, breakfast cereal lives in two different places. Some cereals live in the “breakfast food” aisle, and other cereals live in the “organic food” aisle.
Categories matter.
Grocery stores, book stores, record shops, and Netflix are all organized into categories. So are podcasts.
Your show’s categories are part of its packaging. Choose your primary category carefully, then review your choice regularly, especially if your show’s subject matter could fit into more than one primary category.
Consider adjacent content categories, and remember that Google Podcasts cares about your secondary categories.
Show-level metadata
Your podcast feed includes a number of important listener-facing details, like title, description, and itunes:author:
The thing to keep in mind with these fields is that they’re used by two very different audiences: humans and machines.
Your podcast title should:
- Not include the word “podcast.” It’s redundant.
- Be unique. Avoid stepping on other shows’ toes. Choose a unique name that’s all your own.
- Be specific: As Apple says, “A podcast titled Our Community Bulletin is too vague to attract many subscribers, no matter how compelling the content.”
- Be unambiguous: Be extremely careful when considering a show title that includes numerals or non-dictionary words. Podcasts travel by word of mouth, and an ambiguously-pronounced or ambiguously-spelled title can create speedbumps.
For your human users, remember that long show titles often end up truncated:
Your podcast description should:
- Be clear and concise. Remember, most people will read your show description inside a podcast app.
- Explain your show’s value. Answer the questions, “Why should someone listen to my show? What does my show offer that is unique and different?”
- Avoid repetition. There’s no need to repeat your show’s
titleoritunes:authorfields. Redundant. You also don’t need to include the word “podcast.”
Apple Podcasts has a 4000 character limit for description. Google Podcasts truncates description fields to 1000 characters. Both apps will cut off your description when showing it to humans:
For your machine audience (search engines and podcast apps), use as much of the character limit as you need. For your human audience, make sure to include the most relevant text first.
Your itunes:author should be the name of the person or company behind the show. Period. Full stop.
For all these fields, avoid the temptation to stuff keywords (e.g. Dan’s Real Estate Mastermind Podcast | Entrepreneurship | Wealth Building | Passive Income | Personal Finance). It’s a bad idea, and a bad look.
Ratings and reviews
As I’ve said before, podcast ratings and reviews matter because they’re social proof. Like star ratings on Amazon, or written reviews on Airbnb, your show’s ratings and reviews are a public-facing signal of quality.
You may not have direct control over your show’s ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts (or Stitcher, Castbox, Breaker, Podchaser, etc.) but they are a part of your show’s product packaging, and they’re often displayed prominently:
As a podcaster, what can you do? Solicit ratings and reviews from your most engaged listeners, and monitor the ratings and reviews you do receive. Services like Chartable and Podkite allow you to track ratings and reviews across a number of services, and across a number of territories.
Remember
- There’s more to your podcast than the audio you produce.
- Most of your podcast’s product packaging is under your control (artwork and metadata). However, some elements aren’t (ratings and reviews).
- Every element of your show (audio and non-audio) should be aligned, pointing in the same strategic direction.
- Many listeners’ first impressions of your show will come through their eyes, not their ears.
You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. What are you doing to make sure your show puts its best foot forward?
In my next post, Product packaging for podcasts (Part 2), we’ll look at episode-level product packaging for podcasts, including episodic artwork, titles, descriptions, durations, and more.
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