077: Summer Launch Series: When Should You Launch Your Podcast?
Stuck on when you should launch your podcast? I’ll let you in on a hint here: the timing isn’t necessarily as important as you might think!
In this episode, I am talking everything you need to know about when to launch your podcast. Timing is an important factor but as you’ll hear in today’s episode, it doesn’t hold as much weight as it seems and there are a few key questions you can ask yourself to determine what the best route is for you and your audience.
What’s in this episode:
How there is no golden rule for when to launch your podcast
Questions to ask when determining when to launch
Links:
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The Transcript:
077: Summer Launch Series: When Should You Launch Your Podcast?
The timing again, doesn't matter. There's no magical, wonderful golden month where you launch your podcast and everybody's waiting for it. Because the fact of the matter is, there's probably somebody who needs to hear what you have to say right now.
Welcome to the Wild Home Podcast, where we talk about podcasting, life and all the world in between. Join me, Caroline, every week as I share a peek into the world of podcasting and my wild life as well. Ready? Let's get into it.
Hello and welcome back to the Wild Home Podcast. And today I have another episode for you in my summer launch series. And it's going to be a short one today because it's summer. My time is short, my kids are out of school, we homeschool. So we're taking a little break. We do actually keep a little bit of a schedule during the summer, but I'm giving them kind of a week of like, whatever you wake up when you wake up, no expectations. And then we're going to kind of go back into making sure we read every day and, you know, things like that. We have like a few kind of goals that we try to accomplish during the summer, so we're not just messing around, but I love this summer for them because I feel like it's a really good time for them to explore and work on things that they're interested in. And so yesterday my kiddos were composing songs and recording them into Garage Band, and I told them that, you know, one day this week or next week, I'd sit down and show them how to use GarageBand on a computer. And I just love the feel of summer. I woke up this morning feeling so good because I wasn't rushing or doing anything crazy. And as a mom who is home with her kids all day and doing activities with them and teaching them, taking them to things while also running a business, having a little bit of a relaxed schedule feels really, really great. So I hope the beginning of your summer is going good as well.
And today what I wanted to touch base on is so my copywriter and I were actually working on some Instagram posts and I said to her, I really want to do a post about when should I launch my podcast? And so we came up with a really great post, which I can't off the top of my head right now. Remember when that's going to be up on Instagram, but you can look for it. And I decided after kind of speaking with her about it, that I really wanted to do a podcast episode about it. I don't think I've ever done this in a launch series before, and so I wanted to just kind of touch base on when should you launch your podcast and how to come up with a time that makes sense for you. And this is going to be a short episode, but I think that this is a really important question because a lot of times when people start the launch process, they start to question timing and thinking about, you know, their marketing schedule and what's going on in their lives. You know, you always have like this great big idea that you're going to launch it and stuff comes up. And so I wanted to just dive into this topic.
So the first thing I want to talk about is, is there a good time? I don't think there's a magical podcast launch time. I have never seen in my, you know, six plus years of doing this. I have never seen like a magical month when people launch and everything is wonderful and they get a million downloads. We've had people launch in all times of the year. We've had people launch, you know, when they've got a lot going on. We've had people launch when they don't have a lot going on that I just have never seen, like a magical golden hour of podcasting, if that makes sense. It just it just hasn't occurred to me. I haven't witnessed it.
So when I think to myself, is there a good time, there are other questions that I ask about what quote unquote a good time is to launch. Right? So the first question I ask is what works for you? So looking at your business as a whole, looking at your marketing calendar, looking at your promotions schedule, looking at your personal schedule, when is a good time to work on getting your podcast ready to launch? There's a lot of work in the lead up and then it launches and then you kind of get into a groove and so making sure that you have that time, I don't think launching like when you've been working on a big launch already or when you're getting ready to go on a three week vacation. Like those are not the times to launch a podcast because you want to make sure that you're able to give it the energy and effort that it deserves and that it needs. And so I always kind of try it when I sit down with clients and we start talking about it like look at what's coming up for them in the next few months and when would make the most sense. And I like to really set expectations because like I said, there's a lot of work at the front end of it. There's a lot of things you have to pull together, and especially when you're working with somebody who's helping you launch. There are things that we need to do our job and if we don't have them, then we can't do it right.
And so just making sure that there's a time that works for you. Now, here's the other question that I like to ask, and that is what works for your listener? So get to know your listener. When are they busy? When are they ready to engage? When do you see engagement shift? During the year? Is there a time where engagement is higher? Is there a time when engagement is lower? What is the point of the podcast? So like, what are the problems that you're going to be introducing and solving on your podcast? And are those problems that they need to know about now, or is that something that they're going to be working on in a couple of months?
I like to kind of get into the head of my listener and think about what's going on in their lives and when they need to hear the podcast, right? So a really good example. Let's talk about maybe you have a podcast that is geared toward teachers. This is a really good example because they're kind of on a set schedule, right? So teachers start working in August, they stop working in May and they come on vacation or they take time off, right. Is that when they're going to be listening to podcasts or is it going to be more in the fall when they're getting their lesson plans ready and setting up their classrooms, things like that? Like when does it make sense for them to sit down and listen to your podcast? If it's geared toward teachers?
And maybe it is during the summer break, because you talk about the lifestyle of being a teacher and things like that, so it may make more sense. I know that for me as a homeschool mom, I tend to binge homeschool podcast quite a bit homeschool podcasts, homeschool audiobooks, all of that stuff during the summer because I'm getting ready to set up our next school year. I literally do not touch any homeschool like information during the year because usually by then I've got everything set and we're rolling and unless I need like help or I'm stuck on something.
And so for me, like, if I was your ideal listener, you would probably want to launch during the summer or for the summer. So that way I am engaged and listening when I'm looking for that information. It really is like about kind of thinking about when they're looking for that thing that you offer, right, when they're looking for the information that you offer. Right now I'm doing a summer launch series because during the summer it gets kind of quiet in the podcast world, in my world, because a lot of my clients are taking vacations and they're taking time off, their kids are out of school, that kind of thing. And so I wanted to do a summer launch series to gear people up for launching in the fall because we see a lot of launches in the fall and also in the after year. So it made sense for me to gear my episodes toward launching right now because I know that people who are thinking about launching an a podcast in the fall are going to be looking for information Now.
I hope that makes sense. It's kind of like doing a weird math equation on a board. My daughter is really into space. She wants to be an astronaut and she grows up and she watches like the movie Hidden Figures, and she likes to do math equations on a chalkboard and stuff like that. And I always think of like when I'm trying to engage and like think about marketing and timing and all these things, it reminds me of her sitting there writing that equation on the chalkboard. You know, sometimes it does feel like a crazy equation. And that's why you have to go back to the question I asked before or what works for you, because at the end of the day, that's what's most important, is making sure that it works for you. Again, not trying to launch a podcast, you know, the week that you go on your three week vacation, that makes no sense to anybody. You want to be able to go and enjoy your vacation and then come back and maybe work on your podcast. Right.
The most important thing now out of all of this, and I hope that what your takeaway is from this episode is that any time works. But the most important thing is that you have a plan. So when you start to work on your podcast launch, you want to go ahead and put a date on the calendar, open the calendar, look at the calendar, find a date that works for you, that makes sense for your listener, that works with your promotion and marketing schedule, right? And put it on the calendar and then start working backwards and figure out what you need to do today to start getting to that point.
And if you need help with that, find the help Now get on the launch consultant's calendar. So that way they can make sure that they can get you launched by the date that you want to launch and, you know, have realistic expectations. Again, I'm not going to be sitting here right now working on a ton of strategic things, I made towards the enjoy my summer, but right now I'm just trying to enjoy my summer. So I would not set a podcast launch for two weeks from now or three weeks from now, in fact. But maybe, you know, August would work really well because I will be ready to jump in and all that good stuff. So again, what works for you? What works for your listener? And then make sure you have a solid plan in place.
So is there a good time to launch your podcast? Yeah, any time. Any time is a good time as long as it works for you. So I hope this answers your question. And also I hope this encourages you to go ahead and start working on your podcast launch that the timing again, doesn't matter. There's no magical, wonderful golden month where you launch your podcast and everybody's waiting for it. Because the fact of the matter is, there's probably somebody who needs to hear what you have to say right now. And so starting to work forward on it, starting to create movement. So that way when you do pick a date, you're ready to go.
And if you're wondering if you're ready to launch a podcast, I really encourage you to go take my free assessment. It's at WildHomePodcasting.com/ready. It's a simple little checkbox questionnaire and it'll give you how to measure it. And I would love if you would let me know what your answer was and what you think about that. You can DM on Instagram at Wild Home Podcast or you can email me hello@wildhomepodcasting.com. I cannot wait to hear from you and be sure to check out the other episodes in my summer launch series. We're probably going to do one more summer launch episode and then go back into regular programing before I take a little summer break. I hope you're having a wonderful day, a wonderful summer, and I will talk to you soon.
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. To stay in the know, head to WildHomePodcasting.com and be sure to connect with me on Instagram @WildHomePodcasting. See you next week!
