104: 3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Podcast’s First Impression
When was the last time you thought about the first impression your podcast makes? Can listeners tell what your podcast is about by looking at the cover art or reading the description? Does your audio quality make your show easy to listen to and understand?
At WHP, we strongly believe that there’s room for everyone to share their voice through a podcast, BUT if you really want your podcast to stand out in a crowded podcast industry, you’ll still want to think strategically about how your podcast is perceived at first glance.
So today, we’re diving into the top three areas that make the first impression for your podcast and how you can improve in each category, so you can attract more listeners and make stronger connections with them too!
#1 | Make sure your podcast cover art stands out in a crowd.
When the podcasting industry was just getting started a decade ago, cover art wasn’t so important. You could just search a topic and the few shows that covered it would pop up. Now, even in more niche categories, dozens if not hundreds of shows pop up, and one of the first things a potential new listener sees is your podcast cover image.
That might be the only impression you get to convince them to click on your show instead of all the others they could choose from. So, is your cover easy to read? Does it give the listener a sense of what your show is about? Does it look creative or professional or like you put some thought into the artwork?
You don’t have to get wild with the details or over-think too much, but you should consider what aspects of cover art compel you to choose podcasts and see what you can recreate in your cover art! And if it’s already working, no need to reinvent the wheel. But, if you haven’t touched your art for the last five years… it might be time for a refresh.
#2 | Use your podcast description to introduce your show AND show the listener how to connect with you.
Your podcast description is that little paragraph that shows up when you click on a podcast show page in nearly every podcast app. It’s the perfect space to tell listeners all about you, the topics you cover in your podcast, and give listeners a sense of your show’s vibes. AND it is woefully underutilized by most podcasters.
Instead of creating connection in their description, many podcasters will drop in a one sentence blurb that only vaguely describes their show and then never touch it again. Worse, they don’t even tell listeners how they can connect! Links in podcast descriptions are clickable, and it’s a huge missed opportunity when you don’t give listeners a way to engage with you outside of your show.
If you’re trying to grow your audience, a little TLC for your podcast description can go such a long way. Focus on being concise, clear, and make it known that you want to connect with your audience too!
#3 | Your audio doesn't have to be perfect… but if it’s hard to understand or distracting, you’re going to lose otherwise interested listeners.
Picture this: You just found a new podcast that looks awesome. It's on a niche topic that you’re excited about, the cover art is inviting, and you clicked on the newest episode. You’re so excited to listen – but then you can’t even make it through the whole episode, because there’s a scratchy distracting noise in the background or the show has parts that are so quiet you can’t even hear. It totally ruins the experience. We’ve all been there, right?
Listen, we're not saying that you need professional studio quality audio, but if your audio quality is so distracting that it’s difficult to listen to, that’s not making a good first impression on your listeners. The easiest way to remedy this is to get a good quality microphone, preferably one on an arm, not one that sits on your desk. (I use this mic here, which is easy to get and super affordable.) Another easy improvement is just finding a quiet space in your home or office to record whenever possible (somewhere away from other electronics, vents, or heat/AC units.)
And if you’re even more serious about your audio, you can hire a good editor who both edits AND cleans up your audio for background noise, leveling issues, and other adjustments that can make less than ideal audio sound much better.
So that’s it! Have we given you some helpful ideas for how to improve that first impression for your podcast? We’d love it if you could share this post with a fellow podcaster who’s looking to uplevel their podcast too!
And if you’re looking for a partner who can help you upgrade your podcast and make your podcast’s first impression even more impactful, sign up for a Podcast Refresh! We’ll help you strategize and then implement all our suggestions to take your podcast to the next level!
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The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
104: 3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Podcast’s First Impression
[00:00:28] Caroline Hull Are you ready to start a strategic podcast for your business and share your message in a way that feels wildly authentic? This is the place. Welcome to Podcast Your Business, where each week I share the strategy behind having a podcast that helps grow your business. I'm Caroline Hull, podcast manager, strategist and consultant, and I've seen the power of podcasts can have for your business. Let's get started.
[00:00:57] Every time I sit down to record this podcast, I am so surprised at the number of episodes that we are at. This is episode 104 and today we are going to be talking about something that is becoming more and more important to the conversations that I am having with podcasters and having their podcast show up and work for them in the way they want it to. And that is all about making the first right impression with your podcast and how to do it. So again, I said, this is something that I've been talking about a lot, but it is really is true. It's been coming up a lot in strategy calls my launches in refreshes and how can I grab somebody his attention when they're browsing on an app or perhaps they Google looking for a podcast and they found your podcast. What do you want them to see? What do you want them to connect with? To make that that first impression? Like, what is the thing that needs to be communicated the first time somebody comes across your podcast?
[00:02:00] This is really like getting into some nitty gritty strategy, but also just some stuff that I think is important as you're growing and wanting to stand out. You know, I do a lot of searches on on the podcast apps and it always I always get this little ping when I come across a podcast that looks like they have really great content, but there are just some things like, I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't clicked on it, right? And so when I'm talking about a first impression, okay, what do I mean by that? And so that's going to be the first things that people see, right? Their first indication of what you're about. And today we're going to talk about cover art description and audio quality specifically. And this is not limited to just these these things, but I do think it is really important to talk about these and how you can kind of judge for yourself, okay, am I making the right first impression that I want to make? Or maybe I need to tweak some things?
[00:03:04] So let's talk about cover art first. You know, cover art used to not be that important. I mean, sure, it was like I needed to be pretty and well read, but I just don't remember, like, putting so much emphasis in it years ago that we do now and now. Because when you do search a category or you search for a keyword and a podcast app, you're going to be looking at a ton of stuff. And guys, I'm a visual observer, I'm a visual thinker, I'm a visual learner. I have to see things to understand them most of the time. And so for me, when I'm browsing, like cover art is huge. And for some people it may not matter, but it really does matter to me. And I have become even more interested in how cover art enhances a first impression of a podcast. Since my ops manager Alyssa, started designing graphics for our packages and our clients. She is a designer, she has a design background and she's really very talented. When she started making this amazing cover art, I started realizing how much I love that because seeing it on the app, it makes such a great impression.
[00:04:20] I think what's really important too is like, what is on your cover art? Is it easy to read? Do I get a sense of the vibe of this podcast? And then second of all, does it say what it is? This came up recently and then conversation I was having and we were looking at a podcast and the title did not have what the podcast is. And as we started diving deeper, we realized, well, neither does the cover art. Exactly. And so you could kind of maybe guess what it was about, but you would have to do a little bit more digging. And so to me, that's really key. Like you want to kind of think about what is it communicating right away when someone sees it. I think it's really important to because all of these things that I'm talking about definitely also show a level of care and like how much effort have been put into it. And for me it's a real turnoff If I don't see a podcast that has taken the care like I know it's probably not going to be the vibe that I'm wanting or. I'm very picky about what I listen to. Let me just preface that because I don't have a lot of time. And so I do look for something that's really high quality and tells me exactly what I need, what I want to get out of it. And so making sure that's communicated on your cover art as well as just like I said, giving off that vibe of what your podcast is about is really important.
[00:05:44] So we talked about like communicating what your podcast is about, and one of the best places to do that is in the description, and it amazes me how that real estate is not used very well by a lot of podcasts on podcast apps. I mean, it should be such a great time to talk about who you are, what you're going to talk about, who you help, and then how you want them to connect with you. And this is really important for business owners, right? Because we're not only trying to make a great first impression, but we're also trying to communicate why someone should listen to this podcast and connect with us. And one of the things I see that is missed all the time is communicating what you do and who you help in your description. Like, it's not enough to just say, Oh, on this podcast I'm going to talk about these topics, like why should I be invested and spending time listening to it? And that also helps me know that am I going to get the content that I want from this podcast?
[00:06:51] And then I have to back it up again and talk about the call to action. Did you know that links are clickable and descriptions done? Like that's all you needed to know in the Apple Podcasts app on your phone. The links can be clicked on in descriptions. So if you are not putting a link to something in your description, you are missing a fantastic opportunity. And I think to myself, sometimes when I'm thinking about these things and I'm talking about strategy and I'm talking about putting call to actions and places, do people actually click them? And then literally, I will be listening to a podcast, They will mention something and I will go and click the link. So if you want people to click and engage with you, you've got to give them a way to do it. And the description is a great place to do that. Again, it's like, what's the harm in using it and what is the benefit? It's going to make a great first impression and it's going to help you direct people where you want them to go when they come and find out about your podcast, Right?
[00:07:55] There are a lot of other places where this same philosophy can be utilized with a podcast. I love to use the description to develop an amazing intro and amazing outro and an amazing trailer. And in all of those places, I want to make sure that they are high quality, right? They tell who I am, what I do, and who I help, and then also I tell them what they need to do. After the episode there is a saying, or there used to be a saying where somebody had to see something of yours seven times before they would click on it in the online world. And I always joke around and say, Oh, it must be 50 now. And it really does feel like that sometimes. And sometimes when I talk about these things, it can feel like we're being super repetitive. But the fact of the matter is people have to see something multiple times. They have to hear something multiple times before they will do it. And so making sure you include that is so, so important.
[00:09:00] So we've talked about cover art, the description, which is led us to talk about other things. And then I really want to talk about audio quality for a minute or five or ten. We'll see how this goes. It is important now because there are so many podcasts out there that you make an attempt, right? You make an attempt to have really clean audio. And there's a couple of ways you can do this. And the number one way is to purchase a microphone. So I want to tell you a story because I am a podcaster. I have been in this business for over seven years now. I said that with hesitation because I just cannot believe it's been that long and I have not always had the best microphone. I started out with a simple and inexpensive microphone off Amazon and honestly it performed really well for me. So I never worried about upgrading. And then I was gifted a microphone one year for Christmas that I had been wanting not necessarily to use, but to put on my desk for photo opportunities. I'm sure you can guess which microphone I'm talking about. And when we moved into our new house, I could not find for the life of me the cord to my original microphone that I had my inexpensive one. So I started using the other one that I had been gifted and my. Audio quality just was not there. It wasn't the same. It wasn't what I wanted it to be.
[00:10:31] And I know this because I manage podcasts, I edit podcast, I clean audio. I know what sounds good and what doesn't, but I kept making excuses for why I couldn't buy a new microphone or couldn't couldn't get something that sounded better, couldn't find a better solution. And I knew that there were better solutions out there. I don't know what the kick in the pants was for me, but finally, I think it was like Christmas. I was like, I'm getting a new microphone. This is happening. And so I oh, I know what it was. It was Amazon deal days or whatever. So Prime Day, Yeah, something like that. And I found a microphone and I'm going to tell you a little bit about it because I'm in love and it has changed the quality of this podcast immensely. Like, like really up leveled at my friends.
[00:11:19] So I ended up getting a USB condenser. Mike, which I've always known, by the way, were really great. I recommended to my clients that they buy them, just didn't have one for myself. And it is on an arm that attaches to my desk. So the microphone itself is not sitting on my desk. I have a pop filter and it is positioned right in front of my face so I can move the arm and position it in a better way. I'm just so happy with my sound and I am so mad at myself that it took me this long to upgrade to this. It was not crazy expensive. Like I said, I got it on Amazon. I got it on Prime Day and it's working out great. So the moral of this story is, is like, don't wait forever to have really great sounding audio. It really does make a difference. If you don't have consistently good audio, the chances of your listeners coming back week after week is going to go down because nobody wants to listen to a bunch of static or banging or I don't even know in their ears. And so definitely, like if you want to make a really great first impression with your podcast, just get a really great microphone and they don't have to be crazy pricey. And the one that's in all the pictures probably costs more than the one that I have right now that I'm using that sounds way better.
[00:12:46] The other way to get really great sounding audio is to find a really great editor, somebody who's not just going to edit the audio, but somebody who's going to actually clean the audio. And that's what we do here. And I just think that is so, so important and that actually can take off some of the burden of worrying about sounding perfect. I know for me it definitely has helped, but I've made their jobs a lot easier with my new fancy microphone. And so I think those two things combined are just really great for improving your audio, having consistently great sounding audio and again making a great first impression. So people will keep coming back because that is the whole point of this, right, is that we want people to keep coming back to our episodes and we want them to, after they listen to an episode, do the thing that we want them to do to get connected to our world so we can hopefully bring them on into our programs and our services.
[00:13:50] But if you can't get people to click in the first place, if you're not giving off the right, this is who I am. This is what I do. Vibes with the things that I've mentioned that make a great first impression. You're never going to get to step two. And so taking a moment to evaluate your podcast, see if it's making the impression that you want it to make and is something that is standing out for you and representing you in the correct way is so, so important. So I'd love to know if this episode helped you out. If you want me to expand on anything or if there are any topics you would like me to cover, please hit me up hello@wildhomepodcasting.com And as always, you can follow me over on Instagram if you want to connect more and talk about the episodes more. That's where I hang out and I hope this was helpful to you and gives you a fresh new perspective on your podcast. And I will be back with a new episode. Thank you for listening to Podcast Your Business. For more podcasting tips, follow us on Instagram at Wild Home Podcast. If you're ready to launch up level or grow your podcast, head to wildhomepodcasting.com To get started today.
