← The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
The How To Podcast Series - Podcast Co-Hosts, Practical Podcast Tips, and Podcast Community
E594 - Evolving Your Podcast Brand - The Podcaster’s Path, 24 Steps from Beginner to Pro
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Okay, we're rolling. Hey, welcome back to the how to Podcast series. It's Dave with you. We are working our way through. We're getting close to the end. I love this. And having a great time doing all of these episodes around building this podcaster's path. It's leading us all the way through to. From a beginner to pro. And this is. Yeah, we're having this good time. This is awesome. We want to talk about how our brand as a podcast evolves over time. We may start in one location with our podcast, but as we go through this journey, our brand might change. Our podcast might sound different, look different over time, and that's natural. Just because we picked one piece of artwork for our show at the beginning, or the name of our show might adjust over time, our description might change. The. The tone of our show might change. There's a lot of opportunities to tweak and improve. So you're looking at your show because you do it for a while now and you're happy with it, but you're like, ah, I think this show needs to evolve. I think this show needs to change a little bit. This episode's for you. This is it. This is. This happens often in podcasting. So. So you are in the right spot. So here we go. So the one thing you're going to know that over time, you're going to experience more in podcasting. You're going to understand things differently in podcasting and what worked in the beginning, with new insight, with changes to the industry, with changes to your content and your audience. You're going to come up to these points where you're going to look at your podcast and go, is this still working? Is it still connecting with my audience? One of the best ways to know about evolution within your podcast is through listener surveys, having your audience give you firsthand information from their perspective. You don't see in your stats. It comes through this ongoing dialogue between you and your listeners about how the show is meeting their needs, what they're expecting, what their needs have changed to, and the opportunity that our podcast has to maybe adjust and realign to the needs of our audience. That's the main focus of what we're doing here. You can have a podcast that talks to nobody, but what's that? What's the point of that? We want to have a show that reaches many people, and our audience might mature over time. Our audience might look different than it did when we first started. So it's time to evolve. It's time to change. We want to Keep our brand fresh at the end of the day. And we want it to be relevant and effective and the growth of our show to continue into the future. So for podcasters, this means having some strategic updates, some artwork, format, content creation, how we show up, how we interact with our audience. These are all opportunities for us to. To refresh. Right? Slap a coat of paint on. On our show and refreshing it, bring it up to date sometimes that it's time for you to evolve as a podcaster. What. What are these? So your show isn't a. A static item that's not able to change. We can tweak things in our show relatively simply or we can do a complete overhaul. That's also possible when you start hearing things from your audience that talk about your podcast being similar, the same old thing, that kind of stuff where there's just this repetition of routine maybe, and not a lot of new. Not insight, a lot of new content and people feel comfortable but not really challenged. That's what we want to be like. Wait a minute. I think we need to give an update here. Podcasters often hit this. This part of feeling like a rebrand is possible or feeling like there's an evolution in their show around episode 50 to 100 maybe. When things happen for you and your show like this, this show living. There's our how to podcast series. When I first started the show, I had, I had like, Simple Thing. I had a different music track that it had for the intro of the show. It was the music I had at the time. And it was okay, there's nothing wrong with it. But I found new music about that time. About 25 episodes in, I found new music and I'm like, oh, I like this music much better. So I switched from what I had to what I have now. And if you look at online, you're going to see a little bit different artwork for the show that's out there in different spots. So I did a quick update to the artwork as well at the same time. And I actually went back to some of my old episodes and updated the music because it was straightforward and easy to do and reposted the old episodes. I wanted them to feel and look the same. Didn't change the content, just the music. So, yeah, so I've done a little bit of that here on my show around episode 25, which was a long time ago. If you go back to the very, very early episodes, you still might hear something that I missed, but that's kind of the. The evolution for me in this show. Very minor But I just like the music better so happy to do that anytime that works. That's something simple. There's a lot of personal choice here and but when your audience is asking for an update, it maybe it's time to look at it. So refreshing your artwork. Like I said, what are we doing here? Your cover art is your silent salesperson that helps you sell your your podcast to potential listeners. It works overtime on all the apps websites anywhere it can be found to bring people to your show. So you want to have the best artwork possible. And as things change, you know there's opportunities for us to bring new life to our podcast by simply make some tweaks to our podcast. So keep that in mind. We have some basic core rules around your artwork which your apps will tell you and your hosting site should provide you all this information as it changes in the future. But basically it needs to be a square image. Can't be slightly square. It's gotta be perfectly square. Some apps now allow for more of a YouTube thumbnail size that you might see on YouTube, but I would go with the square image for now for the bulk of players that are out there and there's certain restrictions to the, the file size, how big it is, all that kind of stuff. Your hosting site will have that information for you. Also, what I suggest is if you're a Canva user, use the templates and go and find the podcast, show our episode art, what's it going to call it and use the templates that are up to date on Canva. Because if there's a change, Canva is pretty quick to embrace the change and update their templates. So it's a good way to know that your podcast episode artwork is correct by using the templates provided from a place like Canva. Also, there's an evolution of your ideas. There could be a subtle modern change to the colors, maybe maybe from like a neon to more of a softer color, like little things like that these. And then you can add a tagline like now weekly or layer in new elements reflecting your niche, your area of podcasting. Just things that for you, you think is important to update and give clarity about your show. Then a podcaster tip. You can do an a B test of different versions of your podcast artwork and use things like social polls from your and put it in front of your audience and give them a chance to give you feedback on any potential updates and changes. People feel like they're, they're part of the process and you can take their feedback and use that to help guide you as far as evolving your show. So great way use your audience, they're willing to help and they love being a part of the process. So keep that in mind. How about updating the format as well? That's another part of an evolution of our podcast. You can update within the the show itself and update how you do the podcast. So it could be an interview based podcast and you add soloist solo episodes, it could be solo and you add guest co hosts. It could be just segments within your show. Could be special things that you add. Maybe you rearrange the order of the show. There's a lot of things you can do within the content. You can also adjust the length and structure of what the people are hearing within the episodes. You can shorten your podcast episodes, you can make them longer. All these things. There's just opportunities for you to play with the format and play with how the show operates and kind of the bones being behind the show. So keep that in mind. There's a lot of different things you can do there. And maybe you go from being solo hosted to having guests or co hosts. That's another change you can do. So as a tip for you from, from a podcasting side is to focus on the 20 loyal listeners or the small portion of your audience that always responds. And what is one format change that they would like your podcast to do to keep them engaged? Ask them that you'll have your, your most vocal listeners will kind of come to light in over time. And those are great people to start with. So consider reaching out to them. I guess just one word of caution here too is to make sure that you preserve your podcast DNA. Why is this important? Well, people found your show and found you. And so that's the common denominator in all of this. And a massive change, a massive evolution to your show might not work well. So let's give an extreme example. So you remove yourself from the show as the host and you bring somebody new in and they have a different way of doing it, they sound different. It's a totally different show with them. Even though it's got the same name, some people would like it, some people won't stick around because they like you. So sometimes the evolution of your show can actually be harmful to your show. So get feedback, understand what your audience is looking for and how your show can evolve to meet their needs. That's really important. Evolving isn't reinvention, it's refinement. It's taking a little tweak here. It's a haircut, right? It's something that you can do to your show anytime you want. Your show is flexible and these changes can happen with announcements or without. Just subtly. If you're going to do something big though, I would, I'd lead your audience into that and give them, give them a heads up so that when they're looking at their app, they're like, what is this? What's this show? What happened to my show? People build you into their habits and routines and when you make a big change and you don't communicate, it could throw your audience out. So just keep that in mind. So if you're at that part in your podcast journey and you're like, I just feel like it's time for a change, then embrace that. Get feedback. Use an audience survey. Google has a way of using Google forms, which can be automatically attached to a Google sheet. So all the information that comes in to you from your audience goes right into a sortable, formatable format, right into the sheets. And that's a great thing. Ask great questions. Use Tom Webster's book the Audience Is Listening. It's a great resource for coming up with questions for your audience. And yeah, you'll see actually a link to mine in the show notes that you can go there and see my example of mine. Even if you don't fill it out. I wish it would, but even if you don't fill it out, go read through the questions. And those are some of the things that I'm looking at for answers from people like you right now. Use it as a guide. Happy to help you if you need any help with that. So if you want to evolve your show, go ahead and do what you want. Make your podcast relevant for the future by keeping up to date, bringing in listener feedback and growing your show. Thanks for being here. Take care. If you're looking for more information about podcasting and you're looking for a community around podcasting, come check out howtopodcast ca. It's my website where everything we do around podcasting this show our community or meetup resources. There's a lot of great stuff there for you. A whole list of free tools that you can use as a podcaster to save yourself some money. That's based on my website, podcastforfree.com which just leads you back to my regular website. And if you want any more information as well, there's a calendar link on my website where you and I can meet anytime. It's always there. It's always available. Whatever you see available on your end, I'm ready to talk podcasting with anybody. I'd love to help you, no matter what your questions are. We can grab a virtual coffee and we can talk through what your big idea is. Maybe some of your struggles in podcasting, maybe some motivational things, maybe some growth things. Happy to help you over at howtopodcast ca come check out the website. Let's connect. Stick around because we have a bunch more episodes here on The Podcaster's Path. 24 episodes here in a row. That's meant to be kind of your starting point for your journey as a podcaster. Or if you're going to start a new show or you want to refresh your journey and catch up on maybe some of the things you might have missed. That's what this show's about. I'm glad you're here. My name is Dave. Love to help you reach out anytime. HowToPodcast CA take care. Talk soon.