28. Podcasting Tips to Create Click-Worthy Podcast Cover Art

Do you judge a podcast by its cover? Most listeners do, and unfortunately, bad cover art could cause your show to get glossed over. In today's episode, I'm sharing my best tips for creating cover art that gets clicked!

Resources Mentioned:
https://99designs.com/podcast-cover-design
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Transcript

Hey hey and welcome back!

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover,” right??? Well, after over 15 years of working in various library environments, I can tell you that people certainly do judge books by their covers! And that makes sense! If we weren’t going to judge books by their covers, they wouldn’t HAVE covers in the first place. 

Authors and publishers know that the cover of a book is an extremely important asset and that a good cover attracts the right reader.

When it comes to your podcast, the image that appears in the podcast players is called your podcast cover, and just like a book’s cover, it is key to attracting the right listeners. 

I recently worked with a client to update her podcast cover, and it looks pretty darn good if we do say so ourselves. It reminded me that I haven’t yet talked about cover art here on the show! 

So, in today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how to make your podcast cover amazing! And, if you want an example of some cover art that embodies all of the aspects that I’m about to go over, check out my client’s show, the Smart Weight Loss Coaching podcast!

Let me first get the technical requirements out of the way - your cover must be 3000 by 3000 pixels, square, 512 KB or smaller, and be uploaded to your podcast host as a JPG or PNG file.

If you have the budget, creating your cover can be a worthwhile task to outsource, particularly if you don’t have a natural eye for graphic design. If you don’t have a go-to graphic designer, you can check out the website 99 Designs for options. 

Even if you’re going to outsource it, stick with me through this episode so that you and your design partner can successfully collaborate on a cover. 

If hiring a designer is not in the budget right now, and/or you happen to have a great eye for design, I recommend using Canva to create your podcast cover yourself. 

The cover is usually someone’s first impression of your podcast.

Imagine that you’ve come up with a keyword-optimized title for your show - by the way, if you’re just in the beginning stages of your podcast and would like some info and support with things like choosing your title, I invite you to register for my FREE Podcasting 101 Workshop. If you’re listening to this at the time of release, the next one starts on June 24th, 2024. Head to thepodcastteacher.com/workshop to register. 

I run this workshop several times a year, so if you’re listening to this in the future, you can still head to thepodcastteacher.com/workshop to get details on the next event. 

Anyway, in this scenario, you’ve come up with a keyword-optimized title for your show…so, let’s imagine that your ideal listener types a keyword into their podcast player search bar and your show comes up in the results. Your ideal listener quickly scans the options, trying to decide which show looks like it will meet their need, and therefore which one they want to click on. 

Your cover art needs to stand out. It needs to look professional. It needs to convey what the show is about in a matter of seconds through text and/or images. 

To accomplish these things, you want to first start with adding the title of your show as text. Use an easily readable font - no cursive, handwriting, etc., and make the text as large as possible. 

Choose a color that’s easy to read on top of your background. Dark colors work well on top of a light background and light colors work well on a dark background. 

When it comes to a color scheme, you may want to stick with colors that you already use in your existing branding. 

You may also want to take a look at shows that will appear with yours in the search results and try to do something different. For example, if most podcasts in your space incorporate blue, maybe you stay away from blue and incorporate bright pink to make your cover grab attention. 

If you have a searchable keyword in your title, consider changing the color of that one word, or placing a highlight box around it to make it really pop. We want that keyword to grab the listener’s eye as they are scanning the search results. 

Next, add a photo of yourself to the cover. You can adjust the text as needed to accommodate the picture, but remember that the text is the priority. It needs to grab attention and be easily readable when the cover is shown at a very tiny size, as it often is within the podcast players. Your photo is supplementary to the text.

Some podcast professionals might say that putting your photo on the cover is not necessary, but I disagree…unless your podcast is purely a hobby.

For most of the people in my world, the purpose of a podcast is to build a relationship with your listeners and then eventually they become clients or customers of some kind.  I believe that the relationship develops faster and can go deeper when the listener knows what you look like. It’s hard to feel as if you know, like, and trust someone when you can’t picture them.

Additionally, for most people that I work with, their ideal listener is someone similar to them. If they are a coach for 55+ women, they are a 55+ woman. We’re naturally drawn to people who are a reflection of us, or who we want to be. A photo on the cover also helps to make this connection.

All of that said, if you’re super uncomfortable with putting your photo on the cover and that’s going to hold you back from taking action, then just skip it for now. You can always go back and add it later.

That reminds me to mention that your cover is changeable at any time with just a few easy clicks. Don’t let striving for the perfect cover hold you back from launching your podcast. Put up something so that you can get started, but you can always make improvements down the road. 

Ok, a few last things. 

If there’s room, you may consider adding your name to the cover, and/or your subtitle if you have one. Again, head to thepodcastteacher.com/workshop to register for the upcoming Podcasting 101 Workshop for more info about starting your podcast, including choosing a title and subtitle.

Your name and the subtitle don’t NEED to be on the cover, but you can include them if you want to. If including one or both of them, they’re usually going to be pretty small. Neither of these need to be immediately readable on a small picture; they are supplemental info rather than essential info.

If there’s any space left, or in lieu of your name and/or subtitle, you can opt to incorporate imagery that indicates the content of the show.

For example, if you have a podcast about surfing, I highly recommend that there’s a picture of a surfboard somewhere on the cover. Maybe that’s you standing with your surfboard in your photo, or maybe it’s a clip art style surfboard that you add. Regardless, if it’s possible to imply what the content of the podcast is through the images, that’s going to make your cover even stronger, and make a better first impression. 

Finally, don’t use images of headphones or microphones unless you’re like me and your podcast is about podcasting! These elements are overused, cliche, and entirely unnecessary. 

Ok, that’s a wrap on creating an awesome cover for your podcast. I’d love to know what else you’d like to hear me talk about on the show. I host my podcast with Buzzsprout, and they just added a cool new feature where you can send me a text message! If you’re on your phone, look at the bottom of this episode’s description for a link that says text me your podcasting questions. I’ll answer your question in an upcoming episode. Until then, happy podcasting!