83. Does My Podcast Need a Trailer? | Podcasting Tips for Beginners

FAQ Friday answering the podcasting question of "Does My Podcast Need a Trailer?"

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Transcript

Welcome to Podcasting for solopreneurs and FAQ Friday, where I answer a podcasting question in 5 minutes or less. Today's question is, does my podcast need a trailer? This question comes from aspiring podcaster, Jenny. Hey, Jenny. Thanks for listening. Let's start out by quickly talking about what a podcast trailer is. Essentially, it's a short audio commercial for your podcast. Similar to a movie trailer, it gives the audience a sneak preview of what's to come so that they can decide whether or not it's something that they are interested in. Trailers are usually thought of during the process of launching a new podcast, but they are helpful for existing podcasts too.

Your trailer can also be updated periodically if you make changes to the branding or the content of your show, you want to put out a more polished version, or you just want to generate excitement for a new season. While having a trailer is not essential for a successful podcast, there are a few good reasons to have one. So first of all, it's helpful from a technical perspective when you launch your podcast. When you're preparing for your launch, one of the steps involved is to connect your podcast hosting platform, such as Buzzsprout, with the podcast directories. Directories are the places where people listen. So that's places like Apple, Spotify, Overcast, etcetera. In order for the places like Apple and Spotify to accept the connection with your podcast hosting platform, you need to have one piece of content fully published, like, live for anyone to listen to. And a trailer is perfect to fulfill the need of a published piece of content.

So in addition to this technical piece, a trailer is a very helpful promotional tool to generate excitement as you prepare to launch your show. Just like movie trailers build anticipation and encourage people to mark their calendars for release day, your podcast trailer can do the same thing. But even once you're past the launch stage, a trailer is still helpful because it serves as an introduction for potential listeners. Many people will listen to the trailer first when they discover a new podcast to determine whether or not this show is right for them and if they want to listen to any actual episodes. Now not everyone will do this. Some people prefer just to jump right into an episode, but quite a few people use the trailer as a gauge for further interest. Looking at my own stats, my trailer has been downloaded more than 30 times in the past 30 days. So, does your podcast need a trailer? No.

But should it have 1? Probably. And it's not too late to add 1 even if you've already launched your podcast. If you have a podcasting question, click the send me your question link in the episode description, and I'll answer it in an upcoming episode. Until next time. Happy podcasting.