Episode 87
Stop doing this in your podcast intros
How many podcasts have you listened to where you feel like you’re never going to actually GET to the episode? There are these long introductions with theme music that seem to go on forever, then ad placements, and then perhaps an intro to the guest. It seems to be so long before you get what you clicked on.
Well today, I’m hopefully igniting a little fire in your belly to please do away with all of that nonsense.
Listeners today have shorter attention spans and tend to skip through intros longer than 30 seconds. Let’s explore why you should reconsider your podcast intro and how to create a more engaging and efficient one.
The Power of Simplicity:
Rather than cramming a laundry list of information into your intro, keep it simple. Start with a short section of music to establish the mood, and then get right into the content.
Variations in Intro Structure:
There are a few ways we like to spice up the intros to keep things a bit more fresh and mix up the format when a show has been running the same way for awhile.
When and Where to Place Important Information:
While your traditional intro should be brief, there may still be important information you want to share with your listeners. I’d encourage you to play with using midrolls to incorporate advertisements or promotions.
Keep your Outro Minimal
Similar to intros, the outro of your podcast should be concise and to the point. We like to use just a bit of music to conclude your episode and avoid lengthy calls to action.
Remember, simplicity is the key to podcasting success.
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Transcript
We're talking all about intro
Speaker:and outros for your podcast.
Speaker:It used to be that you had these big
Speaker:long intros that were like, talking
Speaker:about all the things that were coming
Speaker:up and there was lots of music and it
Speaker:felt like this big long spiel about
Speaker:the person and all these things.
Speaker:No, Don't do it anymore.
Speaker:No one's listening to them.
Speaker:They're all skipping them.
Speaker:Stop it.
Speaker:Stop it right now.
Speaker:Have your episodes start really simply.
Speaker:Really quickly.
Speaker:That is my advice to you.
Speaker:If you have a longer intro, you're
Speaker:more likely to have the person skip it.
Speaker:Unfortunately, it's not something that
Speaker:you can track on podcast platforms
Speaker:as yet, like going into the actual
Speaker:retention rate, looking when people
Speaker:drop off listening to podcast episodes.
Speaker:You can certainly do it on
Speaker:YouTube, which is Super cool.
Speaker:When you go to the analytics at the
Speaker:backend of YouTube, you can see where
Speaker:they switch off, And so you can tell
Speaker:even from that, like if you put just
Speaker:your podcast episode, just the RSS
Speaker:feed through YouTube, you will be able
Speaker:to track what the kind of drop off
Speaker:rate is on those ones, which is just
Speaker:the audio with like a static graphic.
Speaker:But I would just say, like, it's just
Speaker:something that you don't need to do.
Speaker:You don't need to explain in full for a
Speaker:minute and a half who you are, what the
Speaker:show is about, who it's for, how you can
Speaker:help them, all the things in your intro.
Speaker:It's like a big old call to
Speaker:action that no one asked for.
Speaker:If you leave and listen to the way we
Speaker:do it here at Pump Up Your Pod, it's
Speaker:like there's barely anything, right?
Speaker:There's a little bit of music and
Speaker:then it's straight into the thing.
Speaker:I like that because I'm trying to deliver
Speaker:some educational content to you and I
Speaker:know you don't want me to stuff around.
Speaker:And I don't want to stuff around either.
Speaker:I just want to get to it.
Speaker:I don't want you to have to skip through
Speaker:a bunch of stuff to get to the juice.
Speaker:Give me the juice!
Speaker:So, that's absolutely what
Speaker:I would recommend you do.
Speaker:Have a little bit of music, have a little
Speaker:intro, maybe 20 seconds, if you want to
Speaker:have something that plays every time at
Speaker:the front, and then straight into it.
Speaker:The other thing that can work, which
Speaker:is cool, in like the structure point
Speaker:of view, is if you have like an intro,
Speaker:That you say just for the episode,
Speaker:like today we're going to talk about
Speaker:how to cut an avocado, you know,
Speaker:and then, oh my god, what kind of
Speaker:podcast would it be that you're just
Speaker:talking about cutting an avocado?
Speaker:That is terrible.
Speaker:Anyway, let's just assume it's
Speaker:something better than that.
Speaker:Today we're going to talk about
Speaker:cutting an avocado and I, I have
Speaker:an expert in cutting avocados
Speaker:here on the podcast today.
Speaker:Her name is Sally.
Speaker:And I can't wait for you
Speaker:to listen to this episode.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:So you do that.
Speaker:Then you have your little standard intro,
Speaker:like Welcome to blah blah blah And then
Speaker:you say the thing, there's some music.
Speaker:And then you have the actual interview.
Speaker:There.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So you've got Intro to the
Speaker:episode Standard intro, episode.
Speaker:You can do that too,
Speaker:and that's kind of cool.
Speaker:I quite like that.
Speaker:I like starting it cold.
Speaker:You can also do it, if it was a guest
Speaker:episode, you could do it where there's
Speaker:like a snippet, a really cool snippet
Speaker:from the guest at the beginning,
Speaker:and then you play through that way.
Speaker:And you can also do like a trailer,
Speaker:if you've watched or listened to
Speaker:Dire of a CEO, they do like a full
Speaker:on trailer for every single episode.
Speaker:episode, which is lots of hours of work.
Speaker:you could put that at the front
Speaker:if you have an unlimited budget
Speaker:and someone there ready to do that
Speaker:for many hours, you could do that.
Speaker:but yeah, so the thing is, is
Speaker:like, there's no one way to do it.
Speaker:There's a couple of ways that work
Speaker:really well, but the way that doesn't
Speaker:work well is a giant long intro.
Speaker:That's like a minute
Speaker:or more where you just.
Speaker:Trying to give them too much information
Speaker:that they don't want, they don't
Speaker:need, they're not asking for it.
Speaker:Don't give it to them, okay?
Speaker:If you want to do a call to action, if
Speaker:you want to talk about something that
Speaker:you have for sale, that you're offering,
Speaker:whatever, do that in a mid roll.
Speaker:A mid roll is like an ad for your show
Speaker:can put it in dynamically or baked
Speaker:in different ways to deliver the same
Speaker:content there where you can say like,
Speaker:I interrupt this podcast episode to
Speaker:tell you about my favorite microphone,
Speaker:which is the SEDCM8, this is actually
Speaker:my favorite microphone by the way.
Speaker:And I haven't reviewed it yet.
Speaker:And I'm going to, because it's great.
Speaker:So you could put like a mid roll
Speaker:in there, which relates to the
Speaker:thing that you're trying to sell.
Speaker:So if you have courses, if you
Speaker:have sponsorships, if you have,
Speaker:you know, merchandise, whatever
Speaker:it is, put that in a mid roll.
Speaker:And make it fun and cool.
Speaker:Maybe silly, depending on who you are.
Speaker:Certainly for us, that would work.
Speaker:and then that's the mid roll.
Speaker:And then for your outro, barely anything.
Speaker:Bit of music.
Speaker:Fade in.
Speaker:Fade out.
Speaker:Because the statistics show us,
Speaker:almost nobody is getting to the
Speaker:very end of your podcast episode.
Speaker:So stop putting in to actions at the end.
Speaker:No one's listening to them.
Speaker:You're wasting your time.
Speaker:Just a bit of music.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:Same reason why you shouldn't
Speaker:put your call to actions at the
Speaker:very end of your episodes either.
Speaker:Because no one's getting
Speaker:all the way to the end.
Speaker:And when you have guests on as well, make
Speaker:sure you don't wait till the end to tell
Speaker:people how to get in touch with blah.
Speaker:Say it at the beginning, or
Speaker:say it all halfway through.
Speaker:Don't say it at the end, because
Speaker:it is hard to retain someone to
Speaker:the very, very end of an episode.
Speaker:Okay, so that's my advice on structuring
Speaker:what I think works well from listening
Speaker:to and producing a bunch of different
Speaker:shows in a bunch of different industries.
Speaker:Just know short and simple is
Speaker:great and people will thank
Speaker:you for getting to the point.
