🔥 Feed warmer campaigns for your podcast 🔥
🔥 Feed warmer campaigns for your podcast 🔥
This summer, don't let your listeners go cold on you
Happy Friday! Is there a long weekend in sight for you? If so, I hope you delight in it. With these long weekends and the general laissez-faire that summer brings with it, you might experience a drop in your podcast’s listenership. So, we rang an expert.
Arielle Nissenblatt is stepping in today to tell us all about feed warmer campaigns for your podcast, from what they are to how to set them up. Plus, how you can use them to keep your listenership steady, even through typically slow times of the year.
But, first, a word from our sponsors — Lulu.com.
If you only have time for one thing
A Feed Warmer campaign is a great option for a creator or teams that want to make sure their listeners don’t forget about them while they’re not in season. Warming your podcast feed is the act of keeping your RSS feed alive when you’re not actively publishing new content. It can be a two-way street (i.e. you place content from another show in your feed and they do the same for you around the same time) or a one-way street (i.e. you place content in your feed with the hope that those shows will return the favor down the line).
Take it away, Arielle!
All our regular sections are after the guest post.
🟡 Feed warmer campaigns for your podcast: here’s what you need to know
It’s summertime for podcasters. And for everyone, I guess. But let’s talk about you. How’s your motivation? Your idea generation? Your listenership?
Graphic created by Erik Jones of the Hurt Your Brain Newsletter. We highly recommend subscribing to Erik’s newsletter, which bring an internet playlist to people who are fascinated by the world. He often includes mindblowing podcast recommendations. And it’s always chock full of clever graphics like this one!
Anecdotally, podcast creators report slumps in listenership during the summer and during the December holidays. Of course, this isn’t the case across the board, as all audiences are different. But, I’m here to tell you that if you’re seeing a downward slope in your podcast analytics dashboard, it’s not the end of the world.
In fact, it’s the start of summer, and… there is hope for you yet. In the form of a Feed Warmer campaign.
💡The Philosophy
Lauren Passell and I speak with a lot of podcasters about their show’s needs and goals. Sometimes, the creators we talk to are on the smaller side downloads-wise (500-1000 downloads per episode). Sometimes, they’re really pulling in the big numbers (200-500k downloads per episode). 💛 We listen to everyone’s show and make recommendations based on trends and insights from prior campaigns.
Photo by Melanie Deziel on Unsplash
There are some things that are true for all types of creators. There are some levers we will pull when working with clients at all stages. One of those levers —partnerships.
🧑🤝🧑 We highly encourage creators to find their podcast friends. Your podcast is unique in tone, scope, goals, and so much more. The same goes for others podcasts. But, an audience overlap does exist with adjacent podcasts. You can (and should) take advantage of that overlap to trade audiences.
For instance: there are some listeners who love The Beluga Whale Show who might absolutely love to discover your show, The Flora and Fauna of Southwest Ohio Show (I made these up…unless they’re real, in which case, free press for you!).
Our recommendation would be to do some audience research (via Rephonic, Listennotes, Apple Podcasts, Podchaser and other audience insights tools) to determine who your podcast friends are and where that potential overlap lies.
Once you’ve identified those shows, listened to them a bit, and decided they’d make great collaborators, you can set up promo swaps, guest swaps, feed swaps, and everything in between.
Cool! Now that we’ve set the context, let’s dive into what I’m here for today. We’re discussing the summer (or December, or truly, whenever) vacation iteration of finding your podcast friends.
🌶️ The Feed Warmer Campaign
But, what is a Feed Warmer campaign?
Warming your podcast feed is the act of keeping your RSS feed alive when you’re not actively publishing new content. It can be a two-way street (i.e. you place content from another show in your feed and they do the same for you around the same time) or a one-way street (i.e. you place content in your feed with the hope that those shows will return the favor down the line).
Photo by Soundtrap on Unsplash
Why is a Feed Warmer campaign?
The idea behind the Feed Warmer campaign is to ensure that people subscribed to or following your podcast continue to receive high-quality audio content, even during periods between seasons or during a hiatus. We don’t want to scare them off, so you’ll select other shows to feature VERY carefully, write and record a lead-in explaining why you selected this episode, and really make sure that show is in line with your goals.
🌚 An ideal Feed Warmer will be a perfect match for your audience – a show that will make your listeners think to themselves, “Huh, Arielle really selects the best for us. I trust her as a curator. But I also can’t wait until she’s back from summer break because she’s just truly the GOAT.”
Getting started ↙️
You can decide to warm your feed with five episodes over the course of five weeks, one episode over the course of one week, or anything in between. You could also go away for a whole year and warm the feed at strategic points throughout. It’s entirely up to you and what you’re willing to share with your audience.
How to set up a Feed Warmer campaign: step-by-step instructions
🌴 Plan your vacation
Decide how many weeks you’ll be away for (and how many episodes would normally drop during that time).
Tell your audience your plans and when you’ll be back with new episodes.
💛 Find podcast friends
Go to Rephonic.com/graph and look for shows similar to yours.
Go to Podchaser and search for your keywords.
Ask your listeners what other podcasts they listen to.
🔎 Vet your newfound podcast friends
Listen to their shows to make sure they align with your values / standards.
Reach out to the hosts and producers to gauge their interest in a partnership.
🫶 Select some episodes
Think about which episodes of your new podcast friends’ shows would be a perfect fit for your feed.
Conversely, which episode of YOUR show would be a good fit for their feed, if you’re doing a swap?
✒️ Write your lead-in copy
Remember to let your listeners know that this Feed Warmer campaign will be taking place and that you’ll be serving them relevant, entertaining episodes of other podcasts while you’re gone.
Tell your listeners why you’ve selected this episode and why you think they’ll enjoy it.
☁️ Mix your episodes
Drop an intro from you into the session with your podcast friends’ episode and mix it all up.
🎨 Create assets (optional)
If you want to visually distinguish between your regular episodes and your Feed Warmer episodes, in which case, head over to Canva and create some episode artwork.
Make some social media assets that you can share with your podcast friends so that you can co-promote these collaborations.
📜 Publish
Hit publish on your Feed Warmer campaign!
👋 Follow-up
When you’re back from summer break, acknowledge the Feed Warmer campaign, thank your podcast friends, and thank your listeners for sticking with you.
🚀 Wrapping It Up
Are you planning on taking a break this summer? Do you know a podcast that’s planning to take a break this summer whose audience you’d love to get in front of? The Feed Warmer campaign can work both ways!
Maybe you’re a regular listener of a show in your category that’s much bigger than yours and they’ve mentioned that they’re going away for a few weeks. That would be the perfect time to send them an email (or maybe send them this newsletter!) introducing the concept of the Feed Warmer.
If you’re looking for podcasts to swap with, check out the Tink Swap Database.
Here’s the best part. There is no right or wrong way to run a Feed Warmer campaign. Follow your instincts, and when it doubt, ask your listeners. (Or ask us, feel free to comment on this post with questions).
Stay warm, podcasters!
🦄 52 Weeks of Podcast Growth
In the spirit of podcast partnerships, this week’s tip is — write a pitch email for feed drops.
Respona has a great blog to help you get started on writing this pitch email.
If you’re new here, read the previous weeks’ tips to start implementing them at your own pace.
🎙️From the desk of Tink
Wish I Knew is about the revelatory, life-changing "aha" moments that founders, CEOs and leaders discover along their business journeys and why taking risks leads to growth. It dives deep into the realms of entrepreneurship, leadership, career growth, and personal development. With each episode, listeners gain access to practical advice, inspirational stories, and proven strategies that will put them on the fast track to success with lessons from greats who paved the way.
✨ More Magic
The Podcast Host published The IndiePod Manifesto. Based on census data from 1200 independent creators, the manifesto shares the ten best mindset and actionable approaches to successful podcasting.
Writing for Descript, Lauren shares 6 podcast marketing tips for a show that's ended.
On her personal newsletter, Devin wonders if you judge by a pod by its cover? And shares a stellar list of podcast recommendations.
Meanwhile, in Podcast Therapy
This week we had great Podcast Therapy sessions with:
Style Matters: Zandra Zuraw’s podcast is about recognizing the beauty within yourself and moulding your surroundings to reflect that. Through conversations with interior designers and tastemakers, the podcast shows why the art of home making, especially the way you want to, is so powerful.
Wisdom Talk Radio: Laurie Seymour’s podcast explores what it means to live a fulfilling life. Through conversations and stories that sit at the intersection of spirituality and reality, the show shares how to gain an understanding of yourself and your surroundings to flow through life.
During these sessions, we tackled questions about partnerships, pitching to other podcasts for interviews, pitching to apps, improving content, and more. If you’re interested in signing up for Podcast Therapy yourself, learn more here!
Once again, a HUGE thanks to our sponsor for this month - Lulu.com.
PMM will always be free for readers but, we are also always looking for sponsors. Our sponsorship packages start at $50 (and are named after wizard classes.) Write to shreya@tinkmedia.co for more info!
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