🧹Hi, it’s time to up the quality of your promos

🌸 Welcome to our Spring Cleaning Month 🌸

Back in business school, I had this teacher that I disliked. Quite intensely. He’d started his course off by throwing a thick brand marketing textbook in our faces. We were in the final semester (or what Americans call ‘term’) of a year-long program. We knew what brand marketing was, come on! We wanted something fun, something creative, something delicious. We wanted out-of-the-box.

His constant refrain was – ‘You can’t do out-of-the-box if what's in-the-box isn’t good enough.’ It took me years of working in marketing to understand how right he was. Of all the lessons from all the teachers, this is probably the most valuable to me. Tedious as it is to get your essentials right, it’s well…essential!

So, this month in PMM, we’re going to be checking the quality and doing some upkeep of what’s in our boxes. It’s time for some Spring Cleaning, folks!

Wil and I are going to walk you through how (and why) to spring clean your marketing essentials – your promos, partnerships, CTAs, and 🥁🥁 your show itself.

Let’s go!

P.S - If you’re interested in placing an ad in Podcast The Newsletter or Podcast Marketing Magic, fill out this form.

🌺 Spring Cleaning Time for Cross Promos

Longtime readers of PMM will not be surprised to see that we’re starting with, what we consider to be, one of the most important elements of your podcast marketing. Your promos.

🟡 Important – If you’re new to podcast marketing and want to know all the basics of promos, down to the files you’ll be exchanging to set these up, please start here.

➡️ Put your best promo forward

✨ Why maintain the quality of your promos

Okay, this is an easy one! Your promos are the first time new listeners will hear about your show so, obviously, you want to put your best foot forward. However, in addition to this, your promos are also the first many partners might hear of your show. This is as important a relationship as the one you have with your listeners. Make sure to nurture it with quality promos.

✨ What makes an effective promo

In our experience here at Tink, the top elements of a quality promo are:

• Mentioning the name of your podcast within the first 10 seconds.*

• Stating very clearly what the goal of your podcast is. Like this Radiolab promo does.

• Make it personal, if you can. I love the way Last Day’s host manages to get real in just the first 10 seconds –

• If you’re using a trailer as your promo, instead of doing a host-read, make sure that it is engaging and captures the ✨ vibe ✨ of your podcast. I truly LOVE this Dark Dice trailer which doubles up as a promo. It tells you what the show is about even as the sound design acts as a teaser for the podcast itself.

• Make it easy for them to find your podcast. Interested listeners are going to be searching for your show on their listening apps, so don’t be afraid to tell them exactly what to type in. Sidedoor ends their promos with –

You can listen to Sidedoor wherever you get your podcasts. Just search for “Sidedoor” – all one word – or find it online at S-I dot E-D-U slash sidedoor.

*Note – I often get asked – how many times should I say the name of my podcast? From studying promo and ads data, I recommend saying the name of your show at least twice in a 30-second promo and at least thrice in a 60-second promo. But like, in a natural not very aggressive way!

✨ How often to audit and revise your promos

Writing a stellar host-read promo script once, or making that promo trailer once, might not be enough. That’s what Spring Cleaning is all about, right? It’s crucial to check in, every once in a while. That once in a while can be:

• At the start of a new season

• At the start of a new topic or series you’ll be covering within a season

• If you have an episode with a well-known guest or timely topic releasing

• Every 3-6 months, at least

If you’re wondering how to audit your promos, you can always:

• Send them to your podcast friends to do a quick check.

• Book a podcast therapy session with us to help review the quality of your promos and other podcast marketing content!

✨ One final thing…

I’d be remiss if I didn’t say – along with the quality of your own promos on other shows, also pay attention to the quality of the podcasts you are promoting on your show. Make sure that these are aligned with your content, especially as your content evolves.

Creating promos is a nuanced art. It’s challenging to get into all the details here, but I'm always happy to answer any questions you may have!

⭐ More Magic

• Our CEO and podcasting’s unofficial fairy god-aunt Lauren Passell is hosting a Radio Boot Camp on Podcast PR 101.

• In partnership with Castbox, Tink is celebrating Earth Day. We’re spotlighting podcasts that explore our planet through science, sustainability, and surprising stories - from climate change and conscious eating to animal behavior and green tech.

• The Independent Podcast Awards are now open for entry! The deadline for entries is Monday 6th June, and the awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday 15th October.

• I want to congratulate our friends over at audio drama Midnight Burger that sold out tickets to a live event within 40 MINUTES! (I know this because I’m on the Patreon and waited too long to buy these tickets). I hope someday I get to go to the BurgerCon 2025.

🌕 From the Desk of Tink

This week, we’re featuring a beloved a Podcast Therapy client! Moonburn is an audio drama that follows Lucas. When he moves into a NYC boarding home to start a new life, he discovers decades-old diary cassette tapes left behind by his room’s first occupant. The tapes foreshadow tragedy, but they also lay out a beautiful path of invaluable advice for building a new life in the city. And Lucas uses them to do just that, embarking on his own journey... of life, work, friendship and love.

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Thank you for reading! Wil returns next week with more quality podcast marketing magic!

Until then, I hope spring finds you in every corner of your lives.

💜 Shreya