📰 Launch Series: Timing Your Launch to Current Events
Be smart, be cool, and be timely
Hi hello, Wil back with another edition of our Launch Series here at PMM! Today we’re talking about launching your podcast around a current event.
And I just wanna get this out of the way up front: this topic is not a response to any current current event. The events in the world, currently, are maybe not the ones to launch your podcast around unless you have a very, very specific type of show. Maybe one of these days we’ll live in precedented times again?
But scheduling your launch around a current event can be a great way to drum up some hype for your podcast, get on some writers’ radars, and think about SEO in a different way.
🌊Why to ride the current
So, why does pinning your release to a current event matter? Pinning your launch to a current event can help you with production, discovery, and collaborative marketing.
Production goals
I have ADHD so loudly, and I need deadlines or else nothing is real to me. When making my newest podcast, The Deposition, I initially wanted to release it as quickly as humanly possible; the entire podcast is based around a past current event. But due to some production hiccups (which always happen), we wound up recording more slowly than I expected, meaning I no longer had a deadline — or a reason to speed up production to get it up asap. So while we waited for everything else to get in order like audio coming in, making music decisions, etc. I didn’t let it become urgent.
Until, of course, our own Lauren Passell heard me mention it’d be funny to drop on the Fourth of July, and she recommended I absolutely go for it.
And thank god she did. It was super funny. But it also helped me set a goal for myself and get my production schedule in order. We could have come up with a date at random, sure, or we could have waited until everything was fully produced and ready to post and then choose a date. But this method, pinning production goals to a Significant Date or Current Event, can help that process tremendously.
Discovery goals
The other day, someone asked me about podcasts that cover Project 2025 (sorry for the jumpscare), and I fully searched “Project 2025” in Pocket Casts. People don’t typically keyword search for new podcasts from what I’ve seen — but I think current events are a big exception. If someone is a podcast person and they want to learn about something, they’re likely to search for that thing in their podcatcher. The same is true for Spotify and YouTube.
Using a current event for your launch is a great discovery tactic in this sense. With our Dragon Age podcast How to Act Fereldan, we know that people are more likely to search for “Dragon Age” around the release of an upcoming game (if it ever does get released), so we’ll probably up our marketing game around then. With podcasts like Everyone Knows That: The Search for Ulterior Motives, the release was timed around a piece of internet media being discovered after years of searching — and the release of that media in full for the first time.
This only works if you meet two specific criteria, though:
The relevant current event is something people will actually be searching (e.g. “2024 election,” “Severence” for the second season dropping soon, “charli xcx” for brat summerrrrr 🍏).
You have words related to those searches in your podcast’s title, subtitle, or show notes. This can be a good reason for a subtitle in your podcast’s name.
A note on podcast journalists
One of the themes that runs through my editions of PMM is how difficult it can be for a journalist to take a pitch for a topic to write. Journalists need something timely to justify writing about a podcast, even if they’re just recommending the podcast. When we get dozens of press releases today, nothing will get prioritized if there isn’t a reason to prioritize it now. While releasing a podcast is good on its own, better than trying to get a write-up for a podcast that’s been going for a while, pinning the launch to a current event is much better.
A note on SEO
I, personally, think SEO is kind of made up. I’m so sorry to most marketing-focused person reading this — I just really don’t think search engines, especially Google, are that easily malleable. Especially not right now. SEO is something I’ve had to deal a lot with as a service journalist, but honestly, I think it’s pretty overrated anymore. Don’t think of subtitles around current events as “optimizing your SEO”; think of it as “literally just allowing podcatchers to show you in a relevant search because you used the word people were searching for somewhere.”
Collaboration goals
People seem to think that they have to have a prouced and published podcast before they can start marketing collaboratively, making podcast friends and setting up promo swaps. Not true!
You can — and should — set up promo swaps before your podcast even goes live. That being said, I know it can be difficult to find reasons why another podcast might want to do a promo swap with no current audience, and very little concrete evidence that the trade will be equal.
But luckily, because using a current event to market your podcast can give you such a huge leg up, it can do that for your marketing partners, too. In your very first pitch email to potential podcast friends, tell them why you’re releasing when you are. Add it to the talking points for the swap.
You have timeliness in your side, and if the other podcast is already going — they don’t. This isn’t about thinking you have more power than them, though. It’s helping you have more relative power for room to negotiate.
🤔But current events don’t work for everyone
Before deciding to pin your podcast launch to a current event, ask yourself: Okay but does that make sense though? Not every podcast needs a “reason” to come out at a certain time. If the timing starts feeling forced instead of fun, you might do better just releasing whenever you’re ready.
If your podcast has a specific topic that can be timely, though, it might be worthwhile! Some ideas I’ve seen for launch dates that I love:
Celebratory days or months, like Pride, Black History Month, or National Ice Cream Day
Launch dates for relevant media, like a video game or film
Anniversary dates for relevant media, like this year’s big Sopranos 25th Anniversary
The first day of a season like Autumn (October 1st also counts double for my favorite season, Spooky Season🎃🦇🕷️🕸️🍬🍭🍫🧙🏻😈💀👽👹👻)
❄️Be cool, not callous
Gonna say something repulsive here, sorry: before I was in the podcast scene, I was in the slam poetry scene. I promise this is relevant, and I would not be telling you such things about me otherwise. I promise you cannot make fun of me for this harder than I already have. Maybe just think of me as this baddie from An Extremely Goofy Movie instead please.
In that scene, there’s a popular YouTube channel that posts performances of poets. I’m not going to name it here, but if you’ve seen a performance of slam poetry online, this channel might be involved. I loved that channel when I first started in the scene, but I quickly learned something that made my stomach turn: allegedly, they would hold onto videos of poems about personal connections to ongoing current events — police violence, racism, transphobia — and drop them only when a related current event popped up next. It seems they wanted to capitalize on the timing for better opportunities to go viral.
It’s gross. When it comes to serious topics, you shouldn’t focus on your success over treating that topic with a lot of care. Don’t use suffering to get listens. Don’t use tragedies for your own gain. If your podcast takes these topics very, very seriously, I would choose a historically important day for your launch, like Making Gay History waited for the Stonewall Riot anniversary for their re-release of their Stonewall season.
Don’t camp out waiting for opportunity when the next tragedy strikes.
⭐ More Magic:
I was on an episode of Piecing It Together to discuss the newest Osgood Perkins film, Longlegs! That is cool in itself — but the way this came about is just as cool. Host David Rosen read my previous PMM on movie trailers, and reached out inviting me to be a guest! Reminder that, like, you can do that. You should do that. Not just with me, but with the whole Tink team! We love it! We love podcasts!!!
Our free webinar on making podcast friends for Tink’s 5th birthday sold out ummmmmmm so fast? Like, so fast??? Thank you all. We love you. And for folks who missed it, don’t worry — there’s a waitlist if you sign up, and I promise, you wanna be on that list. 😎
And you can still use our special birthday promo pricing for Podcast Therapy if you book between right now and August 19, 2024. $50 off for a meeting with folks at Tink, focused on you, your podcast, and your goals! We’d love to work with you!
🐮 From The Desk of Tink
The second I heard the concept for Beef, I was so in. As someone who has a YouTube playlist titled “buckwild but unimportant drama” (enjoy 😘), I knew this would be so up my alley — and after hearing it’s hosted by the brilliant, funny, endlessly charismatic Bridget Todd, I knew it would be podcast love forever. Beef is Next Chapter Podcasts’ show all about rivalries and feuds between some of the pettiest people in history. And it is truly delicious.
Thank you for reading! Shreya returns next week with more on making the most of your podcast launch. 🚀
—Wil 🦇 (already ready for spooky season, yes.)