⚡ Marketing lessons from Speed Pitching ⚡

Basically, how less is more

Hey-lo there! It might be cuffing season for singles out there, but it’s pitching season for podcasts.

As we begin the end of the year, podcasts are gearing up to take time off, and plan their new seasons. Listener apps are on the lookout for themed playlists, and newsletter writers are curating their year-end playlists.

Pitching is hard. Trust us, we know. Our strive for that perfect pitch gets us stuck in heads.

So, today, we’re sharing lessons from Tink’s Speed Pitching sessions to help you get unstuck and send more pitches efficiently.

Quick background: Tink launched Speed Pitching as an add-on to our Podcast Therapy offering. We spend one hour flying through our rolodex to pitch you to as many people as we can, with the hopes of quick-booking you on podcasts to talk about your work.

Let’s speedily get to it!

⚡ Lessons from Podcast Speed Pitching

1. Don’t overthink it. It = pitching, marketing, and sharing your work. (Listen to this if you’re ever stuck).

2. Keep your pitch short. One thing we’ve seen is that short pitches that end with “Let me know if you want more info” receive more responses than lengthy ones. Leave them wanting more.

3. Think broadly—your potential listeners contain multitudes. They might be interested in the topic of your show, but they might listen to other genres.

   1. Think outside of podcasts – are there any newsletters or forums you can pitch to? 

4. Think about what you can offer in return. If you’re pitching yourself as a guest, offer to put the episode into your own feed during the holidays (when you’ll be taking some well-deserved time off) or putting the episode in your newsletter or on social media.

5. Know your ‘value-adds’ and talking points, in a concise and compelling format so they’re easy for you to highlight and for others to see why it makes sense to collaborate.

   1. Make these into a list that you can pull from depending on which ones work for the place you’re pitching to.

6. Don’t neglect fiction. This seems to be an untapped genre for collaborations with non-fiction podcasts. How could you fit in? Fiction is so broad as a genre that you might find a fiction show that aligns with yours.

Final lesson — Ultimately, a Speed Pitching session can do you much good. It’ll help you get out of your head and just pitch. It’ll also help you realize what components are missing in your pitch – are you able to describe your podcast in 5 words or less? Do you have all your visual assets in one place? 

And if you’re feeling too overwhelmed to speed pitch yourself, you know where to find us!

🦄 52 Weeks of Podcast Growth

The Podcast Plunge is a user-generated podcast recommendation newsletter. Recommend your show to it to get a potential feature! It’s so easy.

If you’re new here, read the previous weeks’ tips to start implementing them at your own pace.

🌝 From the Desk of Tink

In every episode of Grimm, Grimmer, Grimmest, bestselling author Adam Gidwitz retells a classic fairy tale to a group of inquisitive kids, who anticipate plot twists, crack jokes, and share their own perspectives on these very Grimm tales.

---

✨ More Magic

• Eric Nuzum shares what we can learn about podcasting from Anna Wintour.

• What to do when Elon (or any Celebrity) Tweets Your Podcast

• Tink was called “the Navy Seals of podcast marketing”

• Lauren and Arielle will be running a podcast marketing 101 with Descript on Thursday, October 12.

• Lauren was interviewed for Inside.

🟡 Quick word from our sponsors — Trailergram.

Want to Drive Listeners and Build an Engaged Audience?
Grow your podcast with Trailergram, an advertising solution from Amaze Media Labs that increases consumption while creating a database for ongoing growth. Using advanced AI targeting, Trailergram reaches your ideal audience, drives listens, and sends mobile push notifications. Learn more!

---

Meanwhile, in Podcast Therapy

Previously, we had amazing Podcast Therapy sessions with:

• Lady Scientist Podcast - Jocelynn Pearl takes typically hard-to-understand scientific journals and breaks them down for all listeners, with a sprinkling of positivity.

• Sports R Dumb - Sports lovers Sean and Joey break down “dumb” elements in the sports they love, in this bite-sized weekly podcast. From basketball, football, baseball, hockey, golf, tennis, volleyball, lacrosse—nothing is off-limits.

• Who Made You The Boss - this upcoming podcast from Lindsey Epperly, CEO of Jetset World Travel, is for recovering workaholics. From imposter syndrome to maybe not sacrificing our whole lives for work, Lindsey will interview guests about it all.

In these sessions, we consulted with them to grow their podcasts in a sustainable and fun way.

Sending you with so much warmth and pumpkin spice into the weekend! Happy podcasting.