We know figuring out how to advertise and monetize your podcast can be tricky, and there’s a lot to be learned from others who have been down this road. Here are some best practices for getting started—from deciding on what you’ll charge for all the way through your call to action:
Plan Your Premium Offering
Decide what your bonus content is going to consist of. For Acquired, it is:
- Listener Q+A (listeners email voice memo)
- VC, founder, and operator guests
- Previous episode follow-ups
Decide what your bonus content cadence is going to be
- For Acquired, our show is every other week. We decided to do the bonus content in the “off-weeks” between regular episodes
- Plan 3-4 months of bonus content and what you might cover topically.
- This doesn’t have to be comprehensive, but a list you can look at 2 months into your subscription program to help guide you.
- Decide how much you are going to charge per month
- Acquired charges $5
Two Weeks Before Launch
- Sign up for a second podcast at your current MP3 or RSS host. We use Libsyn, which gives us a second podcast feed with full analytics for $20/month
- Decide what you’re going to call your bonus content and/or program and think about the how the branding can align with your show.
- For Acquired, we decided to call our paying subscribers “Limited Partners”, and call the content LP bonus content. If you have a news-based podcast, you might brand subscribers “Insiders” and the call to action could be to “Become an Insider.”
- Create album art for your bonus show. It is helpful if it is an homage to or a variant of your show’s album art
One Week Before Launch
- Record first bonus episode
- Release first bonus episode to test if it’s working
Launch Day
Release episode announcing that you’re using Glow to create bonus content and deliver it to those paying to support the show
- We recommend saying this first-thing to catch listener attention and possibly halfway through or at the end of the episode (as a midroll spot)
- You can hear how Acquired did this in the first 2 minutes of this episode.
- You can hear an excellent version of this from Techmeme Ride Home 18:32 into this episode.
Emphasize how easy it is to sign up in your call-to-action
- We’ve seen multiple emails and tweets from people who said they would have signed up earlier if they knew how simple the process was. Most people expect a clunkier process.
- Decide what you’re going to call your bonus content and/or program and think about the how the branding can align with your show.
- “It’s dead simple and will take no more than 10 seconds. Click the link in the shownotes, pay with Apple or Google pay, and click the link of the podcast player you want to use. You can listen anywhere, on any app.”
Tweet / Facebook / LinkedIn the announcement you made on the show
- Acquired Example Tweet - you can pin this to the top of your Twitter feed for the first month or so
Be sure to put a link to your Glow page and communicate why listeners should subscribe at the top of your show notes.
Prominently feature a link to your Glow landing page on your website. Be sure to communicate the value proposition of why listeners should subscribe.
Day After Launch
Use Mailchimp to email every subscriber you have
- Example email with a 59% open rate
- Acquired exported all emails from Slack, live events, surveys, and an existing email distribution list
Go back through all old episode show notes, and put a link to your Glow page and communicate why listeners should subscribe at the top.
Upon Each Subscription
Email the new subscriber from your podcast email address to thank them for subscribing, remind them how to get access to the show, and link them to a pre-constructed Tweet to share that they’re now a subscriber:
In Every Regular Episode
Make sure you stress that you can listen on any platform and that the listener doesn’t have to download a new app
Share what you talked about last time in the bonus episode, and talk about how many people have upgraded. Make it feel like that’s where the party is without taking away from the main show. This is obviously a balance, and you as the host will be able to find the right way to do this with your audience.
- Acquired treats this like a second sponsor slot, plugging the bonus show at the top of the show.
Be sure to put a link to your Glow page and communicate why listeners should subscribe at the top of your show notes.
Upon Releasing a New Bonus Episode
When you’re ready to publish: After you add a new episode to your private feed (wherever it’s hosted), log into your Glow account and press “Update Feed.” Your private feed will refresh automatically every few hours, so don’t worry if you forget. But, this will make sure that your new bonus content is pushed out to subscribers as quickly as possible.
Share in the least-pushy (but most compelling!) way possible that you just released bonus content on your social channels. Be sure to link to your Glow page.
