Placing Your Call to Action
We've all had the experience of an over eager sales person. The moment they see you, or maybe the moment you join their list, you are marked as a potential sale. And you're immediately asked if you want to buy whatever they're selling. And even if you walked into the store expressing some level of interest, It's still feels icky. That's kind of what it feels like when you open your podcast with a call to action. And that's what we're going to talk about today.
Welcome to Podcast Workflows where you get daily tips to improve your process, grow your show, and maybe even make some money. Each week, I also do a daily dive into the process of the world's most successful podcasters and reveal their tools, processes, and systems to help you simplify the production of your own show and reclaim hours in your day. You can improve your own podcast production process by seeing how the pros do it. I'm your host, Joe Casabona. And today, we're going to talk about where exactly you should place your call to action?
After all, much like somebody walking into a store when somebody hits play on your podcast, they're at least somewhat interested in what you're doing, right? But I realized, my pre-roll CTA was a lot like that overeager salesperson, especially to new listeners. I was asking for something before they had time to browse. And like I just said, I doubled down on this philosophy. A short CTA, right at the beginning, right at the top of the show seems like a completely reasonable thing to do in exchange for a 40-60 minute episode with good, helpful content. But I made an honest, and honest calculated error.
Your goal as a podcaster is to get your audience quick wins. Not to get you quick wins. That means you want to hit them with value before asking them for something. Longtime listeners of my podcasts might've noticed that I've dropped the pre-roll CTA in recent episodes. And in fact, it got dropped from all episodes where the pre-roll CTA was dynamically inserted because I didn't want to be that overeager sales person that walked somebody walk in the door, and then ask them for the sale. I wanted them to browse, find some value in what I was doing. Then and only then, ask them if they wanted even more value.
So instead, I need to figure out the best way to insert a call to action after a value point. Because it is true. You have most of your listeners before the halfway mark. By the time you get to your outro, 70% of people have left. That will be less true for a shorter podcast, more true for a longer podcast. But, I think somewhere before the first seven minutes or maybe five minutes is going to be a good place for the call to action.
So my thought is to do it, maybe right after the introduction. Listeners will already have the cold open and the top takeaways, or in this show, the main takeaway. So an introfollowed by a 32nd, by the way, feels pretty right.
I'm going to try it. And I'm going to report back for my members first to see how it's going. And then in a few months, gather more data. See what I did there. I just subtly hinted that I have a membership. And now I'm going to hit you at the end with a call to action.
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Thanks so much for listening. And until next time. I can't wait to see what you make.
