Podcast Audit: How to Grow the Brand Your Passion Podcast
The number one question potential listeners will ask when they find your podcast is, what's in it for me? Optimize for that question and that experience, and you will get more listeners.
That is the crux of what we covered when Hollie Arnett hired me to audit her podcast, Brand Your Passion. And that's what we're going to talk about today, as I give you the Top 8 Takeaways.
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Now, it's Wednesday, which usually constitutes a deep dive. But today's deep dive is going to be a little bit different. Hollie Arnett hired me to Audit her podcast, Brand Your Passion. And so I applied my 7 Point Growth Framework to her show, exploring things like where is her podcast. How is it presented to potential listeners and what other things that she could do to grow her listener base?
Since this audit, she has seen great results. And so I want to share the Top 8 Takeaways with you. The way this will work is, I'll tee these takeaways up, tell you a little bit about the context for you, and then play the actual audio from the audit, which Hollie has graciously allowed me to share with her. And be sure to check out Hollie's podcast, Brand Your Passion, wherever you get your podcasts.
Oka. So let's get into the audit.
1. The number one takeaway here is, Be Everywhere. You can't answer a question if no one is asking. Hollie is in most places, but her YouTube episodes weren't up to date. And so we want to make sure that her podcast is on YouTube. She also wasn't on Pandora and while Pandora is often overlooked, they still have a solid listener base. In fact, I have a friend who uses it as his soul music streaming service.
But all in all, you're doing a great job. Your podcast is in most places, which is a common problem I see with podcasts. They submit to the big ones and not so much the small ones.
I will say that it looks like you were publishing to YouTube for a while and then stopped. I would do what you can to get your show back on YouTube, even if it's just in an audio-only capacity. So it looks like you might use Simplecast. I'm not sure if they automatically publish to YouTube, but you can use a tool like Fusioncast or Descript to create a video version to then upload to YouTube. Very soon they're going to support RSS, and this is gonna be a lot easier and basically a non-issue, but I would recommend getting your catalog back on YouTube.
You weren't in iHeart radio. So I would submit the same thing with Deezer and Pandora. I would just make sure you're in those. It's a fairly low priority because you are in a lot of the apps but being here for people who might use the iHeart or Deezer or Pandora apps will get you in front of as many people as possible.
Oddly enough, I also noticed that you were not…that your show looks… Well, I can't view Castro cause it's an…I think it's an iOS-only app (Oh, well there is a Mac app) so, but oddly enough, your show is there, but not updating. So I don't know if you switched hosts maybe like switched audio hosts. And as a result, maybe, Oh, this is less than ideal. So maybe, as a result, your show stopped updating. So I would just make sure. I guess the latest version is there or that your old feed is continuing to redirect to your new feed. This is a problem that sometimes happens when you switch hosts. You'll redirect the old feed, but then if you're account gets canceled sometimes, those hosts won't always honor that redirect, which is a little frustrating. So I would make sure either way, maybe that your feed is updated in Castro. I'm not sure how to do that, but based on what we just talked about, maybe you could reach out to them and see, or resubmit your show with the new feed. Again, that's less than ideal cause it's going to show up in two places, but at least your latest episodes will go to that app.
2. And this is a big one is, Improve Your Podcast Description. I didn't say this during the audit, but Hollie could probably add her niche somewhere in the title. The description is a great opportunity for improvement. It should read like a movie synopsis. This is going to entice the potential listener to actually listen. You should also see the Knicks in this show. Instead, hit the reader with what's in it for them immediately.
Review of your title, description, and artwork. I really think you're doing a great job here. The title's good, Brand Your Passion, very, unless I am getting the completely wrong idea, I think that means that I have a hobby or something I'm really passionate about and I can turn it into a business. And I mean, the description's right there, but that's what I gathered from the name of the show.
The description is a great start. I included screenshots in the audit because I want to show you how it's going to look in actual apps, like maybe as people are browsing. And this show helps you. That's great, people know it's a show. I might flip the two paragraphs a little bit.
So I have an example here, right, because you immediately want to answer the question, What's in it for me? So instead of, “If you're…” or “Are you…”, right, because you don't want to give people the opportunity to say no to what you're saying, so you don't ask the question. You just say you're ready to get more eyes on your work, more dollars in your pocket, and more creativity in your life. That's why you need Brand Your Passion. Then you can go on to say what the show talks about and how it helps and how to listen. So, I think that if you just rework your description a little bit, it could be a little bit more eye-catching, which is great. Yeah.
3. Make Your Artwork Standout. Much like book covers, your artwork is one of dozens of squares on a page. Hollie can make her title stand out more and make her headshot bigger. Our eyes are often drawn to smiling faces so we should optimize for that.
Overall, I like your artwork. I think I have the most feedback here. So first, you want to make your name bigger. I did include how it shows up in the Apple podcast. Notice that the name is pretty small and there's good contrast, but not as much contrast. So it could get lost, right? Your eye is likely drawn to either project me with Tiffany, Cartier or…. I really wish I figured out how to say that before recording this just because faces, you know, maybe you are the brand faces attract attention. So you want to make your name a little bit bigger. So people browse that and then you want to make you a little bit bigger in the frame as well so that your face shines through a little bit more, right? You're smiling, this is great. This is what people are attracted to as far as where their attention goes.
You, I would also maybe minimize the hosted by Hollie Arnett and move it to the bottom. This is great if people are looking for you specifically, but if they are, they probably already know what you look like and for people who are just browsing, this is less important than what's in it for them, right? So, I do have, by Joe Casabona on my artwork, but I would deprioritize that and maybe really make the name stand out and your face stand out a little bit.
I'm happy to say that Hollie took near-immediate action on the artwork. And what she said was she made a small, but mighty upgrade to the Brand Your Passion podcast artwork. I think it looks a lot better and I hope that it's converting better for her to.
4. Optimize episode information. Hollie is already doing a great job here or was already doing a great job at the time of the audit in part because she is a marketer. But also because she optimized long-form articles for each episode, so I didn't have a lot of feedback for her here. I just wanted to call it out
Review of the episode titles and description. I usually have a ton of feedback here for people and you're just killing it, right? I think this is probably I'm going to guess this is because it looks like all of your episodes are also long-form blog posts, which is also great. So nice work there. I reckon that since you are a branding and marketing coach, you probably know a thing or two about content marketing. And so you don't need any help from me in that area. You're making really great use of the description and the show notes. And again, I included some screenshots to show you what it looks like in the app so that people know, but I don't really have a lot of feedback here. Nice job.
5. Have a Clear Call To Action. Hollie has a great cold open in her show. Though I would probably duck the background music a little bit more so you can hear her better. And then I would pick one cold or one call to action for after the cold open at some point.
Now, I've changed my opinion a little bit on this since the audits started coming out. But I do think you need a clear call to action within the first five or so minutes because putting a call to action at the end means you're missing a lot of listeners that way. But you do want to provide some value before you ask them for something. Similarly, too many calls to action means no action. The user gets confused. Rob and Kennedy have a good call to action that is similar to Hollie's and effective.
So number five, pick one clear call to action and put it earlier than the very last thing you say. Your call to action… so here's something worth noting, right? Your call to action, people are probably doing something else and they are going to leave before you sign off, right? So you want to do two things. You wanna make your call to action crystal clear, and you want to put it earlier than the sign-off, right?
So I think your intro is good as far as the content goes. I might duck the music down a little bit, like lower that volume. Because again, depending on where you are or the speakers, right? I was listening on really good speakers, but if people are listening in the car or in their like the headphones that came with their phone, your voice might get lost a little bit in the music.
I would also include your call to action at the beginning. If you want the cold open, great. Definitely keep that. Maybe put the call to action after the cold open and before you do the interview ‘cause it definitely sounds like you record the intro later.
So I would say like before we get into the interview, I'd love to ask a quick favor. The more people share this, the more it gets reviewed, the more likely it is that people will find it. So if you could just take a screenshot of your podcast player, share it on social media. Be sure to tag me. Let me know what you liked about this episode. I would love that. That sort of thing.
Robin Kennedy, the email marketing heroes does this pretty effectively. So if you're looking for verbiage, definitely check them out. And again, we lose 50% or more of listeners by the outro. So, you asked for a lot of things at the end. Most people have stopped listening by then, right? Especially cause you do have that little music gap. So people, unless they can't, they're probably going to move on to the next episode.
And then you did have a lot of asks at the end. So I think if you want more social shares and reviews, make that your sole call to action. Repeat it at the end, definitely for the people who say it all the way through, but put it in the front as well.
6. Getting Sponsors. Hollie had a line in the show notes about looking for sponsors, but that is generally not effective unless you already have a gigantic show. You need to ask sponsors directly.
Justin Moore, my good friend over at Creator Wizard has a lot of great content on this that I'll include in the show notes, but she should reach out to brands. She feels would help her listeners. And the way that she finds out about what would help her listeners is by asking her listeners what they need
I will say recommended strategies to help you earn more money, and sponsors. I noticed you have a sponsor call to action. And that's likely not going to work. I mean, it's good to have there, but you need to reach out to brands as well. So I would recommend, If there's a tool that's super crucial to you for your business, reach out to them.
If there's a tool that gets mentioned by your guests, reach out to them because now they're getting free publicity and they'll like the, they'll likely want to do something more. And if you're not sure, reach out to your audience and ask them, right? Maybe they're on your mailing list. Say, “Hey, what problems are you having? What kind of tools would help you solve those problems?”Then you could send your, responses to brands when you pitch them.
7. I think a better way to make money is Selling Services. This I feel is the better play for Hollie is to sell her services because she's a branding and marketing coach with a branding podcast. It's a natural fit. She's using the show to establish her authority and she might have an easier time getting listeners who appreciate what she's doing to actually hire her. So Hollie should do more solo episodes. Having a call to action for a free call or even directly sell as her call to action.
You are a branding coach and this is a show about branding like there's perfect alignment between what you do and the subject of your show, the subject matter of your show. So use this to sell your services. If it's a, you know, if it's a free call, I don't know if it's a free call, I haven't done this yet. It looks like it could be, though. Make that your call. Oh, nice. You're using ConvertKit commerce. Very nice. So it's not a free call, but you have a number of services, right? And so what I would recommend you do is make some solo episodes where you talk about something. Maybe you helped a client, right? Tell these stories and then create a call to action. “Hey, if you want to see if I'd be a good fit for you, let's hop on a free 10-minute call” or whatever. Or just say “If you want me to help you like I helped a person, book a call with me at this link”, right? Because now you're using the podcast to generate leads from people who are interested about this.
And I've included a resource for like my SMASH Framework: Five Ways To Make Money with Your Podcast. But I think selling your services, I'm actually going to move this up. Selling your services is probably your best bet.
8. Finally number eight, Have a Great Website. This is another place where I feel Hollie is really doing it, right. And so I wanted to call it out here. Her website is clear. Has an easy place to go. Listen as a playlist on the listening page. And then it also has blog posts for each episode and a newsletter signup. Nice work, Hollie.
And then your website, great job on your website. I might, if this is the podcast page, places to listen, you've got the playlist and then the blog posts. Great. This is fantastic. And then you do have your newsletter, right? People can sign up to your newsletter.
Okay. So I'll recap Those top eight takeaways are those eight takeaways. And then the five things I recommended Hollie should do.
1. Be in every directory.
2. Improve your description.
3. Make your artwork stand out.
4. Optimize episode information that is episode title and description. And after creating this audit, Apple announced that they were bringing episode artwork to the Apple podcast. So having custom episode artwork is also a really important thing.
5. Have a clear call to action that you placed someplace after the beginning, but definitely before the end,
6. Reach out to sponsors if you want sponsors.
7. Sell your services
8. Have a great website.
The five next steps I recommended for Hollie.
1. Get back on YouTube.
2. Reach out to podcast to swap with as part of the audit. I recommended five, and I showed her how to find more to do podcast swaps with.
3. Do some solo episodes to tell her own story and show off her own expertise.
4. Update her artwork, and
5. Hone her call to action
In the show notes, I will link to a Twitter thread that has this full breakdown, as well as a link to the entire audit if you want to watch it on interrupted. If you want your own podcast audit, you can head over to [podcastliftoff.com/audit] and purchase one on that site. I will give you the same treatment I gave Hollie. And if you agree to it, I could even turn it into a podcast episode. Again, that's over at [podcastiftoff.com/audit].
But that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening. If you want to connect with me, you can do so on just about any social network. I am @jcasabona on all of them.
Thanks so much for listening. And until next time. I can't wait to see What you make.
