Stop doing this in your podcast intros
How many podcasts have you listened to where you feel like you’re never going to actually GET to the episode? There are these long introductions with theme music that seem to go on forever, then ad placements, and then perhaps an intro to the guest. It seems to be so long before you get what you clicked on.
Well today, I’m hopefully igniting a little fire in your belly to please do away with all of that nonsense.
Listeners today have shorter attention spans and tend to skip through intros longer than 30 seconds. Let’s explore why you should reconsider your podcast intro and how to create a more engaging and efficient one.
The Power of Simplicity:
Rather than cramming a laundry list of information into your intro, keep it simple. Start with a short section of music to establish the mood, and then get right into the content. I’d recommend having a go at recording a brief standard intro for your voiceover, and then put that together with music that lasts around 45 seconds at most. See how that feels to you, and try to be objective when you listen back. If you were a listener at what point would you reach for the skip button?
Variations in Intro Structure:
There are a few ways we like to spice up the intros to keep things a bit more fresh and mix up the format when a show has been running the same way for awhile. One approach is to have a custom intro for each episode, where you introduce the topic and create anticipation with a sneak peek. Another option is to insert a captivating snippet from a guest interview to pique the listener's interest. Additionally, you could create a compelling trailer for each episode, as demonstrated in the "Diary of a CEO" podcast.
When and Where to Place Important Information:
While your traditional intro should be brief, there may still be important information you want to share with your listeners. I totally understand that. I’d encourage you to play with using midrolls to incorporate advertisements or promotions. This way, you can talk about your products, services, or sponsorships without interrupting the flow of your episode. By strategically placing these midrolls, you ensure that your audience hears about what you have to offer without detracting from the content they came for.
Keep your Outro Minimal
Similar to intros, the outro of your podcast should be concise and to the point. We like to use just a bit of music to conclude your episode and avoid lengthy calls to action. Statistics indicate that very few listeners make it to the end of an episode, so it's best to save your important announcements and calls to action for midrolls or the beginning of your episode.
In a world that changes so rapidly and attention spans like a hamster,, it's important to adapt your podcasting techniques to meet the needs and preferences of your listeners. By streamlining your intros, employing midrolls for important information, and keeping your outros minimalistic, you provide a better listening experience.
Remember, simplicity is the key to podcasting success.
Transcript:
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[00:00:00] Brianna: We're talking all about intro and outros for your podcast. It used to be that you had these big long intros that were like, talking about all the things that were coming up and there was lots of music and it felt like this big long spiel about the person and all these things.
[00:00:26] No, Don't do it anymore. No one's listening to them. They're all skipping them. Stop it. Stop it right now. Have your episodes start really simply. Really quickly. That is my advice to you. If you have a longer intro, you're more likely to have the person skip it.
[00:00:49] Unfortunately, it's not something that you can track on podcast platforms as yet, like going into the actual retention rate, looking when people drop off listening to podcast episodes. You can certainly do it on YouTube, which is Super cool. When you go to the analytics at the backend of YouTube, you can see where they switch off, And so you can tell even from that, like if you put just your podcast episode, just the RSS feed through YouTube, you will be able to track what the kind of drop off rate is on those ones, which is just the audio with like a static graphic. But I would just say, like, it's just something that you don't need to do. You don't need to explain in full for a minute and a half who you are, what the show is about, who it's for, how you can help them, all the things in your intro. It's like a big old call to action that no one asked for. If you leave and listen to the way we do it here at Pump Up Your Pod, it's like there's barely anything, right?
[00:01:47] There's a little bit of music and then it's straight into the thing. I like that because I'm trying to deliver some educational content to you and I know you don't want me to stuff around. And I [00:02:00] don't want to stuff around either. I just want to get to it. I don't want you to have to skip through a bunch of stuff to get to the juice.
[00:02:06] Give me the juice! So, that's absolutely what I would recommend you do. Have a little bit of music, have a little intro, maybe 20 seconds, if you want to have something that plays every time at the front, and then straight into it. The other thing that can work, which is cool, in like the structure point of view, is if you have like an intro, That you say just for the episode, like today we're going to talk about how to cut an avocado, you know, and then, oh my god, what kind of podcast would it be that you're just talking about cutting an avocado?
[00:02:46] That is terrible. Anyway, let's just assume it's something better than that. Today we're going to talk about cutting an avocado and I, I have an expert in cutting avocados here on the podcast today. Her name is Sally. And I can't wait for you to listen to this episode.
[00:03:01] Okay? So you do that. Then you have your little standard intro, like Welcome to blah blah blah And then you say the thing, there's some music. And then you have the actual interview. There. Right? So you've got Intro to the episode Standard intro, episode. You can do that too, and that's kind of cool. I quite like that.
[00:03:20] I like starting it cold. You can also do it, if it was a guest episode, you could do it where there's like a snippet, a really cool snippet from the guest at the beginning, and then you play through that way. And you can also do like a trailer, if you've watched or listened to Dire of a CEO, they do like a full on trailer for every single episode.
[00:03:39] episode, which is lots of hours of work. you could put that at the front if you have an unlimited budget and someone there ready to do that for many hours, you could do that. but yeah, so the thing is, is like, there's no one way to do it. There's a couple of ways that work really well, but the way that doesn't work well is a giant long intro.
[00:03:59] That's like a [00:04:00] minute or more where you just. Trying to give them too much information that they don't want, they don't need, they're not asking for it. Don't give it to them, okay? If you want to do a call to action, if you want to talk about something that you have for sale, that you're offering, whatever, do that in a mid roll.
[00:04:17] A mid roll is like an ad for your show can put it in dynamically or baked in different ways to deliver the same content there where you can say like, I interrupt this podcast episode to tell you about my favorite microphone, which is the SEDCM8, this is actually my favorite microphone by the way.
[00:04:37] And I haven't reviewed it yet. And I'm going to, because it's great. So you could put like a mid roll in there, which relates to the thing that you're trying to sell. So if you have courses, if you have sponsorships, if you have, you know, merchandise, whatever it is, put that in a mid roll. And make it fun and cool.
[00:04:55] Maybe silly, depending on who you are. Certainly for us, that would work. and then that's the mid roll. And then for your outro, barely anything. Bit of music. Fade in. Fade out. Because the statistics show us, almost nobody is getting to the very end of your podcast episode.
[00:05:15] So stop putting in to actions at the end. No one's listening to them. You're wasting your time. Just a bit of music. That's it. Same reason why you shouldn't put your call to actions at the very end of your episodes either. Because no one's getting all the way to the end. And when you have guests on as well, make sure you don't wait till the end to tell people how to get in touch with blah.
[00:05:37] Say it at the beginning, or say it all halfway through. Don't say it at the end, because it is hard to retain someone to the very, very end of an episode. Okay, so that's my advice on structuring what I think works well from listening to and producing a bunch of different shows in a bunch of different industries.
[00:05:57] Just know short and simple is [00:06:00] great and people will thank you for getting to the point.
