Before you release a podcast season, drop a batch of episodes or even release your first podcast episode you should definitely release a podcast trailer. A podcast trailer will help with promotion, set up and more but before we get into that let’s explain what the hell we are talking about.
What is a Podcast Trailer?
A podcast trailer is a short bit of audio, normally about a minute and a half to 3 minutes, (sometimes longer, sometimes shorter) that gives a rough idea of what your podcast will be about to anyone who stumbles across your podcast feed.
Just like a movie trailer this should be a nice, shareable piece of audio that helps lure people into wanting to find out more about your podcast (amongst other things).
Beyond that very basic premise, a podcast trailer can sound like anything.
A conversational, co-host podcast will often have the two hosts addressing their audience, saying hi, giving their back story etc and sometimes literally explaining what the podcast will be.
Nikki Briton and Harley Breen have done that for their new podcast, granted they also have some backing music:
Now you can up the ante and go for a scripted/conversational style trailer and maybe even include a few grabs, like The Try Guys did:
Or, for podcasts that are more highly produced you can try for a trailer that represents that.
I did this with a podcast I Work With A Nightmare, using narration, grabs and music to provide a full story and explanation:
But before you even make a podcast trailer you may be wondering
Why Make A Podcast Trailer?
Well the previously mentioned reason of promotion is a big one, but for multiple reasons:
- Anyone who comes across your podcast will wonder what it’s about and will also want a short, easy way to figure out if it’s for them. A trailer is your quick way of convincing them they should listen to more episodes.
- Before you even release episodes you want subscribers. If you properly use your trailer to promote your upcoming podcast people will subscribe and then, when you do release your first episode you will have a whole bunch of people ready to immediately listen. This immediate listenership can provide a quick bump in your statistics, which can help with getting on various charts.
The other reason is more technical. Before you tell everyone to go listen to your podcast you want to make sure they actually CAN listen to your podcast. In the world of technology things can go wrong, RSS feeds can not get pushed through, or you can miss doing something that allows your podcast to be accessible. In this way a trailer is your way of testing everything to make sure that whatever you upload will actually get pushed through to Spotify, Apple etc and be available to be listened to.
So, before you release your podcast, really put some effort into a trailer first.
