Unlocking the Value of Premium Content

Jordan and I discuss how a small loyal audience can fund a podcast with premium content! We'll walk through practical paywall options, burnout risks, link placement, and a creative call to action that you might want to add to your next episode!

Check out more on Buzzsprout Subscriptions! 

If you have questions about offering premium content through BuzzSprout subscriptions, email us at support@buzzsprout.com.

Keep podcasting!

Chapters

• 0:00 Framing The Monetization Question
• 1:27 CPM Math Vs Subscriber Revenue
• 2:38 Why Premium Content Fits Independent Creators
• 3:14 Options for Subscriber Content In Buzzsprout
• 5:59 Avoiding Burnout And Picking Offers
• 6:48 Messaging And Making It Feel Special
• 9:25 Make it Easy To Subscribe
• 10:34 Make Your Listeners Feel Valuable By Saying Thank You

Transcript

Cara Pacetti: 0:00

Welcome to Podcasting QA, brought to you by the people at Buzzsprout. I'm your host, Cara Pacetti, and I'm bringing you the best tips and strategies to keep you podcasting with confidence. In today's episode, I want to shine the spotlight on how putting some of your content behind a paywall is an effective monetization strategy. So today we're going to answer the question: how do I monetize by offering premium content? I'm excited to answer this question today because I have Jordan with me. Jordan is not only our podcast producer here at Buzzsprout, but she's also a co-host of BuzzCast. And in my opinion, she is the expert in podcast monetization using both listener support and premium content.

Jordan Blaire: 0:49

Thank you for joining me today, Jordan. Oh, I'm so excited. This is like my favorite topic to talk about. So I'm I'm really pumped that you invited me on.

Cara Pacetti: 0:59

So to kick things off, I want to talk about two different monetization strategies and really highlight premium content. And the reason is for most independent podcasters, the value of using premium content and putting your content behind a paywall is much more lucrative than recruiting ads or sponsorships. It just works for an independent podcaster. So that's why we're focusing on that today. And Jordan, can you kind of explain why that is for independent podcasters, why premium content is really the more ideal way to go? Absolutely.

Jordan Blaire: 1:36

So the way that ads or sponsorships or brand deals work is they're typically done on a CPM basis. And what that means is cost per melee, which is cost per thousand. So that means the cost per thousand downloads. So when you make a brand deal or when you accept an ad, you're looking at like seven dollars per thousand downloads or twenty dollars per thousand downloads, and that's where the negotiations come into play. So I would say that the average CPM for brand deals is typically somewhere in the ballpark of $15 CPM. And so that's per episode, right? When you have premium content, if you have a premium subscription set at $5 a month, you only need three listeners to make $15 as opposed to a thousand listeners to make $15, which is why subscriptions and premium content is so much better for independent podcasters.

Cara Pacetti: 2:38

The other awesome part about subscriptions and listener support is that there is no minimum. There's no threshold of minimum number of downloads or minimum number of subscribers. You just enable the feature and ask your listeners, let them know what's available. And so it's a great starting point for monetization.

Jordan Blaire: 3:00

Yes. And that is something that Buzzsprout offers. Really, if you just have like a few loyal listeners that are, you know, you got like 15 people that show up every week when you drop an episode, you could have listener support.

Cara Pacetti: 3:14

Yes. Buzzsprout subscriptions is designed to make this process super easy. So I do want to explain what is offered through BuzzSprout subscriptions and the different types of premium content you can offer. The first is premium episodes. So this is just selecting certain episodes that are going to be behind a paywall. So this kind of is that more work, I'd say you're creating a whole nother episode that you're going to offer to your listeners uh for a certain price. But if there's value in that, it's worth the extra work. So we like to offer that always as an option. Another option is early access. Actually, this and our next option, which is back catalog access. I'll kind of group those together. Those are both no extra work. They are literally recording and releasing your episodes, and you get to schedule when it comes out. So early access is the opportunity for your listeners to grab those episodes before the rest of your public audience does. And the other option is to put your back catalog behind a paywall, and your listeners can listen to your historic episodes by paying that subscription fee. So this is now a new way of monetizing that maybe you haven't done before. So, Jordan, do you want to talk about our other two ways of monetizing through Buzz Route Subscriptions?

Jordan Blaire: 4:36

Yeah. So the other two that we have is um subscriber-only podcasts. And I put this one at like the highest risk of burnout just because you're literally creating a completely separate podcast. This entire podcast that you're making is behind a paywall. And really, it only works if you already have like an established audience. So you need to have like a successful blog or Instagram and be able to bring your audience in because when you paywall an entire podcast, you like lose that marketing of having those episodes to like entice people. So I think that subscriber-only podcasts, it does work for some people, but is definitely the hardest thing to do. And then offer ad-free episodes is our final option. And this is where paying listeners will only hear your content without anything interrupting it. So it's a little more simple, but if you have baked-in ads, which is where you just record them in the thing, you're basically editing those out. So I guess that could get a little tedious. But yeah, that's that's another option.

Cara Pacetti: 5:40

Another option for ad-free in Buzzsprout, I've heard this done before. You can have the bloopers or like the extended cut.

Jordan Blaire: 5:50

Yeah, because basically you're uploading two versions of the podcast, so you could get creative with it. That's a fun option. Yeah. Absolutely. And I will say, I think that sometimes podcasters can feel a little bit of like analysis paralysis when they are encountering a bunch of different choices. And so if you're listening to this, I would say that you should look at do you have extra time to create bonus episodes or do you only have extra time to edit out ads from your podcast? Also look at your audience. What would they be willing to pay for? Think about the future version of yourself. When you see yourself five months from now, are you gonna be tired of doing this extra work? Is this something that you can continue doing, or are you just gonna like burn out and then let your subscribers down? So just make sure that you're choosing something that's gonna be attainable, it's what your listeners want, and you have time for it. Yes, absolutely.

Cara Pacetti: 6:47

So when you decide to offer premium content, you have to let your listeners know it's available. And sometimes this can be the hardest part. But you want to be intentional with your messaging and you want to communicate that this content that you're offering, it's exclusive. So make it special. It's personal, it's valuable. So, Jordan, I know for your dreamful podcast, you offer premium content. Yeah. What are some of the ways that you've communicated to your listeners uh to get them on board?

Jordan Blaire: 7:21

Yeah, I offer um a bonus episode. So my podcast is bi-weekly, which means I release an episode every other Friday. And in the in between weeks, I will release a premium episode. So it's a paywalled episode. And so what happens is my listeners, if they want to have an episode every single week, then they can subscribe to the podcast and then they get four episodes a month as opposed to two. And something else that I do in every episode is I do a call to action that I incorporate through thanking new subscribers. So whenever someone subscribes to the podcast, I start the episode by saying, Hey, thank you so much to Tristan and Joey. Thank you. Like, I hope you all have the sweetest of dreams. And if you'd like to be just like Tristan and Joey, you can use the link in the show notes to subscribe to the podcast and get access to subscriber-only episodes and a shout out in the future episode. And what it turned into was I started getting uh listeners that would buy subscriptions and then shoot me an email and say, Hey, this is actually for my daughter. And so it turns into this like special thing. And then pretty soon I'm saying, like, happy birthday, Jessica, your mom, whatever. And then I go into the thing, and then other kids are going, Mom, mom, she just she told this kid, happy birthday, will you do that for me? And it's such a cool thing because it's me integrating the messaging into call to action um in a way where it's like I'm making them feel VIP, I'm making them feel special, they are seen, and it's just constantly reminding my listeners, like every episode, hey, this could be you.

Cara Pacetti: 8:56

I did not know that it went that direction because I go deep. I love that. I have heard the shout outs before on your episodes, which I love that in general. But the fact that people are offering this as a surprise, I cannot even imagine as a listener just tuning in to my favorite podcast and then they say my name or wish me a happy birthday, I would be floored. That is an amazing way to use premium content. So you mentioned in your call to action, you let your listeners know that they can click the link in the show notes. That's vital. We've got to make this easily accessible for listeners so that when they hear that, they go, Well, I want to support the show. And so the next step is where do I go? Yeah. And so, Jordan, low-hanging fruit. What are the best ways to get those links available so that listeners can easily access the premium content?

Jordan Blaire: 9:53

And that's the thing is easily access the premium content. You want to make it as easy as humanly possible for people to put money into your hand, right? And so you want links everywhere. You want links in your episode show notes, you want links on your website, which the Buzzsprout website has the support the show link built in. It's in like a couple different places, actually, and looks gorgeous. And you want to have links to subscribe in your social media bios. Like just put links everywhere. There's no excuse, there's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. They are going to find that link.

Cara Pacetti: 10:26

Yeah.

Jordan Blaire: 10:27

If you're asking, make it easy. Throw it out there. Tell them exactly where to find it. Yeah, exactly.

Cara Pacetti: 10:33

And the last point that I want to make is to make sure that these listeners know how grateful you are for their support. So you want to make sure you are communicating how thankful you are for your listener support, whether that's through a shout-out like Jordan mentioned or through a heartfelt email, or maybe on social media, you can tag your listeners and let them know. And so that would be my big advice is to let your listeners know just how grateful you are, and that you are encouraged by their support to continue giving them premium content and sharing the best content that you can. So, do you have anything to add to that, Jordan? I think that you said it perfectly.

Jordan Blaire: 11:17

And I mean, this is the whole reason why there's like brand loyalty programs and customer appreciation weeks and stuff like that. They are paying for the content, but you're also giving them a benefit. And it's really important to just say thank you, even if it's like once every couple episodes. So there's just little ways to be able to communicate with them. Hey, I'm paying attention to you and I value you. And I think that is really important. So important.

Cara Pacetti: 11:44

And it's really incorporating that human connection in podcasting. So it's amazing. Yes. If you have questions about offering premium content through BuzzSprout subscriptions, you can reach us on the Podcaster Success team at any time by emailing support at buzzsprout.com. If there's a question that you'd love to see answered on a future podcasting QA episode, click the send us a text link in the show notes. I love getting fan mail and answering questions directly from listeners. So send us some fan mail and we will get that question answered on a future episode. Thank you so much for joining me today, Jordan, and answering this question. It's been so helpful. It was so much fun.

Jordan Blaire: 12:25

Thank you for having me. I hope I get invited back on again. We'll see. Of course. Of course.

Cara Pacetti: 12:31

Be sure to join us every Monday to kickstart your week. Thanks for listening. And as always, keep podcasting.