Elements Of A Great Podcast Trailer

In this episode, we explain how a great podcast trailer can help you attract new listeners. We'll cover what information to include, trailer length, how to match your podcast tone, and give you three proven trailer formats.

Trailer Examples Mentioned:

• PQA Trailer
• Dreamful Trailer
• Happy to Help Trailer

If you have questions about recording your podcast trailer, email us at support@buzzsprout.com!

Keep podcasting!

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Trailers Matter
• 1:00 Trailer As Your Storefront
• 3:26 What To Include And Length
• 6:01 Three Trailer Format Ideas

Transcript

Cara Pacetti: 0:00

Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you by the people at Buzzsprout. I'm your host, Cara Passetti, and I'm bringing you the best tips and strategies to keep you podcasting with confidence. During the recent orientation I was hosting, I received the question: what needs to be included in my podcast trailer? That's a question that we get often from both new and existing podcasters. So I wanted to record this episode and walk through some of the elements that make a great podcast trailer. First, I wanted to find the purpose of even having a podcast trailer. So in order to be listed on the listening directories like Spotify and Apple, they will require you to have at least one published episode in your RSS feed. That first episode should be a trailer. The trailer is the first introduction of your podcast to new listeners. And while it does meet that directory requirement, that's not the only reason why it's important. I want you to think of your podcast trailer as the storefront window of your shop. For example, when you're walking down the street and you pass by a window and there's a mannequin or there's fresh baked goods or whatever the product is that is getting sold at that store. That storefront window is designed in a way to grab your attention and motivate you to walk into that store and become a customer for life. Essentially, that is the role of a podcast trailer. You want to hook your listener, get their attention, invite them in to the point where they are excited to subscribe to your podcast because they don't want to miss what's coming next. When you are designing your trailer episode, you want to be really intentional about this. You want to create a strong introduction, you want to build anticipation about what your podcast will be about, and you want to communicate all the important information that your listeners need to know so that they can become a loyal subscriber. If you already have a successfully launched podcast, don't turn this episode off just yet. A trailer is not used for only introducing new podcasts, but there's actually a couple of other uses for your trailer. First, it is something that lives on with your podcast. So when a listener stumbles upon your podcast, the first episode that they see is that podcast trailer. And so you want to make sure that you have recorded it in a way that it grows with your podcast and it continues to invite new listeners to subscribe to your show. Another way of using a podcast trailer is to introduce new seasons. So this is really fun if you have a podcast that goes through different seasons. When you record a trailer and release it in anticipation of a new season, it's a cue to your listeners that something new is coming. Another way of utilizing a podcast trailer is if you are offering a relaunch or a rebrand of an existing podcast. For example, we recently relaunched Podcasting Q&A, and I actually recorded a trailer episode because I wanted to let listeners know who this new voice was that they were going to be hearing. I wanted to introduce myself and also introduce my plans for the podcast moving forward. So now that we know the role of the podcast trailer, you'll want to be really intentional about what is getting included. So first let's talk about the length of your trailer. It's generally not the length of a full episode, but it should be long enough so that you can communicate important information. We typically see podcasters release trailer episodes that can range anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds all the way up to three to five minutes. It just depends on what needs to be communicated. So you can be really creative on what you want to include in your trailer, but there are some details that are really important to mention. Of course, you will want to mention your podcast name. When listeners want to subscribe to your podcast, they've got to know what the name of the show is. And so the trailer is the best place to mention that. You will need to let listeners know who this podcast is for and who it's not for. So you want to make sure that you're sharing what exactly is your podcast going to be about so that your listener will know if they are your ideal audience. You also want to let listeners know when new episodes are going to be released. So if this is going to be a weekly podcast, let listeners know so that they can tune in and be ready for the release of that episode. The last bit of information that you want to make sure that you include is a call to action. Now, the call to action for your trailer is very simple. It's to subscribe to your podcast. You want to let your listeners know that they should subscribe to the podcast where they love listening to podcasts so that they never miss a new episode. This is your opportunity to set the overall tone of your podcast. You want it to match. So if your podcast is a sleepy bedtime podcast, you may not want to include a drumline sequence or really high-pitch energy when you are describing the podcast. You want it to match what it is that your listener will be hearing when they listen to your overall show. So this is your opportunity to really set the vibe and just show off your personality and show off what this podcast will be about. As your podcast evolves and it may change down the line, you can always revisit that trailer and make it a little more current or maybe a little bit more in line with the way your podcast has unfolded. It's kind of hard when the trailer is the first episode and then after you podcast for six months to a year, the podcast kind of went a bit of a different direction, or maybe it's a bit of a different vibe than what you originally started with. It is completely okay to re-record that trailer and make it match what you are currently producing. I want to go through three unique formatting ideas for a trailer episode. So the most common form of a trailer that we see is a short episode, about two minutes long, that is a quick summary of your overall podcast. It gives listeners an idea of the tone of your podcast and also communicates that important information. I'm going to link a couple of examples in the show notes so you can check these out. The next example comes from a podcast called Dreamful. This is a bedtime podcast. It's long enough to include an example of one of the episodes and also a summary of the show, but it's not the full length of an existing episode. This way of recording a trailer really gives listeners an idea of what to expect. And this is super important in this case because dreamful is bedtime stories. And so the listeners will know that the tone is soothing and it's quiet and it's soft. So that's what the podcaster does a really great job at communicating that tone through this trailer. Now, one thing to keep in mind is that this may not be an option for everybody because you have to have existing content in order to highlight a clip of one of your existing episodes. So if you don't have any recorded episodes yet, this option might not be for you, but that's okay. The last format that I want to share with you comes from our Happy to Help podcast. This format creates a bit of a longer episode. And that's because it's not only the trailer episode, but it actually serves the purpose of the very first episode of this podcast. So this won't work for everyone, but for Happy to Help, this works. It's more of a narrative. It provides details about what the show will cover. It's setting the context for the ongoing show, pretty thorough introduction of the host and why she created this podcast and why she is eager and excited to record the podcast and a call to action for listeners to subscribe to the podcast moving forward. Those are just some ideas that you can use for recording a trailer, and you can pick which format works best for you. If you have questions about recording a podcast trailer, our podcaster success team can help you. Just email us at support at buzzsprout.com. If there is a question you'd like answered on a future Podcasting Q&A episode, click the send us a text link in the show notes, and we'd love to feature your question on a future episode. Be sure to join us every Monday to kickstart your week. Thank you so much for listening, and as always, keep podcasting.