In this episode, you'll learn how to find and secure sponsors for your podcast.
Check out our new blog podcast: How to Make Money Podcasting.
Fill out this short questionnaire to submit a question or topic for a future episode.
Need some help with your podcast? Join the Buzzsprout Podcast Community on Facebook to get the help you need from podcasters just like you.
In this episode, you'll learn how to find and secure sponsors for your podcast.
Check out our new blog podcast: How to Make Money Podcasting.
Fill out this short questionnaire to submit a question or topic for a future episode.
Need some help with your podcast? Join the Buzzsprout Podcast Community on Facebook to get the help you need from podcasters just like you.
Today on five minute Mondays, you'll learn how to profit from sponsorships without being tied to the CPM ad model. Welcome to five minute Mondays where we're bringing the best tips and strategies for building your podcast in five minutes or less. So if you're new here, consider subscribing. And we are in the middle of a nine part series about podcast monetization, covering the pros and cons of each of the currently popular strategies to help you decide which, if any, are right for your podcast. And today we're going to talk about the second way that you can profit from host read ads on your podcast. And that is by securing sponsorships. Now sponsorships are different from CPM ads for one main reason. The podcast host with a sponsorship is not compensated based on the number of downloads that their episodes receive, right? Instead, sponsors look at the longterm impact on their bottom line that sponsoring your podcast would have, right? So they're asking the question, does sponsoring this podcast make us more money than we spent? And in order for a sponsorship to turn into a longterm arrangement, the podcast host needs to demonstrate that they can consistently drive new customers to that sponsors business. And so it doesn't matter to the sponsor if you have 200 downloads or 2000 downloads per episode. If the sponsor is making money, they will continue to pay for more ads. Does that make sense? So if you are an average size podcast, then sponsorships can be a really good strategy to consider. You can still create the host read ad. You can still endorse products that you believe in, but you're not being compensated by how many people listen to your podcast. You're being compensated based on the relationship they have with you. All right? So how do you get companies to agree to sponsor your podcast? So there's three things that I recommend you do. Number one, get to know your audience really well since it's essential for this to work that your audience is interested in the products that you're promoting. Much more essential than if you had a CPM ad bottle. You need to know which products are going to be a good fit. So ask yourself for your audience, what do they like to do? How do they spend their time? What problems are they facing in their life? How much money do they make? Do they have money to spend? Right? These are all questions you want to have answers to before you approach a company about a sponsorship. The second thing you need to do is some market research, right? Listen to a few other podcasts in your category and subcategory and try to figure out which companies are sponsoring those podcasts right now. Make a list of those companies and then go on their websites and find some contacts and info. Find a way to get in touch with the person that's making those ad buying decisions, right? You could even reach out to those podcast hosts if you want to get creative and see if you can get the contact info for those companies from them. So you want to figure out who's already spending money in your space because they're going to be more likely to say yes when you approach them about sponsoring your podcast. And then the third thing that you need to do in order to get a company to agree to sponsor your podcast is pitched them the value of your podcast, right? Why should someone give you money to promote their product? That is the question that you must answer and convincingly. So you need to persuade them that investing in your podcast is a smart financial decision. Now, a good sweet spot when you're first getting started and you're trying to build a relationship with a potential longterm sponsor is to pitch a five episode trial period. So they can test drive you, they can see if it's going to be worth the squeeze. And then once you get a company to agree to sponsor your podcast, you need to deliver, right? Think about how to integrate their product or service into your podcast content, whether that's interviewing the CEO of the company, devoting an entire episode to reviewing the product that you are promoting or craft compelling and personable, host read ads that you feature prominently, right you need to deliver. And then if after that trial period you're able to drive enough sales, that sponsor will stick with you and continue to invest in your podcast for months and years to come. So when done right, sponsorships can become longterm relationships that provide meaningful income for your podcast. And in next week's episode, you'll learn the third way that podcasters can make money through host read ads where you get paid after the sponsor gets paid. That's it for today. Hit the subscribe button. If you're watching this on YouTube or you can subscribe to the five minute Monday's podcast in your favorite app, squeeze even more podcast related content into your life. I love to link in the show notes to a blog post we wrote recently that covers monetization strategies. If you want to peak ahead and see what's coming up and there's something that you want us to talk about on a future episode, just click the link in the show notes to submit your question. Thanks for listening and as always, keep podcasting.