Deciding On The Perfect Podcast Name

Cara teams up with Serena from our podcaster success team to discuss how to choose a podcast name that is clear, searchable, and fits your brand without stalling your launch. 

If you have questions for the Podcaster Success team about naming your podcast, email us at support@buzzsprout.com.

Keep podcasting!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction To Today's Topic
• 1:05 Why Strong Titles Matter
• 2:31 Core Naming Principles
• 4:04 Introducing the Buzzsprout Name Generator

Transcript

Cara Pacetti: 0:00

Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, brought to you by the people at Butzbro. I'm your host, Cara Passetti, and I'm bringing you the best tips and strategies to keep you podcasting with confidence. If you've ever stared at a blank page or a list of ideas and felt completely stuck when you were trying to create something new, you are not alone. Picking a title can feel like one of the hardest steps in launching your new podcast. Your title is your first impression, your hook, your brand, all rolled up in just a couple of words. And if I'm being honest, it's really stressful. So today I've invited Serena from our podcaster success team to help me answer the question how do I decide on a podcast title so I can move forward with launching my podcast? Serena is actually one of our newest members to the podcaster success team, but you wouldn't know it because she already feels like a seasoned pro. Serena, thank you so much for being here today with me.

Serena Nigro: 1:00

Thanks for having me, Kara. I'm really excited to be here and to talk about how to name your podcast.

Cara Pacetti: 1:04

So first I want to start off with why is it so important to have a strong podcast title? Why not just use the first thing that comes to mind? Also, why do podcasters get stuck on this? Serena, can you walk through some of the reasons why it's important to take some time and some intentionality when naming your podcast?

Serena Nigro: 1:22

For sure. Having a strong first impression is really important when you're trying to get those new listeners. This is the first thing they will see when they search up your podcast. And it can make or break if it is an enticing title or strong, it will stand out and more people will be interested in clicking on it. Also, having a strong podcast title can help you get discovered in podcast directories such as Apple and Spotify.

Cara Pacetti: 1:47

Absolutely. Whatever words you are adding into your title, you want them to be relevant in searches. And so it's important to have that title relate to what your podcast is about.

Serena Nigro: 1:57

For example, if you have a podcast that's about raising chickens and you include the word chicken in your title, it's gonna be a lot easier for listeners to find that podcast when they go and search on the podcast directories.

Cara Pacetti: 2:11

Also, Serena, kind of like you said, that first impression, it really communicates the tone and the vibe for your overall podcast. You said it could be enticing or not. So it is important to be intentional when naming your podcast and to take some time thinking about what you want to communicate to your listeners. Exactly. So now that we've gone through why it's important to have a strong podcast title, I do want to offer you some takeaways for picking your podcast title and deciding on a name. First, we want to keep it short and simple. A benefit of using a short title is that you can make it fit within your podcast artwork. We always recommend keeping your podcast title somewhere within your artwork. And if you have a very lengthy title, that's really not gonna be a great aesthetic and it could be really cluttered in your artwork.

Serena Nigro: 3:01

Also, it's important if you have a pun or a misspelt word in it, while that can be a fun way of setting your podcast apart, it can also make it harder for listeners to find your show. So you want to make sure that it is clear enough that if somebody's trying to find your podcast, they can easily search it up.

Cara Pacetti: 3:22

To your example with chickens, if you spell chicken C-H I K I N S to somehow make that similar to your last name, people are not gonna find that. They're looking for a podcast about chickens. The whole goal here is for your podcast to be searchable and for it to be very direct with the title. Would you agree?

Serena Nigro: 3:41

Yeah, for sure. A tip I'd recommend is making sure that the title is not overused. You want to search various search engines and podcast hosts such as Apple and Spotify, just to make sure that there are not too many podcasts in the space with a similar name.

Cara Pacetti: 3:57

Yes, Serena, that is great advice. You definitely want to check to see if anybody is using your same podcast name. And to help you with this, here at Buzzsprout, we've actually created a Buzzsprout Rout name generator using AI. And so our name generator uses proven naming patterns that perform well in podcast apps. It optimizes the name for a radio test where names should be easy to say, spell, and recall after hearing them one time. And the last thing that it does is checks for name collisions in major podcast directories, like you were saying. So it will let you know if this podcast title has already been taken, if it's been used in the past, and it will give you lots of options to pick from. So super helpful tool. I'm gonna link that in the show notes.

Serena Nigro: 4:44

I really love our name generator. I think it's a great tool. So definitely check it out. Also, you don't want to overthink your name. Some podcasters spend too much time trying to choose the perfect name and they don't ever launch their podcasts. So try not to overthink it and just go for it.

Cara Pacetti: 4:58

Some of the best podcast names come after trying out a few options, getting feedback, and even recording a couple of test episodes. I personally have worked on a podcast where I have changed the name quite a few times. And the reason is because as I started to record episodes and create content, my original title idea when I was looking at my blank page was not fitting. And we make that really easy for you. You can always change the name of your podcast by going to settings, podcast settings inside of your bus broad account. And whenever you make those changes inside of your BestBrout account, they'll automatically be populated across all of the directories.

Serena Nigro: 5:35

If your podcast has been live for a while and you already have that established audience, but your content has shifted a little bit and you're ready for a change, you can actually walk through the process of a rebrand. We actually did that with podcasting Q&A and has proven to be successful. But if you want to hear more about that process and walking through it, we can link that episode in the show notes.

Cara Pacetti: 5:58

Yeah, absolutely. It's been fun. This podcasting Q&A podcast has actually been through the name change, and yet we still have loyal listeners. So it can definitely be done. That's a great point. If you have questions or would like some help naming your podcast, we'd love to help you. You can reach out to Serena or I or any of the podcaster success teammates by emailing support at buzzsprout.com. If you have a question that you'd like to see answered on a future podcasting Q&A episode, just click the send us a text link in the show notes and send in any questions that you have. Serena, it's been a pleasure having you join me for today's episode. I really appreciate it. Be sure to join us every Monday to kickstart your week. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, keep podcasting.