Podcasting Q&A

How to create a podcast intro your listeners will love

• Buzzsprout

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Kwame from Negotiate Anything asks, "What are some things we should keep in mind when it comes to doing an introduction?"

TL;DR
A well-produced podcast intro can increase the quality of your podcast, retain new listeners, and serve as a launching point for the rest of your episode. When done poorly, however, it can have the opposite effect.

In general, there are three main things you want to communicate in your podcast intro - who you are, what your podcast is about, and why they should care. The first two are pretty self-explanatory ("Hi, my name is Travis Albritton. Podcasting Q&A dives into the tips and strategies independent podcasters need to take their show to the next level"), but the third element can really take your intro over the top.

If you can effectively communicate the impact that your podcast will have on someone's life, you'll have new listeners subscribing at a constant rate. Will your podcast help them lose weight? Make more money? Save more money? Improve their relationships? Serve as an escape from the world? Identify how your podcast will make someone's life better and lean into it.

The ideal length of a podcast intro is between 15 and 30 seconds. Long enough to say everything you need to say without dragging on unnecessarily.

When looking for intro music, make sure you only look at royalty-free music. When a song or track is royalty-free, that means you can use that song in your podcast without having to pay the artist every time you use the song (and you won't be sued for copyright infringement).

Check out our blog post with nine free royalty-free music websites to find the perfect song for your podcast.

3x Pro-Level Royalty-Free Music Websites:

  1. Soundstripe (use the code in the Buzzsprout "Resources" tab for 15% off)
  2. Epidemic Sound
  3. Audioblocks


Record your podcasting question at Speakpipe.com/Buzzsprout to be featured on a future episode.

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Travis :

In today's episode, you'll learn how to create a podcast intro that your listeners will love. Welcome to Podcasting Q&A, where we bring you the best tips and strategies to launch grow and monetize your show. This week's question comes from Kwame.

Kwame :

Hi, my name is Kwame Christian, I am the director of the American negotiation Institute and the host of the world's top ranked negotiation podcast called negotiate anything. What are some things we should keep in mind when it comes to doing an introduction? Because as a podcaster, I like listening to other people's shows. And sometimes introductions are just too long and it's a complete turnoff. We don't get to the content until like, three or four minutes into the episode. So how long should an introduction be? What are some key things it should cover? What are some things that we should avoid doing when coming up with a podcast introduction?

Travis :

Thank you so much for your question Kwame. Now a well produced podcast intro can help you retain new listeners, increase the perceived quality of your show and serve as a launching point for the rest of your episode. But when you don't pull it off when you don't do an intro, well, it actually has the opposite effect. So in this episode, we're going to break down the DNA of a well produced intro. So you can create one for your podcast. Now, when you're creating your podcast intro, there's a couple of things that you want to make sure that you cover a couple things that you want to make sure that you say. The first one is who you are specifically, like, What is your name? So you can start your podcast is Hey, welcome to my podcast. My name is Travis Albritton. And then your credentials, why should someone listen to you? So if you have experience in whatever you're talking about, you want to make sure that you mentioned that if you went to school for something if you have a job doing something, if you have clients that you work with, you want to mention the things that lend credence to your advice. This is specifically important your podcast is centered around you and your expertise. The next thing that you want to make sure to include in your podcast intro is what your podcast is about in this podcast, for instance, Podcasting Q&A, at the very beginning, we talked about, well, one, what is it that we're going to discuss? And then our opening tagline is that we're giving you tips and strategies to launch, grow and monetize your podcast. So if you're a podcaster, that speaks directly to you, because you're listening to this, or you're watching this, because you're looking for those tips and you want to think through for your podcast in a similar way, what is it that people are looking for? And then how do you make sure that you address that in your intro, so they're going to continue to listen, not just to the one episode, but to every single episode that will actually turn into a subscriber that then goes on to download everything that you have. And then the third thing that you want to make sure you mentioned in your podcast intro is why someone should care. Why should anyone care that you're passionate Cast exists, are they going to lose weight? Are they going to be happier? Are their relationships going to get better? Are they going to make money save money? What is it that you were offering to them? What is the end result look like for them if they not only listen to your podcast, but then also put it into practice. And this doesn't just have to be podcasts that are informational. If you have a story based podcast, or you have podcasts about Dungeons and Dragons, and you're playing out different scenarios, like it can be an escape, it can be entertainment, right? That could be what you're offering to your listeners. Now, the second element to a good podcast intro is the music and the best advice I can give when someone asks, what kind of music should I use? what genre of music? What's the style, the tone, how loud should it be? How fast should it be? My answer is always well choose the music that is consistent with the personality of your podcast. So if you have a fun, upbeat podcast, your intro music should be fun and upbeat Beat. If your podcast is dark and gritty, then you want to choose music that is dark and gritty as far as where to find music for your podcast, you are looking for websites that offer royalty free music that means that you can use those songs on your podcast without being worried about being sued for copyright infringement, or having to pay them a royalty every time you use the song. So the three that we recommend are sound stripe, which is the service that we use typically for like 95% of our royalty free music, epidemic sound, which is really popular with YouTubers, but also becoming increasingly popular with podcasters. And then audio blocks. Those are the three paid options where for between 12 and 15 bucks a month you have unlimited, royalty free music tracks that you can use for your podcast episodes and feel great about Now there are some free options as well. I'll leave a link to a blog actually where we mentioned nine free royalty free music sites to find the perfect song for your podcast intro So how long should your intro be? Typically the sweet spot is between 15 and 30 seconds any longer than 30 seconds and you start to overstay your welcome anything less than 15 and it can be difficult to communicate everything that you possibly want to communicate. And then as a bonus here I wanted to throw in outros. What do you do at the end of your podcast episode. So the value of an outro is it signals with audio that your podcast is wrapping up but it also gives you a fantastic opportunity to give your listeners a call to action. Now a call to action is simply instructions for what they need to do next that could be leave review in Apple podcasts stitcher or pod chaser that could be to go and you know, join your Patreon page so they can support the podcast financially. That could be that you want them to sign up for a free giveaway and join your email list. Whatever is the most important thing that you want your listeners should do at the end of the episode. That's what you put in the outro. And that is everything that you need to know about how to create a great podcast intro and podcast. Outro thank you so much for sending us your question. Kwame. Now if you have a question you want us to cover on a future episode of Podcasting Q&A, just go to speak pipe comm slash Buzzsprout and you can record a brief audio message and we can create an episode about it in the future. Podcasting Q&A is available both as a video and a podcast. So if you prefer watching videos, go to the Buzzsprout YouTube channel, subscribe there to get new episodes of Podcasting Q&A every single week. And if you're more of an audio junkie like I am, you can find Podcasting Q&A in your favorite podcast app. And if you like what you heard you got something out of this podcast episode that's really going to benefit you and your podcast. We would love to hear about it. And the best way for you to do that is to leave us a review on pod chaser see what I'm doing here. This is the call to action right at the end of the episode, go to pod chaser. leave us a review and we'll reply to each and every single one of them. let you know how much we appreciate you taking the time to do that and Allow us to start a dialogue about how we can make the show even better for you. Well, that's it for today. Thanks for listening and as always, keep podcasting