I want to talk about a couple of things I've learned with the launch of a show that we consider a reference in our house: I'm talking about Truora's universe: A startup story.
Before tactics, I think it is important to reframe some of the beliefs that exist around pitches.
Podcast launches are not a "catwalk": we don't need all the cameras at a specific time and moment.
The podcasts, as I've said several times, are cooked to low heat and rarely their best day in terms of reproductions is the day of their launch, precisely because, as the days go by, they build their audience and their greatest peaks occur towards the future.
This rule does not apply to podcasts made by influencers because in this case it is likely that the launch day is a day of many reproductions. In this case, the measurement should be the ability of the content to retain the audience once the launch day has passed. boom of the advertisement.
In a launch the only metric that matters is not "plays".
I think this is one of the biggest mistakes of a launch: focusing all the attention on how many people listen. I understand the importance of this, but good podcasts live from voice-to-voice, and for that it is essential that the content is liked. That's why playback metrics are only one side of the coin: we also need to measure audience retention and how engaged they are with our content.
Now, four practices that have worked very well, many of them learned with Daniel Bilbao and the Truora team.
1. Map very well all the channels that can be used to disseminate the podcast: whether they are created, owned or not, where are we going to promote ourselves?
The idea is to go beyond the company's social networks and website. It is to think about absolutely everything:
- Possible micro-influencers
- Networks of people within the company who have an interesting audience
- Media (Large, small, here even blogs count)
- Other podcasters and content creators
- Groups on Telegram / WhatsApp
- WhatsApp mailing lists
- Podcast Apps
2. It's not about making the big hit: it's about splitting the hit, experimenting and learning.
This has been one of the most important things in the launch of Truora Universe. It is a launch that was thought with many small actions that may or may not work. Here we didn't come up with "one big post" or the only "trailer" of the season... On the contrary, we have executed as many actions as we can and we measure the impact.
With that kind of thing, we understood the force that WhatsApp could have in the diffusion and, at the same time, the impact of our posts in networks: it is very small compared to a post in Daniel's networks.
This seems obvious, but many companies plan very well, for example, launch day communications and leave aside continuous actions in their channels. Even if they are small actions, from the launch onwards, permanent actions are needed, which are constantly analyzed in terms of impact.
3. Actions are not "boutique" type: quantity does not have to detract from quality.
One of the actions that, in theory, podcasters should do the most is to look for "cross-promotions": that another podcaster mentions you in their show and you mention theirs.
Before Truora, I was very "selective" about this option: I was looking for those three or four shows that could cross-promote us. However, with The Truora Universe it has been very different: I have written, without lying, to about 40 podcasters looking for cross-promotions, I have talked to many and, to my surprise, the volume in this type of actions does matter: although not all of them accept, the rate of those who do is much higher than if I had done it selectively.
Here's a tip: we built a document with different arguments for podcasts with different audiences. Talking to many implies exploring in other categories, in other less "obvious" places that we have audiences in common... So the document has been a great help to shed light on how the show could be interesting for different audiences.
4. Ask for feedback
Aside from the value of receiving feedback, we find that this is a powerful way in which we get to be known by people we want to be known by. Also, this allows us to not only ask for an exchange, like a promotion, but to start a conversation and that is key: if there is a conversation, there is a real door to genuinely help us spread the content.
Who to ask feedback? Friends, people with communities that might be interested in your content, other podcasters, influencers of the type of content you are creating, or simply people you admire and would like your content to be known.
Remember: noise is not made at the launch and that's it, especially not when it comes to a podcast. In fact, it's not about "noise" and understand noise as making a post everywhere that day, sending an email or hype a trailer: it's about "putting a conversation on the table". For that to happen, we have to "talk" continuously. Otherwise, we are that friend who came to dance with everyone at the party, but after ten o'clock nobody saw him again and in the end... he missed the best part of the party.
How was your experience? We would like to hear about it.