Give people something to try before they buy
A podcast trailer can help you drum up interest in your show before you’ve dropped an episode because it gives listeners a taste of what they’ll hear when your show is live.
Just like the trailer for a movie, a podcast trailer should include highlights of what people can expect and give them a reason to get excited about what’s on the way.
How do you create a podcast trailer?
Record episodes ahead of time
If you’re recording episodes before you go live (which I highly recommend) you’ll have a lot of material to include in your podcast trailer.
If your show features interviews with interesting people, grab some of your favourite moments and include them in your trailer. That way listeners can get a sense of who’s going to be on your show as well as the tone of the conversations.
Is it going to be heavy or light? Will they laugh or cry? Will they be educated or entertained? The more of this you can get across in your podcast trailer the better.
If your show is just you and your co-host talking rather than an interview series, you can take some of the most hilarious/compelling/interesting moments from your recordings and include those in the trailer for the show.
With these types of shows, you want to get people hooked on the chemistry between the hosts.
Or get them intrigued enough about the content to make them want to listen to more.
Warning: The following audio is not safe for work
Write a compelling script
If your show is topical or timely you might not be able to record episodes ahead of time, which means you might not have bits of audio to feature in your podcast trailer and that’s fine.
If it’s possible you could record practice episodes to get audio you can use but not every show is going to yield a bunch of short snappy grabs that you can build a trailer out of.
If that’s the case, don’t worry, you can still get people excited by writing and voicing a compelling script.
Since you don’t have grabs to play with, you need to make sure you get as much personality as possible into your words and your voice.
You can also use sound effects, music and other bits of audio texture to bring it to life.
Be selective
If you are using grabs in your podcast trailer make sure you only select the absolute highlights.
That might seem like an obvious thing to say but you need to put yourself in your listener’s shoes rather than picking the bits you like best.
If you’re thinking about your audience you’ll avoid things like in-jokes or anything that might be too self-indulgent (no matter how hilarious you think it is).
The same goes for how you should think of your script.
Be selective about the words you use and think about how to get people excited about your show without overexplaining things or getting lost in the detail.
Remember, your audience has never met you so this could be the first (and potentially last) chance you have to make a good impression.
Don’t waste your listener’s time
A podcast trailer should be fast-paced so your listener is happy to come along for the ride because if they’re bored in your trailer they’ll assume they’ll be bored in your show.
So it’s important to hold their interest right to the end.
Ideally, you want it to be short and sharp so you can get across everything you need to while still leaving people wanting more.
Naturally, some podcast trailers might deal with subject matters that require things to be a bit more fleshed out but no matter what your show is about you want to leave your listener’s ears before they’re asking you to.
A podcast trailer can help grow your followers and subscribers
To submit your show to directories like Apple Podcasts you need to have at least one piece of audio in your feed.
This is what’s needed to create your RSS feed which is the thing you submit to podcast directories so they know your show exists.
When you submit your RSS feed (it’s as easy as copying and pasting it) it can take a while for some directories to register your show. And no two directories take the same amount of time, which is fun.
Thankfully, once your show has been recognised in the apps, each subsequent episode will appear straight away.
So your trailer is a good piece of evergreen content to put into the feed while you’re waiting for it to pop up in directories so you’re not wasting your first full episode.
It also gives you a piece of audio to point people to when you’re pre-promoting your show so hopefully, they’ll love it so much they’ll hit follow or subscribe.
Anything you can do to build buzz or give people a reason to listen before your podcast goes live is going to help you build momentum when you drop that first episode.
Got a burning question you’d like answered on the podcast? Send me an email.
Want to start your own podcast but need a little help? Download my “How To Start A Podcast” guide or sign up for my online podcasting course, PodSchool.
Rachel,
So .my podcast is just me today…interviews eventually, but all my stuff is just me. Should I still put a trailer together of just me introducing the show and then uploading that mp3 to iTunes so they approve the channel? But if I do that, is that my first ‘podcast episode’ and therefor not what folks came to hear? Sort of? How do I put the trailer into social media…I was actually thinking of making a short video and posting it directly to Facebook telling folks I’m launching a podcast…is that ok as well? Thanks! Lew
Hey Lew. This other article on my site might help answer some of your questions https://rachelcorbett.com.au/should-you-launch-your-podcast-with-episode-0/. Let me know if not! Rach