PodSchool Podcast | Should you launch your podcast with episode 0?

What is episode zero?

“Episode 0” is really just a wanky term for an introductory episode or a trailer and it’s the episode that sets up your show.

It’s also a place for you to introduce yourself to your audience and it’s important for a number of reasons…

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It gives you a place to show people why they should listen 

When you’re trying to build an audience for a new podcast it’s a good idea to give people a sense of what they’re going to get.

If you’ve recorded episodes ahead of time and you’ve got great audio snippets of upcoming shows, featuring those in your introductory episode is a great way to get people interested in what’s on the way.

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It gives you somewhere to introduce yourself

Ideally, when you get into the first real episode you’ll be jumping straight into the killer content.   But an introductory episode gives you the space to give your audience some background on who you are as well as what the show is about.

This is really useful if you’re doing a show where you’re going to be teaching people or sharing your knowledge and you want to explain why they should listen to you.

Setting yourself up as an expert in the space is important because people need to know they can trust your advice and an intro episode can be a great place to do that.

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It helps you build momentum

If you’ve got great content in your introductory episode that means you’ve got something compelling to share before you’ve actually released an episode.

This helps you build buzz and can help get early subscribers and followers, which can help you rank in the charts when your first episode drops.

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It gives you more control over when your show launches

To submit a show to podcast directories like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify you need to have a piece of audio uploaded inside your podcast host.

Once that piece of audio is uploaded, your podcast host generates an RSS feed and that’s what you submit to the podcast apps so they know your show exists and can feature it.

The problem is, different apps take different amounts of time to register your show.

In my experience, Spotify is usually the quickest but I’ve had shows turn up in Apple and Google after 48 hours, two weeks, five days…basically, there’s been no consistency.

This is important to note because you want your show to be available in all the places people might be looking for it as soon as your first real episode goes live.

That introductory episode or trailer gives you something to submit to podcast apps so you can save your first episode for when your show is actually ‘live.’

This delay only happens when you submit your podcast to directories for the first time.

Once your show has been accepted the feed will update straight away every time you publish a new episode.

Got a burning podcasting question you’d like answered? 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.

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