¶ From MTV to Marketing: Breaking the Rules
Hey everybody. Welcome back to The JPU Show, the podcast show, chock full of great advice for podcasters of all skill levels, sponsored by the Jax podcasters united group, the home for podcasters and audio creators in Northeast Florida. I'm your host, Badr Milligan, and I'm joined by the lovely newly married Blythe Milligan. Hey, Blythe, how you doing?
I'm doing well, it's gonna take a little getting used to
slightly kind of guy. I'm trying to commit it to muscle memory. All right. This is, I guess, you know, a little behind the scenes, depending on when we release this episode, in conjunction for the other ones we're recording. Today is the first set of videos that me and Blythe are recording since we
got married two weeks ago. So yeah, now we are now that annoying married podcast couple, but today we've got a great episode, and we are talking about podcast marketing plans, tips, tricks and etc. Probably could tell this is a topic that Blythe has brought forward, because she's all about marketing. So we're talking about podcast marketing blueprints life. I pass it to you. What are we talking about today? Specifically,
¶ The Challenge Strategy: Patreon-Only Success Story
sure. So I come from a sports entertainment background, where a lot of my role when I was a sports broadcaster, podcaster, was watching other shows, listening to other shows, seeing what they do, seeing how they brand their website, how they post their show on social media, if they do any kind of email marketing, most of them do not, but a lot of them are just strictly like social and, you know, just watching them from like a film perspective, be able to, you know, look at what they Do and
maybe pick up some tips and tricks of what they're doing, not necessarily what they're saying, but what they're doing in online spaces, and how I could sort of cherry pick what might work for my show. So now that podcasting is my main gig, I do the same thing for my own show, where I'm constantly watching how other podcasters are creating their content. How are they monetizing it? Where are they sending it out to social what social platforms? How they're sending it? Meaning,
are they doing video? Are they doing text posts? Are they doing images? What's the first line in the social media posts that they use to draw you in, what kind of titles are they using? What's the amount of words in the title that there's, I'm sorry, I pay attention to all of it. And so a few podcasts that really caught my attention recently. Is the strategy that drew me in was, I'm a big fan of the show called the challenge. It's been on MTV
for over 20 years. I think this year is actually their 20 year anniversary. I've watched damn near all of them. And so for a lot of that content over those years, we haven't really had a lot of like video or like podcast related content up until recently. So now what we're seeing is one podcaster in particular. Used to be on the show a lot, and he launches a challenge related podcast, but he doesn't launch publicly. He has social media clips that go crazy viral within the you know,
the challenge fandom. And so those clips go crazy viral, but his show is Patreon only, and I thought that that was such a new way. I don't know of any other show off the bat that launches strictly subscriber only, like you can't watch full episodes of his show unless you pirate it,
of course. But he only puts like, the juiciest clips, and he puts them on his social media, and it drives all of these subscribers to his premium like Patreon, exclusive only show, to the point where that Patreon has grown so much now they're doing traveling live shows all Across the country, and so this, it feeds into this model of, we're only going to give you a taste, and you know, clips that are really suited for social media, but if you want the full conversation, you got to pay to
do it. And then you start to feel like you're kind of part of this club of these listeners, that you kind of have an inside knowledge from this host who was part of it, and so now you're with this other community that's kind of growing, as far as the fandom is concerned, and then it opens up this other opportunity of being able to go to a live show, attend a live show, and probably pay a ticket to go to it. So I thought that that was
super smart. I have another example that I wanted to show, but I'll wait for you to kind of give your first thoughts on hearing all of this and the marketing strategies of podcasters that maybe you'd like to follow.
¶ Brilliant Brand Investment: The Oblivion Bar Makeover
Okay, my immediate reaction to that is is like all the right pieces were there, so opportunities. The first thing that comes to mind. That he had, you know, there was this wide opportunity to have a show like this out there. I think his celebrity factor also helps too. Being that close to the show, being, you know, a recognized name, and the
thing has a social media following, so that is a big caveat, yeah. So, yeah.
So I don't know, doing something that risque, or, you know, just like a better chance, ballsy, to do a Patreon only show would be something a regular, upcoming newbie podcaster could do unless you've got the name star power or recognition on whatever field that you're doing. I don't think that's the way to go, but clearly he's got, you know, the clout the pole, to be able to do that and and then the other word that comes to mind is that community aspect of podcasting,
right? Like leveraging, you know, the feeling of building out your community, whether that be like, that sense of inclusivity, where it's like, oh, I pay for this. I'm part of this club, the ability to like, if you're attending this live show, well then, you know, damn sure everyone else there is on the same level of fandom. So that's really impressive to hear, you know, it sounds successful. It sounds like, you know, you mentioned that it goes
off on social media. Yeah, I've thought about, well, let me take a step back. The only other show that I know that has done a similar model, I believe, I don't know they still do or not, but is talking Simpsons, which was the longest time was, I think, the biggest, maybe most popular, Simpsons based podcast show. They've been around for a long time, and I think a couple years ago, at least, when I checked they were only on Patreon, and they would either drop a preview or maybe one free
episode a month. I don't know if that model has changed any, or what the situation is there, but I know that for a while they were pretty much Patreon exclusive. So as far as other podcasters and shows that have done similar marketing strategies like that, I think that's pretty that's pretty unique, and, you know, very ballsy. And kudos to that. I ended up looking up. I was curious, like, what are some success stories for, you know, podcast marketing strategies and
things like that. Because my mind just goes to the typical right like, you cut a reel, you post it on social media, maybe you do a video podcast, maybe a trailer or something like that. And one particular example that came to mind that's a little more within my circle, and immediate circle is Chris hacker from the oblivion bar podcast, good friend of mine. He runs a
comic book Pop Culture Show. He did something for New York Comic Con last year, where, leading up to the con, or I think, the week of the con, he dropped one interview episode every single day, and I think it was a creator that was going to be at
New York Comic Con. So it was kind of like if you were going to the con, you know, you could hear this interview and, you know, maybe have something to talk with them about when you saw them at the convention, or if you weren't going to the convention, you know, it was kind of like a cool way to be a part of something. So obviously, I, you know, being able to talk to him behind the scenes, it was a lot of work, you know, getting all those interviews, pre recorded, edited, scheduled in
time. He's also trying to promote them while being at the con. And I guess you like, just to give Chris even more credit, this year, he actually took the summer off and spent a majority of the time working with a an ad agency, or some sort of agency that specializes in brands and things, and he completely revamped the look and feel of Oblivion bar pot. So they have a whole new logo. They've got, uh, artwork for every different kind of segments they do, whether it be an interview, a movie review,
a general discussion. I mean, he went all out. And I think that that says a lot about the care, and, yeah, the care that he has for the show, that he's willing to invest his real money to do these cosmetic things that maybe for and we're talking audio, right? So, like, you could make an argument that, you know, those are a lot of visual things that, you know, maybe they don't matter to someone that just
wants to listen to the show. But I do love the the mindset of like, you know, treating it like a brand, making sure you know everything you know, the branding is good. It looks sharp. So I'll give kudos to Chris hacker at Oblivion bar for doing some awesome, you know, thinking outside of the box when it comes to, like, podcasting and marketing. What was the other example you
¶ The Reddit Tactic: How Comfort Level Goes Viral
had? The other example was this, so I, I'm on I love tick tock. And so for a lot of podcasters, they definitely do the whole like, cut your clip and put it out on, on tick tock, eventually, you know, two weeks, three weeks, sometimes a month later, it makes it over to Instagram for the sorry to you know, for a little dig over at
the Instagram folks. But I mainly see these on tick tock where it's these Reddit posts where you're asking, am I the asshole, or you're telling like a ghost story or something like that, they will read and let me, let me just go ahead and preface this. They will read the question that is. Pose. This is their podcast format. So they pick, you know, five or six of these questions from this particular Reddit community, and they pick these questions, and then the host will discuss them
afterwards. But what they do with their clips, which I think is so smart, where they will talk about that they will keep that part in of them explaining the question. They'll list any updates. They'll show, sort of the initial post, reactions to certain parts of the conversation. So they do a really good job of giving you the gist of the conversation,
and then they cut it off. And so for that, that immediately hooks me in the 1000s and 1000s of comments that they get is what really drew me in, because I try to pay attention to what I do as a listener or as a consumer of content, and that if somebody gets me to I try to pay attention to, if I see A new show, what gets me wrapped into it, what gets me hooked into it? What makes me become a subscriber, what makes me want
to comment on their videos? And to me, that is such a brilliant way of allowing the audience to have a say in the discussion. And so for a lot of these, you know, am I the asshole? They're reading through these entire and they're reading them very well. They're reading it like a story. They're adding a little bit of tonality to it, nuance to not necessarily nuance, but inflections in their voices and
things like that. They're reading it like as if they are, you know, sort of a somebody who reads audio books or something like that, and then they cut it off to where now you feel compelled to share your opinion
in the comments itself. And so the way the Tiktok algorithm also works, which I think is so smart, and it makes things so much easier than you know, even where this, I guess, kind of algorithm was even six months ago, is if there's an update or, like, a part two or Part Three, Tiktok immediately shows that related video in the search bar in at the bottom. And so if you're hearing this conversation and it's, you know, maybe a little over a minute, they're gonna cut it off at that minute,
have the discussion. But then you can watch the next video, or the next part in that video. And then they take it a step further, where they have multiple clips per episode, because, remember, they're pulling like, five different questions from during one recording. And so they have several of these clips, and then they put all of those clips into a specific playlist for that episode. I would show you, sort of a, I guess, a screenshot of
it, or maybe a screen share. But I think most people can, kind of, you know, figure that out of where they're putting their clips. I mean, they have playlist options on their profile itself, and it says, like, Episode whatever, you know, episode 122, episode 123, they put those applicable clips inside of that folder. And so if you wanted to necessarily watch a whole episode, you could watch all of the clips in one playlist folder. So for an example of that, there is a podcast called
the comfort level podcast. And so that's where I get I'm on, I'm on their feed now. So it's a it's like three or four different hosts that all get together and they talk about these different questions that are posed, and they're really, it's very generalized. Anybody could do this, frankly, because
it's coming from Reddit. And so for a lot of the I guess, like, internet age over the last decade has been, you know, a big joke is, what is it like BuzzFeed that they would essentially pose or poach this content from Reddit on like the best, you know, 10 Italian spots in New York City that you got to try. This starts off as a Reddit thread, and Buzz sprout turns it into an article, and they eat up all of that SEO juice that that's looking for answers to
that question. They're doing kind of a similar play where they're taking that same content. It's kind of poaching, because that's essentially all their clips are. Is that they're poaching from Reddit and then creating content, or creating their perspective of the podcast itself. Does that make sense? I feel like I just did, like a whole like word salad, but I just really admired this promotion tactic where they're posing the question and they're stopping it before the hosts
even have time to chime in. Like you can see their visual reactions to parts of the the the conversation topic, but you don't hear what their reactions are unless you go to that episode and listen to that podcast episode,
¶ Corporate Creativity: GE's Sci-Fi Marketing Win
I think it makes a lot of sense. I do feel, yeah, it is kind of like low hanging fruit, poaching, you know, existing content. And I always feel like that's a big right for, like, hardcore Redditors. It's like, oh, here we go. You know, the content created as a podcasters are, you know, using
articles. Coming soon. Or Nice try BuzzFeed. Like, hearing
you say that they do give some thought into, like you said, adding some inflection, you know, the way they read it, and, you know, adding some sort of production value, I think is a cool way to, you know, I think that's a nice touch. Also, a lot
of people don't use a lot of people do use Reddit, but,
yeah, and not as many as you think they would now, in terms of, like, the the actual social media clips, I think they're leveraging a strategy that works really well for promoting a podcast on social media, which is building like anticipation, or having folks like, you know, like a catchy hook, you know. I think that goes a long way in having like, I mean, you you express it yourself, you know, like building interest, getting them to like, you know, what's next.
You know, wanting to build like, what's next, and I think that's an important step when promoting your show. Is like finding the juicy bits, the you know, the reason why someone should give it a listen, and the folks that are going to take that jump from one social, you know, one app, like a Tiktok to go possibly watching your whole show, you know, I think that's the key. Is, like, you know, just kind of stringing them, I can string along. Sounds like bad, but you're essentially kind of doing
that, right? You're like, you're getting on the hook. You're making them interested. You want to see what's next. You want to, you know? So that sounds like a great strategy. I actually want to share one more, because I, you know, I want to Google. I'm just curious, like, all right, what are some successful podcast marketing strategies that maybe I wasn't aware of, and I found this article on outbrain.com it's called Six excellent branded podcast marketing
examples. And a majority of the examples are companies that have a product that they're trying to sell, and they team up with a podcast agency or a podcast to come up with some sort of related, topical, sponsored content. And there was one in particular that I thought was really interesting. It's a podcast called afterlife, and it is in it is a podcast created by General Electric GE and a
company called panel ply. Panel ply, which I think is a podcast, you know, company, they make podcasts and obviously team up podcast agency. So this podcast I created, called afterlife, is a sci fi radio drama that follows along in a journalistic style as Ross, a low level FBI agent or employee, uses real world technologies made by GE to decode cryptic messages from somewhere while he simultaneously pieces together a mystery of significant, personal significance. I thought that was
great. And there's a whole bunch of other examples of other like Basecamp, you know, the team content, project management software, teaming up with, like podcasts and, you know, figuring out featured segments. And it just got me thinking of, you know, how that might be applicable to a newbie podcaster or a journeyman podcaster that's looking to partner up with
brands or other companies. Is, is, is positioning your podcast as a means to get a company's you know, message ethos, and this case for GE like they're literal products across. I thought that was pretty
interesting. Ways of of thinking outside of the box, of just your regular ad reads, or, you know, whatever promo swaps and things like that, is thinking of a marketing strategy that is applicable, but also not so heavy handed on the salesy side, you know, like, like, positioning your product as a me, you know, I don't know, just the way they integrated that into the story of the podcast itself is pretty ingenious.
I think it's smart. But I do have to admit, when I first heard you say GE, and immediately I was like, Absolutely not, like, not listening to that.
I was like, okay, GE, but you know, they're doing a sci fi radio drama, and they're incorporating, you know, when you think about what GE makes, it's like, pretty insane. How, how much stuff they actually do make in terms of technology, et cetera, et cetera. So it's like, okay, that's that kind of plausible, yeah, FBI agent would probably using some of this tech. Yeah, I
¶ Platform-Perfect: Choosing the Right Strategy for Your Show
think, I think it sounds super interesting, but I think the point you're, you're trying to make is that finding brands that make sense, yes, oh, absolutely. Or finding ways to convey your message that makes sense. And so for like, like, this comfort level podcast to talk, you know, to have these, am I the asshole segments? Not sure that would work on LinkedIn, maybe don't, don't know. I would have to try it, but it works well on Tiktok. Probably works really well on Instagram. I haven't actually
checked that yet. Probably works pretty I've seen accounts on Twitter do the same thing, but they do it in a text based format. So there's a lot of those questions that are sort of virality moments that start on a particular social media channel, and if you can tap into that, like some of these folks have. Done, or even, you know, creating that yourself, which is the holy grail, then you're, you're on the right pathway to getting more eyeballs on your product, on your podcast, and
then getting more subscribers. I mean, it's not gonna be anything crazy like I've, I've had a couple tick tocks go viral. You don't really see that much traction from it. So I think it's the lesson here is about seeing what other people are seeing, what others seeing what's working for others, and seeing how you can apply it to your own. Because I haven't had anything go viral that's related
to my podcast. I've had something go viral that was completely unrelated, which is not really, I guess, the point, but with these shows, I do have to wonder that it feels like a really, like focused effort, and I think that maybe that's a big lesson for me, is to, you know, focus more on that core audience that just wants to hear, you know, some gossip, and they just want to have a release for the net, for the platform that
they're on. And, you know, while they are getting a ton of engagement on these, you know, these clips that they're putting out, how much of that is actually going and people going to subscribe to their their podcast and their YouTube is probably a fraction of that amount, quite frankly, but it's better than nothing, and it's all it cost them. Was the the time and the investment to edit the clip. It's better than
advertising. So I would say that these, these kinds of strategies I would deploy first, especially from this comfort level podcast, not necessarily launching with the paid only podcast like the example I mentioned earlier, but playing around with some of these strategies that you see working for other podcasts, as long as it makes sense for you and your show and the platform that you're sending that content to think is really important
here. I think that this is something that you could watch other podcast blueprints and come up with the blueprint of your own that works for you and your audience and the platforms you want
to be on. Yeah, great advice, and I think this is a good spot as any to flip the tables on the listeners we want to know from you guys. If, if you had a favorite podcast marketing Blythe print, have you seen another podcast do something really cool, thinking outside of the box, promote their show and get new listeners involved and engaged. Let us know, or maybe you've tried a couple of things. Maybe you've got your own podcast marketing tips that we haven't even talked
about or thought of. We would love to hear that. Leave us a comment in the show notes. No, not a comment in the show notes. Leave us a comment on the YouTube video, or send us fan mail. Text us fan mail if you're listening to the podcast version, we would love to hear from you, but that's all we got for you today. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll catch you around next time. All right. Peace. You.