Are you an online entrepreneur looking for the greatest tips, strategies, tools and resources? Of course you are right like, who isn't if you're trying to grow a business online, you always are looking for the new trends and the things that will help your business move faster, more effectively. Well, I'm excited to participate in this year's bc stack 2020 This is a program that bundles 65 different digital marketing, how to products and master classes into one stack. You're gonna find topics like Facebook ads, copywriting, Instagram, WordPress, SEO, social media, YouTube, podcasting, Pinterest, email analytics, and more. So I am so excited for this happening. It's coming on July 19 2020. So Mark your calendars and get ready because it's going to be exciting.
Krystal Proffitt :Have you been thinking how incredible it would be if you had someone to answer all of your podcast marketing questions? Oh my gosh, you are in for a treat today because I have an incredible interview to share with you. So let's get right to it.
Krystal Proffitt :Welcome to the profit podcast where we teach entrepreneurs how to start launch and market their podcast. I'm your host, Krystal Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today because if you've been trying to figure out the world of podcasting, think of this show as the time saving shortcut you've been looking for. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Krystal Proffitt :Okay, so y'all already know how much I love to geek out on podcasting, or if you're brand new here, you're going to
Krystal Proffitt :Find it out pretty quickly. Once you hit that subscribe button and you hear me in your earbuds all the time. You're gonna say, I don't know, anybody who is obsessed with podcasting, as much as Krystal. But today I want to talk to you about something I'm equally obsessed with. And that is marketing. Did you know that that's what I went to school for? Yeah, I have my bachelor's degree in marketing. And it was just the one thing I was so drawn to as a young adult, and it's what still gets me so excited. I love it when you come to me with questions about how can I get my audience to pay attention? or How can I grow my audience? Or what are some other fun things to try? So instead of just me giving you my tips and strategies, I wanted to reach out to another podcast marketing expert. So I invited Alban Brooke who's the Head of Marketing at Buzzsprout to come on to the podcast.
Krystal Proffitt :We actually did a live stream on Facebook and on YouTube. And it turned out incredible. It was such an awesome interview, and I cannot wait to hear what you think about this episode. But let me tell you a little bit about Alban. So he has written a podcasting guide that has been read over a million times. Yes, I said a million like he knows his stuff. And he knows what he's talking about whenever it comes to marketing, and especially with marketing, your podcast. So he also co host to podcast Buzzcast, which is a weekly podcast put out by Buzzsprout and How to Start a Podcast, another podcast by Buzzsprout. He lives in Jacksonville Beach, Florida with his wife and daughter and I just can't wait for y'all to get to know Alban a little bit more. So here's my conversation with Alban Brooke.
Krystal Proffitt :Well, hey there, everybody. I hope Y'all are having a fantastic day because I am super excited for what's about to go down. So if you are brand new here, I just want to remind you that I am Krystal Proffitt and I am so excited that you're here watching this broadcast today or listening to this podcast episode because you are in for a real treat. So I am so excited to call Buzzsprout my podcast hosting home and I've been with him for about two years now. And I am so excited because I reached out to their head of marketing and I said, Hey, can we get a little chat about podcast marketing? Because I know so many people in this community have questions about podcast marketing. And he said, Well, sure. Krystal I'd love to do it. And so I'm so excited for Alban Brook to be joining us here today. So Alban, if you're ready to go, I'm going to pull You in and we're gonna get started. So are you ready? All right, here we go. It's good. How are you, Alban?
Alban Brooke :Doing well, thanks for having me.
Krystal Proffitt :Yes, this is so fun. So this is actually the first time I'm streaming in a few different places. I've done live broadcasts before, but I'm like, hey, like, let's just try something fun. And I was glad that you were up for it, because this is just gonna be just so much fun. So I'm really excited. So can you tell everybody a little bit about who you are and what you do and all the cool things about Buzzsprout?
Alban Brooke :Yeah, sure. So I'm the head of marketing for Buzzsprout. In a former life, I was a lawyer. And then I switched over to tech and came to work at Buzzsprout. And what we do is were the easiest way to start professional podcast. So we try to give you all the tools from hosting to promotion tools, which I'm sure will talk a lot about today, to stats and analytics. Anything you need to help make you a successful podcaster and, uh, you know, our whole thing is we always want to be honest with you. So if it's somebody who's podcasting isn't the right fit. Hopefully we can direct you the right way.
Krystal Proffitt :That's awesome. Oh my gosh. Well, I have to tell you Alban, it's so funny. I actually just got a comment from Kay. She says, I feel like I know Alban. I watch all the videos.
Alban Brooke :Hi Kay, well, we know each other now.
Krystal Proffitt :That's awesome. So if you aren't familiar with with Buzzsprout and I just have to tell you hands down. I chose y'all as the number one resource for me because y'all have just you have podcasts and videos and just all kinds of blogs, newsletters, all kinds of amazing resources that I am just so excited about. So can you tell me a little bit about kind of the back end of what your dream because I know like you'll have a dream team I love Kevin I've met Marshal Travis all of you guys are so incredible in it. You're showing up for your members of your community with a servant's heart. So can you kind of give us like a little bit about like, what is your overall mission?
Alban Brooke :Whenever it comes to podcasting, and just having like, just being the number one podcast platform? Is that your goal? Or is it just to be the best at what you already do? Well, I think we recently we do this like internal book club, and we read different books and kind of try to, you know, help each other get better as a team. And one thing I always thought was we always were trying to like hire the best people who had the most skills, all this stuff. And that never resonated with me when we heard that. But then we recently read a book, and it taught me so much about people being hungry and really caring. And Kevin has said a lot of times, he was like, you know, to have someone who cares a lot matters a lot more than someone who maybe has the skills because somebody who has cares will learn the skills and somebody who has the skills that doesn't care.We'll leave as soon as they can, you know, clock out for the day. And so our whole mentality is you got to hire people that care. And what that means for Buzzsprout is that we actually care about your podcasts when someone's writing in, you're not kind of belittling the podcast going, Oh, it's not even really important. You're going yeah, this really means a lot to somebody. And what can we do as a team to partner with you to make you successful? We had somebody who moved a pretty big podcaster, who moved from another platform. And we asked him at one point, you know, what makes us different? How would you describe it goes, Oh, the fact that you guys even care to ask that is the difference. And so that is kind of, we kind of taken that and adopted it as all the educational materials is just like we want to help people be successful, so that you can either figure out that it's the right thing for you or that you can find something else that's going to work well for you and your business.
Krystal Proffitt :That's awesome. And I have to tell you as like I said, I've been part of your community for over two years now. And I'm just like, I feel that in every single part of the process from you're constantly innovating and looking for ways that you can help your communities not ways to put you guys on top, but how can you make the entire experience so I just wanted to make sure and that y'all got lots of kudos for being such an amazing platform, because I hear it all the time. People are like, Krystal, thank you so much for introducing me to Buzzsprout. And I'm like, yeah, I'm glad I found them first. And I'm not telling you to go over there because they'll answer all of your questions that I can't answer because that's, that's kind of my thing is I love to teach entrepreneurs how to podcast but I'll just be honest, I'm not the brains behind so many of the technical questions that are out there. So if you're up for it, I actually have some questions from the community. I kind of pulled the audience first and that's it. All right. I'm gonna have the head of marketing. Mrs. Brown, what are your questions? So are you good with that?
Alban Brooke :I'm ready. Let's do it. So we're gonna do some rapid fire questions?
Krystal Proffitt :Yeah, we're gonna do some rapid fire questions from the community. And then I have an extra special something, some rapid fire questions that I know, a lot of our audience like they're already thinking or they've been asking me and I don't know the answer. So I'm going to shoot those at you in a little bit. But right now, I want to start with two questions or questions from two different people. So Dan asked, based on what you've seen in marketing to podcasters and talking to them, what is trending right now and why?
Alban Brooke :Mmm hmm. What do you mean by what is? Is that to marketers like what's actually working in selling people on podcasting? Or is that more of a How are podcasters positioning themselves?
Krystal Proffitt :I think it's I think it's both so I know Dan, he is actually he's a member of my Poddy People community, and he is a marketer himself. He has the pro growth Marketing Podcast. So I think it is a two part question and asking like, you know, we're trying to turn people on to podcasting in general, but also as a podcaster. How do we, you know, really make something stand out. So I know that he's a new, a newer podcaster, if that helps.
Alban Brooke :Okay, so from the podcasting sites, just getting your podcast out to the world, a lot of other types of media, YouTube, social media, you know, are far extension like maybe like a tick tock, they all have these platforms that have been built, and it does two things for them. One is it gives this platform control over all the content, but it also gives them a really easy way to surface good content to new viewers or listeners. On to a big audience. podcasting, we had it intentionally as podcasters said we're going to step back from that we want to control this a bit more. We don't want to be like the employee. We want to be the owner. Have something. And so when we go and do it on our own, the part that we don't get the double edged sword of this is the audience is harder to find. But once we connect with our audience, they will be here long term. So what that leads you to is we need to leverage all these other platforms for what's good about them, which is the growth aspect. And then bring people back to subscribe to our shows, because we're in this for the long game. 100 people subscribe to your podcast is much more valuable than 1000 people on a YouTube channel that can change overnight and you could lose everybody. So what you know, some practical tips for that, when we you know, you see those things, the moving things on social media, the visual soundbites or audio grams. Those are exceptionally good at getting people to engage with your podcast. Because you're meeting people where they're at. They're on Facebook or Instagram with a piece of content. That's sesigned for them, so it fits the parameters, it works the way they expect. And then it gives them a taste of your podcast. If there's 30 seconds out of your show that's engaging and really valuable. And people listen to it, they'll go, Oh, this sounds like something I would be interested in. And so they move back. So it's always I would say, goes back to leveraging other communities, other platforms to bring people to your podcasts because podcasts don't naturally grow on themselves.
Krystal Proffitt :No, that's great. And I actually, now that you say that about, you know, sound bites and audio grams. There was another question that someone asked recently, and I think it was in the Buzzsprout Group, which if y'all are not in there, there's a Buzzsprout Facebook group. What is it like 12,000 people now? I don't know it's at least 10,000. It's a party. Okay. It is a party in the Buzzsprout Facebook group, but somebody asked in there, what's a good length? So if someone were taking your advice, and they're like, okay, I want to start getting on this bandwagon, but I don't really know where to get started, is there a certain amount of time that you've seen that works best for any podcast?
Alban Brooke :Sure. So just for those sound bites, you want to get some kind of a hook in the first 15 seconds. The experience and you've done this plenty of times, you know, we all have, you're scrolling through Facebook, and we're so used to seeing kind of, I don't know about for you, but I always get the weirdest videos. And you kind of it starts on its own. You look at it for three seconds, you go, this isn't for me and you move on. Right? Well multiply that by thousands. And that's the kind of engagement that you're probably getting. Well, much better it would be as soon as you can hook someone so that they can go oh, this might be for me, and then listen. So you really want to get some good, something really positive in the first few seconds. 15 Max, and then maybe you have 30-45 seconds for a complete thought, but really not much more than that. Because this is just a trailer, you know, this is just, we're trying to hook someone say, this is a podcast that would have some valuable insights for you. Why don't you come leave whatever you're doing, go to this website and subscribe. So it's a pretty big ask in the world of just something, you know, ephemeral on Facebook. So we want to be as quick to the point as possible.
Krystal Proffitt :That's so good. And I'm actually I'm gonna jump back to so I'm a huge fan of the buzz cast podcast as well. And I'm thinking back to a conversation. I think it was last week's episode, where y'all were talking about the possibility of Apple having the text of your podcast eventually, one day like in a perfect world, we would have, you know, a podcast playing the text like it was lyrics to a song. So how far out in the future do you think that that would be are we talking like that could be a possibility in the next 24 months in the next 12 months, six years, like how long? How far off? Do you think we are from that kind of technology?
Alban Brooke :I mean, the tech is all there. There's nothing that would be new, truly new about I mean, we already see it in music apps, right? You can do it inside of Apple, Apple Music. And so we all know how to do it. We've, at least internally, I know we the way we timestamp all of the transcripts, we would be able to serve that up in a digestible format. The next pieces because podcasting to this open ecosystem, you just need to get people to support it. So as soon as there's some podcast apps that say, Hey, we want to be the first one to do it. Buzzsprout is on the other end, ready to give you all that information. So if anybody here works on podcasting apps and wants to do that, anyway, reach out to us because yeah, I think it is if we can get some people excited about it, that may not be, you know, too long before that's reality.
Krystal Proffitt :Yeah, that's really cool. That was just that was just a selfish question because I wanted to know that I'm I mean, you're here, I'm gonna pick your brain about stuff. So, but Dan's follow up question was, what would be recommendations to truly stand out? besides the obvious marketing, just showing up and promoting your stuff? Do you have any tips for something that's a little bit out of the ordinary when promoting your podcast?
Alban Brooke :I mean, there's so many tips that are in the ordinary, so but I don't want to miss them. So maybe I'll just hit some of the ones I know Dan probably already knows. consistency. Being able to actually build a relationship with your audience. That is the whole point of podcasting. And it's what you want to keep doubling down on the ability to interact with the same listener week after week for years. That's the compounding returns the want. And most audience growth through podcasting is a word chatting and you say, hey, do you know a good marketing podcast and I pull out my phone and I flip through and I tell you, and a lot of podcast growth is done person to person. So you really want to make a show that is valuable enough. That's unique enough that your listeners are going out of their way to tell people about it. So an example for me was I recently listened to the New York Times did a podcast called rabbit hole. And it was all about these like weird internet subcultures. And it was good enough that when I binge the whole thing, but I was actively texting friends going, dude, here's a link, download this right now, you like this? Because your time doesn't have the ability to text the people who love it, but I know some people are like, Oh, this is definitely in your wheelhouse.
Alban Brooke :And so you've got to make a show that has We definitely think about this just in generally a marketing, you want your message to be as simple as possible for your value proposition to be so clear that nobody has a heart. It's never difficult to articulate what a product is, and who it's for. Buzzsprout is...our tools for podcasting for anyone who wants to start a professional podcast, and if you're selling your podcast, you would say, Hey, this is my marketing podcast, but maybe the more focused it can be, the better because then it becomes a very clear and discernible audience who will enjoy it. So now maybe some stuff that's a little bit outside, you know, normal podcast marketing, obviously, you want to be sharing this audio Graham's engaging with communities that would enjoy your podcast. I love doing this. We do this in all of our marketing, just answering people's questions. And so that may mean go on to Quora.
Alban Brooke :One idea that I saw and I just love this one I have some friends in town that do a comic book podcast. And they told me that when we rolled out the new stats that you could see everyone in different locations around the world. They said, Oh, that's so funny. We see like that big group in this place in Germany and a big group here. And he like the big cities that have like pockets. And I was like, what, what was that from? They went, Oh, well, we went there. And whenever they would travel overseas, because they're a comic book podcast, they would go to all the comic book stores and drop off a stack of business cards and just say, Hey, would you mind if he sat in your comic book shop and people could listen to the show? And people are really into comic books are like, yeah, we'd love it. And so for years, there's these stacks of business cards all over Europe, where they traveled, that people pick them up. And then the number one way people listen to your show is they tell friends so you get 10 people to listen at one comic book shop and they tell all their fans Friends. And so now they see these like clusters all through everywhere that they went on their trip.
Krystal Proffitt :That's crazy. Well, you want to talk about a very unique way for a marketing strategy that, you know, because I'm sitting here thinking business cards, what are you talking about? You know, everyone's like, What? Who does business cards anymore? That is such a great like idea for such a niche topic, like especially if you're going in if you're exchanging something that is a physical thing, like what a fantastic idea to include your information. I know another one I'm thinking of is putting like your most recent episode at the bottom of your email signature, like that's another great way just to get people that you may would never it would feel awkward to tell them, hey, listen to my latest episode in the middle of the email, but if it's in the bottom signature, you know, it's not going to hurt anything.
Alban Brooke :That's a great idea. I mean, this one is one that I might categorize in the like, maybe feels obvious, but it's sometimes not obvious to everybody is, whatever your show is about, you know if your show is about, I don't know, Golden Retrievers. You want to reach out to everybody who is kind of like an influencer in that space. Somebody who's running the biggest Facebook golden retriever group, us, the best breeders, the people who are showing Golden Retrievers at the dog shows. And, you know, one, you're trying to invite them onto the shows that you have some ownership, and that there might be inclined to share your podcast, but just creating relationships with these people and say, Hey, and I would love it if you would share my show with your audience and see ways you can partner with them. I mean, there's a really big Supreme Court podcast, their entire growth strategy seemed to just be they partnered with the best Supreme Court blog, and they said, Hey, why don't we we do the episodes and you put them on the blog.
Alban Brooke :Then you can have commentary on your blog. And it worked great for both parties. And they both grew their audiences. So finding ways that you could partner with somebody else who may be interested in the same things, but they may be a YouTuber, and you're a podcaster. Or they may be writing books. Those are excellent people to partner with.
Krystal Proffitt :No, I love that I love the collaboration and I feel like with podcasting, it's just such a community of collaboration. I don't feel like this sense of competition of like, Oh, you know, like, this is these are my people like, no, there's plenty. There's plenty to go around, especially like I listened to probably five or six different marketing podcasts that they don't pit themselves against each other. They're like, Hey, I listened to you on this podcast, and now you're on this one. And then now they're guesting on this one. It's just this like, big ecosystem of people that you know, it's just, it's just so much fun. I just love it so much. But I want to move on to the next question. So Polly had the question, she said, How can I reach beyond just your connections on social media? Like how can I actually expand outside of you know what she has currently? And I think that you kind of just touched on that with collaborating with other people that have similar interest or have similar audiences. But did you want to add anything else to that?
Alban Brooke :Yeah, I mean, with any of that stuff for years, plugging into communities that probably already care, you really don't, you know, go back to that golden retriever podcast, if someone came to me and tried to convince me to listen to it, unless it was like my wife or a great friend, I wouldn't listen want to listen to it. Because even though I really liked the person, I'd go, well, it's not a podcast for me. You know, I don't have a golden retriever. But there's people out there who Golden Retrievers are in their top five interests. And that's an easy sell. So you've got to get in front of the people who when they hear the subtitles of the vodcasts, the title of the podcast, they see that they go, Oh, that's for me. Right? So you need to get in front of them. So Facebook groups, finding people on, there's a way that you can just go into Amazon and find people who published books recently. And you can filter down by section. So you could go through and find all the authors who have spoken about your topic, and published a book in the last six months, try to interview them all. And because they are already becoming known as experts in your field, and now you can have them on the podcast, get great content, they're probably inclined to come on the podcast because they want to sell their book. And then when they're talking people to go, Oh, I was just telling this great show, and they will share it. So anything you can do to plug into a new communities that already exists that have already formed is a great way to grow.
Krystal Proffitt :That's so smart. I had I'm actually I'm gonna write that down whenever we're done here because that's super smart. I actually hadn't even thought about it because your rewrite, I mean, a lot of people that have like approached me about being on the podcast, they have an event or program a book, they have something going on. So really tapping into those people. So getting outside of your comfort zone a little bit like reaching beyond your current audience, but really talking to those people who have the influence are starting to have the influence in that community that you're trying to be a part of very smart. Okay, so Polly's next question is, should the same post be shared on all of your outlets? And I think that she's talking about social media. So if she were to be promoting her podcast, and she needs to change it up from LinkedIn, to Twitter, to Facebook, to Instagram, like what what is your marketing hat say on that one?
Alban Brooke :Optimally, someday, you're gonna want to be on all of those platforms. And when you're on all of them, because they're all very different, the cultures of each one are different. The format the I mean, what you're going to share on Instagram, evenly shore shared on Instagram two years ago is very different than now with doing stories of just posts, you want to do unique things for each one. But what I really don't want you to do is to start doing a podcast. And now you have a part time job creating social media assets for it. That's pretty silly. What would be much better would be to pick one and pick the one that you naturally type in. When you sit down at your computer and you're just looking for 10 minutes to do something and let your mind kind of zone out. Are you ending up on Instagram or Twitter? Or are you going over to Facebook or posting on tik tok? Wherever you're going, that's where your main focus should be for your podcast because you already understand that culture he just intuitively and then it's so much better to be great on one social media platform than to be just kind of engaged a little bit with all of them.
Alban Brooke :Don't really enjoy it, I really actually don't like it at all at LinkedIn is surprisingly good. So if you're somebody who's kind of got a podcast focused on a bit more professional things, LinkedIn is so desperate for content as a platform, that they will promote good content. So hard. So Facebook is already always kind of keeping you down a little bit cuz they have so much stuff to share with people. LinkedIn is looking for it. So if you put out a great post or two, you may see yourself getting that might get exposed to a lot more people than on other platforms. So just wherever you feel comfortable, that's where you want to focus.
Krystal Proffitt :No, that's so good. And I I totally agree. I think that overwhelm can set in pretty quickly, especially in the first few months of your podcast, you're still just trying to figure out what you're doing, and then throw, oh, I gotta be on all of these social media platforms every single day. I gotta be responding and doing all these things I totally agree with just pick one. Pick the one you're good at and the one that you gravitate towards the most and stick with it. So that's so good. Well, I have a few just a general podcast marketing questions for you specifically, not just in the industry. But what's your favorite podcast tool out there.
Alban Brooke :So we don't even have to talk about just marketing because there's a few tools within Buzzsprout that are my favorite, but I wanted to hear what is your favorite tool or your podcast tool out there? Um, so it felt a little self serving for me to say anything that was a Buzzsprout product, I might, my mind instantly went to things that were not ours. Somebody we just partnered with, and we built an integration with is Descript. And the script has this like, it's just a totally new way of thinking about editing. So the first round of edit editors in the world, were basically all these editors were built for music. And then when we realized people wanted to talk into microphones, they went Oh, yeah, we can do that too.
Alban Brooke :If you're using GarageBand, or audacity, you notice there's a lot of things for like adjusting pitch and things that may not have made sense for voice. Then there's podcast editors like Hindenburg that are all focused on your voice. But it's still using the sound waves. That's the way we're editing. Descript went back to completely to first principles and said, Well, what often happens for really big editing jobs? Like what NPR would do is they transcribe all the audio, then they kind of build the story together. And then they start all the clips, actually editing everything together. So they said, What if we transcribed it for you? And then you just edit the transcript. And then we make all the audio edits for you? And it's just this kind of mind blowing change the way that you edit a podcast.
Alban Brooke :And it's, you know, I was an English major in college. So I spend a lot of time, you know, think about how stories fit together. And Descript really frees you up from going, Oh, how painful will it be to take these 12 clips and move them over there just to get this one little thing? Right? Well, Descript, you just Ctrl C Ctrl V, you move it. And you, you do all that editing in the background. So it's a tool that I've edited with recently. And I think it's very, very cool.
Krystal Proffitt :That's awesome. And so with the integration that you all have, it still does the transcript like how did so tell me I guess walk me through the process. So you would just upload your audio file into Buzzsprout? Or do you upload it into Descript? How does that work?
Alban Brooke :So you could record right into the Descript, click that record button, and we would have our conversation. While we would be doing that the Descript would give me a transcript, it would actually transcribe the entire conversation. Then I go through and I would just start filtering out parts that were boring moving sections around. And they've got some very cool tools. I feel like now I'm just selling Descript for them. So, but they've got some that I went through and just said, Hey, take out anytime I say, um, and they find, like 35 times I said, um, and you just have this seamless. It's just gone. They just pull it out of all of them. And like, I would never do that if I was editing it myself. But as soon as I'm like, Oh, just take them out. It sounds a lot better. So you make all your changes you can make, you could add Intro music, all of that. And then you just go to publish, and you click a Buzzsprout icon. And we not only take the audio, we also get the transcript because we're really a really big push to get everybody to start using transcripts for the podcast just because there's so many valuable use cases for transcripts.
Krystal Proffitt :That is so crazy and I have actually I'm seeing the tutorial of how it all works. But I think you might, I didn't know you could record directly in to scripts. So there's going to be a tutorial coming soon that I'm going to be trying it out and seeing how this is actually working because this that is super cool. And I'm really excited to try that out. But so I'm going to answer this question because if you don't want to sound self serving, I will tell you what my favorite tool is that Buzzsprout offers is the magic mastering has just been an absolute game changer for me. And I've told all this before because it's just, I used to my process for producing my podcasts involves taking my audio go into all phonic uploading it making sure it sounded amazing. And then I'd have to download that and then put it up in Buzzsprout. So it added an extra 20 to 30 minutes depending on how long my audio file was to the production of my podcast. Whereas now, as soon as I'm done, I hit this little button and it's it's just there. And it happens. So kudos to y'all like y'all have done such an incredible job. And if anybody's thinking about trying it out, I highly recommend you at least test it. Because I know that y'all worked really hard to make that happen. And what's what's been the response that users have had for Magic mastering?
Alban Brooke :Um exceptionally good. You know, there's you don't want to like, you know, get too excited by your own hype sometimes. So we're like, this is really like we've for years been thinking about this idea, and we're selling ourselves on it. And then the big launch day comes and you're hoping everyone agrees. And with magic mastering it's been almost universal, that everybody was really excited and really enjoyed it. It's pretty expensive for us to do so we had to charge people for it. And we haven't had anybody say anything besides great things like oh, I loved it. And I want to keep using this because of the it's a pretty big time savings. So like our whole goal with everything is, you shouldn't have to be a full time podcaster to have a podcast. For most people, it should be a couple hours a week, you put together a show, you upload it. And now it's out to the world. You go and you do some marketing on your one channel. Maybe you do do blog post, and you you leave it, it shouldn't become this full time all consuming project. You don't even have to be a tech guru to start a podcast.
Krystal Proffitt :Right, exactly. Well, y'all have done an awesome job. Well, um, so this is a question I was just thinking about. Right before I was like jotting down all my questions, making sure I had everything and then I started thinking about, I know that this has been something a lot of my podcast community has wondered, is there one particular platform or directory where we should be sending listeners who want to hear our show? Because I know I have like my preferred player. Actually, I love good pods. Good pods is like, I don't even go to Apple podcasts anymore, I don't go anywhere else. I love the functionality of good pods and how I can see what other people are listening to. And I can give them, you know, ratings. And I can put comments and I love the social aspect of that. But no one else knows what that is. They're like good, Goodpods. I just know how to get to Apple podcasts cuz it's on my phone. So if someone's brand new, and they're like, Where am I supposed to send people? What would you tell them?
Alban Brooke :I mean, I think you actually gravitating towards Goodpods is a great thing. So I know, Ken and JJ are there who are building Goodpods. And they're like the kindest people in the world. And they are really, really going about it the right way. So they built this incredible app. And then they slowly brought people onto the platform, and they have a lot of really big names who are on there. And so I was talking to him and they're like, show, you know, we were going through and I saw Kim Kardashian. I was like, Oh, so that's like a, you know, that's like a placeholder and they're like, No, she's really on here. And it's like a friend of a friend. And I was like, What? Like, why aren't you telling people that like, Hey, come on, like recommend some podcasts to Kim Kardashian? Yes. But there's, it's a cool place. It's obvious growing a lot. And if you could get kind of a critical mass there, they were telling me they can see a podcast, start with one person listen to it on by themselves. And then they post about it. And then two of their friends start listening to it, and they post about it. And then three people listen to it from that. And they said, We can actually chart like the growth of the show, oh my god from person to person, because it's the player but it's also that community aspect. So I think that's a great place.
Alban Brooke :I use Overcast, to listen to podcasts. spot is directories. I mean, the one place that really matter is like, head and shoulders above, and especially the US is Apple podcasts. You, you kind of want to cover all your bases get into the 10 or so main directories. And all those are pretty easy. You know, click through on Buzzsprout. But yeah, just send people where you're going to be. So if you're going to be on good pods, send everyone there and engage your community in kind of a fun unique way.
Krystal Proffitt :Yeah, for sure. And I know I think it was a Simon Sinek always say his name wrong Simon snack, however you say his name I saw he has a podcast going on there. And I was actually I started following Tom from Buzzsprout. And he It was so funny because I hadn't gotten on there in about a week and he had listened to a it was Rob Lowe. Rob Lowe had a brand new podcast and he was interviewing Chris Pratt, who I love both of those guys. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I didn't even know that Rob Lowe had a podcast. So I went and listened to it because Tom had listened to it on there. So I love the ripple effect and the expansion that is totally possible on Goodpods. So everybody, you have to go check it out if you haven't listened to or if you haven't checked it out yet, but you'll also did a buzz cast interview with the founder of Goodpods. Right? It was JJ. Yeah. So I'll link to all that in the show notes. But Alban, this has been Oh, go ahead.
Alban Brooke :I just one final point for good pods is you think Facebook, people are going there, and they're just kind of going to waste time. They're engaging. They're saying, I don't really care if it's my, you know, my new new photos, my friend's kid, or if it's the political post from my uncle are what it is, I just want a bunch of content. But if someone's going to good pods, they have a specific purpose. It's that they really care about podcasts, and they always are itching to find a new show. And so if you were pulling more of your listeners to good pods, then you're going to be overrepresented in one of the few places that people are going Hey, how do I find yours? So Goodpods, pod chasers another thing for that, being able to just kind of saturate and market and people are going there to look for new podcasts and they can find yours as well.
Krystal Proffitt :Yeah, that's awesome. And I'm gonna link to pod chaser and Goodpods in the show notes. So if anybody wants to go check those out, those are fantastic resources. But I had messaged Alban before interview and I said, Okay, y'all have been talking about all kinds of stats and amazing things on buck buzz cast and a lot of other resources. So I said, Can I do some rapid fire questions about things that I know our community members want to know? So how do you feel about some rapid fire questions?
Alban Brooke :I'm ready. I hope hopefully, I know all the answers.
Krystal Proffitt :I think that you do. I think that you do because I've actually I've heard these on conversations that y'all have had on Buzzcast, but I wanted to bring that information to the profit podcast because I just know that people don't geek out as much on podcasting as I do, which is fine, it's okay. But these are actually questions that I see people ask all the time. And I don't always have this information because y'all have so many users on Buzzsprout. So y'all can give them better answer. So my first one is, and looking at all podcasters across Buzzsprout. How long is an average episode?
Alban Brooke :So I'll give this answer but I have to give the caveat first, that this is descriptive, not prescriptive. This is just what the answer is. This doesn't tell you to do anything. Right. So you don't want to the answer is about 38 minutes. But that does not end over the years, we've actually seen that number trending downwards. But that does not mean that if you have a 20 minute podcast, that's good. Go ahead and try to talk it up for 18 more minutes. Or if you have a great conversation at 45. Let's trim it down. It just means it would be almost as silly to do that. If I was saying, how long is a good piece of writing well worn pieces that that is thousand pages. And I wrote a really funny tweet that was 12 words. So like there's a pretty big range for good written content. And there's a pretty good range for good spoken content. So just follow your heart Do the best you can to get good content in there, but 38 minutes.
Krystal Proffitt :Such great advice. Now that's such great advice. So this is kind of this is a very open ended question. And I know that you'll take this and run with it, but how many downloads is good?
Alban Brooke :This year, I get it as your answers but they need the caveat. So average podcaster gets a bit over 100 downloads per episode. Okay. But I know ultra successful podcasters who are getting somewhere in the range of like 150 downloads Now how are they ultra successful if barely above average? Well, because it does, it really depends on what you're talking about. Because a lot of people, they try to go really broad appeal. And it's a comedy podcast that talks about celebrities. And so everyone's probably interested in that. And then there's people who get really, really focused. And so I'm thinking of an example of a podcaster Buzzsprout, who helped set up call centers. And so he just told he said everything you needed to know about setting up a call center. And he said he was he gave us his numbers, and it was like, 150 plays an episode. So I was like, ooh, he's not getting a ton. But he's reaching the hundred and 50 people in the nation that really matter. The CFO who's going we got to outsource this, who could we get to be involved? And then they found the podcast, and he became the expert. So he was getting sued. He got paid speaking gigs, he had people reaching out. He said, people that you've been reaching out to for years are now coming to him asking do you have a question? Question. And so whatever your goals are, those are going to inform what you need to get as far as downloads to be successful. But if you're just trying to do something like advance your career, and just start by teaching, well, getting five listeners could be pretty valuable. Just getting 10 of the right people to hear you, or just for you to spend the time to start articulating your thoughts on your profession. That could be what was really valuable. So the numbers go all over the place. Once you get over 100, you're kind of in the top, you know, the top half, and the really successful podcasters they're not doing anything totally different than you. What they're really doing is they've just been here longer. And so they started you know, if you look at a lot of the really big podcasts, they started in 2006 and they've just kept at it and if you keep at it for us You're already over half of the podcasts in existence now will have already, you know, shut down. And you'll be one of the few that's continuing. So the longer you podcasts, the better you will get, and the more value you will receive from it. Not so good. It's not rapid fire.
Krystal Proffitt :No, because I'm sitting here I'm sitting here just thinking like, this is everything that I would say. But I love that it's it's coming from you because y'all I mean, you see this information, you see what happens and y'all been doing this longer than I have. So I love to hear your perspective of how this works. And when you say 100 does that mean and the first seven days does that mean? Over 30 days, 90 days, what does that number reflect?
Alban Brooke :90 days is the window that we typically use. But you get a good feel for where it's going to end up. After about a week. You can kind of see the trajectory go Okay, this episode really hits something You know, we had a doctor one time reach out and he's like, something's happened to the podcast because my numbers have gone crazy bots got it. And we dug into it. And we were like, it's all coming from one episode, like everyone starts on this episode, then they branch out. And we looked into it. And years ago, he'd done an episode on the Ebola epidemic. And it was before all of the Ebola outbreak happened. And so as soon as he, you know, people started searching Ebola. Well, he already had the evergreen content out there. And everyone found it was like, Oh, this is great stuff. And so then they started listening. So anything you can do to make your episodes have the possibility of being really successful later on, you know, don't create content that is done is only for this week, create content that will be valuable for years, so that people will find it for years.
Krystal Proffitt :No, that's so good. That's so good. Yeah, so this is great information. So how often are people publishing new podcast episodes? Is it once a week or more than that? What are y'all seeing?
Alban Brooke :The average ends up being somewhere like between eight and 11 days. But what you want to do, but that's skewed by a lot of people who, you know, kind of fall off the wagon for a couple weeks. And they're like, oh, sorry, I missed it. You want to do once a week. And it's not that there's something magical about that, except we're doing a few things. We're building a habit for you. So that you are consistently putting out content. And then we are helping build a habit for your listeners to actually engage with your content. So I know, at least when I was driving into work every day, we find a morning I had a podcast was always there. Thursday when I drove home. There was a podcast there. Wednesday morning, there was a podcast. There are different podcasts in different parts of the week because I knew when they released and they would be there for my commute. So I would know what I was about to listen to. And the ability to kind of build yourself into somebody's Wednesday night workout or their Thursday walk, or whatever it may be, become pretty powerful because now there's actually kind of an ingrained habit for your listeners. So, find a time of the week that makes sense for you. And then try to be as consistent as possible.
Krystal Proffitt :That's so good. Yeah, I always listen to the Office Ladies podcast every Wednesday when I work out so I know exactly what you're talking about. That's awesome. Okay, so what advice would you give to a brand new podcaster keep this one short, short and sweet Alban. I'm challenging you.
Alban Brooke :Just start publishing. Don't make it perfect. It won't be perfect. It can't be perfect. Many things in life you have to be just doing it to get better and podcasts is hundred percent one of those. So just start getting some episodes out.
Krystal Proffitt :I love it. I love it. Okay, so for a dream podcast, what would be the dream podcast that you would absolutely love to be on?
Alban Brooke :The dream podcasts that I would want to be on as like a guest? Mm hmm. Oh, man, I am. I don't know, this is a good, good question. I feel like there's all these podcasts I really enjoy. They're a little like, too intellectual for me like I'd be on their beats totally. Like, I don't know, some sort of big marketing podcasts would probably be the places for me because I really enjoy it. But I think I don't know about you, but there's so many big podcasts out there that I enjoyed that. If they called said hey, we want you on for an interview. I'd be like, I don't know. I don't know if I'm ready for this.
Alban Brooke :Oh, man, they recently I've been on this kick listening to a lot of podcasts with the CEO of Shopify, his name's Toby. And he has a you know, a unique way of thinking about business, the marketing how they position Shopify. And there's so many contrarian takes he has, but he's not abrasive in the way that some kind of contrary and CEOs end up being just seems like a very kind, thoughtful person. So any conversation I could have with him is so many interesting concepts that I'd love to unpack.
Krystal Proffitt :That's awesome. Okay, my last question, Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?
Alban Brooke :Well, like I kind of leaned to words in the beginning. You you've got to care a lot. And sometimes that means letting things out into the world a little bit before they're perfectly polished. You can't be always hundred percent comfortable. But everything should always have the ability to get better, no matter how good it is. This is actually from the CEO of Shopify said I in 100 years, we'll look back on the businesses of today and say, Wow, they're so poorly run in these obvious ways. And he says that on a scale of zero to 10, the best business in the world is only a seven. And I bet we can get it to an eight. And that's all I'm thinking about is what is the next step for us? And so yes, I'm a perfectionist, but I'm also realistic knowing like, yeah, we're probably even the best work I've ever done is a six. And if I can just learn how to get that to a seven, that's my goal, because we're never going to be completed. We're just going to be hopefully getting better.
Krystal Proffitt :Oh, this is so good. This has been such an awesome conversation. And I'm so grateful that you came on the show today. So where can everybody find more about Buzzsprout? Is there any certain platform that you would love for people to get started to learn more about what it is that y'all do and how they can become a Buzzsprout user?
Alban Brooke :Yeah, so Buzzsprout.com have got a big page called How to start a podcast and that's a blog post with over a million reads that goes through everything you need to know about how to start a podcast. We've got an eight part video series that you can watch all about podcasting, we've got a podcast version of that series. whatever format, you enjoy consuming content, we have something for you. And if you ever have any questions, I'm Alban Brooke on Twitter. And I'd love you know, send any my way. I'd always appreciate them.
Krystal Proffitt :Yeah, awesome. Well, thank you again, Alban, so much for coming on the show today.
Alban Brooke :Thank you for having me.
Krystal Proffitt :So what did you think? Did you enjoy that conversation as much as I did? I felt like it's just so much fun. And I know I said that over and over again, that Alban had so many nuggets of wisdom to share. But you guys if you want to know all of my secrets, this is what I do. I love reaching out to people who are in this industry, who know way more than I do or have been around longer in getting their advice, asking their opinion. And I encourage you to do this same thing within your podcast industry. Who Can you reach out to? Who can you ask for help? Or who can you say, Hey, I would love for us to collaborate and talk about each other's programs or products or services or just be able to boost each other up because I can tell you, it's so much better when you feel like you have people on your side supporting you than doing this alone. I hope that you find people within your industry that help you become a better podcaster and a better business owner.
Krystal Proffitt :But that's all I have for you today, guys. I would love for you to subscribe to this show. If you haven't already and leave us a review. Tell me what you thought about this style of interviews or if you caught the broadcast live let me know because I'm looking at doing more of these in the future. Make sure you check out the show notes KrystalProffitt.com/episode170 to look at all of the things that we talked about on today's interview. You will find the link to Descript and a free trial for Buzzsprout as well as some of the awesome resources that we mentioned. But remember, as always, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.
Unknown Speaker :Let's say that we have a marketing podcast and I've got a few episodes about affiliate marketing and how to make money online. go onto Quora searching affiliate marketing and find somebody who's saying, Hey, I was thinking about applying for Amazon affiliates. And here's my question. Go ahead and answer it in good detail, and then lead a little bread, leave a breadcrumb back to your podcast, say, and if you'd like to learn more, I discussed it fully with this guest on my podcast. And most of those will only lead to a couple people. But some of those will really grow. And all of a sudden you now have a nice stream of people coming and checking out your podcast. And so kind of leaving those breadcrumbs around the internet can be a really great way to do that. But you've always got to come back to giving real discernible value up front. That first answer has to be excellent. When
Krystal Proffitt :God
Krystal Proffitt :What about a dream podcast? guest who would you love to sit down and interview? Transcribed by https://otter.ai