The Ultimate Guide to Building a Podcast Media Kit
If you’ve ever researched advertising your content for digital platforms, you've probably stumbled across podcast media kits. They are carefully engineered, all-inclusive marketing tools designed to start a conversation about your podcast. If you’re intent on building a career in the entertainment business, it's vital that you have a compelling media kit to share with potential partners when you make that all important pitch.
✴ What is a Media Kit?
Media kits are essentially the business cards of modern advertisement. Comprising of a collection of documents, media kits help podcasters pitch to brands and businesses they are pursuing partnerships with. They are an exposé of your operation, featuring your work so far, achievements, and the future growth of your podcast. They highlight the best attributes of your podcast and give companies a compact, bite-sized peek into your brand.
A quality media kit can work wonders. It will:
Help your listeners become more familiar with your podcast and potentially boost engagement
Attract a new audience and convince them to tune in regularly
Establish relationships with niche sponsors and advertisers to monetize your content
Provide bloggers, journalists and freelance writers with accurate and positive information about your podcast should they choose to write a feature
Demonstrate to other podcasters the benefit of collaborating with you
In the saturated world of influencer marketing, you need to stand out. So put some effort into your media kit and make sure it truly represents your brand.
✴ What Goes into Your Kit?
Building your media kit may seem a daunting but it’s important to know that by putting together your podcast, you've already done a lot of the legwork. Your media kit can be made up of recycled podcast descriptions, website copy, and social media content.
The simplest way to start organizing your media kit is to take some time to establish the who, what, why, and how of your podcast.
✴ Who
The who section of your media kit should feature your podcast name and description. You should also include a short bio for each of your hosts, possibly touching on their education (if that’s important) and past experience.
This section should also identify your audience avatar or demographic. For instance, is your content family-friendly, educational, comedic, or downright gruesome? You’ll want to include factors such as age breakdowns, gender (if applicable) or language. This will allow companies to quickly see if your audience overlaps with the type of people they want to reach.
Content warnings are also a crucial feature of your media kit and recognizing who your podcast isn't for is almost as important as knowing who it is for. Even if your content isn't necessarily sexual, or profane for example, some subjects may just not interest certain audiences.
✴ What
The what section is arguably the most crucial part of your media kit. It should include a short, descriptive sentence which shows your potential listeners exactly what they're in for. This could include a clever reference, eye-rolling pun, or a gripping introduction.
Think of it as your podcast USP. More than anything companies and prospective listeners want to know what makes your content unique or what makes it marketable.
By highlighting what sets your podcast apart from the crowd, you are adding an extra layer of intrigue to your content. Perhaps your podcast was created in response to incredibly bizarre circumstances or features an unusual perspective not found in other shows. Whatever you can do to give your podcast a real identity should be exposed in your media kit.
✴ Why
Here you should define the purpose and intention of your podcast, letting companies and your audience know exactly what your podcast is set to do. Why does your target audience tune-in? What are you trying to put forward in your content? These are the types of questions you should be answering. Explaining the source of your inspiration is an excellent way to build a connection with potential sponsors and foster a loyal audience, especially when your ‘why’ resonates.
✴ How
In this section, you want to talk about how your podcast is performing. This is extremely important as it will let potential partners know exactly how they stand to benefit from working with you.
If you've already taken a step forward and released a few podcast episodes you should include a collection of reviews and online responses. It will also serve you well to record your podcast download rates, geographical reach, and audience polls, as these show the current and potential success of your podcast. You can also include your social stats here if they are worth mentioning.
This section should also include a call-to-action that urges people to follow the link or listen in to your podcast. You'll want to include links to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and any other podcast directories that house your content. You can also include a mention of any podcast listening apps and webpages that users might prefer. You should be making it as easy as possible for people to access your content, otherwise they may not give it the time of day.
✴ Other Factors to Consider
To craft a truly captivating media kit, it would be wise to touch on some additional data and information, depending on who you are pitching to. A couple of examples are provided below.
✴ Featured Guests
It can be beneficial to advertise your most prominent or well-known guests in your media kit, since companies typically lend more respect and validity to podcasts that feature high-caliber individuals. If your podcast hasn't yet had a guest feature, or name-dropping them won't generate interest, skip this for now. However, if your guests appeal to a niche market, be sure to “shout out” about their segment, as this can immediately boost credibility.
✴ Sponsorship Rates
You should only include your sponsorship rates when fielding offers from new monetization opportunities. This should include your preferred price range for advertisers and any additional conditions you carry with the typical price rate for an ad sitting at around $15 to $30 CPM (cost per mille/ 1,000 listens). Make sure you research the fees of different types of ads, as pre, mid and post-roll ads vary in price.
Most sponsors feel more comfortable investing in podcasts that attract thousands of listeners, so don't be disheartened if nobody wants to pay for a mid-roll when you only have a few hundred listeners. But this doesn’t mean that you cannot get other types of deals. If you are taking your first cautious steps into the realm of sponsorships and affiliate deals, you may find more success from negotiating rates for free products or discounts, instead of cash payments.
✴ Putting Your Kit Together
Once you have concisely drafted all this information, it's time to piece together the foundations of your media kit. There are a few different ways you can compile your media kit, but remember; above all else it should be visually appealing and well formatted.
✴ One Sheet
This highlights all the facts and information incorporated in your media kit into a single PDF document. Acting almost as a resume for your podcast, a successful one-sheet relies heavily on good formatting. It's best to include a mix of columns, graphic boxes and images to categorize content and to make it an easy read.
Luckily, creating a PDF is a simple process, with digital office tools requiring little to no technical know-how. Plus, with easily integrated hyperlinks, your reader will have hassle-free access to your website, socials, and collection of podcast episodes.
✴ Website Page
Creating a website is not for the faint-hearted, and those born before the era of technological reliance don't always have a great understanding of the intricacies of web design. However, with a quick tutorial, or online course, even the less tech-savvy can create a page for their podcast.
Implementing a page on your website exclusively for your media kit allows journalists, listeners, and potential sponsors unfettered access to your content, with all the information and images found in your one-sheet, just one click away. For added convenience, you can also include a link or downloadable version of your media kit, so readers can access an overview of your podcast at their own leisure.
✴ Slide Deck
By separating your podcast information into a small collection of slides, you can include your brand overview and imagery in an easy to consume format. Despite being distributed over multiple pages, you should strive to ensure your information remains clear and concise, preferably in less than six slides.
✴ Starting a Conversation
Marketing your podcast is all about starting a conversation. Once people are talking about your podcast, you'll be sure to see your audience numbers rise, and with them, profitability. But it all starts with a well-crafted media kit.
For more tips on building the ideal media kit or for guidance on building potential sponsorship opportunities, check out The Wave’s free guide to growth and monetization here.
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