Welcome to Podcast Suck, a podcast about starting a podcast, where we dive headfirst into the wild, wacky, and sometimes frustrating world of podcasting. If you've ever sat down with a microphone, hit record, and thought, what on earth am I doing? Or if you're just curious about the magic behind your favorite shows, then you're in the right place. Get ready for laughs, insights, and a whole lot of what not to do advice as we embark on this podcasting journey together. Let's dive in. What is happening, ladies and gentlemen, aspiring podcasters, existing podcasters, wherever you may be in your podcasting journey. Hey, I am excited that you took a couple of minutes to hang out with me to better understand what you don't know that you don't know about the world of podcasting. Today, I want to talk to you about podcast advertising and sponsors, but not in the traditional means of podcasting, advertising and sponsors. What do you mean by that, Sebastian? Let me explain. Most people when they're first getting started and they're launching their podcast are solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, businesses, brands. Well, they start with zero, which is what we all start with as far as listenership is concerned. And the more you get into the podcasting game, the more consistent you become, the more content you're putting out, the more guests you have on your show. Well, the more the podcast starts to grow. And I'm a firm believer that, you should not hang your hat or worry about how many subscribers or listeners you have to your podcast. You should be head down and focused on just staying in the game, just creating content. So your listeners have the opportunity to consume it so that your brand has the opportunity to have consistent content because of your podcast. Does that make sense now to put in perspective, If you wanted to go the traditional podcast advertising and sponsor route, you would need between 10 and 15,000 downloads every single month consistently to be considered for a podcast advertising network. Now, most people may not get there. And with that being said, that doesn't mean that getting sponsors and advertisers for your podcast is completely off the table. It's quite the opposite. In fact, if you're willing to create a sponsor and advertising solution for people that you know, like, and trust, and that know, like, and trust you, I'm talking about people that like your work, believe in your work, believe in what you're doing. And if you came to them and said, hey, I just launched a podcast, would you like to be a sponsor? Or I think you'd be a perfect fit to sponsor the show. Would they be interested? Well, you don't know until you get into it. I have this happen constantly. I work with a lot of solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, small business owners at times. They didn't even see a sponsorship coming. I had a guy call me last week. He installs and repairs gym equipment for gym owners. He said, hey man, somebody hit me up about sponsoring the podcast. What do I do? And I said, we get to make up our own rules. We get to create a couple of options and bring them to the potential sponsor and say, what do you think? Listen, if your sponsor's paying you 200 bucks a month and you were getting $0 from podcast sponsors, that's $200 more that you don't have. I always like to say, when you're first, setting out to identify sponsors and or advertisers for your podcast. How much are you spending on your podcast right now? How much is production? How much is your time? How much is your team or editors? Or if you're spending money on ads, how much total are you spending on your podcast? Now, most of our clients here at the Podcast Launch Lab pay around $895 a month for our ongoing production program after they've launched their show. So for this individual, I said, hey, listen, why don't we pitch him on $8.95 a month? He said, do you think I can get that much? I said, well, we don't know until we go ask. But if you go in there and ask for $2.95, it's tough to go up after you've given a lower offer. That's like negotiation 101. He came back to me and said, the guy said $8.95, no problem, and is willing to sign a six-month agreement. So what has he done here? He opened himself up to an opportunity of being able to secure an advertiser and sponsor who will then share even more of the podcast because they're included in the branding and advertising of the show. They're a sponsor, but he's also covered his cost on a monthly basis. His cost for producing the show on an ongoing basis is a wash right now. He just happened to text me last week and say, Hey man, somebody else reached out about sponsoring the show. What does that look like? So of course I help him unpack that and figure that what that looks like is more dollars in the door. And now you've been able to monetize the podcast in addition to breaking even for your cost of production and producing the show on a monthly basis. So when you think advertisers and sponsors, it doesn't necessarily mean, oh, and by the way, that sponsor never once said, how many downloads do you have? How many people are watching this? How many people are viewing this? How many people are clicking here, commenting there? Not one time. You know why? Because he saw the value in being able to advertise for a reasonable amount of money, a reasonable investment, on a monthly basis to gain exposure. Now let's talk a little bit about what a podcast sponsorship could look like. Well, first of all, it's going to include some sort of ad in the podcast episode. Now I'm not talking about this episode is brought to you in part by, I think that as content consumers and consumers in general, these days we tune out the traditional We've got specials on these cars this weekend only type of jargon. I think what we do listen to are more of an editorial read. That's the host actually saying, you know, I just want to take a minute and thank XYZ company. They are a huge, huge supporter of this show. They are one of the main reasons the show happens. But above and beyond that, I want to talk to you about XYZ and how incredible they are, what value they bring to the table, and how they may help you. So I don't want this to come across as an advertisement. I want this to come across as an endorsement from our sponsors who support us, and also an endorsement for a brand or business that may be able to help you. That would be more of an editorial read. versus this episode is brought to you by not to say that those don't work, but this day and age where we're living in a, I recorded it. I can fast forward through commercials. I can fast forward, fast forward, fast forward, fast forward. Let's not give people a reason to fast forward over something that we want them to actually hear. Now that's one aspect. So you're doing an editorial read during the podcast episode. You could give them a plug on the intro or the outro. What you can also do is include their logo in your podcast cover art, your podcast logo. In addition to that, each time a new episode drops, you're going to tag them both personally and their business too on social media. So that's three opportunities during each episode, the branding of the podcast episode and the content that's being shared from each episode that drops. being able to edify them and not just the podcast episode, but every single place that you're actually marketing the podcast. I think this is so important because if this was a radio show 25 years ago, all you would get was an ad on the radio. That's it. There wouldn't be anything additional as far as advertising and sponsorship exposure. This day and age, very exciting time to be alive. This day and age, you can offer a tremendous amount of value to a potential sponsor and advertiser for your podcast. And you don't need to be one of the big guys. You can be the little guy just getting started. You just have to have a vision and you have to believe in what you're doing and you have to be able to bring it to the right people. Get it in front of the right people that are actually a fit to sponsor and support your show. You've got to create a win-win solution. Now, maybe you're not getting $895 for your first sponsor, but maybe you're getting $395 for two sponsors, which equals 800 bucks. Maybe you're doing this podcast part-time. Imagine monetizing the podcast part-time and contributing to your own bottom line. that allows you to move that much closer into getting to do your thing full time. It's pretty exciting if you start to think about it. So when it comes to advertising and sponsors, don't overcomplicate the process. Do not get hung up on numbers that really don't matter to the person that sees the vision and what you're doing. Now you may have launched your show and it may have exploded and you have tens of thousands of downloads on a monthly basis. At that point, you can monetize your content by simply sharing it on social media. You can also monetize it through everything we've just got done talking about for the past few minutes. You can also monetize it by going into an advertising network where people actually go and sell your show for you based on the demographics of the show. the audience of the show and exactly who they are looking to target. So there's a lot of opportunity out there for podcast sponsorships and advertising. You've got to make up the, your own rules and you've got to go out there and identify people that are a fit for what you want to do. And they can actually see your vision for the podcast sponsorship questions, thoughts, ideas, concerns about this episode or any episode. On the show, please shoot me a DM over on Instagram at podcast suck. That's podcasts, plural, or find me on Facebook, facebook.com forward slash S rusk. Shoot me a DM and say, Hey, I listened to the podcast. You may be listening to this on YouTube. Cause that's all you can do is watch it on YouTube. We don't add a video component unless we're going live. Feel free to comment. I do respond to each and every one of you lovely people. Thanks so much for taking some time out of your day to hang out with me until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. That's the way we get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and share the show with someone you know should start a podcast or may already have one. And remember, podcasts suck if you don't have one. Until next time, friends.