If your business doesn’t already have a podcast – a series of spoken-word episodes on a particular theme which subscribers listen to on demand – you could be missing a trick. Not only are podcasts time and cost-effective, easy to consume and highly portable, they can also form a key part of your social networking strategy.
Why Your Podcast Intro Really Matters
Once you’ve decided to take the plunge into podcasting, the next step is understanding the importance of podcast intros to every episode. After all, this section conveys that all-important first impression, and is the ideal way to grab listener attention. It also sets the tone for the episode. And effectively can be the sales pitch which determines whether (or not) someone becomes a loyal listener. But you literally only have seconds in which to do all this. Even if someone is actively interested in your particular topic, they won’t continue listening if they’re not hooked in from the start. For that reason, we suggest podcast intros should only last between 10 and 30 seconds. But make every word count – what you don’t want is an information overload.
Creating a Killer Podcast Intro
Here are our top tips for crafting perfect podcast intros to keep your audience all ears:
- Keep it short and sweet (10-30 sec in length)
- Stay unique, while summarizing the episode for your listeners
- According to Daniel J. Lewis of The Audacity to Podcast, you should also include the name of your podcast, the title of the episode (optional), your hosts’ names and any other details you feel may be relevant, such as your social media handles
- Incorporate your website address
- Be consistent so that you can easily include this information with each episode of your podcast
- Write a script if necessary
- If including music, which can be effective in making your audio stand out, you obviously need to be sure you have the copyright to do so legally
- If the topic is sensitive, or you’re using strong language, include a disclaimer
Hiring a Third Party to Craft Your Podcast Intro
Maybe you’re short on time, or maybe you just can’t get the sound right yourself. Perhaps you want a polished sound but don’t have audio-editing expertise in-house. Or there’s a tight production schedule that you want to stick to? You may simply want to concentrate on creating the content for your podcast. Whatever the reason, podcast intros are sometimes best left in the hands of the professionals.
Music Radio Creative has package options for creating spot-on podcast intros. You can either go for a package where we help you each step of the way or go in to select the perfect voice for the script you have already carefully crafted. Our services can be entirely tailored to your needs – whatever you may need – don’t hesitate to ask our team.
Learn more today about our podcast intros and editing services – plus our jingles with royalty-free music and full audio and video editing services for your podcasts and YouTube videos. Then join the thousands of podcasters we help each year.
Podcasting Journey – What Next?
We have some great podcast script ideas for you here. If you just want to get started and have no time to think of details you may want to try one of our Free Podcast Intros.
