Why You Should Create A Teaser Before You Launch Your Podcast

I've teamed up with Detroit comedian Mike Geeter to launch a new podcast about the Detroit arts and entertainment scene called The D Brief. In this column, I am sharing the lessons I learn from it for other radio broadcasters who want to do the same.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Google Play • iHeartRadio • Website

While Mike and I prepared for the launch of our new podcast by developing our show prep process and recording practice episodes, I also set out to make sure that our show would be available in all of the major podcasts directories: Apple Podcasts (the directory formerly known as iTunes), Google Play Music, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, and TuneIn.

To submit to these directories, you need an RSS feed from your podcast hosting company. An RSS feed is like a pipe: every time you upload a new audio file to your host, it automatically gets sent down the pipe to the various directories, where listeners can find it. To get an RSS feed so you can set up the pipe between your host and the directories, you first need to upload an audio file.

Of course, we could have simply waited to upload our first podcast episode, but I didn't want to do that for a couple of reasons: First, it can take days or even weeks for some directories to approve your RSS feed submission. This would have been a problem because we wanted the first episode to drop in all of the different directories at roughly the same time. Second, we wanted the links to our podcast listing in each directory to include on our website before the first episode was published.

So I decided to create a short teaser that I could upload to my hosting service, allowing me to get my RSS feed, submit it to the directories, and get links to our podcast in each directory to use on the website. To do this, I plopped a couple of mics in front of us while we ad-libbed a few lines about Detroit. "Mike, when you think of Detroit, what do you think of?" We babbled for about ten minutes, which provided me with enough material to cut together an audio promo. You can hear the finished product here:

In fact, almost none of our lines appear in this teaser in the same order that we actually said them. I added several pieces of royalty-free background music - I have found that if you switch music beds a few times it gives the piece a sense of momentum - and some sound effects. Now I had an audio teaser ready to upload.

I decided that I wanted to turn this piece of audio into a short video that we could share on social media to hype our podcast launch. I began driving around the city of Detroit after work and snapping photos of local landmarks on my Galaxy S8. Then I loaded the audio and the images into iMovie and cut them together into the video above.

This short video proved to be a valuable showpiece. As we set up meetings or reached out to potential guests for interviews, it let people know that we were creating a show with respectable production values. Frankly, I think people took us more seriously because of this short video. Yet it cost next to nothing to produce.

When you set out to launch a new podcast, I highly recommend starting with a short teaser - both in audio and video form. Not only does it help when setting up the technical aspects of the podcast, but it's also a valuable promotional tool.

LISTEN: Hear the latest episode of The D Brief podcast.

More Glimpses Behind the Scenes:

1. Creating Benchmark Features for Your Podcast
2. Every Good Podcast Needs a Central Narrative
3. Why Podcast Co-Hosts Need to Know Their Roles
4. Record Practice Episodes Before Your Podcast Launches
5. Creating Production Elements for Podcasts