How do you promote your episodes? & Can I copy your workflow?
Welcome to the Softercast, a podcast for small business owners and creatives who want tender podcast advice without any tech pro bullshit. I'm Amelia Hruby, and I'm the founder of Softer Sounds, a feminist podcast studio for women and non binary entrepreneurs. On this show, I answer your questions about podcasting. Things like, should I put my show on YouTube? Can I just record it on Zoom?
Amelia Hruby:How much do editors really cost? And how many downloads should my podcast be getting? Yeah. I'll even answer that question. Every episode of the Softercast is really practical, a little magical, and less than ten minutes long.
Amelia Hruby:If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the show and share it with your podcast bestie. Then head to the show notes to check out our free resources. No matter where you're at in your podcasting journey, we're here to support you. Join us on the softer side of podcasting. Hello, and welcome to the softer cast, a show from me, Amelia, the founder and executive producer at Softer Sounds, where I answer your podcast questions without any of that tech bro BS that can come through when you do a quick Google and the AI answer pulls from the broiest YouTube video around.
Amelia Hruby:Maybe that's just my experience. But if you have been looking for softer, more supportive podcast advice, the show is for you. And today, I am answering a question from Stephanie of the Nosy AF podcast, which I will link in the show notes. And let's hear her question now.
Stephanie Graham:Hi, Amelia. It's Stephanie, a second time caller, long time listener. I feel that line never gets old. So I have a question about your process. I noticed that every Wednesday, a new episode comes out, but also a new email comes out announcing that episode.
Stephanie Graham:And I'm just like, I wonder how she does this. Like, do you do it in advance? Are you Tuesday night quickly writing an email together to send out? I would love to know just your process in doing that. I'm not sure if that's something I would do for myself, but if I wanted to, I would wanna know how.
Stephanie Graham:I think I do, like, more, like, maybe this is what was on the podcast this month just because it will go along, like, with my full practice, so it's not always just, one email. But maybe maybe I would do that. And so I was just curious if you could explain your process around presenting an episode, bringing it to the world so that, you know, I and the rest of the Softercast listeners can copy it. Thanks so much.
Amelia Hruby:Thank you to Stephanie for the question, and I'm excited to actually, like, get a little more personal here on the Softrcast and take you behind the scenes on my podcast, Off The Grid, which is the one that Stephanie's referencing that goes live every Wednesday. And when it goes live, there's an email that comes out. So I think that Stephanie's pointing to a really important part of podcasting that so many of us underestimate or under consider or just don't really think about when we start our show. And that is everything that happens after the episode goes live. I like to think of this as the publication and promotion process.
Amelia Hruby:So after an episode is created, I'll be specific. After I finish editing an episode of off the grid, I need to write the show notes and schedule it in my podcast hosting platform. I use Transistor. So after the audio is all done, I go to Transistor. I write the show notes, and I schedule the episode to go live.
Amelia Hruby:Then I go to my website platform, which is Squarespace, and I create a new blog post for the episode. So I like to have a blog post for every single one of my episodes on my website. Because if somebody searches my show, I want them to find my site, not just Apple Podcasts or the Transistor website or something like that. Like, I want to bring them to Myspace because on the Off the Grid site, they're also my offerings and my free things. And then maybe I can get their email address, and they can might buy something from me, etcetera, etcetera.
Amelia Hruby:So after the episode is scheduled on Transistor, I make a blog post on Squarespace, and I schedule that. That blog post includes, you know, the title, the show notes, an embedded player, all of the links, as well as a transcript of the episode. And then at that stage, I have done everything to publish the episode. So when the episode is meant to go live, it's all been scheduled, it will just go live automatically. That's kind of my publication process.
Amelia Hruby:Then there's the promotion process. So typically, when I schedule the episode, I also go write the email that's going to go to my mailing list with the episode inside of it. And so those emails tend to look mostly like the show notes. I like shift them a little bit, but I don't totally rewrite it. Typically, there's a couple sentences introducing the topic, the guest, and then like a bulleted list of what is included there.
Amelia Hruby:In the emails, I also like to have a graphic, which will have the episode title on it, as well as a photo of the guest, if there is a guest, typically. And then if I have any other announcements, I'll pop them in the second half of that email. And if I have sponsors for that episode, I will list their information and put all the links there, etcetera. And then I schedule that email to go live at the same time, same day and time the episode is coming out. So that is kind of my process.
Amelia Hruby:When I work on an episode, I like to kinda do it all from start to finish at once. Now sometimes I may be waiting on a sponsor, so the episode's done, but I can't finish the email till I have that information. Or if I have some announcement coming and I'm not quite sure what is going to go in the email yet, I, like, put in the first half with the episode, and then I pause and just wait until I have the rest of it ready. And typically, I like to work in batches, so I'll work on kind of two to three episodes at a time. And ideally, I'm working also, like, at least two to three weeks in advance.
Amelia Hruby:So I actually really like to be like a month ahead on the podcast. And when I say a month ahead, I mean, like, at the June, I want all my episodes scheduled, and I'm working on July. So, like, when each month starts, that month is already kind of done and ready to go out, I can be working a month ahead. And that's kind of the rhythm that I've gotten into. Now do I think everyone needs to do this?
Amelia Hruby:Right? Because Stephanie's question was like, how do you do it? But also, like, I'm thinking of myself and what I might do. And, like, maybe I just send one email a month with all of the podcast episodes, and I think that that could work fine. For me, during my first season of Off the Grid, I did not send an email every week.
Amelia Hruby:I sent an email when I remembered to send an email, and those were written much closer to the day the episode was going live. But since I have grown the show and I've kind of formalized my process and I have brought on sponsors, I promise an email blast to the sponsors. Like, I tell them as part of their paid sponsorship that their thing will be promoted on the podcast feed and will go out in the email. So I have to send the emails. That's, like, part of my obligation to the podcast sponsors.
Amelia Hruby:And so I think that when you're considering, like, what is your promotional flow, are you sending an email with every episode? A lot of that has to do with your capacity and bandwidth, like how much time do you have. Some of that may have to do with your commitments and obligations, like, do you have sponsors or have you committed to your guest that it's gonna go out to your list? And some of that may also have to do with just, like, what is your vision for what your podcast is going to become? I think that for me, I see sending the email as a way of just, like, making sure that everybody who wants to listen is listening.
Amelia Hruby:I also think that there's more that I could do to promote the show. So I see some podcasters out there send emails that aren't just the show notes. They are, like, fully different news stories that they're, like, sharing in the email, and then the episode is, like, linked at the end as, like, the perfect conclusion to the story. And, like, I think that is so cool, and, also, I have not had time to, like, build that into my process. So the show notes are what I write for the episode and also what goes in the email.
Amelia Hruby:But maybe in the future, I'll move into more storytelling and really kind of selling each episode as it comes out. I have also thought about the fact that, you know, I like to distinguish between promoting your podcast and marketing your podcast. So when I send an email about an episode, I am promoting the podcast. That means I am telling the people who already know about the show that a new episode is live. That's what I call podcast promotion.
Amelia Hruby:If I were doing more podcast marketing, I would be trying to get the show in front of new people. So sometimes I will do a paid newsletter ad for a podcast episode that I think could really use a boost or is really good, and I wanna get in front of some new listeners. And I love to place those ads in I love creatives, So sometimes I will point people toward a podcast episode with an ad, or I might reach out to a podcast friend and say, hey. Would you be interested in sharing this episode on your podcast feed? And I could do the same for you in the future.
Amelia Hruby:If we have, like, an aligned audience and I want their audience to learn more about my show, that sort of podcast feed swap or feed drop could be a great way to get my show in front of more people. So those are podcast marketing efforts, like getting the episodes in front of people who've never heard of me and off the grid. But that's different than the, like, publication and promotion that I'm doing. As always, I like to think of this along like spectrum. So I often, in my business and life, will work with the spectrum that I call the necessary nice ideal spectrum.
Amelia Hruby:And I've actually made a podcast episode about it that I can link to for the full explanation. But, essentially, anytime I'm taking on a task or a project or even just looking at my to do list for the day, I like to think about, like, what is absolutely necessary that needs to happen here? What would be nice if it got done? And what would be ideal? Like, if I lived in the best possible world, what would happen?
Amelia Hruby:And I try to sort tasks into those buckets and then sort of figure out, like, where is my energy at for that day or that project, and can I choose my bucket on that spectrum in alignment with my energy? So if I am exhausted and I have no energy, I might just go with the necessary list, which for a podcast is gonna be publication. Like, if I have no energy, I'm just gonna get the episode up. If I have a little more energy, I can add a couple tasks to my to do list. Well, then I will probably publish and promote the episode.
Amelia Hruby:I will send the email. I will do the things. And if I have a lot of energy in an ideal world, I would be publishing, promoting, and marketing every episode. Now where I'm at in my podcast systems and my business capacity is that I'm currently just, like, riding that nice lane. Right?
Amelia Hruby:I am publishing and promoting every episode. Occasionally, when I have some extra time, I will do that marketing step. I will get an episode in front of new people, or I will put in a little extra work to do that. But most of the time, as Stephanie pointed out in her question, the episode goes live. The email comes out week after week after week.
Amelia Hruby:I hope that this peek behind the scenes has been helpful, interesting, enlightening, let you see things you do or don't want to do with your own show. And thank you, Stephanie, for the question. I love second time callers. I welcome you back for a third time anytime. And if you have a question, dear listener, about how I work on my shows, whether that be Off the Grid or this here, Softercast.
Amelia Hruby:Or if you want my advice on your own podcast, you can send me a message via the SpeakPipe link in the show notes, and you could hear your own voice on air in the future. Thanks again to Stephanie for the question and to you for tuning in. Until next time, I will see you on the softer side of podcasting. Thanks so much for listening to the Softercast. If you enjoyed this episode, please send it to your podcast bestie.
Amelia Hruby:And after you do that, go ahead and drop us five stars on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If you'd like to submit a question, head to speakpipe.com/softercast to record a message or email us at hi@softersounds.studio. And last but not least, we made some awesome free things for you. Head to the show notes to download our free podcast launch toolkit or our three step podcast audit. No matter where you're at in your podcasting journey, we're here to support you.
Amelia Hruby:Thanks again for tuning in and joining us on the softer side of podcasting.