09: What Should Be Included in Your Podcast's Intro and Outro
In this episode, I explain what a show intro and outro is, what episode intro's and outro's are, and exactly what should be included in them to make sure they're as effective as possible.
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Transcript
Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more.
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Welcome to episode number nine of podcasting for coaches. In this episode, we are going to talk about two of the main components for your show, which are going to be the intro and the outro. So the intro and outro are basically the equivalent of the opening sequence and the ending credits to a TV show. So for example, if you watch friends, the opening sequence where they have the infamous song, and they're dancing in the fountain, and they have the umbrellas and all of those things, that is basically the intro to your podcast episode. It's the same every single time. So you don't have to create a new one for every episode. And it includes the same information, the information that we want to make sure that we highlight in your shows intro, which can also be called a bumper. So if you ever see anyone refer to the bumper of a show, they're talking about the main show intro the opening sequence. And in this opening sequence, you want to cover a few different key points, which is your name, the podcast name, and what the show is about. Those are the absolute basics of what you must have in your intro in order for it to be effective. If you have time, you also want to highlight who the show is for you know who the ideal listener is, you want the person who is checking your show out for the very first time to hear it and think okay, yeah, this is exactly what I've been looking for. This is the information I need. I'm going to continue listening, I'm going to go ahead and subscribe right now. So since this is going to be at the beginning of every single episode, and people love to binge consumed content these days, I recommend keeping these insurance as short as you possibly can. 30 seconds is pretty ideal. 45 is okay, I would not go over a minute. And this is including music, which is why I said if you have time, if you have the room, squeeze in who the show is for, if you can't, if you're finding yourself a little bit rushed to get all of that information in the allotted time. Leave that part out, because what you're talking about should draw them in. If you want an example of how to conduct this, just listen to the intro that's at the beginning of every episode for this podcast. And for my original podcast, I think I said something like, Hi, I'm Britany Felix and this is a living unconventionally podcast where I interview people who have ditch their desk and now travel the world full time or something along those lines. I recorded it several years ago. So I can't exactly remember. But that explains who I am, so that they can start putting a name to my voice and start that connection with me. It explains the name of the show so that they can use that to hopefully get a better idea of the topic. And then remember that in the future, if they don't subscribe right away. And then of course, you're going to talk about what you're going to talk about, I do recommend keeping this pretty general, don't get too specific. Because if you ever want to change the topic or the theme of your podcast, or the format in the future, if you keep it evergreen, you're fine. If you don't, you're going to have to create a whole new intro. So I do not recommend saying things like that it's going to be interviews or a solo show, if you ever plan on changing that in the future, or that you're going to release once a week even, or that you're going to release on a particular day of the week, because those are all things that could change throughout the life of a podcast. So let's keep it pretty evergreen, and just talk about the general basics of what the show is about. And the the theme. So now there are something called episode intros. And these are of course, separate, they're a completely different item. But for people who record interviews, they sometimes choose to record a separate solo intro after the interview is conducted. So if you have a guest, you're Of course going to want to say who they are, what their credentials are, what you talk about those kinds of things. And some people choose to build that right into the interview itself. They do a live read of their bio, and then just launch into the first question with a guest right there on the line. And that is perfectly fine. That will save you a little bit of extra trouble later on and save you a little bit of time. But some people, myself included, are not exactly comfortable with doing that live read while the guest is on the phone. It's just a little bit uncomfortable if you stumble over your words, or say their name incorrectly, something like that. So in that case, after the interview is over, you record the intro then so that you can stumble out to your heart's content. And then you can also highlight some things that are discussed in the episode to give the listener a little bit of a preview of specifically what's going to be talked about between you and that guest. So those are called individual episode intros. And these can range in length from 30 seconds to five
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minutes depending on what you really want to cover, obviously, I'm of the opinion that shorter is better, because you want to get into the content that the listener is there, you don't want to waste their time. There's kind of a general rule that a podcast episode should be as long as it needs to be and not a second longer. So highlight the guests give their credentials, maybe list a few things you talk about, and then go into the show itself. So moving on to the end of the show, you can have individual episode outros as well. So that's where you can maybe reflect a little bit more on what was talked about. This could be the solo segment that we mentioned in episode eight of this podcast. And then you can also use this to tell the people where they can find the show notes. If you don't do individual episode, outros after the interview is recorded, then you may run into the risk of having some incorrect information in the interview itself. So for instance, if you are interviewing john smith, and at the end of the interview, you say, john, thank you so much for joining me today. For anyone who's interested in learning more about john or the things that we talked about in this episode, visit the show notes at my website, com forward slash 66. Well, then if the situation comes up, where that interview gets lost, for some reason, maybe the audio files become corrupt. They literally have just vanished from your computer, which unfortunately, this happens sometimes with no explanation. Or say you had recorded this interview, and you plan to release it, where it coincided with the guest book launch. And then the guest reaches out to you and says, Hey, I'm actually going to be about a month late on my launch is there any way we can push this episode back, so it still is released at the same time? Well, then you're Episode 66 now becomes your Episode 72 or something like that. So if you build that into the interview, you're going to run into those issues later on. because inevitably, if you podcast for long enough, that's going to happen. However, if you do individual episode, outros, you don't ever run into that issue, because you can record it when you know for sure that it's going to be live and you know, for sure what the episode number and the shownotes URL is going to be. So the final component is the main show outro. So again, this is like the ending credits to a TV show, it's the same every time Some people choose to have a formal outro that is similar to their intro, so it's got music, and it's got the same copy, and it bookends every episode. Some people also choose to just have the show in with a little bit of music, and that's perfectly fine. So if you are doing a solo episode, for example, and you want to just say all of your information, your calls to action, and you know where they can find the show notes just when you record the episode and then end it with a little bit of music, that's perfectly okay if you're fine missing that information every time. However, if you want to informal outro to create a little bit more of a polished feel to the show, in your formal outro you want to basically just thank the listener for tuning in. And then you want to have your main call to action. That's the whole purpose of the episode outro is to give the listener your main call to action that you want them to take as soon as they finish listening. So in next week's episode, we're actually going to dive more into how to determine what that call to action should be. And then in the episode after that episode 11, we're going to dive into more about the music that you can get for these different components of the show. So be sure that you tune in for the next few episodes. And if you want to connect with me further, you can email me at Britany at podcasting for coaches comm or you can go to my website where you can learn more about me and my services. Or of course you can follow me on Facebook by just going to facebook.com forward slash podcasting for coaches. Thank you so much for joining me and I will see you back here next week so we can determine your call to action. And I hope that you have a fantastic week in the meantime.
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And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you're ready to see of starting a podcast is the next logical step for your coaching or consulting business. Head on over to podcasting for coaches.com where you can schedule a free 15 minute strategy session with yours truly. During this call, we'll discuss your business and see starting a podcast will help you generate more brand awareness and more leads. Thank you so much for tuning in today and I hope that we were able to chat soon