The power of PLOT for great podcast intros

Jennifer My podcast downloads just aren't growing.

Beyond 30 per week.

We need to talk about your podcast intro.

Something's gotta be done about your podcast intro.

Podcasting Insight Podcasting Insight.

Listeners have a low tolerance for long drawn out sets.

Most decide whether to continue listening within the first seven seconds.

So it's super important to get your podcast intro spot on.

Making a sound pro and getting to the point as quickly as possible.

I want to use a real life case study to demonstrate my point.

You may have heard me talking about the podcast audits I carry out for podcasters just like you, applying my experience and expertise to help you grow your podcast and get better results from it.

One of my more recent clients was a lady named Katherine Eardley.

She has a podcast called the Resilient Retail Game Plan.

Her intro was recorded during lockdown when she didn't really know what she was doing then.

This means the quality of the intro is reflective of the quality she was putting out at that time.

This is what it sounded like.

Today I am joined by Brooke Sellers from B Squared Media who is going to delve into the fascinating world of social listening and how you can use your social media to improve your sales and your relationship with your customers.

Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan, a podcast for anyone wanting to start, grow or scale a profitable creative product business with me, Katherine Eardley.

The Resilient Retail Game Plan is a podcast dedicated to one thing breaking down the concepts and tools that I've gathered from 20 years in the retail industry and showing you how you can use them in your business.

This is the real nuts and bolts of running a successful product business broken down in an easy, accessible way.

This is not a podcast about learning how to make your business look good.

It's the tools and techniques that will make you and your business feel good, confidently plan for launch and manage your products and feel in control of your sales numbers and cash flow to help you build a resilient retail business.

Since then, literally everything has improved.

Her mic technique has improved.

Her sound quality has improved.

Everything about the podcast has improved.

But new listeners have to get through that poor quality sounding intro in order to be able to consume and enjoy the content.

So I had her rerecord it.

This is what it sounds like now or what it will sound like as of her first New Style episode which is being published on Thursday 10th July.

Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan.

I'm Catherine Edley and in the next few minutes you're about to get powerful real world retail strategies from insights shared both from my guests and myself, backed up by my 25 years in the retail industry.

Keep listening to learn how to grow a thriving, profitable product business.

Let's jump in with this latest episode.

Do you hear the difference?

Which do you prefer?

If you say it's the first version, there's no hope for you.

Look, I don't expect you to just take my word for it when I tell you that getting your intro is important.

There's been a pretty compelling study done into this by Microsoft, no less.

The Microsoft Attention Span Research Report was published by Microsoft Canada's Consumer Insights Team in spring 2015.

It found that attention spans dropped 4% in 13 years.

In 2013, the average attention span was 8 seconds.

This was down from 12 seconds in the year 2000.

I have added a link to this in the episode description for you to see for yourself.

My point is, this was a study from 12 years ago telling us that new listeners would give us eight seconds to prove our worth to them.

But if that time had dropped by 4 seconds in 13 years, imagine how much further it might have dropped in the past 12.

So technically, we could now have four seconds to prove ourselves to new listeners.

This is why that hook is so damned important.

And I get why people don't want to front load their info.

It's the same mentality that led to my arguments with program directors in my radio broadcasting days.

Always forward, promote the songs you've got coming up.

Velio, they'd say.

I'd always respond with but what if the listener hates the idea of hearing Deep Blue something for the 100th time this week?

While at total polar opposite ends of the mindset, the theory still runs true on the radio, we needed to be vague to keep people listening and not give them a reason to tune out.

But back then, we had far less choice and competition for their attention.

Now the opposite is true in podcasts.

We need to give them as much information as possible to inform their decision to on whether they're going to keep listening to us or watching us.

Imagine this episode starting with a standard intro.

You might think, Ah, new episode of Podcasting Insights with Velio.

Let's hear what Neil's got for us this week.

Or if you're well trained, you would say, ah, new episode of Podcasting Insights with the Podmaster.

Let's hear what the podmaster's got for us this week.

But the chances are you probably wouldn't.

That's all branding nonsense.

As much as you might enjoy this show, I'm aware you even hearing this means I've defeated the 510 other shows that you'll probably have in your library on average vying for your attention.

The thing is, if you're a podcaster who knows you need to improve your intro.

This episode is a no brainer.

Listen or watch for you.

Based on my intro and my hook, I've got a future episode planned which will talk all about structuring using my plot method that is Preview, launch, offer takeaways.

But for now, let's focus on preview and launch since these are the crucial elements for getting your intro correct in most podcasts, this is what a standard episode sounds like.

Welcome to the Dave Davidson Business Podcast.

Each week I talk to thought leaders about business.

Hello, this is Dave.

I'm excited to introduce this week's special guest, Darren Dishwater.

Hello Dave.

So this week I want to talk about your sales process.

Tell me more.

Well, I want to share my special Hack for getting 100% conversions based on all emails you send out.

But first let me tell you my life story.

As a young Dishwater, I went to Hazlitt Grammar School for Boys and I learned this is what most podcasts sound like.

Here is how we could vastly improve that using the exact same elements but applying the P and L from my plot system.

In this episode, you're going to learn how to get 100% conversion rates from your sales emails.

Hello, this is Dave.

My guest today.

Darren Dishwater is a sales trainer who's been helping clients get 100% conversions from all email marketing.

He's the founder of Hazlet Sales.

Darren, before you give us the big reveal, tell me more about how your system started and how you means tested it.

Do you hear the difference?

If after listening to this you know you need to improve your intro but need some extra help designing what that might sound like?

This is just one of the many things I cover in my Pod Mastery Lite audits.

You can book yourself in for one for just £250 at Podmastery Co Lite.

That's Podmastery Co Light.

You'll get my full analysis emailed to you as well as a video summary in your inbox.

If you're podcasting for your business and need more in depth help, My full audits feature the written report and video summary and also include a follow up one to one call where we'll dive in a little bit deeper to get you to the next stage of your podcast's success story.

You can book yourself in for that at podmastery co I hope you've enjoyed this episode and you found it useful.

If you did, please share it with a podcasting friend who you think might also learn something new that they can apply to improve their own podcast.

Thanks in advance if you decide to share this episode, follow the podcast, or leave a review all three why not?

I'm super excited to catch up with you again in the next episode of Podcasting Insights.