January 24, 2024 • 36 mins
After sharing multiple considerations for refreshing your podcast branding, it's time to wrap it up with the big question: how?
The post How to Refresh Your Podcast Branding first appeared on The Audacity to Podcast®.
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How to refresh your podcast branding.
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Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis.
After sharing multiple considerations, this is my last episode in my mini-series about
refreshing your podcast branding.
And it's time to wrap it up with the big question, how?
If you want to review some of the other stuff I've talked about with refreshing your podcast
branding, go back and listen to my previous episodes about the benefits of podcast branding
(00:31):
refresh and when you should refresh your podcast branding. But this episode will focus on how
to refresh your podcast branding. If you'd like to follow along in the notes, you can
get to them at the theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshhow or they are a simple tap or swipe away inside
of your podcast app. First, a reminder, what is podcast branding? Your podcast branding
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is one or more features that uniquely identify your podcast. It's the first impression for
new audiences. And it's how your loyal audience recognizes your podcast distinctly from others.
Podcast branding is more than only your cover art. That's the thing that we usually think
of at first and almost all the time is "Oh it's my cover art." No, it's so much more
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than that. Yes, it can be your cover art, but it can also be the logo inside your cover
art. And that logo can be used for all kinds of things. And by the way, a logo is different
from cover art. A cover art can contain a logo, but the cover art is not your logo.
And if you want to learn more about that, I've got a great article linked in the notes
for this episode.
Your podcast branding is also the audio and video elements that you use throughout your
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episodes. It's in your podcast description. It's in your repeated phrases. It's even
in how you communicate and host your podcast.
So a branding refresh would be updating any or all of these elements but keeping the core
of your podcast the same.
It's like changing your shirt.
Well you're still the same person inside the shirt but just the outside has changed or
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the style has changed.
A rebrand would be if you changed much more of the podcast including what you talk about
and whom you try to reach.
So we're focusing on how to refresh your podcast branding.
Number one, evaluate the needs.
Do you actually need to refresh your podcast branding or are you merely bored with it?
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Most likely your needs will fit within one or more of the benefits to a podcast branding
refresh that I've previously shared.
Those are attract a new audience, increase your perceived quality, adapt to the latest
trends, strengthen or reset your podcast's identity and message, infuse new energy for
your audience and yourself, and stand out from others.
Your actual needs should be the biggest influence over all other branding refresh decisions.
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For example, my now-retired Once Upon a Time TV aftershow podcast got me a "friendly"
call with one of Disney's lawyers.
Because well, first of all, because I opened my big mouth and kind of invited the call.
But really the reason they wanted to talk to me was because they looked at my visual
branding and saw that my visual branding looked so much like their official branding for the
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TV show that they thought I was actually using their images.
And they first said, "You're not allowed to copy our images."
And then I showed them, "No, I built these all myself.
I designed this all myself.
I did all of these things myself."
So then they said, "Well, alright, but it looks just like ours."
So it looks like it's officially affiliated with Disney.
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That was the problem.
So all I needed to do to satisfy the almighty mouse was to refresh the visual branding and
make some more prominent disclaimers that we weren't affiliated with Disney or that
we were the unofficial podcast about the show.
That was an immediate and an important need for the podcast's visual branding.
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But it didn't change anything about how we ran the podcast, the kind of content we
produced, what we did on the site, it didn't change our color scheme, it didn't change
the silvery look. Pretty much all I did was just change the font, made it drastically
different from their official font, and I made it more prominent to say "unofficial
podcast." By the way, the Disney lawyer was very clear that they did not want us to stop
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our podcast. We just had a branding problem so we had to refresh our podcast branding
because of that immediate need. So you really need to think about does your podcast need
a podcast branding refresh? And if so, why? What are the actual needs in your podcast
branding refresh? That's number one. Number two, understand your own podcast. You've
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seen the cliche plotline before. You journey up a mountain on a path to self-discovery
and you're met by some sage who helps you discover that the magic was within you all along.
That's been done over and over and over.
Understanding your own podcast won't have you climbing mountains into a path of self-discovery,
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but it does mean trying to step out of your own position and objectively look at your
podcast as both an outsider and as an audience member, but not as someone actually hosting
the podcast, that curse of knowledge.
So you really have to seek to understand what makes your podcast unique from the audience
perspective.
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What are those recurring elements that are used in your podcast, the inside jokes or
the style of your presentation?
What is your podcast known for?
Not just, you talk about movies, but what is it known for about that?
What makes your podcast different from another podcast that talks about movies?
What does the audience like and dislike about your podcast?
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Why is your audience listening?
What are they getting from your podcast that they can't get from someone else?
And why are you even making this podcast?
These are some questions that you can consider to help you better understand your own podcast
because sometimes I think we'll just go through the motions, maybe for years, and not really
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understand what our podcast actually means to our audience and how it's perceived in
certain ways, or certain strengths and weaknesses, certain ways that make it distinct from other
podcasts. Look for those things that you should emphasize more and the things that you should
remove. For the branding refresh that I did for The Audacity to Podcast several years ago,
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I realized that my visual elements really weren't communicating the idea of audacity,
that is boldness, courage, guts, power and such. But those were definitely recurring themes. After
After all, that's why I named my show The Audacity to Podcast.
So I knew that the magic was within me all along.
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I just had to let it go, let it go.
And I'm not going to sing anymore in this episode so don't worry.
Another aspect of this is realizing that your podcast branding might not match your own preferences.
For example, and this is I think the first time I've ever said this, the music I've
always used for The Audacity to Podcast, a song called Vegas Shuffle, is not actually
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the kind of music I enjoy. In fact, I don't really like hard rock or electric guitar music,
but I love that song for this podcast because I think it perfectly fits the vibe of my podcast
branding. When I was looking for music years ago now, back in 2010, when I was preparing
to launch the podcast and I heard that song, I realized, yes, that in musical tone, and
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I'm very musical. I have a musical background. I get all of these pictures in my mind when
I hear music and certain things and I'm very picky about music. So it's very interesting
that I picked a song that I don't actually prefer that style of music for myself, but
it fit the vibe of my podcast branding. And if you're wondering what is the actual kind
of music I like and in fact what is the kind of soundtrack for my life right now, well
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watch me get inducted into the podcast hall of fame to hear my walkout music that actually
fits me better, at least in my mind, by understanding my own podcast and what I wanted to do with
the podcast. I chose music that fit the vibe of the podcast. It fit the branding of the
podcast. Not my personal branding, but the branding of the podcast. I tried to do the
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same thing with the other podcasts that I've hosted, making the branding fit the podcast,
not myself, because I needed to understand the podcast and the audience and how these
things would all tie together. That's all part of podcast branding. And when you understand
your own podcast, then you can understand where you need to emphasize certain things
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more or maybe emphasize certain things less or completely remove them because they're
just not fitting with that actual branding of your podcast.
Number three, consider the timing. An effective branding refresh will take time to do with
excellence. Yeah, you could do something overnight that might be cheap, but is it really the
best thing. Even if you're a professional, it still takes time to consider, "Is this
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really the best approach? Let me try some other methods. Let me push some pixels around
a little bit here and there." I do that a lot. Consider not only how much time the process
will take in itself, but also when is actually the right time to launch the new branding.
For example, if your show is seasonal, and for good reasons, I hope, the start of a new
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season could be a great time to launch the new branding. Either with the first episode
of that season or with the trailer preceding the new season if you do a trailer for the new season.
Other good times for a branding refresh could be around milestone episodes or anniversaries.
You can learn more about when is a good time to refresh your podcast branding by listening
to my previous episode or reviewing the article.
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But in a quick review here, when your podcast significantly changes, when your branding
stops growing with you, when you enter new "seasons" and I explain more in that episode
what I mean by that. It's not necessarily a seasonal show, but kind of seasons, like
seasons of life kind of thing where you gradually transition from one season into another. That
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kind of season. Listen to the episode to understand that more if that was a little fuzzy. Also,
when you can improve the quality of your podcast branding, when there's enough compelling feedback,
and/or when you determine the benefits outweigh the costs. And you can go back to the other
episode to learn more about some of the benefits of a podcast branding refresh.
It's also best if you can time your branding refresh to launch in all your properties at
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the same time.
Now, super loyal fans of the Audacity podcast might have noticed that it took me I think
about a year before I updated the website theaudacitytopodcast.com to match the new branding
in the podcast cover art and the way that I'd altered the music just a little bit.
If I wasn't going through the personal hardships that I was at that time, the best thing for
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me to do and what I would have rather have done is to have launched the new site with
the new visual and audio branding and the video branding as well at the same time, which
even the video branding I think came a couple years more after the website and the podcast
rebranding, but it would have been best if I launched all of those at the same time.
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But I did it right when I did a complete rebrand of my podcast reviews to Podgagement.
That's my service where you can sign up at podgagement.com, try it free, to engage your
audience and grow your podcast.
Like get voice feedback from your podcast audience.
You can get messages from your audience.
You can collect ratings and reviews and so much more coming.
That's at podgagement.com.
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Try it free.
Free trial when you sign up.
Great options over there.
Check it out.
Podgagement.com.
That little commercial aside, when I did that rebrand from my podcast reviews to Podgagement,
I launched it all together.
That's the app redesign, the website redesign, the new logo, the new domain, even the new
social IDs.
Everything I changed, all together.
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That's the way to do it.
When you can plan for it, and when you have the time for it, when you've made the time
to make sure you get everything done, and when you time it all together.
That's number three.
Number four.
Prepare your audience.
Although a branding refresh is not as major as an actual rebrand where you're changing
what your podcast is about or the kind of audience you're trying to reach.
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It might still be a good idea to announce the branding refresh to your audience ahead
of time.
It doesn't have to be a huge announcement with all kinds of explanation, like a rebrand
might need, but at least something, just a little heads up maybe, especially if your
show doesn't already use seasons for good reasons.
I gotta put that on a t-shirt.
Have seasons for good reasons.
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This kind of approach where you're announcing it or giving your audience some kind of heads
up can reduce potential confusion when someone's podcast library suddenly looks a little different
and maybe they can't find your podcast because it looks different from before if you did
a visual branding refresh.
Like maybe your old podcast cover art was blue and now your new cover art is red, then
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your audience might be a little confused.
I'm not talking like minutes or hours of confusion, but it might just be a little confusing
for them to see, "Wait, where did that podcast go?
Why aren't I still following that podcast in my pocket?
Oh there it is. Okay.
Oh look at that.
They changed their colors.
So that's why you might just want to give them a little bit of a heads up.
You could mention the upcoming refresh in your episodes leading up to it.
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Again, just a little heads up.
It doesn't have to be a long explanation.
Unless it's something super special about it.
But my recommendation would really be to publish a separate episode as a trailer and define
it as a trailer episode.
give it an episode number or anything like that. Just set it as a trailer type and that
would be specifically to announce the upcoming branding refresh. It doesn't have to be a
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long episode, a minute, two minutes, whatever. And then a couple of weeks after you launch
the new branding, you can then easily go back and delete that announcement episode so anyone
coming to your podcast after you've done the branding refresh won't have to know that
you ever did a refresh. Unless there's some special story behind the refresh that you
really want to share, that's when you'd want to leave that in an episode or leave that announcement
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episode out there so that people can hear that story of what that new branding refresh means to
you. If there's something special about that that your audience would appreciate. The more drastically
different the new branding is, probably the more important it is to prepare your audience for that
new branding refresh. But if you keep things in some way similar, like if you look at the old
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podcast cover art for the Audacity podcast and the new one I still have the microphone in there. I
still have the exclamation point kind of hidden in the logo. I still have the kind of RSS feed icon
in there although it has three circles instead of two. It's there. The layout's kind of the same but
the font is different. The colors are different. The feel of it is different. Like I didn't use
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drop shadows in the new design. I used lots of drop shadows in the old design. It was kind of
of the same but still also different. The more radically different you make it though,
that's when you might want to consider especially letting your audience know that it's coming
up. Especially if you change the name of your podcast. But that gets more into rebranding.
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So that's number four. Prepare your audience. Number five, decide to delegate or do it yourself.
Refreshing your podcast branding will cost you. It will obviously cost money if you delegate
it to someone you hire and it could also cost you time if you do it yourself.
And maybe a lot of time if you're not skilled or comfortable with the process.
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The first place I recommend looking for help would be within your own audience.
Put a call out there if you have an email list, followers, or a community, or even just
mention it in your podcast.
"Hey, I'm looking for someone to help me do a branding refresh.
Maybe design some new cover art for us, a new logo, maybe make some new audio elements for us.
then I'd love to have you help us with our podcast. Something like that gets your audience
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involved and that can be really fun for them and fun for you. For example, No Agenda with
Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak makes a big deal about letting their audience contribute
artwork and reusable audio elements for every episode. To see this in action, look at noagendaartgenerator.com
I have that link in the show notes for examples of all the thousands and thousands of artwork
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submissions they received.
And the podcast makes a big deal about picking one after every episode and they use it for
that episode.
And then in the next episode of their podcast they talk through some of those things.
And if you're using a Podcasting 2.0 compliant podcast app, you get to see the multiple images
pass through in the Podcasting 2.0 chapters. Which, if my proposal is ever accepted, I'd
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love to see it be actually a gallery of images that you could swipe through at your own pace
while they're talking about the images. But that's an aside. I talk about that kind of
stuff a lot more in the future of podcasting. Now feel free to have fun with this if you
get your audience involved. Like you could run a contest with or without prizes. You could consider
having your audience vote for what they like the best or making some kind of other game of it.
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Just be prepared with how you might handle it if your audience doesn't give you very high-quality
work or they don't give you very high-quality responses to your choices. And if you want to
hire a highly skilled professional to help, here are my recommendations. Now the following are
affiliate links. If you click on the links in the notes or if you mention me to these people,
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I might be compensated, especially with the first one. So consider that if you want to,
But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.
So for visual branding, I highly recommend Marc Ducote from PodcastBranding.co.
And if you work with him, please let him know that you heard about him from me or from the
Audacity to Podcast. I do receive a commission if you mention me. That's the only way I get paid
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from him. But I recommend him because he's done great work and he is a podcaster himself.
He understands podcast branding. That's what his site is all about. PodcastBranding.co
is where he shows off all of this stuff. He's been in this industry for a while, a skilled designer,
a skilled podcaster. If you want maybe a cheaper alternative or maybe something quicker, but if
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you're just looking for an alternative, 99designs is pretty good where you get designers to compete
for designing something for you. But what's very likely going to happen there is you might
get something that looks good but has some pretty bad cliches in it. And I'll talk more about
cliches actually in the next point. I highly recommend against using Fiverr.
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Fiverr can be very cheap, sure, making it very affordable, but it can also be very
cheap quality and there's also a lot of intellectual property theft when it
comes to stuff like designing things, creating images for you, and you can be
held liable for that. So be very careful on Fiverr. Marc Ducote, 99designs, and as a
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a last resort. Like very bottom of the barrel last resort. Maybe Fiverr for this. Fiverr's
great for other things, just not podcast cover art in my opinion. If you want something that's
more drawn, like either cartoonish style or illustrated in some way, then my top recommendation
there is James Kinison from DrawYouAPicture.com. And I do not, to my knowledge, get compensated
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in any way from him, but it'd still be nice if you let him know that you heard about him
from me. I don't expect compensation. I just want him to know that I appreciate his work.
He's done great work for me. I'll talk about more in a moment. And he's done amazing work
for others. He's super creative and really talented with artistic stuff. So if you want
something drawn, then definitely go to him. For complete audio branding, I highly recommend
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Music Radio Creative or hire out for pieces of your audio branding with some people on
Fiverr. This is a good place for using Fiverr in certain cases. Like maybe you need a voiceover,
maybe you need a little jingle put together, maybe you need something sung by a few people
and you piece it together yourself or maybe they piece it together. Certain little tasks like that
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you could hire out on Fiverr and probably get some pretty good results. But Music Radio Creative is
the prestigious option here. If you need help with your content or presentation branding,
because that is part of your podcast branding, then hire a podcast consultant such as me
or Dave Jackson or Eric K. Johnson or whoever is your favorite.
And again, let them know that you heard about them from me.
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I may or may not receive any kind of compensation from that.
I just like people to know when I refer people to them, even if I'm not compensated.
And if you want video branding, then, well, maybe someone from Fiverr.
Now here for video branding, please check the notes for this because if I get a better
option in the future. I will update the notes because right now I don't know a good person
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to recommend for making video branding like lower thirds, animations, opening and closing sequences,
little flash transitions or anything like that. I don't mean flash like the old browser stuff but
flashy kind of stuff. If you need video branding then look in the notes for an actual link to maybe
someone that I end up recommending but right now I don't have someone to recommend so let me know
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So also, if you are someone who can do video branding really well, and please understand
I am very picky about styles and quality and stuff, so if I have to decline, please don't
take it personally.
But check the notes if you're looking for video branding help, because I'll try to update
it when I find someone that I can recommend for, I don't know if I'll get compensated,
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probably not, but we'll just see.
And that will be disclosed in the notes.
And if you have the tools, skills, and determination to do it yourself, then expect to spend way
too much time obsessing over particular details.
I want you to know a little bit of a story with this from my own experience.
When I was doing that complete rebuild and rebranding from my podcast reviews to Podgagement,
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again go over to Podgagement.com for a free trial to engage your audience and grow your podcast.
I gotta do that every time.
It's the thing I'm so excited about right now.
But anyway, when I did that rebranding and the refresh and all of that stuff and completely
rebuilt it from scratch, I kept hitting a mental wall, several mental walls, with the new logo.
I had certain ideas that in my mind I thought would work, but when I actually tried to illustrate
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them myself, and I'm not a good drawer, I'm a good designer, but I'm not good at artistic
stuff, I just couldn't make it work.
So I reached out to James Kinnison since I knew he's a great artist and extremely creative.
He has a great podcast too called That Story Show.
It's my all-time favorite podcast, a clean comedy podcast.
I've listened to it for years.
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I love it.
When I started working with him, we went back and forth over some of my rough ideas, but
nothing was really working very well.
I didn't feel good about some of the ideas.
He didn't really think they were working that well.
At a point, he was actually about to give up because it was such a difficult concept
that we were trying to illustrate and design for with the new logo. But then a moment of
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inspiration hit him and I fell in love with his new idea, which ended up becoming the
logo for Podgagement. I loved it so much that I kept looking at it over and over and over
because it was so cool. And in fact, he hid something in the logo that when you see it,
I think you'll recognize the brilliance of the logo. I've got the image in the notes
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for this episode at theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshhow. Let me know when you can spot it. Once you
see it, you'll realize, "Oh man, that works so well inside the logo and it just
fits perfectly." I'm not going to give any spoilers. You just have to look at it.
Or go over to podgagement.com to see the logo there and sign up for a free trial. But I
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love the work that he did. And even though I could have designed my own logo, maybe,
When I've designed my own logos in the past, I am so happy that I hired someone else to
do it for me because he came up with an idea and a concept that I absolutely loved.
And I ran with it and it helped influence other aspects of the branding for Podgagement.
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I love it so much.
Check it out in the notes or at podgagement.com.
So that's number five.
Decide to delegate or do it yourself.
Number six.
Avoid cliches like the plague.
I hope you know the visual podcast cliches by now. Those are microphones, RSS icons,
headphones, audio waveforms, and all the stuff that visually represents "podcasting"
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but most likely not what your podcast is actually about. And unless your podcast is about microphones,
audio, mixers, and such, then you should avoid using those visual cliches in your branding
probably 99.99% of the time, and even the remaining 0.01% I would still challenge you
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to avoid those cliches and question could it look better without those cliches that
are related to podcasting. Unless your podcast is about podcasting, just like a movie that's
about movie making gets away with having movie cameras or film or certain things like that
in the design for the movie covers. For podcasts about podcasting, they can also get away with it.
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Most other podcasts though, I really don't think they need those cliches. It's really wasted space
or wasted visual communication when you could use something that communicates your subject
or your audience or your branding for your podcast so much better. Your particular niche
might also have its own cliches. Those might be okay to use if your podcast is about that niche,
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Just like my podcast is about podcasting, so it is totally okay to use some of the cliché images.
But I still recommend thinking outside the cliché first. For example, I once designed
podcast cover art for a Christian podcast that was all about the working of the Holy Spirit.
And if you're not into Christianity, not familiar with Holy Spirit and things,
the most common visual representation of the Holy Spirit used almost everywhere is a dove.
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But my client was very clear. They did not want that cliché dove in the design. And
I think that was a great decision. It really challenged me to think of, "Okay, how can
I communicate the concepts of the Holy Spirit and what that means for Christians without
using that cliché dove in the design?" And I liked the result. I think it turned out
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great. They loved it too. There are also non-visual clichés too, both in the podcasting industry
and probably within your niche. For example, avoid using "on fire" or "thinking outside
the box" in your podcast title. Maybe even avoiding naming the show after yourself would
be good to do. I've done a previous episode on things that you should avoid in your podcast
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title. That's linked in the notes, a tap or swipe away or at theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshhow.
There can be cliches with music too. In the early days of podcasting, I'm talking way
way back in like 2005, 2006, 2007 and such. It seemed like half the podcasts I heard were
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using the same music from GarageBand because there weren't many affordable alternatives
back then to be able to have licensed music that you could legally use in your podcast.
Now though, there are so many great options. My favorite is premiumbeat.com and my link
to that is an affiliate link but I've been a customer for many years. I've used premiumbeat.com
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myself. I love the quality of their music and just the browsing experience is great
too. That's my recommendation. And because there are so many options like that, and many
more great ones as well, also there are so many more podcasts now, I think you'll be
far more likely to be able to pick something that's not the same thing as someone else.
Certainly not the same thing as someone else within your niche, most likely. Because there
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are so many choices out there now. And so much variety in podcasts as well. Another
Another sort of cliché is trying to be like someone or something else. For example, since
podcasting is mostly audio still, despite what some of the misinformation polls out
there say, trying to make the epic movie trailer voice I think is cliché. But note that I
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said "trying". Like if I'm saying "in a world where podcasting is king" that
just doesn't sound right. I know I don't sound like the movie trailer voice guy, and
You know I don't sound like it.
When I try to sound like a movie trailer voice like that, the epic deep voice, I feel like
I'm a teenager trying to sound like the epic movie trailer voice guy.
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That's my own impression.
Maybe that's even your own impression when you hear it or when you do it yourself.
But if you actually have that great voice, definitely use it.
Because that's authentically you or it's something that you are able to do in a way that can
sound good.
But even then, it might seem too cliche to use the movie trailer style for your audio
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branding in trailers or in episodes if that's not your actual normal voice.
It really depends on what matches the branding of your podcast.
And is it too cliche to have the epic movie trailer voice or the "in a world" kind of thing?
Again, just now I felt like a teenager pretending to be epic movie trailer voice guy.
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just doesn't work for me. Unless I get a cold and then sometimes I feel like either I am the epic
movie trailer voice or it sounds that way to me sometimes or maybe Ron Trzcinski from the original
Mattress Factory. Either one of those. I've heard some people when they get sick do sound great with
their voices. So maybe you leverage that the next time you get sick. I know that James Kennison,
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even, who I mentioned earlier, did something like that years back when he got sick and he
ended up with a great result. It doesn't even sound like him because he was sick, he lost his
voice in some way, but he sounded like a great voiceover artist and he did some of his own
voiceover work during that short time that he was sick. He leveraged that and it ended up great.
And his podcast is a comedy podcast, so making parodies of things like that, like the epic movie
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trailer voice, totally fits. Even though it's kind of cliche for the overall podcasting industry,
It's not overly cliche within his niche.
It worked for him.
Colors can even be cliche.
Now I'm not going to go through everything and say everything is cliche.
No, but colors can be cliche.
For example, the old My Podcast Reviews branding was using the color purple that was actually
(31:02):
the same color from Apple Podcasts.
And now I've seen far too many other podcasting apps and services use a similar purple color
to Apple Podcasts.
purple color has become cliché. But I chose the new PIE Gagement branding color scheme
completely separate from anything else and inspired and driven by the concepts that that
(31:24):
new rocket logo was already promoting. And also, I chose the color scheme and the naming
of some of the things before I even heard of the game Starfield. So don't think I'm
just copying Starfield, especially when you see how many times I referred to Constellation.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's okay.
So that's number six, avoid cliches like the plague.
(31:44):
But and finally number seven, break some rules.
This is my favorite rule.
It's the anti-rule.
And that is, break some rules.
But here's the key, do so intentionally and with good reasons.
For example, red is generally considered a bad color in design.
Some people have said things like it vibrates or it invokes certain psychology things that
(32:09):
happen when people see red and all of this stuff. Because we think red like stop signs
and red is when you're in the red financially it's a bad thing and red is blood and violence
and but also red is hearts and love and things. Red has many connotations and in design stuff
it's generally considered a bad color but not always. And yet some of the other meanings
(32:32):
and interpretations of red and psychology behind the colors were perfect fits for communicating
the theme of boldness for The Audacity to Podcast. And that's why red is now my branding
color even though, and this goes back to my previous point about understanding your own
podcast, The Audacity to Podcast is about that audacity, that guts, the courage, the
(32:56):
boldness, the power, the red to podcast. But for me, I've been told red does not look
good on me. So I am not allowed to wear red basically in my mind. But yet it is a great
branding color for The Audacity to Podcast because it fits, since I understood more,
what the podcast really needs to communicate. That's why red is so strong in my visual
(33:20):
branding for The Audacity to Podcast now.
There might be some cliches that you need to use in order to better clarify what your
podcast is about. Like if your podcast is about podcasting, then you might need to use
certain icons like a microphone or headphones or things like that. If your podcast is about
baking cookies, then you should probably have a cookie in your podcast cover art in some way.
(33:45):
That's cliché, yes, but you have a very good reason to break that rule of avoiding clichés
because you need to use that cliché to better clarify what your podcast is about. In other words,
Don't pick something just because you like it or avoid it just because it's cliche.
Instead make choices, even breaking rules if necessary, when you have a good "why" behind it.
(34:09):
So these 7 tips for how to refresh your podcast branding are number 1, evaluate the needs.
Number 2, understand your podcast.
Number 3, consider the timing.
Number 4, prepare your audience.
Number 5, decide to delegate or do it yourself.
Number six, avoid cliches like the plague.
And number seven, break some rules.
(34:30):
If you'd like to comment on this and let me know what you thought of it, maybe that's
in your app already with cross app comments, maybe.
Or go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshhow.
That's also where you can go to share this episode with other podcasters who would learn from it.
And I would really appreciate it if you would share this episode out because I'd love to
build the audience, build our community more around The Audacity to Podcast and help more
(34:54):
podcasters like you. So that's at theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshhow. Thank you so much for all the streaming
Satoshis through the modern podcast apps. If you want a new podcast app that lets you
stream Satoshis and an appreciation token sort of, a way to give value back to the podcast
that you love, then check out some new podcasts over at newpodcastapps.com. Or you might have
(35:18):
heard the domain podcastapps.com. It all goes to the same place. It's part of Podcasting
2.0, the next innovation of podcasting.
I love it.
I'm involved with it.
I'd love to have your support too.
So if you want to stream some Satoshis to The Audacity to Podcast, you're welcome to
do that in a new podcast app.
Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of the tools, it's time for
(35:39):
you to start and grow your own podcast for passion and profit.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com.
Thanks for listening.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
How to refresh your podcast branding.
(00:09):
Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis.
After sharing multiple considerations, this is my last episode in my mini-series about
refreshing your podcast branding.
And it's time to wrap it up with the big question, how?
If you want to review some of the other stuff I've talked about with refreshing your podcast
branding, go back and listen to my previous episodes about the benefits of podcast branding
(00:31):
refresh and when you should refresh your podcast branding. But this episode will focus on how
to refresh your podcast branding. If you'd like to follow along in the notes, you can
get to them at the theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshhow or they are a simple tap or swipe away inside
of your podcast app. First, a reminder, what is podcast branding? Your podcast branding
(00:55):
is one or more features that uniquely identify your podcast. It's the first impression for
new audiences. And it's how your loyal audience recognizes your podcast distinctly from others.
Podcast branding is more than only your cover art. That's the thing that we usually think
of at first and almost all the time is "Oh it's my cover art." No, it's so much more
(01:17):
than that. Yes, it can be your cover art, but it can also be the logo inside your cover
art. And that logo can be used for all kinds of things. And by the way, a logo is different
from cover art. A cover art can contain a logo, but the cover art is not your logo.
And if you want to learn more about that, I've got a great article linked in the notes
for this episode.
Your podcast branding is also the audio and video elements that you use throughout your
(01:40):
episodes. It's in your podcast description. It's in your repeated phrases. It's even
in how you communicate and host your podcast.
So a branding refresh would be updating any or all of these elements but keeping the core
of your podcast the same.
It's like changing your shirt.
Well you're still the same person inside the shirt but just the outside has changed or
(02:05):
the style has changed.
A rebrand would be if you changed much more of the podcast including what you talk about
and whom you try to reach.
So we're focusing on how to refresh your podcast branding.
Number one, evaluate the needs.
Do you actually need to refresh your podcast branding or are you merely bored with it?
(02:27):
Most likely your needs will fit within one or more of the benefits to a podcast branding
refresh that I've previously shared.
Those are attract a new audience, increase your perceived quality, adapt to the latest
trends, strengthen or reset your podcast's identity and message, infuse new energy for
your audience and yourself, and stand out from others.
Your actual needs should be the biggest influence over all other branding refresh decisions.
(02:53):
For example, my now-retired Once Upon a Time TV aftershow podcast got me a "friendly"
call with one of Disney's lawyers.
Because well, first of all, because I opened my big mouth and kind of invited the call.
But really the reason they wanted to talk to me was because they looked at my visual
branding and saw that my visual branding looked so much like their official branding for the
(03:18):
TV show that they thought I was actually using their images.
And they first said, "You're not allowed to copy our images."
And then I showed them, "No, I built these all myself.
I designed this all myself.
I did all of these things myself."
So then they said, "Well, alright, but it looks just like ours."
So it looks like it's officially affiliated with Disney.
(03:40):
That was the problem.
So all I needed to do to satisfy the almighty mouse was to refresh the visual branding and
make some more prominent disclaimers that we weren't affiliated with Disney or that
we were the unofficial podcast about the show.
That was an immediate and an important need for the podcast's visual branding.
(04:00):
But it didn't change anything about how we ran the podcast, the kind of content we
produced, what we did on the site, it didn't change our color scheme, it didn't change
the silvery look. Pretty much all I did was just change the font, made it drastically
different from their official font, and I made it more prominent to say "unofficial
podcast." By the way, the Disney lawyer was very clear that they did not want us to stop
(04:24):
our podcast. We just had a branding problem so we had to refresh our podcast branding
because of that immediate need. So you really need to think about does your podcast need
a podcast branding refresh? And if so, why? What are the actual needs in your podcast
branding refresh? That's number one. Number two, understand your own podcast. You've
(04:50):
seen the cliche plotline before. You journey up a mountain on a path to self-discovery
and you're met by some sage who helps you discover that the magic was within you all along.
That's been done over and over and over.
Understanding your own podcast won't have you climbing mountains into a path of self-discovery,
(05:10):
but it does mean trying to step out of your own position and objectively look at your
podcast as both an outsider and as an audience member, but not as someone actually hosting
the podcast, that curse of knowledge.
So you really have to seek to understand what makes your podcast unique from the audience
perspective.
(05:31):
What are those recurring elements that are used in your podcast, the inside jokes or
the style of your presentation?
What is your podcast known for?
Not just, you talk about movies, but what is it known for about that?
What makes your podcast different from another podcast that talks about movies?
What does the audience like and dislike about your podcast?
(05:53):
Why is your audience listening?
What are they getting from your podcast that they can't get from someone else?
And why are you even making this podcast?
These are some questions that you can consider to help you better understand your own podcast
because sometimes I think we'll just go through the motions, maybe for years, and not really
(06:14):
understand what our podcast actually means to our audience and how it's perceived in
certain ways, or certain strengths and weaknesses, certain ways that make it distinct from other
podcasts. Look for those things that you should emphasize more and the things that you should
remove. For the branding refresh that I did for The Audacity to Podcast several years ago,
(06:36):
I realized that my visual elements really weren't communicating the idea of audacity,
that is boldness, courage, guts, power and such. But those were definitely recurring themes. After
After all, that's why I named my show The Audacity to Podcast.
So I knew that the magic was within me all along.
(06:57):
I just had to let it go, let it go.
And I'm not going to sing anymore in this episode so don't worry.
Another aspect of this is realizing that your podcast branding might not match your own preferences.
For example, and this is I think the first time I've ever said this, the music I've
always used for The Audacity to Podcast, a song called Vegas Shuffle, is not actually
(07:23):
the kind of music I enjoy. In fact, I don't really like hard rock or electric guitar music,
but I love that song for this podcast because I think it perfectly fits the vibe of my podcast
branding. When I was looking for music years ago now, back in 2010, when I was preparing
to launch the podcast and I heard that song, I realized, yes, that in musical tone, and
(07:46):
I'm very musical. I have a musical background. I get all of these pictures in my mind when
I hear music and certain things and I'm very picky about music. So it's very interesting
that I picked a song that I don't actually prefer that style of music for myself, but
it fit the vibe of my podcast branding. And if you're wondering what is the actual kind
of music I like and in fact what is the kind of soundtrack for my life right now, well
(08:09):
watch me get inducted into the podcast hall of fame to hear my walkout music that actually
fits me better, at least in my mind, by understanding my own podcast and what I wanted to do with
the podcast. I chose music that fit the vibe of the podcast. It fit the branding of the
podcast. Not my personal branding, but the branding of the podcast. I tried to do the
(08:32):
same thing with the other podcasts that I've hosted, making the branding fit the podcast,
not myself, because I needed to understand the podcast and the audience and how these
things would all tie together. That's all part of podcast branding. And when you understand
your own podcast, then you can understand where you need to emphasize certain things
(08:54):
more or maybe emphasize certain things less or completely remove them because they're
just not fitting with that actual branding of your podcast.
Number three, consider the timing. An effective branding refresh will take time to do with
excellence. Yeah, you could do something overnight that might be cheap, but is it really the
best thing. Even if you're a professional, it still takes time to consider, "Is this
(09:17):
really the best approach? Let me try some other methods. Let me push some pixels around
a little bit here and there." I do that a lot. Consider not only how much time the process
will take in itself, but also when is actually the right time to launch the new branding.
For example, if your show is seasonal, and for good reasons, I hope, the start of a new
(09:37):
season could be a great time to launch the new branding. Either with the first episode
of that season or with the trailer preceding the new season if you do a trailer for the new season.
Other good times for a branding refresh could be around milestone episodes or anniversaries.
You can learn more about when is a good time to refresh your podcast branding by listening
to my previous episode or reviewing the article.
(09:59):
But in a quick review here, when your podcast significantly changes, when your branding
stops growing with you, when you enter new "seasons" and I explain more in that episode
what I mean by that. It's not necessarily a seasonal show, but kind of seasons, like
seasons of life kind of thing where you gradually transition from one season into another. That
(10:20):
kind of season. Listen to the episode to understand that more if that was a little fuzzy. Also,
when you can improve the quality of your podcast branding, when there's enough compelling feedback,
and/or when you determine the benefits outweigh the costs. And you can go back to the other
episode to learn more about some of the benefits of a podcast branding refresh.
It's also best if you can time your branding refresh to launch in all your properties at
(10:44):
the same time.
Now, super loyal fans of the Audacity podcast might have noticed that it took me I think
about a year before I updated the website theaudacitytopodcast.com to match the new branding
in the podcast cover art and the way that I'd altered the music just a little bit.
If I wasn't going through the personal hardships that I was at that time, the best thing for
(11:06):
me to do and what I would have rather have done is to have launched the new site with
the new visual and audio branding and the video branding as well at the same time, which
even the video branding I think came a couple years more after the website and the podcast
rebranding, but it would have been best if I launched all of those at the same time.
(11:27):
But I did it right when I did a complete rebrand of my podcast reviews to Podgagement.
That's my service where you can sign up at podgagement.com, try it free, to engage your
audience and grow your podcast.
Like get voice feedback from your podcast audience.
You can get messages from your audience.
You can collect ratings and reviews and so much more coming.
That's at podgagement.com.
(11:47):
Try it free.
Free trial when you sign up.
Great options over there.
Check it out.
Podgagement.com.
That little commercial aside, when I did that rebrand from my podcast reviews to Podgagement,
I launched it all together.
That's the app redesign, the website redesign, the new logo, the new domain, even the new
social IDs.
Everything I changed, all together.
(12:09):
That's the way to do it.
When you can plan for it, and when you have the time for it, when you've made the time
to make sure you get everything done, and when you time it all together.
That's number three.
Number four.
Prepare your audience.
Although a branding refresh is not as major as an actual rebrand where you're changing
what your podcast is about or the kind of audience you're trying to reach.
(12:32):
It might still be a good idea to announce the branding refresh to your audience ahead
of time.
It doesn't have to be a huge announcement with all kinds of explanation, like a rebrand
might need, but at least something, just a little heads up maybe, especially if your
show doesn't already use seasons for good reasons.
I gotta put that on a t-shirt.
Have seasons for good reasons.
(12:53):
This kind of approach where you're announcing it or giving your audience some kind of heads
up can reduce potential confusion when someone's podcast library suddenly looks a little different
and maybe they can't find your podcast because it looks different from before if you did
a visual branding refresh.
Like maybe your old podcast cover art was blue and now your new cover art is red, then
(13:16):
your audience might be a little confused.
I'm not talking like minutes or hours of confusion, but it might just be a little confusing
for them to see, "Wait, where did that podcast go?
Why aren't I still following that podcast in my pocket?
Oh there it is. Okay.
Oh look at that.
They changed their colors.
So that's why you might just want to give them a little bit of a heads up.
You could mention the upcoming refresh in your episodes leading up to it.
(13:39):
Again, just a little heads up.
It doesn't have to be a long explanation.
Unless it's something super special about it.
But my recommendation would really be to publish a separate episode as a trailer and define
it as a trailer episode.
give it an episode number or anything like that. Just set it as a trailer type and that
would be specifically to announce the upcoming branding refresh. It doesn't have to be a
(14:02):
long episode, a minute, two minutes, whatever. And then a couple of weeks after you launch
the new branding, you can then easily go back and delete that announcement episode so anyone
coming to your podcast after you've done the branding refresh won't have to know that
you ever did a refresh. Unless there's some special story behind the refresh that you
really want to share, that's when you'd want to leave that in an episode or leave that announcement
(14:27):
episode out there so that people can hear that story of what that new branding refresh means to
you. If there's something special about that that your audience would appreciate. The more drastically
different the new branding is, probably the more important it is to prepare your audience for that
new branding refresh. But if you keep things in some way similar, like if you look at the old
(14:50):
podcast cover art for the Audacity podcast and the new one I still have the microphone in there. I
still have the exclamation point kind of hidden in the logo. I still have the kind of RSS feed icon
in there although it has three circles instead of two. It's there. The layout's kind of the same but
the font is different. The colors are different. The feel of it is different. Like I didn't use
(15:12):
drop shadows in the new design. I used lots of drop shadows in the old design. It was kind of
of the same but still also different. The more radically different you make it though,
that's when you might want to consider especially letting your audience know that it's coming
up. Especially if you change the name of your podcast. But that gets more into rebranding.
(15:34):
So that's number four. Prepare your audience. Number five, decide to delegate or do it yourself.
Refreshing your podcast branding will cost you. It will obviously cost money if you delegate
it to someone you hire and it could also cost you time if you do it yourself.
And maybe a lot of time if you're not skilled or comfortable with the process.
(15:55):
The first place I recommend looking for help would be within your own audience.
Put a call out there if you have an email list, followers, or a community, or even just
mention it in your podcast.
"Hey, I'm looking for someone to help me do a branding refresh.
Maybe design some new cover art for us, a new logo, maybe make some new audio elements for us.
then I'd love to have you help us with our podcast. Something like that gets your audience
(16:19):
involved and that can be really fun for them and fun for you. For example, No Agenda with
Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak makes a big deal about letting their audience contribute
artwork and reusable audio elements for every episode. To see this in action, look at noagendaartgenerator.com
I have that link in the show notes for examples of all the thousands and thousands of artwork
(16:44):
submissions they received.
And the podcast makes a big deal about picking one after every episode and they use it for
that episode.
And then in the next episode of their podcast they talk through some of those things.
And if you're using a Podcasting 2.0 compliant podcast app, you get to see the multiple images
pass through in the Podcasting 2.0 chapters. Which, if my proposal is ever accepted, I'd
(17:08):
love to see it be actually a gallery of images that you could swipe through at your own pace
while they're talking about the images. But that's an aside. I talk about that kind of
stuff a lot more in the future of podcasting. Now feel free to have fun with this if you
get your audience involved. Like you could run a contest with or without prizes. You could consider
having your audience vote for what they like the best or making some kind of other game of it.
(17:31):
Just be prepared with how you might handle it if your audience doesn't give you very high-quality
work or they don't give you very high-quality responses to your choices. And if you want to
hire a highly skilled professional to help, here are my recommendations. Now the following are
affiliate links. If you click on the links in the notes or if you mention me to these people,
(17:54):
I might be compensated, especially with the first one. So consider that if you want to,
But I recommend things I truly believe in, regardless of earnings.
So for visual branding, I highly recommend Marc Ducote from PodcastBranding.co.
And if you work with him, please let him know that you heard about him from me or from the
Audacity to Podcast. I do receive a commission if you mention me. That's the only way I get paid
(18:15):
from him. But I recommend him because he's done great work and he is a podcaster himself.
He understands podcast branding. That's what his site is all about. PodcastBranding.co
is where he shows off all of this stuff. He's been in this industry for a while, a skilled designer,
a skilled podcaster. If you want maybe a cheaper alternative or maybe something quicker, but if
(18:36):
you're just looking for an alternative, 99designs is pretty good where you get designers to compete
for designing something for you. But what's very likely going to happen there is you might
get something that looks good but has some pretty bad cliches in it. And I'll talk more about
cliches actually in the next point. I highly recommend against using Fiverr.
(18:59):
Fiverr can be very cheap, sure, making it very affordable, but it can also be very
cheap quality and there's also a lot of intellectual property theft when it
comes to stuff like designing things, creating images for you, and you can be
held liable for that. So be very careful on Fiverr. Marc Ducote, 99designs, and as a
(19:19):
a last resort. Like very bottom of the barrel last resort. Maybe Fiverr for this. Fiverr's
great for other things, just not podcast cover art in my opinion. If you want something that's
more drawn, like either cartoonish style or illustrated in some way, then my top recommendation
there is James Kinison from DrawYouAPicture.com. And I do not, to my knowledge, get compensated
(19:41):
in any way from him, but it'd still be nice if you let him know that you heard about him
from me. I don't expect compensation. I just want him to know that I appreciate his work.
He's done great work for me. I'll talk about more in a moment. And he's done amazing work
for others. He's super creative and really talented with artistic stuff. So if you want
something drawn, then definitely go to him. For complete audio branding, I highly recommend
(20:06):
Music Radio Creative or hire out for pieces of your audio branding with some people on
Fiverr. This is a good place for using Fiverr in certain cases. Like maybe you need a voiceover,
maybe you need a little jingle put together, maybe you need something sung by a few people
and you piece it together yourself or maybe they piece it together. Certain little tasks like that
(20:26):
you could hire out on Fiverr and probably get some pretty good results. But Music Radio Creative is
the prestigious option here. If you need help with your content or presentation branding,
because that is part of your podcast branding, then hire a podcast consultant such as me
or Dave Jackson or Eric K. Johnson or whoever is your favorite.
And again, let them know that you heard about them from me.
(20:47):
I may or may not receive any kind of compensation from that.
I just like people to know when I refer people to them, even if I'm not compensated.
And if you want video branding, then, well, maybe someone from Fiverr.
Now here for video branding, please check the notes for this because if I get a better
option in the future. I will update the notes because right now I don't know a good person
(21:09):
to recommend for making video branding like lower thirds, animations, opening and closing sequences,
little flash transitions or anything like that. I don't mean flash like the old browser stuff but
flashy kind of stuff. If you need video branding then look in the notes for an actual link to maybe
someone that I end up recommending but right now I don't have someone to recommend so let me know
(21:33):
So also, if you are someone who can do video branding really well, and please understand
I am very picky about styles and quality and stuff, so if I have to decline, please don't
take it personally.
But check the notes if you're looking for video branding help, because I'll try to update
it when I find someone that I can recommend for, I don't know if I'll get compensated,
(21:54):
probably not, but we'll just see.
And that will be disclosed in the notes.
And if you have the tools, skills, and determination to do it yourself, then expect to spend way
too much time obsessing over particular details.
I want you to know a little bit of a story with this from my own experience.
When I was doing that complete rebuild and rebranding from my podcast reviews to Podgagement,
(22:17):
again go over to Podgagement.com for a free trial to engage your audience and grow your podcast.
I gotta do that every time.
It's the thing I'm so excited about right now.
But anyway, when I did that rebranding and the refresh and all of that stuff and completely
rebuilt it from scratch, I kept hitting a mental wall, several mental walls, with the new logo.
I had certain ideas that in my mind I thought would work, but when I actually tried to illustrate
(22:41):
them myself, and I'm not a good drawer, I'm a good designer, but I'm not good at artistic
stuff, I just couldn't make it work.
So I reached out to James Kinnison since I knew he's a great artist and extremely creative.
He has a great podcast too called That Story Show.
It's my all-time favorite podcast, a clean comedy podcast.
I've listened to it for years.
(23:02):
I love it.
When I started working with him, we went back and forth over some of my rough ideas, but
nothing was really working very well.
I didn't feel good about some of the ideas.
He didn't really think they were working that well.
At a point, he was actually about to give up because it was such a difficult concept
that we were trying to illustrate and design for with the new logo. But then a moment of
(23:24):
inspiration hit him and I fell in love with his new idea, which ended up becoming the
logo for Podgagement. I loved it so much that I kept looking at it over and over and over
because it was so cool. And in fact, he hid something in the logo that when you see it,
I think you'll recognize the brilliance of the logo. I've got the image in the notes
(23:46):
for this episode at theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshhow. Let me know when you can spot it. Once you
see it, you'll realize, "Oh man, that works so well inside the logo and it just
fits perfectly." I'm not going to give any spoilers. You just have to look at it.
Or go over to podgagement.com to see the logo there and sign up for a free trial. But I
(24:08):
love the work that he did. And even though I could have designed my own logo, maybe,
When I've designed my own logos in the past, I am so happy that I hired someone else to
do it for me because he came up with an idea and a concept that I absolutely loved.
And I ran with it and it helped influence other aspects of the branding for Podgagement.
(24:31):
I love it so much.
Check it out in the notes or at podgagement.com.
So that's number five.
Decide to delegate or do it yourself.
Number six.
Avoid cliches like the plague.
I hope you know the visual podcast cliches by now. Those are microphones, RSS icons,
headphones, audio waveforms, and all the stuff that visually represents "podcasting"
(24:55):
but most likely not what your podcast is actually about. And unless your podcast is about microphones,
audio, mixers, and such, then you should avoid using those visual cliches in your branding
probably 99.99% of the time, and even the remaining 0.01% I would still challenge you
(25:18):
to avoid those cliches and question could it look better without those cliches that
are related to podcasting. Unless your podcast is about podcasting, just like a movie that's
about movie making gets away with having movie cameras or film or certain things like that
in the design for the movie covers. For podcasts about podcasting, they can also get away with it.
(25:43):
Most other podcasts though, I really don't think they need those cliches. It's really wasted space
or wasted visual communication when you could use something that communicates your subject
or your audience or your branding for your podcast so much better. Your particular niche
might also have its own cliches. Those might be okay to use if your podcast is about that niche,
(26:06):
Just like my podcast is about podcasting, so it is totally okay to use some of the cliché images.
But I still recommend thinking outside the cliché first. For example, I once designed
podcast cover art for a Christian podcast that was all about the working of the Holy Spirit.
And if you're not into Christianity, not familiar with Holy Spirit and things,
the most common visual representation of the Holy Spirit used almost everywhere is a dove.
(26:34):
But my client was very clear. They did not want that cliché dove in the design. And
I think that was a great decision. It really challenged me to think of, "Okay, how can
I communicate the concepts of the Holy Spirit and what that means for Christians without
using that cliché dove in the design?" And I liked the result. I think it turned out
(26:57):
great. They loved it too. There are also non-visual clichés too, both in the podcasting industry
and probably within your niche. For example, avoid using "on fire" or "thinking outside
the box" in your podcast title. Maybe even avoiding naming the show after yourself would
be good to do. I've done a previous episode on things that you should avoid in your podcast
(27:19):
title. That's linked in the notes, a tap or swipe away or at theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshhow.
There can be cliches with music too. In the early days of podcasting, I'm talking way
way back in like 2005, 2006, 2007 and such. It seemed like half the podcasts I heard were
(27:39):
using the same music from GarageBand because there weren't many affordable alternatives
back then to be able to have licensed music that you could legally use in your podcast.
Now though, there are so many great options. My favorite is premiumbeat.com and my link
to that is an affiliate link but I've been a customer for many years. I've used premiumbeat.com
(28:01):
myself. I love the quality of their music and just the browsing experience is great
too. That's my recommendation. And because there are so many options like that, and many
more great ones as well, also there are so many more podcasts now, I think you'll be
far more likely to be able to pick something that's not the same thing as someone else.
Certainly not the same thing as someone else within your niche, most likely. Because there
(28:23):
are so many choices out there now. And so much variety in podcasts as well. Another
Another sort of cliché is trying to be like someone or something else. For example, since
podcasting is mostly audio still, despite what some of the misinformation polls out
there say, trying to make the epic movie trailer voice I think is cliché. But note that I
(28:45):
said "trying". Like if I'm saying "in a world where podcasting is king" that
just doesn't sound right. I know I don't sound like the movie trailer voice guy, and
You know I don't sound like it.
When I try to sound like a movie trailer voice like that, the epic deep voice, I feel like
I'm a teenager trying to sound like the epic movie trailer voice guy.
(29:09):
That's my own impression.
Maybe that's even your own impression when you hear it or when you do it yourself.
But if you actually have that great voice, definitely use it.
Because that's authentically you or it's something that you are able to do in a way that can
sound good.
But even then, it might seem too cliche to use the movie trailer style for your audio
(29:30):
branding in trailers or in episodes if that's not your actual normal voice.
It really depends on what matches the branding of your podcast.
And is it too cliche to have the epic movie trailer voice or the "in a world" kind of thing?
Again, just now I felt like a teenager pretending to be epic movie trailer voice guy.
(29:53):
just doesn't work for me. Unless I get a cold and then sometimes I feel like either I am the epic
movie trailer voice or it sounds that way to me sometimes or maybe Ron Trzcinski from the original
Mattress Factory. Either one of those. I've heard some people when they get sick do sound great with
their voices. So maybe you leverage that the next time you get sick. I know that James Kennison,
(30:14):
even, who I mentioned earlier, did something like that years back when he got sick and he
ended up with a great result. It doesn't even sound like him because he was sick, he lost his
voice in some way, but he sounded like a great voiceover artist and he did some of his own
voiceover work during that short time that he was sick. He leveraged that and it ended up great.
And his podcast is a comedy podcast, so making parodies of things like that, like the epic movie
(30:39):
trailer voice, totally fits. Even though it's kind of cliche for the overall podcasting industry,
It's not overly cliche within his niche.
It worked for him.
Colors can even be cliche.
Now I'm not going to go through everything and say everything is cliche.
No, but colors can be cliche.
For example, the old My Podcast Reviews branding was using the color purple that was actually
(31:02):
the same color from Apple Podcasts.
And now I've seen far too many other podcasting apps and services use a similar purple color
to Apple Podcasts.
purple color has become cliché. But I chose the new PIE Gagement branding color scheme
completely separate from anything else and inspired and driven by the concepts that that
(31:24):
new rocket logo was already promoting. And also, I chose the color scheme and the naming
of some of the things before I even heard of the game Starfield. So don't think I'm
just copying Starfield, especially when you see how many times I referred to Constellation.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's okay.
So that's number six, avoid cliches like the plague.
(31:44):
But and finally number seven, break some rules.
This is my favorite rule.
It's the anti-rule.
And that is, break some rules.
But here's the key, do so intentionally and with good reasons.
For example, red is generally considered a bad color in design.
Some people have said things like it vibrates or it invokes certain psychology things that
(32:09):
happen when people see red and all of this stuff. Because we think red like stop signs
and red is when you're in the red financially it's a bad thing and red is blood and violence
and but also red is hearts and love and things. Red has many connotations and in design stuff
it's generally considered a bad color but not always. And yet some of the other meanings
(32:32):
and interpretations of red and psychology behind the colors were perfect fits for communicating
the theme of boldness for The Audacity to Podcast. And that's why red is now my branding
color even though, and this goes back to my previous point about understanding your own
podcast, The Audacity to Podcast is about that audacity, that guts, the courage, the
(32:56):
boldness, the power, the red to podcast. But for me, I've been told red does not look
good on me. So I am not allowed to wear red basically in my mind. But yet it is a great
branding color for The Audacity to Podcast because it fits, since I understood more,
what the podcast really needs to communicate. That's why red is so strong in my visual
(33:20):
branding for The Audacity to Podcast now.
There might be some cliches that you need to use in order to better clarify what your
podcast is about. Like if your podcast is about podcasting, then you might need to use
certain icons like a microphone or headphones or things like that. If your podcast is about
baking cookies, then you should probably have a cookie in your podcast cover art in some way.
(33:45):
That's cliché, yes, but you have a very good reason to break that rule of avoiding clichés
because you need to use that cliché to better clarify what your podcast is about. In other words,
Don't pick something just because you like it or avoid it just because it's cliche.
Instead make choices, even breaking rules if necessary, when you have a good "why" behind it.
(34:09):
So these 7 tips for how to refresh your podcast branding are number 1, evaluate the needs.
Number 2, understand your podcast.
Number 3, consider the timing.
Number 4, prepare your audience.
Number 5, decide to delegate or do it yourself.
Number six, avoid cliches like the plague.
And number seven, break some rules.
(34:30):
If you'd like to comment on this and let me know what you thought of it, maybe that's
in your app already with cross app comments, maybe.
Or go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshhow.
That's also where you can go to share this episode with other podcasters who would learn from it.
And I would really appreciate it if you would share this episode out because I'd love to
build the audience, build our community more around The Audacity to Podcast and help more
(34:54):
podcasters like you. So that's at theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshhow. Thank you so much for all the streaming
Satoshis through the modern podcast apps. If you want a new podcast app that lets you
stream Satoshis and an appreciation token sort of, a way to give value back to the podcast
that you love, then check out some new podcasts over at newpodcastapps.com. Or you might have
(35:18):
heard the domain podcastapps.com. It all goes to the same place. It's part of Podcasting
2.0, the next innovation of podcasting.
I love it.
I'm involved with it.
I'd love to have your support too.
So if you want to stream some Satoshis to The Audacity to Podcast, you're welcome to
do that in a new podcast app.
Now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of the tools, it's time for
(35:39):
you to start and grow your own podcast for passion and profit.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com.
Thanks for listening.
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