AP 0231: When Do I Add Sponsors to My Podcast?

AskPat 231 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 231 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hope you're doing awesome. I'm actually wearing my AskPat t-shirt right now.

For those of you who don't know, anytime somebody gets their question featured here, on the show, they get an AskPat t-shirt. Today, Jackson from Nepal is getting an AskPat t-shirt. And, yes, we do fly it over, if our company that does the t-shirts actually is able to send it over.

But before we get to today's question, from Jackson, I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is ZipRecruiter.com. No matter if you are a solo entrepreneur or you have a number of people working in your business, if you looking to expand and hire other people . . . Perhaps somebody left your team, and you're looking to fill in that role. Instead of going to all these different job sites and filling in all those descriptions, and waiting for the best candidates to come in, you can go to ZipRecruiter.com/pat. You can try it out. I mean, actually you can use it for free. It's free, it's completely free for you, if you're looking to hire. If you got to ZipRecruiter.com/pat, you can fill out your job description in one spot, and then in one click, it gets sent out to over 50+ job sites, and they even screen and find the best candidates for you, from all those different sites. So again, ZipRecruiter.com/pat. Check it out, if you're looking to grow, and grow the right way, and find the best people for your business.

Alright. Now, let's get to today's question from Jackson.

Jackson: Hi, Pat. This is Jackson from IncredibleEntrepreneurs.com, and I am from Nepal. I am a regular listener of your podcast, and I'm launching my podcast with all your inspiration the next month. So my question to you is . . . Shall I take sponsorship from my first podcast? Or shall I wait for a few months, and then create a few hundred listeners, and then opt for sponsorship? Let me know. I'm very excited to start my initiative, start my podcast. If I do this, I'll be the first podcaster in my country. So, please advise, and keep up the good work. Thank you.

Pat Flynn: Jackson, thank you, so much for the question today. First of all, congratulations to you, for wanting to start a podcast. I'm really thankful that you said I had some influence in that. Hopefully you checked out the podcasting tutorial at PodcastingTutorial.com. Again, free videos for you to check out: how to get your podcast set up correctly, and in the right way, and out into the world, as soon as possible. Hundreds of people use it, for those who are listening, I hope you check it out, if you're looking to start a podcast. Again, that's PodcastingTutorial.com.

So, Jackson, you're starting this podcast, in Nepal. First one. I think that's awesome. The question is, do you get sponsors on from the beginning? Or do you get sponsors on later? Now, there's a lot of different things that go along with this. From a listener's point of view, and I always like to think about it from your audience's point of view, you know, to start with . . . Now, it depends on what those sponsors are. I think, and I feel like, you know, a lot of people might think, “Oh, well, you don't want to ruin the listener experience.” And that's true. Especially if the ad or the ad spot is obnoxious, or long, or maybe it's boring. I think you take a little bit of risk putting some sponsorships on, in the first episode, if you've never done this before, because you're still getting used to the microphone and the last thing you want to do, with a brand new show, is have brand new listeners think that you're just trying to pitch them something, or you know, they start with an ad before they even get to hear your voice and what you have to offer. I mean, those first few episodes are really important for you to get those people in and have them become subscribers.

So I think, even putting it in the first episode, unless you already have an audience that has built trust with you, it could be very difficult for your audience, and you want to make sure that they understand that that is a place where they're going to spend x number of minutes. They're dedicating that amount of time, per day, to you, and you want that experience to be great. So I would say, if you're going to have sponsors in early, don't do it in the first few episodes if you have yet to build an audience. I feel like you are just starting out, and you're starting out with your platform being a podcast, which is great. A lot of people have started their own businesses and created their own followings starting with a podcast as their hub or the home of their brand, which I think is great.

So I would just be cautious about that, and the other thing that goes along with that is that it's going to be very difficult for you to get sponsors if you don't have an audience yet. Not to say that it's impossible, I mean. I feel like you do have some advantages, especially if you are in a niche that is targeting a crowd that has yet to be targeted, and you know some things that they might not know. Perhaps, because you are the first podcaster in Nepal, that could have some pull for you, too. So, you won't be able to do a . . . what's called a CPM, or cost per thousand, sort of model in terms of pricing your sponsorship ads on your show. But you might be able to do a flat fee for some of the first episodes, in order to get in front of this brand new audience. Again, first podcast in Nepal, you definitely want to mention that.

The thing is, it's going to be difficult because sponsors, they want to know that they're going to have some conversions. They want to know that their shows are going to be listened to. So in most cases, I would say that sponsors are going to want you to have your show out first, and build that audience, and have those numbers, so that they can say, “Okay, well there are listeners, and this is going to be a good show that we want to get in front of these listeners for.”

And so I think that's going to be the best way to go about it. I mean, that sort of kills two birds with one stone. You'd be able to provide that better listening experience to those brand new listeners, and you'd be able to build that audience and get the subscribers, and get the listens and download numbers to then show potential advertisers that, you know, it's going to be worth getting on your show. So that's how I'd go about it.

Now, if you do have an audience already, for those of you listening, if you do have an audience, and you're looking to start a podcast, this is what I did with SmartPassiveIncome.com, although I did not include sponsors until episode 97 of the Smart Passive Income podcast. In that episode, if you're more interested in getting sponsors and how to go about doing that and why I was so reluctant to do it at first, you can check that out if you go to SmartPassiveIncome.com/session97. I actually interviewed John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire, and we had a long chat about the mindset, and the resistance, and what goes along with getting sponsors on your show. Then, ever since 97, I've had sponsors on the show. Hardly anybody's ever complained and it's just been a great value add for people, actually.

And that's another thing: You want to make sure your advertisers align with your target audience. And again, if you don't have an audience yet, it's going to be kind of hard to figure that out, but you want to make sure that you're always providing value. Even if you're advertising, you can still provide value, in which case, it would be a win for all. But, going back to that episode with John Lee Dumas, I definitely recommend everybody who's interested in starting a podcast, and monetizing their podcast, and putting sponsorships on their podcasts, to check out that episode. So, again, that's SmartPassiveIncome.com/session97.

So there's a lot of things that go along with that. I'm not going to get too deep into it here, but again, if you have an audience already, you are then able to leverage some of your website traffic to potentially get a better deal, or some sort of advertisement deal, on your podcast. Like I said, I didn't start with ads on Smart Passive Income because I was reluctant to do so, but I did start close to the beginning with this particular show, AskPat, with sponsors. Even though the show was brand new, I did have an audience. I did already have a podcast as well that was proven, so there, you know, advertisers knew that there were going to be some number of downloads, and so they were willing to work with me as well, and that helped in my case. There's a lot of other podcasts that start with sponsors, but they're really high-in. They already have audiences. For example, StartUp with Alex Blumberg. He started with a sponsor right at the beginning. Well, what's another one? Serial, which is a huge podcast now, S-e-r-i-a-l. They both come from NPR Radio, you know, This American Life and that sort of style, so they already had a following, and so it was easy for them to convince an advertiser to come in and pay them thousands of dollars, because they knew they were going to get millions of downloads. Serial has been the quickest podcast in the history of podcasts to get to five million downloads, which is pretty crazy. It's a great show, if you don't know what it is, you've got to check it out. It's not business-related, but the production level is amazing, and it's definitely inspiring, to me, in terms of that production level and just the fact they got so many downloads in such a short period of time.

So Jackson, I hope that answers your question. I would recommend just putting out your podcast, making a great listening experience, and then getting those download numbers that you need in order to get those correct advertisers on board. And what I mean by correct is that they align with the target audience that you are eventually going to build. And again, now that you're starting out, you actually do have an advantage over other people who have already started. Not just because you're going to be the first podcaster in Nepal, which is super cool, but because since you're starting out small, and this is for everybody, if you're just starting out, or maybe your audience is small and you feel like you're slowly growing, and maybe not growing fast enough, I mean, that's your opportunity to connect one-to-one with your audience.

So when you get that new subscriber on your email list, reach out to them and talk to them, and have them understand that you are actually there, as a human being, on the other end, not just somebody who's collecting emails. They're going to be more attached to you. They're going to raving fans of yours, and they're going to help spread your word. It's going to help your brand overall, so that's your advantage when you're small.

So Jackson, thank you so much again for your question. An AskPat t-shirt is going to fly your way. Can't wait to see it over there. For those of you listening, if you have a question you'd like potentially featured here on the show, all you have to do is go to AskPat.com, and you can ask right there on that page.

As a reminder, I want to thank ZipRecruiter.com, probably the most awesome site I've ever heard of, and a lot of people who I have shared this with on the show have told me how much they love using it. So if you go to ZipRecruiter.com/pat, if you're looking to hire somebody for your business, either to fill in a role that somebody recently left, or you're looking to expand, no matter if you're a solo entrepreneur looking to add your first team member or you have a big business and you're looking to fill in more roles, go to ZipRecruiter.com and enter in your description for what kind of person you'd like. Send it out with one click to over 50 different job sites, and they're going to find the best candidates for you. So again, that's ZipRecruiter.com/pat.

Thank you, again, for listening. I really appreciate it. As always, I love to end with a quote, and today's quote is from none other than Bruce Lee. He says, “Always be yourself. Express yourself. Have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”

Love that. Cheers, take care, and I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat.