Sports podcasts are on the rise with how much people care about their favorite players and teams. Learn how to start a sports podcast today with one of your hosts, Tracy Hazzard. Tracy shares three very important tips on how you can get people to binge on your content. Sports fans want to hear their favorite teams from somewhere, so be that central hub for your fans. Know your brand and command it today!

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Hit A Home Run: Tips For Launching A Successful and Bingeable Sports Podcast

I’m going to talk about sports podcasting. We belong to this big group for a while. It’s a great group, The Sports & Entertainment Society. They have constant newsletters, meetings and all kinds of virtual events. They used to have some fabulous live events in conjunction with a group called Fuel, which we adored and missed since the pandemic started, but we’re going to get back to it again. The topic of sports podcasting has been prevalent for us. We know a lot of sports podcasters. There’s a lot on our platform. We ran a Podcast Publicity Pop-Up at the Super Bowl in 2020. We understand the dynamic of what it takes to be a great sports podcaster. There are some reasons launching a sports podcast could boost your brand above the crowd, but there are also some reasons maybe it’s not quite right for you. I want to go over a little bit of that and give you a sense of whether or not boosting yourself above the crowd is what you’re looking for, for your brand.

A couple of things about sports podcasts that are a little bit different. Many of them deal with news and information. They’re dealing with something timely that just happened. It’s hard to even do an interview show and not address something timely, something that happened in the sports field. Whether it’s baseball, football or basketball, there’s always something controversial or newsworthy to talk about at any given time. What we want to be careful about is making something that’s too newsworthy because that’s not the best show long-term. It doesn’t create a show that can get listened to after the fact. When we’re all news and not enough sports entertainment part of it, then what happens is that we get a show that can only be listened to within a certain amount of time from whenever that event happened or it’s outdated.

The great thing about podcasts is that we can go back and listen to all of our back episodes. That’s what we call bingeable and we want to create a bingeable show. I’m going to quickly go over a few tips on how to create a more bingeable sports podcast because it will understand and frame the reasons why launching a sports podcast might be right for you. The first thing is that we want to have more timeless topics. Not that we’re not going to address the elephant in the room, the thing that happened. We’re going to address those, but if we can have more general timeless topics like, “What do you define success as? How do you excel in your field?” Things like that we want to have as the basis for the energy and main topic or direction of the show, we’re going to do better with getting people to listen to all of our episodes and not skipping around. That’s going to create a more bingeable sports podcast at the end of the day. That’s our number one.

Be consistent and constant. Let your audience know that you know how to show up. Click To Tweet

Our number two is that we want to do it for the audience and not for ourselves or the people we’re interviewing. This isn’t an ego stroke. I know it seems like it is when you listen to some podcasts out there. There are podcasts that it’s all about that out there where they’re in their talking about their own things. If at the end of the day, you’re not thinking about that audience that you’re trying to attract and listening to your show, you’re not going to sustain them. At all times, if you know you’ve got an audience built of sports enthusiasts who absolutely love everything about eat, breathe and sleep baseball and you’re doing shows on basketball at the off-season and it’s not the right time, then you’re not necessarily serving that audience. They’re going to go elsewhere to get what they’re looking for at that moment.

We want to be thinking about always curating our guests and topics that we have on our show and directing the conversations that we have there to being something that the audience is curious about and deeply wants to know. This is what I hear again and again on sports shows. From that perspective, a lot of times, you guys are buddies and you’re interviewing each other. You’re buddies on the show and off of it. While that rapport is fabulous, you forget that some of us aren’t in on the joke. We don’t know that inside track. Getting your guest to tell stories of what it was like when you guys were in college playing ball together, that’s awesome. Your audience gets backstories to it. When you’ve got something where you refer to something and that is that inside joke, bring your audience into the fold. Always be thinking about that audience’s perspective and what it’s like to be a listener of your show. You’re going to have a better show long-term.

The third tip that I have for you for making a more bingeable successful sports podcast show is to think about the in-season and off-season. We get football widows, people who are so sad and upset that football season ended and they’re dying for more information. If you are deep diving into a football sports podcast show and you don’t show up in the off-season, it’s going to get a whole lot harder to get their attention back in the in-season again. Thinking about showing up for the post-season, pre-season and during the season, all of that is extremely important. Don’t forget to show up week after week. You’re thinking, “Tracy, that’s awful because I don’t want to show up week after week. I would like to take a vacation.” That’s the beautiful part about podcasting. We can record four episodes and take a whole month off.

 

Go ahead and change up your show in the off-season if that’s what you want to do. You don’t have to have it be exactly the same show that you do during the season. You can have a different-style show, restructure it, make it shorter, have a different setup and format for it but keeping consistently in front of your listener at all times and being sensitive to the fact that they’re dying for information, contact, and someone to talk sports with. Don’t forget about that because that goes back to that listener sensitivity, audience curation and group that we want to attract. We want to be there for them week after week. When we do that, we earn their trust, listenership, subscribers and referral to other fans. That is going to get you even more than you could have gotten otherwise, so being that sports podcaster that shows up week after week.

Those are my main basic tips for it, creating something timeless, be there for their audience first and show up week after week. These are some super simple and easy things, but here’s what it’s going to get you. These are some of the reasons for launching a show and one that’s going to boost your brand and make you stand out. Everybody has a reason for podcasting. Your why is important. Why are you doing this? Is it because you want to show that you can be at that broadcasting level and you want to show it now? Is it that you are building a business around sports coaching? Are you building a business around financial management for sports celebrities? Whatever it is that your business is building, you want to be thinking about, “How can I show up every week? When I show up every week, I’m showing that I’m consistent and constant. It’s going to get me exactly what I want.”

It’s going to get you in front of the fans, those potential clients or that audience and it’s going to show that you can be the choice because you know how to show up. That’s ultra-important in this marketplace where there are a lot of shows that fade out. They do 10 or 12 episodes and they’re gone. When you show up week after week and you’re putting your heart in this, then you’re going to get yourself right there in front of and at the top of the list for whatever it is that you were looking for in your why in that process. That’s one of the best reasons and the most important reason to think about launching a show if you need that and that’s important to you.

Start in a place that's super easy so you can create a message about your brand. Click To Tweet

The other thing is sometimes we don’t know what our brand appeal is and why people love us. I know that people love me and my shows, The Binge Factor and Feed Your Brand. Why? Because I don’t tell them all the same things that are regurgitated from everyone over and over again. Do I tell you some things again and again? Yes. I’m always reiterating the things that are important, but I’m not giving you regurgitated bad information. I’m giving you new perspectives on things, something that’s right on the edge and up-and-coming, but I’m also not giving you stuff that’s not going to work for you. I’m not giving you hacks that are going to work today and be gone tomorrow. I’m giving you stuff that’s tried, true and going to work for you. That’s who I am. I’m your how-to girl. I know my brand and who I am. That means that me showing up here makes a lot of sense, but sometimes we don’t know what that brand is and who we are. We don’t have our message and appeal. We know people like us and we have good personalities. We have a lot to say and share or we’re good interviewers.

One of the great ways of the best experimentation ground because it’s so flexible and doesn’t require a whole ton of money, time and effort where we don’t have to put in full video productions and have a big production support staff, a podcast is so easy. A $100 microphone, a camera on your computer, some Zoom, and you have a podcast and you can record. All you got to do is get a host on the other side and Podetize is always happy to be there for you and support you in that. We’re happy to be your coach and host at the same time, but that’s not the point. The point is that you can hone your message and appeal and learn about your audience. Treat it like an experimentation. Start to figure out what works for you. Try different types of interviews and topics.

Start to see what’s working for you, especially if you’re in search of that next thing, “What’s the next thing in your career? What’s the next thing for your business? How do I reach my market? How do I reach my audience better? What can I do?” If your brand needs that kind of crafting and honing, this is a perfect experimentation place for you to do it because it’s super easy to get rid of episodes that don’t work, expand on ones that do and turn it into something bigger. It’s never too late to take a podcast, turn it into a blog and a website, or turn it into a YouTube channel later. Start in a place that’s super easy, accessible, and inexpensive to be able to hone that message. Create your hypothesis about your brand like, “Why are you here? What is your purpose?” Try it out and see if it works.

 

The last thing that I want to say for the reasons for launching a sports podcast that can boost your brand and help you rise above the crowd and the noise that’s going on is that when you have a podcast, you show up week after week and your listenership is growing over time. It doesn’t matter if they’re hockey-sticking off and taking off and you’ve got hundreds of thousand listeners right away. No one can see those statistics on the back end. They’re yours and you might get caught up in them, but everybody else can’t see it. They only hear what people are talking about. If people are talking about your show within your industry and niche, then you’re doing well. That helps you command your brand and get that brand so that you’re standing above the next guy above that. It ratchets you up in what we call authority so it’s moving you up.

It demos not only that you can raise your authority by who you’re interviewing, how you’re approaching your show and the fact that you’re showing up week after week. You’re putting it out there and putting effort into that, but it shows that you can engage an audience off the field or off of whatever you were doing before you wanted to start this sports podcast show. Thinking about that is proving that you can take an audience, command them, bring them week after week and get them to subscribe to you. It’s a whole lot harder to grow a podcast show than it is to get a few likes on Facebook or Instagram. That people on Instagram, if you can get them to come off of Instagram and come and listen to your podcast, now you have a transportable fan base and audience. That means if you want to go into doing movies and TV, you are more likely to be able to do that because your fans are coming with you no matter what media type you’re choosing.

These are a few reasons to think about launching a sports podcast, launching one that boosts your brand and some ideas for how to create a more bingeable show. I’m always here for you. I love the sports podcasts niche. It’s one of my favorites to talk about. I’m not into every single sport, so I’m not an expert. I’m not an expert in basketball, for instance. I’m a huge baseball fan, but I understand the structure of how the shows work because I’ve worked with so many sports broadcasters. Because of that, we’ve gotten to this place of understanding what’s working and not working, what’s working now that worked three years ago but doesn’t work now. We want to make sure we’re always thinking about those things.

Feel free to reach out. I would love to hear from you. We have Clubhouse Host in the Hot Seat. If you’ve already got a sports podcast and you would like to know how to shift it to the next level or what else you can do to make it a better show, I would love to talk to you, put you in our Hot Seat and help you grow that show to that next place. As always, you can reach out to us at Podetize.com. There’s an inquiry form right on the main website. There’s email and all kinds of ways to reach out to us. You can always find us on social media @Podetize. I will be back with another show talking about different types of podcasting, how to get a show started and make it successful.

Important links

• The Sports & Entertainment Society
• Podcast Publicity Pop-Up
• Host in the Hot Seat
• @Podetize – Instagram

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