How To Get Sponsors For Your Podcast
One of the reasons you might want to get started with podcasting is because you believe you will get sponsors to help pay your expenses and possibly generate additional income. Sponsors typically will pay you to mention their business, products, or services while recording your podcast. This allows you to earn money from each podcast episode that airs. Here are some helpful tips for finding sponsors.
Start With a Good Podcast
Before you do anything else, make sure you already have a good podcast with a decent number of listeners. This is the same concept as when you want advertisers for your website or blog.
Nobody is going to advertise with you before making sure you are a good fit for their company. They want to know the type of content you publish, what your voice is, and what your niche market is about. Advertisers will also look to see approximately how many views or downloads your podcast receives on a regular day. Having a good following, having new episodes posted regularly, and having a sponsorship page that shares your statistics is something you must have.
Wait For Them to Come to You
Once you have a podcast that is popular and in good standing, some sponsors are going to come to you. It is good to keep promoting your podcast even when you have a good following, because the more you promote, the more likely it is that sponsors are going to find you.
Post about your podcast everywhere, including on your website, your blog, on social media, and even on social bookmarking sites. Many podcasters don't start just to get sponsors, but they end up finding them on their own over time.
Listen to Other Podcasts
If you want to reach out to sponsors, you first need to know which companies like to provide sponsorships to those who are doing podcasts. Instead of just approaching people blindly, start by listening to some other podcasts in your same topic or niche.
Listen to podcasts you know already have sponsors and find out exactly who is sponsoring them. This gives you a good idea of the types of companies that might also be interested in your podcast. You should still keep promoting and looking for sponsors on your own, but this is a good place to start when you really can't decide who to approach about sponsoring your podcast.
Post About Your Availability For Sponsors
Make sure potential sponsors know that you are available to accept sponsorships. Not all podcasts want to advertise or make money, so some sponsors might be a little leery of reaching out.
Make it very obvious that you are accepting sponsor and advertising spots. You can do this by posting about your podcast on a blog or website, then having a page specifically for sponsors. This lets them know you are available and what spots are available for sponsors, how to contact you, and what kinds of businesses or products you are interested in promoting. This also becomes a page where you can utilize keywords so that any businesses searching through a regular search engine might find you.
Create an Ad Looking For Sponsors
You can also have an advertisement on your site and other related sites that shows you are looking for sponsors. This ad should have the name of your podcast and a brief description of the type of podcast you have. You can then have a short phrase that mentions you are currently accepting offers from sponsors or advertisers.
Although sponsorships are nice to have, do not be disappointed if you are unable to obtain sponsors right away. Businesses look for the ROI (Return on Investment) for every advertising dollar. If you do not have the downloads or listenership to impress a company, start looking at other ways to monetize your podcast first.
Most major sponsors look at the "Cost Per Thousand" factor. A typical sponsor will pay something like $30 per one thousand downloads of an episode. So if you are only receiving 75-100 downloads per episode, you probably will not get the type of sponsors that invest in podcast advertising.
Try Local Businesses
This will be a natural for you if you have a podcast relatable to the local business owner. You can make a flat agreement of a certain dollar amount for a certain number of episodes.
For example, if you have podcast about car repair, you may approach an auto parts store for sponsorship purposes. You mention the store name and refer your listeners to the store during the podcast. Be sure to tell your listeners to inform the store that they heard about them on your podcast.
Remember, businesses need to know their advertising dollars are working. If nobody is coming into the store mentioning your podcast, after one or two months, the business will stop sponsoring you.
Take all of this information in the light of understanding sponsorship from a business perspective. Many podcasters think sponsors will come knocking on their door trying to advertise with them. I wish it was a simple as that. But it is rarely the case.
Obtaining sponsors is hard work. But if take your time, build your listener base and offer a good quality podcast with interesting topics, you will eventually have the sponsors you are looking for.
Just do not count on it happening right away. Use other monetization techniques first and work your way towards obtaining sponsors.
Robert Thibodeau has been in online media since 2010. Between his online radio programs and his podcasts, he has accumulated about 4,000 episodes and conducted 600+ interviews in that time. He has helped many people to launch their own podcasts (many of which have earned numerous podcasting awards). He has a complete podcast training program, taking you from "Concept to Launch and Into Monetization." You can read more information on his training program at http://www.podcast-training.com You can also download his "Podcast Creation Checklist" for FREE under the "Services" tab on his website. He has also created a Christian podcast hosting and marketing platform at https://faithcasters.net
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Robert_Thibodeau/2198393
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