Might it be time to refresh your podcast branding?
Here are six benefits to consider.
Thank you for joining me for The Audacity to Podcast!
I'm Daniel J. Lewis.
Are you thinking about refreshing your podcast branding?
Now before I discuss when you should do that, which will be in the next episode of the podcast,
let's consider how your podcast might benefit from a branding refresh.
If you'd like to follow along in the notes or share this episode with other podcasters
who would benefit from it, that's a simple tap or swipe away inside of your app or go
to theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshbenefits.
Before I get into the six benefits, you might be wondering what is podcast branding?
Your podcast branding 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, even beyond the name of your podcast.
And you might be thinking, "Oh, it's my cover art!"
No, it's so much more than that.
Yes, your cover art is part of your branding, but your podcast branding is so much more.
It could be the logo inside your cover art.
And the logo and cover art are different things.
The logo can be used for many different kinds of things, and your cover art might contain
a logo inside of it.
Or your cover art could simply be words styled in a unique way.
So the logo is actually different from cover art and a logo is much more valuable and thus
more expensive to get.
But if you want to learn more about what is really different between a logo and cover
art, I've got a link in the notes for this episode at theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshbenefits
for an article written by my friend Mark Des Cotes from Podcast Branding.
I'll talk more about him in a moment because he's got some great stuff that I think is
very relevant for this episode.
But he wrote an article explaining the differences between a logo and a cover art.
So if you want to learn more about that, definitely read the article in the notes for this episode.
But going back to your podcast branding, it can also be those things and it can be the
audio and video elements you use throughout your episodes like your bumpers, your transitions,
audio branding, your intro, your outro, the music, the tone of music you use, all of that.
It's also your podcast description and I've done an episode previously on ways to improve
your podcast description, that's in the notes as well. It's in your repeated phrases,
like in the Audacity podcast I say "giving you the guts" and "teaching you the tools".
That's one of my phrases I've been using since the very beginning of the podcast in
2010. That is a big part of my branding. And it's also in how you communicate and host
your podcast. Kind of the format of the show, the tone, the personality, the way you approach
your podcast and the feelings that people get from your podcast and that's your podcast
as a whole package. Not only the cover art, not only the content, not only any one thing,
it's all of these things together. So a branding refresh would then be updating any or all
of these elements but keeping the core of your podcast the same. That's different from
a rebrand which would be if you change much more of your podcast, including what you talk
about and whom you try to reach. Like if I turned the Audacity podcast into the Daniel
J Lewis show, that's a rebrand. I've talked about when you should rebrand your podcast
in a previous episode too. Link in the notes for that.
So now let's get into the 6 benefits of a podcast branding refresh.
Number 1. Attract a new audience. Refreshing your podcast branding might help
you capture the attention of more people by standing out or appearing more relevant to
them. This might help you appeal to new demographics or even recapture the interest of people who
have previously scrolled past your podcast, for whatever reason that was. For example,
if your podcast focuses on helping, let's say, Asian entrepreneurs, then you will probably
be more likely to attract that ideal audience by showing an Asian in your cover art. And
That might be your pretty or handsome face.
And I've done an episode also about should your face be on your cover art.
And this might be a very good case for putting your face on your cover art.
Because it can be a very powerful thing when your potential audience can see themselves,
so to speak, in your branding and your messaging.
Or maybe the description of your podcast isn't communicating your content and your purpose
very well.
A refresh of this aspect of your podcast branding can better convince people to listen after
they've already been attracted by the title and cover art.
Because that's usually what people see first, the title and cover art.
Then they might see the description next, then the list of episodes.
All that before they actually listen or watch your podcast.
So that's number one, attract a new audience.
Number 2, increase your perceived quality.
I've come to loathe the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover". I think that
really only applies to people whose character can be completely different from their unchangeable
appearance but will be reflected in their willful, changeable appearances. But we can,
do and I really think should judge other things by their covers. Because if the cover isn't
good, how can you trust that the contents will be better? As again my friend Mark Des Cotes
says, "If your podcast cover art looks cheap and amateurish, people will assume your podcast
is cheap and amateurish and will choose a different show to listen to." I really agree
with Mark on that. You are setting a first impression, and that's the perceived quality
of your podcast based on the cover. Yes, people judge podcasts by their cover art, and we
We need to keep that in mind.
We do the same thing.
So instead, a well-executed brand refresh can make your podcast look or even sound more
professional, which is great even for a hobby podcast.
Please don't think that this term "professional" is a negative thing for hobbyists.
I've done an episode about labeling podcasters "amateur" vs. "skilled".
I think "professional" usually implies that you're earning money, but that doesn't
that we as independent podcasters who are doing this as a hobby, it doesn't mean that
we can't have professional level quality. That's why we often buy the really nice stuff
for our hobbies because we want to pursue excellence. And I love that. I think excellence
is something we should all strive after. So if you want to listen to that previous episode
about amateur versus skilled, I did a little mini-series on labeling podcasters. I did
one on hobbyists vs professionals and such, I have a link to that episode in the notes
for this episode as well at theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshbenefits.
So when you have this well-executed brand refresh, it can also improve your potential
audience's first impression and entice them to continue exploring your podcast.
Because going back to that idea of it's your cover art and title that appear first
for almost everyone out there in their apps, if they see your podcast and it has a horrible
looking cover art, they're not going to even click into or tap into seeing your description.
They might just pass it right by because it looks cheap and amateurish, so they won't
go any further.
And some people or places, including Apple Podcasts, may be more interested to feature
your podcast when it has better branding and less interested when your cover art is ugly
or the rest of your branding experience is negative.
So make sure your "cover", the whole thing, the whole packaging, everything on the outside
of your podcast properly reflects the quality that's on the inside.
Because you do have a high quality content, presentation, production, promotion, and profit
inside your podcast for your audience, right? I sure hope so. That's what I'm
helping you to do with The Audacity to Podcast. So make the outside look as good
as what you're putting on the inside. Number 3 benefit of a podcast
branding refresh, adapt to the latest trends. Industries change all the time.
What's hot or standard now might be radically different in a few years. For
example, look at the rise and fall of designing apps and websites to look like
objects from the physical world. This design principle is called skeuomorphism. Apple very
publicly moved away from skeuomorphism in 2013 with the release of iOS 7. And I've
got some screenshots in the notes for this episode where you can see what iOS 6 looked
like which seems like so long ago where all the buttons looked like they were made out
of glass or jelly or something like that. They all had these drop shadows and depth
to them and looked like physical objects with light reflecting. And I remember even in my
design days of designing stuff in the same way, making it look like you could touch the
buttons. I remember my boss at that time said, "Design the buttons so they look so good you
want to taste them." And that was this idea of skeuomorphism that then Apple moved away
from in iOS 7 where everything is much flatter. And we've seen that improve and change over
the years as well, and some elements are coming back a little bit. Like drop shadows had their
big heyday where we used to consider them in the design world as the federally mandated
drop shadow that everything had to have drop shadows on it. Then that kind of disappeared
and now it seems that drop shadows are coming back to a slight degree, but not as prominent
everywhere as it used to be in the past. Or look at how much wider the selection is for
affordable audio branding elements now compared to how it was back in 2005 when iTunes 4.9
released with the most popular support for podcasts.
Updating your branding can help your podcast catch up with these trends and more so you're
not yet another podcast using music from GarageBand or you're using the picture of headphones
around the RSS icon that we've all probably seen that or you're using anything else cliche
Or you have these glossy, glassy, candy looking buttons or elements to your design and you
want something more modern and a nice little refresh that just doesn't feel as dated.
And maybe at some point that refresh will also feel dated.
My own cover art is a good example of this, but I'll talk more about my changes in a
moment.
But my old cover art had bevels, it had shadows, it had all of this stuff that looked very
physical. Not as physical as like it was made out of leather or something like that, but
it did look like objects with physical depth to them. My new cover art is very flat. And
I really like my new cover art. But I'll talk more about some of the intentional decisions
I made with that. Because, going on to number 4, another benefit to a podcast branding
refresh is you can strengthen or reset your podcast's identity and message. After you've
been podcasting for a while, you probably have a better grasp on what makes your podcast
unique and how you want to do things. That could mean rebranding to match your podcast's
new direction or updating your existing branding to reinforce what you've realized your strengths
are. For example, looking at The Audacity to Podcast, red is generally seen as a negative
design color. But it also has powerful meanings that I realized align perfectly with an audacious
perspective. So, when I redesigned The Audacity to Podcast visual branding, I intentionally
chose red as a branding color because it fits so well. Then I combined that with strong
contrasting white and black elements in the new branding and cover art and logo and such.
So now it's a much stronger design.
And if you look at the notes for this episode, either in your podcast app, the chapter, or
at the website theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshbenefits, then you can see my old cover art versus my
new cover art.
And the old cover art didn't really communicate the audacious idea that I wanted it to.
It didn't communicate the audacity.
It just looks like, yeah, there's a title.
a microphone and a kind of RSS icon doesn't quite look right. And for some reason the
microphone and RSS icon are kind of mixed together. But the new branding, I think the
colors, the fonts just really communicate with that harsh contrast and the bold colors
- well, right there. It's the word bold. Boldness. Courage. Audacity. I made those decisions
because I wanted to reinforce the core that my branding has had from the beginning in
2010 and that core is giving you the guts, the courage, the power, the audacity to podcast.
That's why the podcast is called that.
Part of my branding was also hidden in an exclamation point in my logo.
Did you ever notice that before?
But in the old design, before 2016, I think that was too hidden and many people didn't
even really notice it because here was a microphone that looked kind of like a high-alt-pr40 floating
above a dot that was part of kind of the RSS icon and it didn't quite look right
and it didn't quite fit all that well. But I think my new branding makes that
hidden design aspect much more prominent. And some people might still not quite
catch it. It's one of those sort of hidden things, kind of like the arrow
hidden inside the logo for FedEx. The exclamation point is kind of hidden
there in my logo but I think it's much more prominent now than it was before.
Plus, the old font looked much more playful, which worked great for the Ramen Noodle, which
was the first place where I used that font.
That was my first podcast, a clean comedy show, which is now offline.
And it also worked really well for Noodle Mix Network, which took on this idea of noodle
and the font kind of looks like noodles, especially with the way that I reworked it a little bit
with some of the logo and branding work that I did.
But the new font that I've chosen where it says "The Audacity" is much bolder,
both in style and emotion.
So again, it reinforces what the podcast already is and what I've realized are really the
strengths of the podcast.
All of these things combined for me to strengthen the identity and that message.
And yet, I think I was able to keep the logo similar enough to appear as an evolution instead
of something completely different.
Like if you look at the two examples of my cover art next to each other, you can see
that, yeah, okay, it's kind of the same, kind of different, very different colors, but still
the element concepts are very similar among them.
But the new cover art I think is so much better and communicates so many more things that
you might not even think about, but that just fit. And that's what a good podcast branding
should do, is it just fits. It fits every aspect of the podcast, the tone, the identity,
the message, your approach to it. A good branding refresh can then help you visually and audibly
reinforce what your podcast is about and who it's for, all without saying a single word.
That's what branding should really do, especially when you refresh the branding for your podcast.
So that's number 4, strengthen or reset your podcast identity and message.
Number 5, infuse new energy for your audience and yourself.
Do you know that good feeling of that new car smell, or learning a new skill, or wearing
new clothes, or reorganizing your stuff, or repainting your room?
Similar to these things, a fresh brand can breathe new life into your podcast, both for
your existing audience and even for yourself.
When I redesigned the Audacity podcast video branding, it made me much more eager to publish
new video content because I was so proud of what I made.
And especially, I hated the old video branding so much.
And it just felt so cheap to me.
Even though I'm a professional designer, it felt cheap.
I didn't like aspects of it.
It felt rushed and thrown together.
Do you know why?
Because it was.
I really just threw it together and then didn't really get around to updating it all that
much later.
The new video branding that I use in my videos, which you can see on my YouTube channel and
such, I really like it.
I took much more of this branding approach to it and communicating the audacious attitude
through the animations and how I made the text show up and all of that.
I think it came out really cool and it's also much shorter than it used to be too.
And that kind of thing infused a new energy for me with my videos.
And it's something that even right now while I just don't have the time to make as many
videos as I want to. I really want to make new videos because I just love the video branding
so much. Sometimes I just feel like, can I just stick any video out there and slap my
video branding on it because I really like this video branding and I like showing it
off in things. You can see that in my YouTube channel if you're interested. Or I do also
have a video podcast of the same content available as well.
Similarly, I'm one of those types who reads update notes or change logs. And I get excited
when there are user interface changes in apps or called UI changes.
It just, to me, it feels fresh and new.
So call it whatever you want, most people get excited about new things, even if it's
only in certain contexts.
I know some people are like, "Don't change anything ever."
But in some contexts, I'm sure they like new things in certain places.
So refreshing your podcast branding might be just the trick you need to re-enthuse even
yourself about your podcast.
Because you too might be proud of the new branding and you just want to show it off
by publishing episode after episode however you show off that new branding whether it's
audibly or visually.
And number 6, stand out from others.
By refreshing your podcast branding with unique visual and audio elements, you can set your
show apart from its "competitors". Consider, for example, if all the podcasts in your niche
have predominantly blue cover art, we'll say. Then making your cover art anything other
than blue will make it stand out. Or maybe the other podcasts use photos in their cover
art so you stick with flat icons or only styled text. Or maybe it's the other way around where
all the other podcasts in that same collection have the flat icons or styled text so you
then have a photo. Something like that. Look at what else is out there so you can see what
it might take to stand out. Listen to some of the other podcasts so you can learn how
to stand out in that aspect of your branding, how you communicate your audio branding and
those things that people will hear in your podcast beyond only the words, but also some
of those words, like your repeated phrases and such.
Back when the Once Upon a Time TV show was airing on ABC, there were more than a dozen
fan podcasts at the peak about that TV show. While my own show, Once Podcast, stood out
for being in-depth, there were some other podcasts that stood out by having a tight
"five themes" format where each episode they would talk about only five themes that
stood out to them, or even one that existed only to make fun of the show. And I even helped
them a little bit with their branding and I said, "lean into that. In fact, here are
some taglines that you could consider for your show." And I was so thrilled that he
used one of them. I think it was "laughing at happily ever after" or one of those kinds
of things. Another of the podcasts stood out by including a rhyming recap of each TV episode
the beginning of their podcast episodes. So it's like that saying, "When they zig,
you zag." Look at what others are doing in your space, whether that be in the same collection
of podcasts, the same niche, or maybe that you're constantly battling the charts with
these other podcasts. Whatever context that is you're looking at other podcasts, look
for these ways that you can stand out from them. "When they zig, you zag." And you
You can do that with a refresh of your podcast branding.
So again, these six benefits of a podcast branding refresh are, number one, attract
a new audience.
Number two, increase your perceived quality.
Number three, adapt to the latest trends.
Number four, strengthen or reset your podcast identity and message.
Number five, infuse new energy for your audience and yourself.
And number six, stand out from others.
If this episode has been helpful then please share it through the website or in your podcast
app.
You can go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshbenefits to share this episode or review any of the
notes, images, and links that I've mentioned.
If you're looking to refresh your podcast branding after you've thought about these
benefits and maybe after the next episode when I share when you should refresh your
podcast branding, I want to give you some resources that you can start looking at or
considering before that time.
There are many places you can hire designers to help you with a branding refresh, or audio
producers and such.
But most of the time, it's that outside, what people see first, where we really need
to work on.
Because the inside could be a quick switch for you, like maybe just swapping your music
and such.
Or some other decisions that you make and could probably produce on your own because
you're a skilled podcaster.
So looking at the visual design aspect, the two resources I recommend most highly are
are, first, my friend Mark Des Cotes from Podcast Branding. I have a link in the notes for this
episode. And that's not an affiliate link, but if you will mention that you heard about
him from me or from the Audacity podcast, I do earn a commission from referrals that
mention me. And I'd really appreciate that if you do that. The reason I recommend him
is not only is he a friend, and he's done some work for me too, he's a highly skilled
designer and here's what I think is most important about his skills. He's a podcaster.
So he understands the needs of a podcaster. If you tell him I need podcast cover art,
he instantly knows what that is. He knows what dimensions you need. He knows what kinds
of places that cover art will need to appear. He will know what kinds of questions to ask
you that you might not have even thought of. Stuff like would you also like a banner image
for your Facebook group or for your website or do you need this in any other particular
layouts or how else are you going to be using this?
Does it need to be circle crop friendly?
These kinds of things are the kinds of questions that a podcaster who is also a designer would
know to ask.
So that's why I refer all design business.
Yes, I'm a designer myself and some of my old episodes you might have heard me promoting
my own podcast cover art design business.
I don't do design for clients anymore.
I send people to Mark Des Cotes.
He's done great work for me, I've seen him do great work for many other podcasters.
He's a good, skilled podcaster himself and someone that I trust to design your podcast
branding effectively and ask you the right questions, help you consider all kinds of
aspects of your podcast, even beyond only the visual.
And the other option, though, that I do recommend but follow less frequently is a service like
99designs.
And again, I earn commissions from qualifying purchases through my link there too.
And the links to both of these places are in the notes for this episode.
From 99designs, you can get designers to compete for your business.
So 99designs will give you a lot of options, potentially, depending on how much you pay,
but a lot of different options that you consider, some radically different approaches, but maybe
not from people who understand podcasting.
So expect to see a lot of cover art that has microphones, headphones, RSS icons, that kind
of cliche stuff that should not be in your podcast branding unless you have a podcast
about podcasting like I do.
And that's why my cover art has kind of an RSS icon and a microphone in it because I'm
talking about microphones and RSS and that kind of stuff.
So I embrace the cliche.
But if your podcast isn't about podcasting or microphones or RSS or that kind of stuff,
then go away from the cliché. Maybe there's some other cliché kind of thing that you
would want in your cover art. So expect that from a place like 99designs, but you'll
have plenty of choices depending on how much you pay. So you'll get plenty of options
from them, but maybe not the best. Whereas with podcast branding, which might cost more,
but I think would be far more valuable, podcast branding will work with you to understand
your whole podcast branding, including even listening to some of your podcast, to know
does your podcast really need a bold, audacious design to it, or are you just the kind of
laid back podcaster, "Hey everybody, I'm so glad you came here, thank you for joining
me for this podcast, this is our moment of zen."
And then Mark from Podcast Branding can help the podcast visual branding match your audio
content.
That's why I recommend him so highly.
And you might be thinking, well what about Fiverr? I usually recommend against Fiverr.
I do actually have an affiliate link with Fiverr and they come after me often to try
and promote them more frequently and they've offered me special affiliate benefits and
stuff. And I'll give you my affiliate link for Fiverr if you're interested, but I usually
recommend against Fiverr because I've seen too much low quality work and even intellectual
property theft on Fiverr. And if someone steals to make a cover art for you, you can actually
be held liable for that. So that's why I really can't recommend Fiverr unless you're
paying a lot more on Fiverr. But if you're going to pay a lot more, then why not just
work with someone who actually understands the industry. That's why I recommend Mark
so highly. And Mark did not sponsor this episode. I did let him get a preview of this episode
beforehand, but he's a friend. He does really good work. I've hired him. I've paid him
before. And yes, I do earn commissions only if you mention that you heard about him from
me or from the Audacity podcast. And I would appreciate it if you do. But even if you don't,
I won't earn a commission from him unless he knows that you heard about him from me.
I recommend him because I believe in his work and his skill. I recommend these other services
aside from Fiverr because I believe in what they offer, maybe with certain caveats.
So if you'd like the links to that or anything else I mentioned in this episode or to share
this episode out with other podcasters, it's a simple tap or swipe away inside your app
or go to theaudacitytopodcast.com/refreshbenefits.
And now that I've given you some of the guts and taught you some of the tools, it's
time for you to go start and grow and maybe refresh the branding of your own podcast for
passion and profit.
I'm Daniel J. Lewis from theaudacitytopodcast.com.
Notice how often I now say it, the audacity,
and I really emphasize it like that
because that's part of my branding,
theaudacitytopodcast.com.
That's where you can find me.
Thanks for listening!
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