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What do podcasters that make millions of dollars through sponsorships doing differently than the rest of us?
Podcasting is a 25-billion dollar industry, and this goes without saying, but there are plenty of advertising dollars to go around. The question is, is your podcast setup to get any of this money? Would a potential sponsor listen to your podcast and think it’s a good investment?
In this episode we’re talking about what sponsors are looking for, what the most successfully monetized podcasts are doing to make money with their podcast and how you can make a podcast that’s monetizable.
In this episode:
(1:34) Does your audience size really matter?
(4:16) How building a strong niche audience can improve your chances of monetization.
(5:25) What does a successfully monetized podcast look like? (And how can we replicate that success.)
(6:30) The two most important questions to ask yourself before monetizing your podcast.
(7:15) What are million dollar podcasts doing differently than the rest of us?
Links in this episode:
👩🏻💻 Shop MY Podcast Templates
✨ Podcast Rescourses: Equipment, Software and Everything You Need to Start
🎧 Work with Me 1:1
💛 Free Download: Pre-Interview Cheatsheet (10 Questions I Ask Every Guest!)
Podcasting is a 25-billion dollar industry, and this goes without saying, but there are plenty of advertising dollars to go around. The question is, is your podcast setup to get any of this money? Would a potential sponsor listen to your podcast and think it’s a good investment?
In this episode we’re talking about what sponsors are looking for, what the most successfully monetized podcasts are doing to make money with their podcast and how you can make a podcast that’s monetizable.
In this episode:
(1:34) Does your audience size really matter?
(4:16) How building a strong niche audience can improve your chances of monetization.
(5:25) What does a successfully monetized podcast look like? (And how can we replicate that success.)
(6:30) The two most important questions to ask yourself before monetizing your podcast.
(7:15) What are million dollar podcasts doing differently than the rest of us?
Links in this episode:
👩🏻💻 Shop MY Podcast Templates
✨ Podcast Rescourses: Equipment, Software and Everything You Need to Start
🎧 Work with Me 1:1
💛 Free Download: Pre-Interview Cheatsheet (10 Questions I Ask Every Guest!)
Creators & Guests
Host
Morgan Franklin
Morgan Franklin is a podcast producer, strategist and educator. Since 2020 Morgan has founded and produced multiple top ranking podcasts from the health industry to beauty. Featured everywhere from Good Morning America to Martha Stewart Living Morgan's passion and knowledge for branding and podcasting have helped countless business owners and brands grow their impact and bottom line podcasting. Morgan is the Founder of Podcasts for Profit and Morgan Franklin Media, in addition to host of Podcasts for Profit with Morgan Franklin.
What is Podcasts for Profit with Morgan Franklin?
If you’re ready to create a podcast that will align you with experts in your industry, position yourself as a trusted leader and create another source of revenue for your business you’re in the right place. Podcasts for Profit will help you create and grow a podcast that cuts through the noise of social media and speak directly to your target audience. Stop letting the algorithm determine your social marketing strategy. Stop letting trends dictate the kind of content you’re able to create. Hosted by expert podcast strategist, producer and educator: Morgan Franklin, Podcasts for Profit is your step-by-step guide to creating a podcast that will transform your business, opportunities and life.
I wanna start off this episode by saying 100%, without a doubt, no questions asked. If you dedicate yourself to creating a podcast that makes you money, you will make money off your podcast. Remember that Henry Ford quote? It's something like, whether you think you can or you can't, you're right. The podcast industry is a $25,000,000,000 industry.
Morgan Franklin:And if it's your intention to make some of that money, you will. But what will it take? That's what we're all wondering. Right? What will it take to monetize your podcast, and is your podcast currently in a place to be making money?
Morgan Franklin:In this episode, we'll talk about what makes a podcast monetizable, what successfully monetized podcasts are doing right now, and how you can start working towards making money with your podcast. Hello, and welcome to Podcast For Profit. My name is Morgan Franklin. I'm a podcast producer, strategist, and educator. This podcast will help you create and grow a podcast that cuts through the noise of social media and speaks directly to your target audience.
Morgan Franklin:If you're ready to create a podcast that will align you with the experts in your industry, position yourself as a trusted leader, and create another source of revenue for your business, you're in the right place. So what does a monetizable podcast look like? What does a podcast look like that an agency wants to give money to or a brand sees and thinks, wow, I want to work with this podcast? The first thing is, and I know some of us don't want to hear this, but it's audience reach, how big your podcast audience is. A billboard really isn't worth anything if it's on a road that only 2 people drive down every day.
Morgan Franklin:If you're trying to monetize a podcast that only has, let's say, a 100 loyal listeners, you are laying the groundwork, you're on the right track, but you aren't quite there yet. And I know this can feel really discouraging, right? Podcasting is hard work. It's time consuming. It costs money.
Morgan Franklin:Oh my gosh, it's frustrating. It's always there in the back of your mind. You know, you have to write another episode or edit an episode or get an episode ready to publish. So when it's been weeks or months or even years and you have this podcast, you put so much into and still no one is interested in sponsoring it. That can be really hard to hear.
Morgan Franklin:But that's when you have to ask yourself, how many people actually listen to this podcast? How many new people are finding this podcast every week? And what am I doing to bring in new listeners? Just because you have a podcast does not mean you are going to make money on that podcast. There has to be a strategy.
Morgan Franklin:And the good news is this is all a numbers game. It's all about how many people you can get to listen, follow, engage, and that's not just on your podcast. It's across the Internet. Everything you do builds legitimacy for your podcast and everything builds onto each other. So the first thing you need to do is look at your audience.
Morgan Franklin:How big is your current audience today? At what rate is it growing? And specifically, what are you doing to grow your listener base? However, audience size does not equal audience engagement. And after you figure out your average audience reach for a new episode and what that looks like, you need to start digging into your engagement and your audience demographics because that's gonna be the game changer for smaller podcasters and creators of really any kind.
Morgan Franklin:We all know that one person that has 30,000 followers, right, who only gets 25 likes on a post and you're thinking, this does not seem right. Just because someone has a large following on any given social media does not mean they have good engagement or that people are going to buy from them or even pay attention. The same thing goes for podcasting, and that is why it is so important to have engagement metrics and to be able to clearly communicate what your audience looks like and more importantly, how they interact with your show. So let me use this as an example because I feel like I'm kind of getting into the weeds here. Let's say you have a very niche podcast about lamps.
Morgan Franklin:Everything vintage lamps, lamp restoration, buying, selling, you get to picture all things lamps. Now you have a company that sells light bulbs for antique lamps and light fixtures. They are looking for a podcast to advertise with. Should they advertise with Joe Rogan, the most listened to podcast in the United States definitely has some lamp lovers listening? Or should they advertise with you a very niche podcast about lamps?
Morgan Franklin:Well, hypothetically speaking, it certainly be much more cost effective and specific for their target audience to advertise with you. But this is where you need to be so crystal clear on your understanding of your audience. And even within that small community, you're still trying to build a bigger audience every week. Just because a podcast is niche does not make it valuable to advertisers. Because again, people need to be listening and engaged.
Morgan Franklin:All right. So now that we generally know what is successful podcast look like? How can we make our podcast more attractive for those potential sponsors? Have a clear brand identity and know who your listener is. I know you guys are probably so tired of me saying this, but it is so true.
Morgan Franklin:As you know, I'm a podcast producer. So I'm constantly bombarded with people telling me their podcast ideas. And you know, most of the time I listen politely and I say I can't wait to hear it. When someone asks me my opinion, though, what I always say is I ask them who they're making it for. Who is the listener of this podcast going to be?
Morgan Franklin:Because honestly, I think that is such an important question. And it's a question that so many people don't think about. And really, that's the question I need every podcaster who wants to monetize their podcast to be clear on. This is the exact person who will be listening to this show. This is why they listen.
Morgan Franklin:And this is what I, as the podcaster, consistently provide. And that sounds so easy. Right? And it might seem very simple. But when you break it down for your own podcast, and you ask these two questions, who is listening to my podcast?
Morgan Franklin:And why do they listen? Do you have a very, very straightforward answer? Because that's what's going to make your podcast valuable. That's what will make your podcast monetizable. That's what a brand sees and thinks, wow, I wanna hitch my horse to that wagon.
Morgan Franklin:I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. When it comes to your podcast, mixing it up is not doing you any favors. People want to know what to expect from you. And advertisers want to know what to expect from you. Consistency and clarity is the name of the game always.
Morgan Franklin:So how do you build consistency and clarity? That just sounds like 2 marketing words that really have no meaning. What are the podcasts that are making 1,000 or even 1,000,000 of dollars doing differently from the rest of us? The answer is they have a growth strategy. They know at the beginning of the month or even at the beginning of the quarter for many of them, this is the content we're going to be creating and this is the person we're making it for.
Morgan Franklin:This is the value it creates for our listener and we know why they're coming back to this podcast. From there, they're communicating with agencies, partners, advertisers to say, hey. This is my audience. This is how I serve my audience, and this is why you'd be a great fit to advertise with us. We have x number of listeners every month, and they roughly fit into these demographics, and this is why they listen to the show.
Morgan Franklin:There is really nothing groundbreaking or special about the show sponsors wanna work with, but it's not gonna happen by accident. It starts with you creating content that serves a specific audience and then growing that audience and showing there is a growth potential in that audience. I was at the pool last weekend and I was talking to my neighbor who volunteers at our local library. Our local library has a podcast where people in our community come and talk about their favorite book. There's a little bit more to it than that, but just for our purposes, we'll keep it at that.
Morgan Franklin:She was asking me how this podcast could make money. And she was like, I don't really get it. How could this podcast make money? So let's work through this together, knowing what we know and what we've learned so far in the episode. My first thought is let's get them in with some affiliate marketing with a larger company like Amazon or Barnes and Noble, we'll set up some personalized links and they'll get commission off each book that they sell.
Morgan Franklin:Why am I doing this? It is because they are a local show. Their audience reach is very small compared to most podcasts. So while I'm not going to be able to probably get a brand deal with Amazon or Barnes and Noble, I can talk to them and probably get some kind of affiliate code even though my audience isn't that big because they don't really have to spend. I mean, they have to spend a little bit of money to do affiliate programs, but not the kind of money that would be a full on sponsorship deal.
Morgan Franklin:So my first thought is affiliate marketing. How can we get some kind of code so that if someone hears this podcast and thinks, wow, I really wanna listen to that book. It's right there in the show notes. Someone can click on it and they would make a percentage of that sale. My next thought is, since this is a local library and the audience is most likely people who live in our town, I talked to local businesses, especially bookshops about sponsoring episodes.
Morgan Franklin:We know who our target audience is. It is local adults in our town who are interested in reading. So as far as the target audience, bookshops, any kind of indie little store like that would be absolutely perfect. So going to them and saying, Hey, we're looking for a sponsor, would probably be much more beneficial than trying to pull off some kind of major brand deal, and would be mutually beneficial to both the library and the businesses who are advertising with them. Another thing I might do since the library doesn't necessarily have a product to sell through the podcast besides using the library as a service, because usually my 3rd option on selling stuff or trying to make money on a podcast would be creating a service or product to sell through your podcast, would be just some kind of fundraiser where a number of children from maybe a local school pick a classic children's book each and then you have donations from adults that also love that book.
Morgan Franklin:And then maybe both a child and an adult who love the book come on to the podcast. They talk about it. It's a great way to bring the community together and get some donations for the library. It's all about trying to find a product or service that goes well with your podcast and sells well through your podcast and even incorporates your podcast. So always keep that in mind.
Morgan Franklin:When you're trying to think outside of the box for sponsors, if it's not a sponsor that's directly paying you for an advertisement, how can you bring in your audience to sell a product or service? All that being said, local podcasts are tricky when it comes to monetizing. I started in local podcasting. So I totally understand when someone can't figure out how to monetize their local podcast, I hear them 100%. But like I said in the beginning of the episode, if you believe you can, you're right.
Morgan Franklin:And you will find a way to make this work. You will make money off your podcast. If from day 1, you're thinking, I want to make money off this podcast, which I hope you are, the one kind of shift that I would encourage you to make is starting a podcast that is nationally or internationally reaching. Local podcasts are amazing and I love them. But kind of like we were just talking about, the reach is limited to the area and to the people in that area that listen to podcasts.
Morgan Franklin:So when you're looking at these big national brands and hyper localized topic. So kind of think about that too. Can you make it interesting for a larger audience? Or is it something that is purely made for a local audience? And will you be locked in to only the number of people in that local area that would ever wanna listen to this show?
Morgan Franklin:Alright, so how can we start moving towards having a monetizable podcast? What can we do today? And my answer is know your audience. Who is listening? What do they look for in your podcast content?
Morgan Franklin:Take a minute to write this down. How old are they? What do they do for work? How much money do they make? What do they spend their money on?
Morgan Franklin:Are they spending their money? What's important to them? You need to create a podcast that is consistently solving a problem for your audience, whether that's entertainment or education or inspiration, whatever it Is your audience a 30 year old woman looking for dating advice on how to Is your audience a 30 year old woman looking for dating advice on how to navigate the terrors of online dating? Is your audience a 45 year old man who's learning how to fly fish and is just casting way too far? Is your audience a 20 year old woman who is looking to listen to people talk about pop culture while she goes on her hot girl walk?
Morgan Franklin:Every successful podcast provides value to a specific audience. So take some time and think about who your audience is, why they're coming to you, and how are you providing that value to them. This will change everything. If you believe you can, you are right. And as always, I can't wait to listen to your podcast.
Morgan Franklin:Hey. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. If you enjoyed the podcast and you'd like to hear more episodes like this one, go ahead and subscribe to the show. New episodes air every Monday morning. And if you found this episode valuable and you wanna help other business owners and podcasters, will you leave me a 5 star review?
Morgan Franklin:It helps the show rank higher in the charts and brings more entrepreneurs the information they need to start making money on their podcast.