The right time to get sponsors for your podcast is as soon as you have a clearly defined audience that another business would find value in advertising to! It can be before you launch with no listeners yet, like LuAnn Nigara did with A Well Designed Business, it can be 3-6 months after you launch with 12 listeners, like Glenn The Geek did with Horse Radio Network, or several years after launch with 20,000+ downloads an episode like Jason Cabassi at The Walking Dead Cast.
If you want to approach a business and successfully secure them as a sponsor for your show, keep in mind the following:
- Be very clear about who your target audience is and make sure your content supports that. For example, my target audience is podcasters and people interested in being a guest on podcasts, so I focus my episodes on topics related to podcasters and being a podcast guest expert.
- Identify businesses that have services or products that your target audience wants and needs.
- Reach out to those businesses with a pitch!
The CPM Model
A lot of the major podcasts on iTunes use a company called Midroll to acquire sponsors. However, Midroll does have pretty high standards. You should have at least 15,000 downloads per episode, if not more, to be considered for their service. Even if you do not use their service, if you use the old “CPM” model which means cost per thousand downloads, you need a pretty large audience to make a good income from your show. A lot of shows make $25 per thousand downloads. If I used this model, I wouldn’t make very much money directly from my podcast!
The Media Kit
It is probably a good idea to have a media kit that shows potential sponsors your audience size, history of the show, your rates, audience demographics, etc. but I don’t think it’s completely necessary. If you approach businesses that you know and most importantly businesses that know you, a friendly email and phone call broaching the subject can result in a very successful sale!
What You Really Need
I see podcasters posting in Facebook groups all the time about getting sponsors. “How do I do it?” “Do they approach me or do I approach them?” etc. etc. You know what it really takes to get sponsors? SALES.
CONVICTION
If you believe in your heart and in your gut that advertising on your podcast would bring new clients and customers to a potential sponsor’s business, you owe it to that business to tell them how amazing of an opportunity it would be to sponsor your show! A lot of podcasters and entrepreneurs, quite frankly, have a sh*tty sales mindset. You are unconfident and weak and you’re waiting for sales to come to you. You need to go to them. I did a video recently about your sales mindset, check it out here.
Take These Steps
- Write a clear description of who your listeners are.
- Write what their pain points are; what products or services they need right now.
- Come up with a list of businesses who provide those services and products, specifically businesses owned by people who KNOW YOU.
- Email them!!!
My Gift For You
Get my book, Interview Connections: How to #RockThePodcast from Both Sides of the Mic for free at InterviewConnectionsBook.com to see the exact email I wrote to get my first sponsor on The Podcast Producers.
