PodMov Daily: Monday, July 11

Episode 678: Your Monday Mix

For Podcast Guests, An Accent is Not a Liability

Considering listeners’ limited attention spans, it may “feel safer to book a guest who ticks all the boxes of a traditional ‘good talker.’” A neutral accent shouldn’t be one of those boxes, write Pacific Content producers Wanyee Li and Rehmatullah Sheikh. Sometimes all it takes to be a ‘good talker’ is the right support.

Non-native English speakers outnumber native speakers by two to one, according to the 21st edition of Ethnologue. There are as many as 160 dialects within English alone. As long as a guest can be reasonably understood, there’s no reason to hesitate. Li and Sheikh explain how to work with a range of voices.

Solutions include extended warmups, working with dialogue editors, host paraphrasing, and voiceover when necessary. Solana Larsen, editor of Mozilla’s Internet Health Report, puts the value this way: “Including guests with different accents in a podcast is like photographing in colour instead of monochrome.”

The Anatomy of an Effective Host-Read Ad

Why do podcasters struggle to sell themselves? In one of our favorites from Sounds Profitable, Bryan Barletta asked an expert to break it down. The bottom line: When podcasters promote their premium feeds (or anything, really), “We need to treat that promotion just like the ads we make to sell underwear.”

Stew Redwine is Creative Director at Oxford Road, an agency behind major brands (e.g., Postmates, Quip) on major podcasts like Armchair Expert. He goes through his ad development process using the Sounds Profitable podcast as the product, clearly explaining each section’s form and function.

This framework is about efficient persuasion — it can be used to write an ad, ask for a raise, or propose to someone. We may understand what a value proposition is, for example, but Redwine demonstrates why it succeeds. Podcasters will find time-proven strategies to craft better ads and better episodes.

Keep Episodes Fresh with Dynamic Content

With Buzzsprout, it’s faster than ever to keep your podcast fresh — and your listeners up-to-date. The Dynamic Content tool lets you easily add and remove short pre-roll (intro) and post-roll (outro) content to your episodes. It's the perfect solution for timely messaging.

Whether you’re promoting a virtual event or giving a special shout-out, Dynamic Content makes it simple to swap, automatically add content to new episodes, or apply it to your existing catalog with a click. Old files are removed and replaced, so there’s no clean-up.

This innovative feature offers more than flexibility. It benefits your audience in more ways than one: Buzzsprout respects your listeners’ privacy. Unlike most Dynamic Ad Insertion, the Dynamic Content tool includes no tracking or targeting. Ready to make the switch?

Here's what else is going on:

• Magic words: “How to Ask Your Podcast Listener for Money” is this Wednesday, July 13. The UK-based MIC’s Podcast Club will host a panel on crowdfunding methods, best practices, pitfalls, and realistic expectations. Submit questions for the Q&A here. Begins at 11:00 am ET/6:00 pm BST. Free registration.

• Attention, please: “Grow your Podcast Brand on Twitter with Threads and Engagement” from Podcasting, Seriously is this Wednesday at 4:00 pm ET. Arielle Nissenblatt (EarBuds Podcast Collective) will share detailed social media strategies in this week’s Twitter Spaces meetup. No account needed to join.

• Start strong: “The Basics of Audio Editing Using Hindenburg” from Radio Boot Camp is this Thursday, July 14. Senior trainer Melissa Cáceres will walk through technical skills, including multitrack session setup, raw file editing, layering ambient sound, and simple ‘buff-and shine’ tips. $100 registration. 

• Literal gold: A straightforward podcast title aids in discovery by topic, Podnews editor James Cridland tells Courtney Kocak. “A podcast about great fish and chips should probably be called ‘Great Fish and Chips’ and not ‘A-salt and Batter-y,’ ‘The Star Chip Enterprise,’ ‘The Codfather,’ or ‘Frying Nemo.’”