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We will cover nine steps to effectively monetize your podcasts with paid sponsorships.
Steps for Skill Mastery:
For podcast sponsorships to be successful, it has to be a win/win/win situation:
If it’s not a win for all three parties, then it’s not the right sponsor for your show. This is why finding the right sponsors is crucial for you success with effectively monetizing with paid sponsorships. So you need to seek out that win/win/win situation, in addition to making sure you feel comfortable with the product or service.
If you don’t feel right about the product or service being advertised, and you haven’t confirmed it’s something your audience needs, then you shouldn’t bring that company on as a sponsor.
So let’s discuss where we can start finding these sponsors. Start by creating a list of companies who make sense given your topic or niche. I would also recommend listening to other podcasts in your niche and see who the advertisers are and then contact the public relations or marketing team from that company to see if they are interested in sponsoring your show. Many people are unfamiliar with what a podcast is and how it works, so finding an advertiser that already spends ad dollars on podcasts is usually easier.
Below are some simple questions to help you get started find sponsors. Then create a wish list of sponsors – at least 15 to 20 companies or products and services that you know would be a great fit for your audience.
Answer the following questions to get started:
Then create a wish list of sponsors – at least 15 to 20 companies or products and services that you know would be a great fit for your audience.
Now that we have our list, let’s start reaching out to them.
Before reaching out, it is important to gather a few points about your show that advertisers want to know including:
Answer the questions below to gather those points before reaching out:
Now that we have the information sponsors are interested in knowing, let’s actually reach out to some of the people on our list. Below is an example email template for reaching out to potential sponsors.
Sponsor Email Template
Hello [Name]!
I wanted to inquire about a potential partnership with [sponsor company name] and [your podcast name]. [Your podcast name] is a top-ranked business podcast and generates over 10,000 unique listens every month in over 145 countries.*
*Tell them any accolades your podcast has received such as “top-ranked”, how many unique listens you receive per month or episode, and how much reach your podcast gets.
Our audience is made up of Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners, your target market, which is why I am reaching out.*
*Briefly describe your audience and why it is a good fit for them.
My current list of sponsors include ZipRecruiter, SquareSpace, and LegalZoom – among others - all of whom have been with me for multiple months, as they are seeing great results. *
*List some of the sponsors who have worked with you before and briefly share some of the results you have delivered them.
I would love to set up a time for a quick chat!
Brandon Stover
Create an email template to send to potential sponsors when reaching out to them.
As you start contacting sponsors it is important to be building relationships with them so they will continue to work with you over the long term. You can do this by:
I recommend writing some notes for the first sponsor you reach out to.
In order to set ourselves apart from all the other podcasters these sponsors work with and having them wanting to work with us for a long time, we need to create ways we can over deliver value to them.
If you can over-deliver early on in the relationship, then the chances of that relationship continuing become higher.
Some ways you can over deliver to your sponsor are by:
There tons of different things you can do. Be unique and be effective.
Brainstorm some ideas of how you can over deliver to you sponsors.
Now that we have went over how to find and start reaching out to podcast sponsors, we will cover how to negotiate terms of you sponsorship once you have interested sponsors.
Now that you have an interested sponsor it’s time let them know what your download numbers are and what it will cost for them to sponsor an episode. In order to do this we must first determine what you want your sponsorships to look like, and how do you want them to run?
Setting expectations and letting sponsors know up front exactly how you run your sponsorships is critical to the success of your campaign.
So let’s start by crafting your ad packages. Some things to consider when creating your packages are:
Here is an example of a set of information and package you could send over to a potential sponsor.
Example Sponsorship Package
Snapshot Of [Your Podcast Name]’s Stats*
*Tell them states and accolades relevant to your show.
Sponsorship Packages:
1) A 45-second Midroll (middle of show) for $XXX per episode. ($XX CPM)
2) A 15-second Postroll (end of show) for $XXX per episode. ($XX CPM)
3) COMBO SPECIAL: Midroll + Postroll for $X,XXX per episode, a $XXX savings per episode.
The minimum sponsorship investment is 10 episodes per month:
10 MidRolls: $X,XXX
10 PostRolls: $X,XXX
10 COMBO: $XX,XXX ($X,XXX savings)
**Every sponsorship receives a feature on [Your Podcast Name] show notes page and a featured placement on our sponsors page.
Now thinking about the questions above and using the template as an example, determine your podcast sponsorship packages.
My Snapshot Of ______________________________ Stats*
My sponsorship pack will be:
After you have determined your podcast sponsorship packages it is time to reach back out to your potential sponsor and get a signed agreement.
Once you have an interested sponsor, it’s always a good idea to get a signed agreement that states what the campaign will include.
You’ll want to have things like:
Below is a sample email template to send to a sponsor once you have spoken with them and are locking in the sponsorship with a signed agreement.
Sponsor Email Template
Hello [Name]!
Great chatting today! I would love to partner with [sponsor company name] for the month of [month]!
[Your Podcast Name] is a top-ranked business podcast, and we generate over 10,000 unique listens per month. Our audience is made up of Entrepreneurs and small business owners, perfect for the service you provide.*
*Remind them of your top accolades and the amount of unique listeners per month or episode.
With our sponsors, we always WAY over deliver, and here’s how:
When you sponsor an episode of [Your Podcast Name], you get a 45-second Midroll in the middle of our show, a 15- second Postroll at the close, and a featured on both the show notes page of every podcast episode you sponsor, as well as on our Sponsors page.
*Remind them of what is included in your sponsorship package and how you over deliver
As discussed, we’re proposing a 4 episode ad-roll campaign for [month].*
*Remind them of what you and the sponsor agreed to.
Attached is our agreement, which breaks down the dates, cost per episode, cost per month, and due dates.
Our agreement is guaranteeing a minimum of xxxxx listens per episode. Again, we always over deliver on that number, but no matter how much we over deliver, you will always only pay the quoted price for the entire month.*
*Remind them of what you agreed to deliver to your sponsor.
You'll find more information about our audience and our current sponsors here:
Yourwebsite.com/sponsors
Please let me know if you have any questions!
Brandon Stover
Create an email template to send to sponsors when getting your signed agreement.
Now let's make sure you continue to follow-up!
Once you’ve engaged in the “set up” conversation (meaning, both parties have agreed on the sponsorship happening), you’re likely going to have to follow up – diligently – in order to successful lock in the campaign.
Until you have a signed agreement, payment, and talking points, continue to follow up.
I can’t stress enough to importance of following up on these conversations! This is YOUR responsibility to making this happen.
If I want to have success with locking in sponsors, my commitment to following up is...
You have found and locked in sponsors, now it is time to actually create and deliver your ads.
Once you have the talking points from your sponsor (some sponsors will send an actual read, which you should always edit to make sure it’s in your own voice), start putting together your unique reads.
Here are some tips on creating ad reads:
Make sure you time out your reads so you know what the word count is. Once you start going back and forth with the sponsor on reads, they might want to add to what you’ve provided, and that’s why it’s important to know your word count.
Once you’ve created the unique read (or reads, depending on what package you put together for your sponsor), it’s time to send them over for review and approval.
Put a deadline on this, so for example, when you sent the unique read for approval, be sure to say something like “approval for this unique read is due by xx/xx.”
Now it’s time to craft your read for your first sponsor.
When creating a ad read script, answer the following questions:
Then craft a script for you ad read based on those questions. After you have created your script, practice reading and reflect on these questions:
Now let's get this ad read into your episodes.
Once you have your approved unique read, it’s time to insert it into the episode you’ve sold. Decide where to break and put the ads in your shows, record, and edit them into your episodes.
Record your ad read and ad it your podcast episodes in the appropriate location within the episode.
Be sure to listen back once you’ve inserted your reads to make sure everything flows the way you want it to. And of course, if you’ll be doing ‘live reads’, which some hosts do, then make sure you have your notes or unique read by you when it comes time to hit that record button.
After you have everything you need and the sponsorship run is underway, follow up with your sponsor throughout their run.
It’s especially important to follow up with them towards the end of the run. You should not only be checking in to see how the sponsorships are going, but also to see if they’d like to continue sponsoring your show.
Write down the results of your ad run so you some evidence of successful marketing campaigns to show your current sponsor and future sponsors.
Now you are successfully running sponsorship ads!
Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.
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