How To Title Your Podcast
Podcast title: How to title your podcast and come up with a captivating podcast title that will entice listeners to listen to your show
Dear Podcaster,
I am Dan Jean, a podcast content writer and I want to help you create a great podcast title that will help hook your audience in and make them want to listen to your entire show.
You have to read every word of this post if…
· You are looking for ideas to help you come up with a great podcast title
· You are looking for great ideas to help you write the best ever podcast title
· You are looking for podcast title ideas and tips or wondering about which format you should use
…plus a whole lot more.
Are you ready to get started?
Before we do, let’s watch these videos so we can figure out what goes into writing a great podcast title.
Just hit play and make notes as you watch them.
Here you go.
Podcast title video 1
Podcast title video 2
Now, let’s look at this very short story as it has some connection with what we are going to look at shortly.
Mike loved words and from an early age, he loved to write and just scribble letters here and there.
His family, friends and loved ones who knew him in his toddler years were always amazed at how he could easily write his own story off the cuff. So they nicknamed him ‘’ The Magic Pen’’
As he grew a little older, he participated in a children’s story writing competition and emerged tops, eventually donating his prize money to underprivileged kids in a developing country in Africa.
After completing high school, he figured he could make a living out of writing so he began to desperately seek out writing opportunities online and elsewhere so he could supplement his 9 to 5 income.
After saving quite a bit, he quit his teaching job and retreated to the mountains in order to make much more time to write his first book.
His hideout gave him the peace of mind and time he needed to quickly work on his first book.
Two years later, his work was completed and he began to pitch his manuscript to several publishers, many of whom turned him down.
Luckily, he found a small publisher in his native town that decided to publish his work which ended up selling a few thousand print and digital copies.
Mike had anticipated a flood of book sales as he badly wanted his work to hit the best seller list. So he always kept wondering why sales were so disappointing.
One day, he went to his hometown for a book signing tour and he met this voracious reader who said:
‘’ Mike, I almost didn’t buy your book until a good friend told me how great it was.
I first saw it on the book shelf but the title didn’t resonate with me. Anyway, I am glad I took a chance at it. It’s a great book and I will get some extra copies for my children’’
Mike was flattered by those nice words. But he didn’t forget what Emilie said. The following year, his book was due for republishing and he managed to convince the publisher to allow him tweak the title a little bit.
He changed it from ‘’ How Not To Worry’’
to
‘’ How To Control Your Emotions So You Don’t Worry Much’’
A few weeks after he had made that little change, sales soared more than we’d ever imagine and before he knew it, his books were on every shelf.
Although that story was created out of thin air, it has some semblance with how you can easily write a great podcast title or heading.
From seeing many podcast titles, it looks to me that most podcasters don’t exactly know what goes into composing a good title or headline, let alone the benefits of coming up with one.
Which is why, I am going to show in this piece how you can easily identify a great podcast title, examples of well-written ones, the different types of kinds of titles most podcasters use, plus a whole lot more you can write a very engaging podcast title that will hook your audience in.
This brings us to our first question: What’s a podcast title?
I am so glad you asked this great question.
A podcast title a very brief description that gives your listeners or casual readers a crystal clear idea of what to expect in your podcast show or episode.
Let’s compare that with this real life scenario so we can understand it better.
Let’s say you are about to go on retirement but you are not too sure of what you are going to after you exit the work place.
Well, you have heard stories of how boring being at home can be after decades of working from 9 to 5 and you don’t want to go through that. You feel you can make use of that free time.
So, you stroll to a book shop and see these books on the bookshelf.
Book #1: How To Plan For Your Retirement
and
Book #2: How to Live a Happier and Healthier Life When You Retire
Let me ask you this: which of these books will you pick up when you get to the bookstore?
I am pretty sure you are going to pick the second title, right? The reason being that it gives you an idea of what you can live a fulfilling life when you permanently shut the office door.
Similarly, when your listeners get on podcast apps like Apple podcast, Spotify, and the rest of their ilk, they are going to first consider your title and decide if it perfectly resonates with their needs, dreams and aspirations.
Small wonder that in a recent survey by podcasthost.com, respondents said that they read podcast titles first before they decide to commit their time and attention to it.
Nonetheless, if your show is extremely popular or if your listener was referred to your show by a trusted colleague, they will only have to search for the name of your show and a great title would play a minimal role here.
That being said, if you have a horrible title they might not even consider listening to yours due to the reasons stated above.
For example, just take a look at these titles I found at…….after I had inserted the keyword…………into the search box.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
I guess…………
You see, a great podcast title must be persuasive, arouse interest, and capture attention of the audience from the get- go and then induce the reader to continue reading beyond the headline or title.
It is one that takes into due consideration the emotional, physical, spiritual, social, physiological, psychological and financial needs of its listeners. By doing so, the podcast title succeeds in leaving a favorable impression on listeners while a poorly written one is written based on the needs of the podcaster or whatever comes to mind.
Ok, let me explain so you get a perfect understanding of how to write your podcast titles based on those insatiable human needs.
For example, if the primary objective or focus of a particular episode is how the listeners can make extra cash in a pandemic as a podcaster, then I can appeal to financial needs of my listeners by coming up with this short podcast title:
How A Podcast Episode Saved An Entire Family From Starving To Death At The Height of The Pandemic.
Let’s be honest with ourselves here. Won’t you stop to at least find out what it is all about when you spot this title anywhere? I bet you will at lease read the next few lines to figure out the story before you even decide to listen to that show. That’s what I mean by using your titles to appeal to our needs and wants.
Got the idea? Ok, please let’s read on to see why you really have to write a very good title.
First, as already mentioned, it helps searchers choose yours over your competitors on podcast directories like Google podcast.
Second, a great podcast title can easily get your podcast discovered by ‘’googlers’’ and other search engine searchers if you appropriately insert keywords those folks are looking out for.
Sadly, the overwhelming majority of podcasters don’t include keywords, thus failing to convert search engine traffic to potential listeners and readers. We will look at how to do this as we go on with this piece.
Having said that, let’s closely look at the types of podcast titles in vogue, how to pick the right one, and how to write a captivating podcast title that gets the attention of your audience.
It’s quite irritating to see how most podcasters struggle to come up with great titles because they spend too much time deciding on one.
It shouldn’t be a struggle if you pay close attention to the content of your episode because it is the main anchor upon which the title revolves.
So, my advice is to first decide what kind of content you want to put out there and then extract the kind of podcast titles you wish to use for a particular episode from listening to it over and over again.
Well, here are they:
- Benefit based title: This is the kind of podcast title that explicitly states the benefit of listening to your podcast episode.
Here are some examples
Episode 3: How to build your dream house at half the cost
Episode 4: How to easily get online writing jobs with the Backyard Gold Writing Method
Episode 9: How to easily build a website with html
Please note: This is actually based on the dreams and aspirations of your listeners and it’s always best to match up the title with the listeners search intent by including keywords.
However, due to the lengthy nature of such titles, they often get shortened when displayed on podcast apps. So, if it so happens, you just have to revise it for brevity and clarity.
2. List based title: This is type of title that gives an overview of the exact number of items, ideas, events, etc. talked about in a podcast episode. List posts provide a useful list of things.
Below is an example
Episode 7: New York’s 7 Best Restaurants
Episode 13: The 6 Mysterious Places to Visit in India
Episode 21: 5 Easy Side Jobs Anyone Can Profit From
Did you notice the numbers attached to the various titles? That’s exactly how such headlines are crafted.
3. Curiosity Laden Title: This is the kind that piques the reader’s curiosity and compels him to move beyond the title to the opening remarks of your show notes or description.
Here are some examples
Episode 16: The Cashless Fortune That Lies In Your Backyard
Episode 18: The hidden profits that lie in your Orchid Farm
Episode 20: Why You Shouldn’t Throw Away Your Trash
4. How to Title: They teach something and also help people achieve a specific desired outcome. They are usually written based on the human needs I talked about at the outset of this presentation.
Here are some examples
Episode 6: How to lose weight without exercising
Episode 21: How to win friends and influence people
Episode 66: How to retire before you actually retire
5. Question Based Title: Here you ask a thought provoking question based on the internal dialogue going on in your listeners mind? If you haven’t, you need to because it really works no matter who you are serving.
Here are some few examples
Episode 44: How do I monetize my podcast?
Episode 23: How can I make money with my podcast?
Episode 15: How do I start a podcast?
6. Influencer Based Title: Here, you just throw in the name of well-known personality you are interviewing and that should be more than enough to get people to click to listen to what that person has to say particularly if the interviewee is a very famous person.
Here are some few examples
Episode 54: Oprah Winfrey on making your voice heard in your own corner
Episode 73: President Trump on lessons learned after exiting White House
Episode 89: President Obama on why he was a successful leader
Although globally known names have been mentioned, you can still use the name of an individual who’s known for something in their own unique field.
7. Results Based Title: This is not widely used but it can be very effective if your podcast episode sheds light on the benefits your readers have gotten from implementing the advice you shared on your podcast or blog.
Here are some few examples
Episode 22: Mike shares how he slashed his rent in half after hearing me talk about this
Episode 93: Your fellow listener Mary Shares How She lost weight after last week’s episode
8. Story Telling Title: This is often used in storytelling podcasts to convey what the story is all about. It may include the title of the story itself if you want to.
Episode 73: (Fiction) Ananse and the Magic Pot
Episode 13: Tom and Jerry Talks to God at Noon
Episode 55: Alice in the Wonderland
9. Descriptive Title: This title is most commonly used and it gives a quick overview of the content of your podcast.
Episode 18: The Forsaken History of New England
Episode 22: The Forgotten Radicalism of Jesus Christ
Episode 99: London’s Purple Streets in summer
Now, let us look at how to write the title for your podcast episode.
First, listen to a particular episode you intend putting out there over and over again.
As you do, just ask yourself these simple questions:
· What is the theme of the episode?
· What needs does my content addresses?
· What kind of title do I want to use for my upcoming show?
Having come up with short answers to the three questions above, scroll up this page and pick out what kind of title you wish to use. It’s always best to vary the types you use so it doesn’t bore your audience to death.
Remember, when it comes to choosing podcast titles, variety is always the spice of the game.
Second, based on the above, just write down the words you wish to use for the title based on the needs and wants of your listeners or followers. You can always go back to edit it later.
