How to Hook Your Podcast Audience With the Intro

An intriguing intro is highly important. No matter how much interest a listener has in your topic, if you don’t hook your audience right from the start, it might result in you not attracting enough interest from them to keep them listening to you.

No doubt you need an appealing podcast title and podcast cover to gain listeners. But most importantly, you also need an intriguing intro.

Below are our top five tips on how to hook your podcast audience with the intro.

1. Write All Your Ideas Down

At all times, write it out first. Structure it well, ensuring the tone is right.  If necessary, rewrite it a few times until you get it right. The podcast intro is very vital. Therefore, don’t downplay it and assume you can take it as an extra bit that you’ll improvise on the recording day.

Plan it carefully. Spend as much time as you can get on it to make it as captivating as possible. Remember, this will be the main attention-grabber to your new listeners and how you hook in your first-time listeners.

2. Set the Tone for Your Podcast

Let the intro set the tone for your show. How do you do this?  The words you say, the music you play, and the tone of your voice should connect to your podcast topic. The same should also make sense for your specific episode topic.

For instance, if you’re talking about something heavy-hearted and sad, your intro should reflect that. Let it take a bit more sinister, solemn, or spooky tone. On the other hand, if it’s something fun and light-hearted, let your intro reflect this too. An exciting and cheerful tone will do.

3. Hook Listeners With Music

With a good jingle, you can grab the attention of your audience even more. I’m sure a search through the internet will easily get you musicians who can commission your podcast intro. In fact, some online companies offer this as a service.

Always have a main part of your jingle that you normally play out. Also, make sure you have a bed-style part- the one you can fix under your podcast intro. Doing so will make everything more interesting and organized.

Have you ever heard of “Welcome to Night Vale?” It’s a drama podcast that’s had the same intro music since it first featured. Although it’s had various versions along the way, the main music has made it well recognizable to their fans.

4. Refrain From Giving Too Much Info in Your Podcast Intro

Make sure you don’t overload your intro with details. It’s a mistake many new podcasters make where they’ll try to cram in loads of information into the intro.

Avoid pre-emptying it for your listeners. Instead, leave them craving for more about that specific episode.

For example, cramming in an explanation about what’s to come in the episode means you have spilled the beans, letting your listeners know everything they wanted to within very few seconds. So why then would they care to stay on for one more second?

5. Briefly Mention Your Title and What You’ll Discuss

Stats from March 2018 show that about 22% of your audience will do their listening while driving. What does this tell us? That these people basically cannot look at their phones to see what episode they’re on. Therefore, this justifies the idea to announce your podcast name and episode title in your podcast intro.

This way, if your driving listeners will have already heard this episode, they can instantly leave in pursuit of getting newer ones. Additionally, if they’re looking for a specific episode, they can navigate to it with speed.

Take Away

The above tips are but a few that you can use to hook your podcast audience with your intro. With the rapid growth of podcasts as a means to reach new listeners both within and without your terrestrial broadcast signal, it’s only wise that you make the most of your podcasts.