How To Structure A Podcast Episode In 3 Easy Steps

Emily: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of ultimate podcast marketing. I am your host and your podcast, coach and producer. I am Emily milling. And today we’re talking about how to structure a podcast episode. I have to tell you, I just spent the last, I don’t know, three or four hours on this new tool I got off of AppSumo called B IQ or BIC. I’m not entirely sure how you pronounce it.

And I was thinking to myself, like I’m going to create this super awesome SEO optimized episode and read a blog post to go along with it. So if you click on the link in the show notes, that takes you to the [00:01:00] blog post for this, you’re going to see my attempt at as super highly optimized blog post with this, this tool that I got.

But I got so frustrated with this darn thing that it kept telling me that everything was wrong. And my semantic keyword density was too high in my actual keyword density was 0%. So anyway. Here’s where I’m at, if you’ve ever used AppSumo and you’re like, I found a really great tool on there. I want to know about it. The only one I’ve ever found his story, chief. Super cool. Super awesome for managing your content and pushing out everything like on time, whatever.

Great content scheduler, but I got so frustrated with this tool anyway. Hopefully. This tool that I used has brought you to me, dear listener in some capacity with keyword density and searching and SEO optimization. And anyway, I bring this up because I just wanted to share a little bit of behind the scenes of putting my content together. I do want to make sure that it’s SEO optimized because [00:02:00] in fact, a lot of you find me through SEO.

I was using Instagram for quite some time to be like my main form of marketing and outreach. But then I kind of found that I was like not super into it all the time. And I got this really like a lot of content overwhelmed, which kind of sucks for a podcaster slash sketch comedian. I don’t want to be overwhelmed by it all the time. I don’t want it to be like so much that I can’t handle it. And so I kind of stopped being on Instagram for a while.

Anyway, I shifted my focus over to Pinterest, and then that’s kind of how I got into more SEO related things. anyway, I just thought I’d share that behind the scenes with you, because if like me, you’re kind of sick of Instagram. SEO is actually a really awesome way to get people on your site. You can use your transcripts from your podcasts. Do do that.

So we’re talking about episode structure today and I’ve totally deviated from my normal episode structure. But Hey, guess what it articulates this awesome point. I’m about to make about structuring your podcast [00:03:00] episodes. And that is that people that are listening to your podcasts really rely on a consistent delivery of the structure of your content.

So if I just open a podcast episode going on this crazy rant about something from AppSumo, it’s a little bit off putting, right. It’s a little bit jarring. And while I really wanted to do that rant, it’s not necessarily something I should include in this episode because you came here to listen to something specific today. Right? So keep that in mind, as we’re going through this, I’ve put together like three steps to help you figure out how to structure your episodes. Cause this is actually a question that my, my clients and.

The students that I work with in podcast rocket, they have this question all the time. And I want to make sure that everyone feels comfortable with how to structure their episodes, like what actually goes into it. So without further ado, as they say, let’s get into the main content of this episode. Hurray.

So first I want to cover what is a podcast structure? Every podcast [00:04:00] is made up of segments and those segments are essentially the framework or outline of your episodes. Not every episode is going to have the exact same framework each time, but there are a few key segments that you absolutely should include in every single episode. And I will be covering those in just a hot second.

And every podcaster is going to have their own preferences. You might love something that another podcast or hates, but remember, this is an opportunity to be creative and come up with something interesting, like interesting ways to deliver your content to the people who are listening to your show, your audience, which takes me to my next point. That again, this content is for your audience, and it’s important to remember who’s listening to your podcast. So if you’re including a lot of long.

segments that are very repetitive over and over again. And your target audience is. Mothers with young children. Chances are very going to stop listening because they’re like this isn’t fitting my lifestyle. I need stuff really hot, really fast in my ear holes in order to get the [00:05:00] information I need or to be entertained or whatever it is. Right. So knowing your audience is so important to understanding how to structure your podcast episodes. I do cover that actually in last week’s episode, where Jessica, Alex and I talked about defining your podcasts. Each we get a lot into audience stuff. And I talk about that a lot on this podcast, too.

So an example that I often use is some podcasters will put like a teaser of the content of the episode, right? At the beginning of the episode. There are big podcasters out there who have used this method in the strategy. And it works really well for them, I guess, I assume. But I find it so annoying and so grading to have to skip through this teaser content and then skip through a minute and a half long intro and then finally get to the actual content of the episode around 10 minutes in.

You know, Like I signed up for something. In my ears right away. Not that I am a mother of small children at this moment in time of recording, but I am the kind of person that likes [00:06:00] expediency. So again, what works for some podcasters is not going to work for you, but it’s up to you to figure out what your audience likes and what they want from you and match that with what you want to deliver as well. How you want to put it together.

Again, the best structures are typically consistent. The ones that stay very consistent from episode to episode. So if you like to experiment a lot, like I do at a bare minimum, always include your intro. And then something in your main content and then your outro, this is going to help to ground your listeners and let them know what to expect next from each episode of your podcast. So at the beginning, you hear my intro, my super short and sweet one. Then you hear me.

Today, ramble on about an app that I just bought. I do. I do like it. I’m not going to lie. I do like it, it just frustrated me that I couldn’t write an SEO blog. That’s all. And then of course the main content is just me talking about the topic of the episode or it’s the interview that I’m doing. If you have an audio drama, for example, that could be the part of the show where the story [00:07:00] begins right after the intro. And then at the end, I’ve got my outro at accused everybody. All right, this episode’s done. I’m going to go do other things now. Hurray.

So in the three steps to structuring your podcast content, we’re going to cover. Choosing your podcast, segments telling a story and then closing with a call to action. So the first step is choosing your podcast segments. There are three basic segments. Every episode should have. I just listed them. Your podcast should have these, no matter what.

It’s going to be an intro, the main content and an outro. If your podcast is an intro and an outro, it’s not really a podcast now, is it? Again, you might choose to include different segments based on the format of your podcast. Like that example of the audio drama, maybe. Maybe the audio drama has a built-in intro and it’s sort of like meshed in altogether. Sort of like my radio play VRM P presents the five people you meet in hell.

And I go into more detail about podcast formats in episode 49 of ultimate podcast [00:08:00] marketing. Which I will link in the show notes.

So your intro is going to tell new listeners generally who you are and why they should listen to your podcast. But most importantly, your podcast intro script needs to tell your listeners that your podcast is intended for them. I’m not totally sure how many people listen all the way through to an entire intro. They’ve already heard like 15 times, especially if they’re binge listening to your show. So this might be something that your current listeners or your returning listeners are going to skip through. It’s possible. That’s a possibility.

So that’s why I like to focus the intro on people who are new to the show. Again, letting them know like, this is for you, if you are this type of person. So in my intro, I help creative entrepreneurs launch and grow their podcasts as an example. So call them out by name and let them know, Hey, this podcast is for you and you’re really gonna like it. Then you’re going to get into the main content of your episode. So the primary content. Is maybe a guest interview or it’s a monologue [00:09:00] podcast format. Like what I’m doing right now, audio drama, documentary. This is the typically the longest portion of your podcast, obviously. I feel like there could be a circumstance where you would have a shorter episode than your intro and outro.

But I’m not sure who would listen to it. Maybe it’s a quote of the day, you know, that could be kind of a funny podcast, but I don’t think I would tune in every single day to listen to an intro. A 22nd quote. And then an outro. That’s just me personally, but if you try it and it works, let me know. I’d love to hear about it.

Finally your outro. So your podcast outro so important, do not skip this segment in your outro. You should direct your listeners to a specific call to action, such as rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast. Or follow me on Instagram or. Subscribe to my blog because I’m no longer on Instagram. It’s not that I’m not, I’m definitely on Instagram also. There’s no way to subscribe to my blog. I feel like that was outdated years ago.

Anyway, this segment, your outro is key to building the audience beyond your [00:10:00] podcast. So not just when they’re listening to you, but you’re inviting them to take the next step. And I’m going to talk more about that in the call to action. Step steps. Step up. To the, the Bronx, is that the title of the movie, whatever.

I’m going to talk more about the call to action in step three of this episode that you’re listening to right now. So other segments you might want to include could be like a place for plugs or promos. Like what are you offering your audience right now? That’s relevant to the content of this episode.

At the end of this episode, you’re listening to, I am going to be plugging podcast rocket because that’s coming up at the end of the month. I’m going to be launching it on April 7th. So you can listen to that as another example of structuring your podcast.

Your guests also will have things that they want to plug and offer. So give them the opportunity to do them in that segment. I usually keep plugs and promos towards the end of an episode, because it’s easier for a listener to finish listening and then go check out the offers that we’re referring to at the end of the episode.

You could also include special segments. Like [00:11:00] rapid-fire questions are fun games that you play with your guests from time to time. One of my favorites is pasta or composer on kids. Cue the music. Very cute, very fun game. I mean, who knows? You can add a random rant corner to your podcast. What’s fun about that is that I wrote random rant corner before I went on a random rant. When I started recording this.

Okay, let’s move on to step two, telling a story. The best content always tells a story. Even if you’re creating content like this episode. There’s an opportunity to weave storytelling into your episodes. So.

In sketch comedy, we use a narrative device called heightening. Basically we take an everyday situation, like how to record your first podcast. Like getting set up to record your first podcast and add a tilt or weird thing to it to make it interesting. This is also called the hook, which you may have heard of in like title writing for your blog posts. Oh, this SEO blog post stuff is killing me today.

Uh, but this is what we’re looking at. We’re looking for the hook. In order to captivate your [00:12:00] audience and get their peak, their interest peak it. So the main content of your episode is going to be structured with the hook or tilt followed by three heightening beats. A climax and then a resolution. So here’s an example. And again, I’m using kids cue the music I love this podcast is so cute.

So maybe for example, I am titling it. How to structure a podcast episode with burp sound effects. That’s my hook, the burp sound effects. That’s the hook. That’s the interesting thing that’s different from what a normal title might look like. If I was just going to call it how to structure a podcast episode.

Okay. The tilts and hook in the actual story goes like this. So when I start working with new clients, they’ll often ask me, what should I put in my podcast? And I always reply an intro, your main content and outro until one day when the hosts of kids cue the music came to me with the idea to play a game called pasta or composer at the end of every episode.

Here comes heightening, beat number one. Usually when I’m working with entrepreneurs on their podcasts, we’re focused [00:13:00] on a very streamlined type of content. So the opportunity for me to get creative with Rebecca ans are, as podcasts was very, very intriguing. And then we discovered sound effects.

the sound effects is the heightening part. Here’s heightening beat number two. Sound effects would be a great way to break up the podcast segment of kids cue the music. So I headed on over to my favorite digital asset website in vAuto elements and started searching, but there were so many different sounds. I had analysis paralysis.

Oh, no bubbling water for pasta classical music. There was just too much to choose from. The heightening part of this was that there’s too much to choose from. And my analysis paralysis, like, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Found a solution, found another thing to make it even more intense what’s happening next. Let’s find out in heightening beat number three.

But I had to persevere. For Rebecca and Zara, they depended on me, their podcast producer to find them the perfect segue to this [00:14:00] podcast segment. So I took a deep breath. Channeled my inner child. And thought, what do kids like. I asked myself this sipping on a heavily carbonated beverage. My stomach started churning. I could feel a large blast of gas erupting from my esophagus when all of a sudden.

So now I’ve left you on the hook. And now you need to know what happens next. What is the point of no return? What is the make or break moment, right? The climax. Well, if you want to hear, I’m about to tell you what the climax is. I’m sure you can probably guess a let out a massive Oh, I’ve got it. I exclaimed. To absolutely no one frantically typing into the search bar, giant burp. I knew this was the moment of truth. This was the make or break situation that all creatives look back on. And after hearing a sample of bourbon, number three,

I knew that I had found the perfect sound effect to wrap up this segment to create the perfect podcast. I [00:15:00] hit download and drag the clip into the timeline.

Oh, my gosh. We’ve just come through this magnificent journey, the hero’s journey as they call it, Where I’m the hero. But what happens after I send them the burp sound effect? This is the resolution or the fallout. This is what happens as a result of all of the heightening beats coming together into the climactic moment. So here we go.

We love it said Rebecca and an email to me after I sent it to her for approval. Oh, what a rush. I saved the day with a giant gross burp.

So that was a story for you. I hope you enjoyed Storytime today. It’s very. Very guessing it was a gas. In your episodes, you might choose to follow this type of structure for your main content, creating interview questions that lead your guests on a path towards their own point of no return or moment of truth.

You can make them the hero in the journey or in [00:16:00] episodes like this one that you’re listening to right now, you might just use storytelling as a way to emphasize a point. Like I just did here. Yeah. Okey-dokey let’s move on to step number three, always closing with a call to action. So the easiest and perhaps the most important of all of these steps is to make sure that every single episode has a specific call to action for your listeners.

This is an essential piece, and this is going to turn your listeners into loyal fans. I promise you. I like to recommend that your outro always includes a call to action, but the main content of your episode should also include a call to action. If it’s available to you within the podcast format that you’re doing.

So audio dramas might be an exception here, obviously because you’re bringing people into a particular world and you don’t really want to just show up all of a sudden and say, Hey, go subscribe. But get my free down of whatever. That’s probably not going to apply for you here. However, I will say a call to action is applicable to every single podcast or no matter what. [00:17:00] So whether it’s asking your listeners to book a call with you to learn about a product or service that you’re offering, or if it’s asking them to sign up to become a Patrion member and give you five bucks a month for the content you’re creating, no matter what.

You want your listeners to take the next step with you? Even if it’s just to rate, review and subscribe to your podcast. So let’s say you’re wrapping up an episode with a guest and you’ve given them an opportunity to plug their offers and their upcoming work. So right here before the outro, you might include your own related offer, like a freebie that’s related to the topic that you’ve discussed. A really great example of this is if you listen to episode 35 of ultimate podcast marketing and I’m, we’ll link it in the show notes, it’s called why show notes matter with Valesca Griffiths. We talk about why show notes matter. And then we created a freebie together for people to sign up and download. So by sharing a free beat with the listeners of that episode,

We also provided added value when I asked them to take the next step in this case, subscribing to my email list.

Now, if [00:18:00] you’re just starting, you’re getting everything ready to go. I also wanted to throw in this little bonus for you and that’s how to structure a podcast trailer because. Everybody should have a podcast trailer. If you’re starting now. There was a time when Apple podcasts was like, Oh, poopoo, we don’t like your trailers. And now they’re like, yes, give us the trailers. And so anyway, it caused upheaval in my podcasting life for quite some time. But.

You should definitely put together a trailer as you get ready to launch your podcast. And here’s how you’re going to do that. Trailers are going to come out before episode one goes live. They are a great tool to launch your podcast with a buttload of excitement. And they’re also an essential logistical step to be approved on Apple podcasts now, and other podcast directories. Not that it’s an essential step. Like you can launch your podcast without a trailer, but it’s a really important logistical step because Apple podcasts takes a couple of days to approve your show. And if episode one comes out on March 1st, and that’s the date that you’re submitting it [00:19:00] to Apple podcast.

You might not see it there until March 5th, right? So that’s why we use trailers. The other part of it is again, to build up that excitement and anticipation. So your podcast trailer should include your intro, a short introduction to you and your co-hosts may be what your listeners can expect. And then a few short clips from the first episode of your podcast, finally make sure you’re including your outro so that new listeners are reminded to rate, review and subscribe.

The caveat here is to not repeat the exact same information and content from the intro in this short introduction. So like we’re looking at intro main content and outro. So the actual structure of this will be intro main content clips from other episodes and then outro. So this main content, the segment is really intended for you to let your listeners in on who you are and why your podcast is for them on a deeper level. So you can share fun facts about yourself or tell your listeners about your expertise or all of your. [00:20:00] Amazing experiences. Theater trill cold performer.

I guess theatrical performers, wouldn’t say through But you could, if you were actually a theatrical performer, The added bonus here is that by sharing more about yourself right away, you’re already establishing a closer connection with your new podcast audience, which will increase that know like, and trust factor. So when your audience listens to the trailer to see if they’d like to hear more from you, they’ll get to know you and decide whether or not they like you enough to listen to more.

You’ll develop trust with them. The more you consistently share your content with them. So that is the summary, how to put a trailer together and how to put your podcast episodes together. Again, you can be totally creative with this. You can try different things at the beginning or end. See what works for your audience. See what works for you. On one of my improv podcasts, you got to laugh. We had a little segment where we would listen to audience, voice memos, and respond to them. We would ask them a [00:21:00] question every week and have people send in their.

Their voice memos. So we could talk about them. That was fun, but then we discovered that people weren’t necessarily interested in answering the questions that we were asking. Maybe it’s because we were asking questions, like what was the one time that you sat in the cafeteria and cried? Maybe not that specific, but I feel like, I guess people probably didn’t want to share that information perhaps in a public forum. Nope. Probably not.

Either way, if you want to try something new, you should definitely give it a go and see what the response is. See if people reach out to you afterwards and let you know that they like it, or if they don’t, if it’s radio silence, if your episode downloads go down, you’ll be able to see in your analytics from Spotify and sometimes from Apple podcasts, how long people are listening for like, what’s the drop-off point.

Which is also really helpful information because if they’re dropping off before a segment where you have a ranch corner about an app Sumo deal that you bought. And [00:22:00] perhaps you don’t include that segment anymore.

now that you know how to structure a podcast, I want to know what you’re going to include. Send me an [email protected] or DM me on Instagram at the underscore ultimate creative. Cause I would love to hear about your interesting podcasts segments that you want to incorporate. And if you’ve already got a podcast, I want to hear about how you incorporated them. What was the response? And of course, as I mentioned before, foreshadowing, another narrative device.

I am launching podcast rocket on April 7th. So that is coming up hot and quick. Ready to go. I’m very excited about it. You’re going to be hearing a lot more new podcasts or content on this show in the next few weeks, which I’m very excited about. In fact, I’m going to have previous podcast rockets here, Rebecca Lane, and her daughters are Elaine on my show in the next couple of weeks as well. They are the hosts of kids cue the music, and I might just see if they want to play Pasta or composer.

[00:23:00] Because it’s a really cute segment and I love the burp sound effect. I’m not going to lie. It’s that was a true story. I told you. Very true. Very dramatic, but it was still true. Anyway, you’re going to hear about how Rebecca started putting together her podcast through podcast, rocket and her experience there, and all of the amazing success that she’s seen since then. And I will hint it does include a New York times article, which is very, very cool. Anyway, if you want to sign up for that, get on the waitlist. There will be special bonuses for those of you on the waitlist. Head over to the ultimate creative.com/podcast-rocket. And.

I look forward to helping you want your podcast in April. All right. Bye.