Are You Making These Mistakes On Your Podcast’s Calls To Action?

Most podcasters will practice the show’s questions and intro but will often get too carried away to plan for their outro. The result? A show’s closing so unplanned that sometimes cannot be solved by the most skilled editor. A solid podcast content strategy cannot leave Calls To Action (CTAs) to chance. If you’re serious about your pod, don’t make CTAs an afterthought - give yourself a quick audit, and check if you’re responsible for these snafus:

1. Not knowing what your CTA actually means

2. Giving your listeners 5 different CTAs right at the end of the episode

3. Your CTAs and your podcast’s content do not match

4. Mentioning your business in your CTA if you never talk about your business/profession

5. Not being assertive enough in your CTA

6. A rambling CTA

HOW TO FIX IT:

1. Not knowing what your CTA actually means

   • In the past I’ve worked with a lovely podcaster who once said ‘Give me a like on podcast platforms’. Unfortunately, there isn’t a podcast platform in the market that can do that (for now)- she got confused with her social media accounts and assumed her podcast account would enable her to do the same. It was an honest mistake but you’ll always want to make sure that you’re using the correct lingo and that you’re always talking from a place of certainty, particularly at the end of the show. If you’re looking to get people to Subscribe to your podcast, remember that Apple has recently updated their call-to-action to ‘follow’.

   • If you feel like you’re unsure about what CTA to use then keep a post-it note close by with your preferred CTAs and you’ll feel so much more confident! (keep reading for some inspiration)

2. Giving your listeners 5 different CTAs right at the end of the episode

   • Don’t overwhelm your listener! An easy way to close the show without having to give your listeners all types of CTAs, is to simply tell them the URL where they can find it all. Here’s an example:

     • ‘Thank you so much for listening, and to find links to everything we talked about today, including information about our guest, resources and a transcript, please visit ‘mywebsite.com/episodes/24’.

   • Also, keep 4-5 rotating calls to action that you can pick from and that are best suited for those episodes:

     • ‘Visit our website 'mywebsite.com/consulting’ to learn about how we can help you with X’ - great for solo episodes

     • ‘Get your free checklist on X from our website ‘mywebsite.com/freebie’ to start growing your business today!’ - great for solo episodes and topics that relate to that freebie or that are about self-development

     • ‘Don’t forget to screenshot this week’s episode, tag us (share the account names) and share on social media with your takeaway’ - great for interview episodes

     • ‘We have great resources on (whatever topic you covered) on our website - head on to myswebsite.com/resources’ to learn more’

     • ‘Share with us your main takeaway from this week’s episode! Email us at ‘myemail@mydomain.com’.

3. Your CTA and your podcast’s content do not match

   • If you created your pod to network, but your CTA is asking listeners to sign up to your course that has nothing to do with the topic of your podcast, then that’s going to create a disconnect and distrust between your content and your user. Your listeners are smart - don’t try to outsmart them. Either change your CTA or update your podcast’s strategy to match your goal.

   • Calls to Action are suggested actions to the user, so why would you do whatever everyone else is doing instead of creating one that is meeting your needs? A CTA exists because you have an ask for your listener - why ask your listener to follow you on podcast platforms if your goal is to actually grow your email list? Give them a reason to sign-up by offering a freebie or exclusive content.

   • It’s important that you plan your episode prior to recording - why? If you take just 15 minutes to plan the topic, rough outline and outro, you’ll be able to realize that you’re able to use a CTA in a creative way - instead of asking your listener to follow your podcast, why not ask them to listen to a previous episode, where you’re providing more in-depth information about that topic? That provides a breath of fresh air to the show’s closing and you’ll be able to provide EXTRA value to your listener. You can also craft an exclusive offer to your listeners, specific to that episode!

4. Mentioning your business in your CTA if you never talk about your business/profession

   • I’ve recently worked with a client on podcast strategy and one of the first things that I noticed while assessing her podcast, was a disconnect between her topic and her pre-recorded outro’s CTA. To keep her anonymity, I’ll call her Lynn. So Lynn’s podcast is about highlighting community leaders in the city she lives in - the show is all about how her guests have helped the city become an amazing place to live. Now Lynn never mentions her full-time job (she’s a successful realtor), real estate trends, or her own insights about the city on the podcast, (you could even say that the listener doesn’t even know what her job is) but the call to action refers to her business. See what I mean? Now, options here would be to either start including insight that she has on the area as part of her questions - good realtors are after all hyperlocal experts- so she can share her insight in an organic way with the listener without turning them off, and she can relate to her guest naturally too! Alternatively, she could keep talking to her guests and still focus solely on them, and update the call to action to only include information about how to apply to become a guest on the podcast or suggest a topic.

5. Not being assertive enough in your CTA

   • This is a very subtle one. I learn this one from a nonprofit’s grants officer back when I used to work in digital marketing. You want to sound confident and explain exactly to your audience what will happen during a CTA. No ‘if, perhaps, can, would’, instead replace those with ‘when, will’. So instead of saying ‘If you had a lightbulb moment during this week’s episode, I’d love to hear it! If you want to share it on social media, message me on Instagram using my handle ‘@myhandle’. This isn’t very assertive, right? We want the listener to feel like they did have a (lot) of takeaways and that they want to share what theirs is! So another way to do this in a more confident way would be ‘Now, we covered a lot of ground and I KNOW that by now you’re excited to act on all the ideas that came up during this episode - what are you committing to today? Let me know on social media, tag me at ‘@myhandle’ and I promise I’ll get back to you!’.

6. A rambling CTA

   • One of podcasters’ biggest missed opportunities is the fact that they don’t have a clear strategy to close the show and to think that they can improvise it - and more often than not they’ll sound long-winded and rambling if you didn’t set an intention to it in the beginning of the show. If you don’t SOUND confident while closing the show, how can you expect your listener to feel compelled to actually ACT on your ask? If you struggle with closing a show, keep a roster of pre-recorded outros and add those in post-production as you see fit! Alternatively, you can always do a quick pause, glance over your stock of bullet points, and read it out loud!

A CTA is just like a business meeting - if you were to leave such a meeting without both parties agreeing what the next steps are, then you’re not setting yourself up for success. Book a time with us today to help you improve your podcast’s strategy!