So you’ve decided to make your first audiogram to promote your podcast. We think that’s an amazing idea—and you’ve definitely come to the right place—that’s what we do!
While there are nearly endless combinations of your audio content and Headliner features, we think it’s important to start simple as you learn your way around the editor and become familiar with all of your options.
In this post, we’re getting back to basics and offering a few tips to ensure your first audiogram video is a success.
1. Start with the Audiogram Wizard
If this is your first time creating an audiogram (or one of the first times), the Audiogram Wizard is a perfect place to start. The wizard walks you through each step of the creation process, ensuring you end up with a perfect piece of dynamic content to promote your audio.
Using the wizard, you have the option to upload a file or search for your podcast by name, RSS feed, or Descript link. We’ll even pull in your podcast artwork for you if you want to incorporate it into your video.
2. Select the right clip
Choosing the right clip of your podcast for your audiogram will likely depend on your show’s format and topic. If you have a guest(s), you’ll likely want to create an audiogram featuring them, as they will are the highlight of your episode.
Depending on the tone of your podcast or topic of that particular episode, something hilarious, poignant, or a cliffhanger to draw in the listener would work well.
In the end, you’re choosing a sound bite. Think of it as a movie trailer—what’s the hook of your show that will make someone take the action of finding and listening to your episode.
Clip Length
Clip length is also important to think about as different social platforms have different limitations. The editor has a helpful clip selection tool to ensure your clip is the perfect length for your intended social platform.
Just hover over the duration time box at the bottom-right of your audio file, and a pop-up will appear showing clip maximums for different social channels. Make your choice, and the clip length (blue highlighted box along the audio clip) will shorten to match your chosen channel.
Beginner tip: keep your clip short – 30-seconds or less. While you’re learning the ropes of the editor, using a shorter clip will be more managable.
3. Try out a template
Templates offer a lot of bang for your buck. They use a lot of eye-catching movement and color to attract the eye of your potential listener. They’re also built to incorporate your podcast artwork (or any image) seamlessly to ensure it’s personalized for your show.
Pro tip: if you choose to create your own creative (rather than use a Headliner template), you can also save your creation as a template that you can use every time a new episode comes out. Saving your designs as templates will save you time in the future and ensure the consistency of your audiograms.
Read More: creating your own templates.
Here’s the confetti template in action promoting The Podcast Junkies episode with guest Danielle Desir, a travel finance strategist, and host of her own podcast The Thought Card.
4. Use a waveform (duh!)
Waveforms make the audiogram world go ’round. These eye-catching patterns are one of the most powerful ways to indicate audio is playing when sound is turned off. And this is important as upwards of 85% of Facebook video is consumed with no sound.
Even with sound off, for the majority of viewers (unless they disabled the function or are using Instagram on desktop) video will autoplay on social media. Meaning, your video that includes a waveform will instantly cue them that they may want to turn the volume on.
Read More: 5 Most Popular Waveform Patterns Used in Headliner
Or, if you’re ready for a slightly more advanced feature of Headliner, you could try out the transcription feature and add captions to your video to make them 100% consumable with no sound.
The transcription feature will need to be turned on during step two: Clip Selection. The captions created should be reviewed and edited in the advanced editor before exporting for best results.
Remember, Free users have 10 minutes of transcription a month. Make sure you’ve chosen the clip you want to publish before turning on transcription. Or, get unlimited transcription by upgrading to Basic or Pro!
5. Name your video
This tip is for your sanity. While this may only be your first (or one of your first) videos, eventually you will have created a large catalog. Naming your video well before you export it will save you time and frustration in the future if you ever need to find it or share it again.
In the future, you may want to find an older video as it performed well and you’d like to replicate it for an upcoming episode. Just do yourself a favor and give them all good names…or you’ll end up with a projects list that looks like the one below. Not very helpful, right? Yes, that’s my own project list from late last year. I’ve learned my lesson.
6. Share your audiogram
That’s’ the whole point, right? Share your audiogram everywhere you have a social media presence. Your video will work two-fold, by getting the attention of your current listeners letting them know you’ve released a new episode, and attract new listeners to your show.
3 Ways to Access and Download Your Exported Video
There are three ways to post your video to social media.
- Access your projects through our mobile app, available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.
- Access your project from your email. When you export a video, you’ll receive an email when your project has finished processing.
- Access your video from the projects tab of the editor.
Step by step instructions: How To Access and Download Your Exported Video
Bonus: Create a hashtag for your podcast
You’ve created your audiogram to share it on social media, and social channels use hashtags to group conversations and topics. Hint, hint.
Adding hashtags to your posts with your audiogram is like adding a little fuel to your fire. Obviously, if your podcast is brand new, only adding your podcast-specific tag won’t get you very far. But you’re planning for the future.
Add your podcast’s hashtag as well as a few relevant, topical, or timely hashtags. For example, The Headliner Podcast could use #headlinerpod #podcastmarketing #contentmarketing
And finally, the best tip we can offer is just to get started. Create a simple video and then add more content and use more features as you go.
