How to start a podcast episode

Indeed, there are many ways to get your podcast episodes started. Some podcasts start with an ad. Others start with music and a produced intro. Some have a quick overview or a quote from the show, like this.

Of course, at some point, the host has to say something. I’ve seen several different ways to get that going. Some hosts say, “hey guys,” or “hello,” or “I’m Christoph Trappe, and this is the Business Storytelling Podcast.”

I find “hey, guys” too casual. And my show has a pretty casual style. My shows start with a produced opening, then I welcome and address the audience.

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Here’s a podcast intro script that I use:

“Hello, business storytellers. I am Christoph Trappe, and today’s show is about …”

Then I give my audience and guest a fist bump – which works better on video than the audio versions, Here’s an example of how the fist bump looks:

I created my podcast intro in anchor.fm and then used Canva to create the video version. My wife did the voiceover.

Addressing the audience

Addressing the audience in your podcast intro has a couple of benefits:

• The people on the show remember who the audience is and hopefully use that information to shape their information toward the audience’s interest. Keeping the audience top of mind is certainly a best practice and can help everyone.
• It gives new listeners an idea if the show is for them. If a podcast host says, “hello accountants…” I know pretty quickly that the podcast is not for me.

This is not as black-and-white as it sounds because many topics are for several audiences. For example, in theory can be for anyone who creates content publicly and internally. That could include:

• Marketers
• Communication professionals
• Internal communicators
• Public relations practitioners
• Journalists who are looking for new tools and strategies
• Executives who are looking for strategic and implementation help

There are probably other subgroups that I could add, as you might imagine, but I cannot say all those potential audiences at the beginning of each show. So I pick the most prevalent ones and kind of group everyone into the term business storyteller.

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Does a good podcast intro help with performance?

Of course, measuring every little thing is hard, and this is definitely in that category. Does this kind of opening drive higher content performance? A typical marketing strategy would suggest that us knowing who we are creating the podcast for could have a long-term effect on its performance.

Also, remember that more companies are jumping into the podcast game, and production value will become more important the more podcasts are out there. Just based on that alone, I think it is essential to have a good podcast intro and a well-produced show.