Whether it's a profession or a paid hobby, podcast hosts are always keen to monetize their passion whether that's through ads, guest spots, or podcast merch.
But all of these doors will be closed to you without a good podcast media kit. Without a well-crafted media kit, you're not going to put your best foot forward with potential advertisers, guests, or merchandising partners.
In this post, we'll look at what a media kit is, how to put one together, and how to use it to make the connections you need to grow your podcasting business.
What is a podcast media kit?
Your podcast media kit is a handy little package telling potential advertisers everything they could think to ask about your podcast, from listener stats, to episode highlights, to sponsorship details.
A well-structured media kit should be like your podcast’s resume. It shows advertisers and other potential collaborators what you bring to the table, gives them an idea of your content, and tells them everything they could want to know about your audience.
They might be interested in buying an ad slot, getting their client to talk on your show, or supporting you with your podcast merch. All of this will help them make a decision about whether or not it makes sense to work with you.
A podcast media kit is slightly different from a press kit. The press kit is a text-heavy package specifically for journalists. It might include a press release, detailed information about the podcast, and biographies of the key players.
Your podcast's media kit is different. It should be a media-rich document with photos, infographics, links, and even videos. The intended audience is also more varied. It could be anyone from PR representatives to podcast merch manufacturers.
4 steps to create your podcast media kit
1. Gather information
To put together your media kit, you'll need to gather together all the information you need, using various data collection methods to get qualitative and quantitative info. That will include items like…
– Your podcast's title, links to your pages on all platforms, and the release schedule
– Your podcast's pitch, as well an expanded description of your show and your audience
– Demographic information about your audience
– User reviews across platforms like Apple Podcasts, and positive social media chatter
– Biographies of your hosts and the rest of the team behind the podcast, including headshots
– Some of your most popular episodes and any notable guests
–Any monetization channels, such as subscriptions or podcast merch
2. Outline and organize
Once you have this information and data, you can start to put together your podcast media kit. Your audience are busy people, so you want a clearly structured, skimmable document. Here's how you could keep it all organized:
Cover page
If the media kit is like your podcast's resume, it should come with a cover page. This will include the name of your podcast, your logo, and any social media handles.
Introduction
Introduce your podcast's theme, format, and any unique "selling points". Talk about the hosts, their backgrounds, and what they bring to the discussion.
Audience, analytics, reach
You can start by describing the "personas" in your audience: fictional representations of the kinds of people who listen. They could be key decision-makers at tech companies or enthusiasts in a niche like tabletop games. Back that up with listener data from your website, social media, and your podcast platforms of choice.
Highlights and media coverage
Once you've talked about your reach in sheer numbers, you can add more color to it by discussing what's been popular or notable. These could be episodes that broke out of your usual audience, maybe because you had a well-known guest.
You should include any media coverage here too. This shows credibility and noteworthiness and gives the reader a bit more context on your show, your audience, and your place in the world of podcasting.
Testimonials and reviews
Include some choice quotes from your listeners and reviewers, including positive shoutouts on social media. This emphasizes how engaged people are with your show, whether they find it useful for keeping up with their industry or if they're listening to be entertained.
You can also include testimonials from sponsors and collaborators. Your media kit's audience includes potential sponsors, so you want to show that sponsors are happy with the results they get from working with you.
Monetization
If you're reaching out to potential sponsors and business partners, you've got monetization on your mind. If you're already making money from your podcast, you should discuss that here.
While you don't need to lay out all your financials, potential collaborators would appreciate an overview of your podcast's income streams. If your most engaged listeners are all paying for an extended, no-ads version of the show, that might affect the decision to sponsor. If you're doing podcast merch, it would help to lay out how much you're selling.
Podcast Merch Ideas
Podcast merch is one of the best ways to monetize a highly engaged audience. It gives your audience something tangible, and you're not interrupting the show with ads for services the listener may or may not care about. (Of course, the merch also acts as advertising in and of itself.)
Platforms like Printful and Teespring can handle everything from design, to manufacturing, to delivery. Merch can include anything from tshirts and hoodies to more impulse purchases like stickers and badges, hats, phone cases, and pop sockets.
Sponsorship and collaboration opportunities
Once you've shown how much reach you have and how engaged your fans are, you can make your podcast pitch. Here, you can outline the options available to potential sponsors or collaborators. If you've been doing this for a while, you'll know how much to charge for "products" like an ad readout on your show or a paid guest appearance.
If you can standardize these options and offer straight answers on pricing, this section will be great for readers who are well-versed in generating leads with content like guest appearances. This section should help them quickly decide whether or not it makes sense to work with you.
3. Come up with a "marketing strategy" for your media kit
Like any product, putting together a great media kit is only half the battle. Now, you need a strategy for getting it in front of the right people.
Practically, marketing is all about getting the right message, to the right person, at the right time. Your podcast media kit is the message; it should be informed in part by the audience and the strategy you're going to use to get it in front of them. So, what are your options for "selling" your media kit?
Social media outreach
Depending on your podcast's niche, great guests and collaborators might be one DM away. Reaching out to individuals on LinkedIn, Instagram, or X with a short message and a link to your media kit might do the trick. Your podcast's name might mean nothing to this person, so your message should reference review numbers or outlets you've been featured in, if possible.
Use tools like LinkedIn Premium to curate a targeted list of contacts in your sector, and use tools like Hunter.io to get their professional email addresses. An unsolicited, "cold" email can be effective as long as your pitch is truly relevant to the recipient's job and goals.
Phone calls
Cold emails won't always work, and neither will follow-up emails. If you're trying to get in touch with a potential guest's agent or PR person, their inbox is overflowing. In this case, their business phone is a good next step, and the best auto dialer software used by sales pros can help you get lots of these phone calls out in no time.
Networking
If your podcast is in a niche business sector like cloud computing, networking events and trade shows can be a great way to meet potential leads in person. You could bring a physical copy of your media kit with you, or just include a QR code to the media kit on your business card. In this case, it's important that your media kit looks good on mobile, and consider if you need it to load quickly on a poor WiFi connection. To create codes, you can use a secure code generator.
Other podcasters
If you have good relationships with other podcasters who are successfully using a media kit, you can ask them for a warm introduction to potential collaborators. You could ask them to put together an email thread where you could attach the kit or give them a shareable link to forward on to the right lead.
Agencies and networks
If you don't want to put in the legwork of tracking down publicists and content marketers every day, there are agencies that specialize in making these kinds of connections between advertisers and podcasts.
Networks like PodcastOne and AdvertiseCast offer services that range from a steady supply of warm introductions to complete management services. If you have good reach and the right audience, placing your media kit with networks like these can get your whole outreach effort taken care of for you.
4. Get out there and sell
So, you've crafted a top-notch media kit. Time to get out there and start selling your podcast and its valuable audience to potential sponsors and other partners.
Be strategic about where you’re spending your efforts. Depending on your target audience, that could be cold outreach on LinkedIn or spending time in professional spaces like LinkedIn groups or subreddits.
If you’re really stuck, you can start by searching “sponsorship opportunities for X” and go from there. One underrated method is the old-fashioned way: phoning up publicists and other advertisers, which you can speed up by lining up leads with a good power dialer.
Key takeaways
Your media kit needs to show off how valuable you are to advertisers and other marketers by demonstrating how many people listen to you, how engaged they are, and why they're relevant to advertisers. By building a good media kit in line with the outreach strategy that's right for you, you can put your best foot forward with potential advertisers, sponsors, and high-profile guests.
