Top Ways to Get Your Podcast Sponsored

As a podcast creator, you already know the costs associated with producing a high-quality podcast can add up, if not right away, then certainly over time. To cut down or eliminate costs, you may choose to seek out sponsors. Just like in traditional radio programming, getting sponsors is effective in accomplishing financing goals for podcasts. Usually, in return for financing your podcasting efforts, sponsors will require you to endorse their products or services on your show or provide them with advertisement spots. Sometimes broadcasting a simple sponsorship notice is enough. It all depends on the deal you make with your sponsors what kind of advertising you'll need to do for your sponsors. First Impressions Matter Make sure you are fully prepared before you start seeking out sponsors for your podcast. Take some time and create a list of tasks you should perform before expecting someone to shell out their hard-earned money to support your show. Is your website up-to-date and functioning properly? If you don't have a webpage discussing your show, make one. Furthermore, update your archives and ensure past shows are available for downloading. Once you feel everything is in good shape, it's time to put together a report about you and your podcast. The goal of this report is to make it easy for potential sponsors to find out whatever they need to know about you and your podcast in a single, concise resource. Think of obtaining a sponsor as being very similar to making a sale. Your ultimate goal is essentially to sell your podcast. So other than the obvious information like genre and topics covered, let the potential sponsor know important details such as how many listeners the show receives (with concrete, actual data such as subscription or download statistics), what demographic they fall into (age, gender, profession, etc), and whether or not you currently have any other advertisers or sponsors for the show. Imagine yourself in the sponsor's position. If you were going to sponsor a podcast, what kind of information would you want to know beforehand? Make a list of all those possible questions and answer them to the best of your ability in your report. Where to Look for Sponsors There are a number of services that can connect podcast producers with potential advertisers and sponsors. Some of these services include Podtrac and Radiotail. However, often the best way to find sponsors that might not even know about those services (or even be actively seeking out a podcast to sponsor) is to simply research other business owners that target the same market as you do. They could be bloggers, service providers, or even local small businesses. Contacting these kinds of organizations can often yield more stable and lucrative sponsorship deals.