‘Bitesize’ Podcast episodes, should you do them?
We’ve been noticing a recent trend going on with some of the biggest business podcasts out there at the moment, and we’re all for them.
We’re not quite sure if they have an official name but we’re gonna go ahead and call them ‘bitesize’ episodes.
These short-form podcast episodes will usually either highlight an upcoming episode with the hosts commentary, bring back some soundbite from an older episode, or offer a shorter episode around perhaps a topic that doesn’t need a full episode.
So usually they’re not a unique episode, but more a snippet of an existing episode.
So why would I bitesize an episode and put it out?
Well think of these little guys as teasers or a taste of an episode, it’s something you can quickly listen to and it may inspire you to then listen to the full thing OR get excited about the upcoming episode.
Really it acts as a neat little promo for your episodes and from what we’ve seen it can actually help in a couple of ways.
- It’s helping podcast keep a consistent timetable of content. In turn this is essentially hacking the podcast platform algorithms and getting these channels sitting on top of the rankings.
- It’s introducing and bringing attention to episodes in a new way and attracting more listeners to episodes.
- It gives you some time to reflect on a poignant part of the podcast and give your honest thoughts.
- It potentially builds anticipation for an upcoming podcast that you want to build some hype for.
- It gives you the ability to give your sponsor some extra promotion, or discuss an upcoming campaign.
- Discuss a smaller topic that won’t go on for 30+ mins with your host.
- Bring back some fantastic nugget of info from an evergreen but older podcast episode.
I think TikTok has shown us that smaller accessible pieces of content are the direction the consumer generation is going. And I think these little bitesize snippets perfectly encapsulate that.
Are you able to distill one of your episodes into the best 6 minutes to entice a listener to download your episode?
Who’s doing this then?
Diary of a CEO
Steven calls his ‘Moment’s’ and they run for about 15 minutes.
Business Anchors
Called ‘Knowlton Nuggets’ and they bring back a nugget of info from one of their older clips.
The High-Performance Podcast
They call theirs BITESIZE and they run for about 5 minutes.
Jocko Podcast
Branded as ‘Underground’ snippets, a more conversational but short-form episode that run in tandem with their podcast.
So is it working?
So we had a quick DM convo with to Dan Knowlton cofounder of Knowlton & the Business Anchors podcast about the benefits of doing something like their nuggets. He had this to say:
“They’re doing really well, they get around 60% of a full show’s downloads but have helped us rank more frequently in the downloads charts. December was our biggest month ever for downloads and our ‘nuggets’ were the main thing we changed.”
So it’s potentially got some fantastic benefits such as the growth of your podcast for not very much work involved.
Great, but how do I do these snippets?
Well, it’s super simple, treat it like any other podcast. You’ll probably get your editor to find a very good soundbite from the episode (or multiple) and splice them together.
Bonus points for being authentic with this and telling a story, as this will help with hooking people in.
It may help if you add in a short intro from yourself, perhaps 30 seconds of you speaking about your experience with the guest and what listeners will get out of the episode.
Post it as you would an episode and perhaps post on a bit of a down day (Weekend / Monday).
Maybe brand it as something completely different, allowing the listener to understand which is a bitesize episode and which is a full episode.
If you’re looking to take your Podcast to the next level then get in touch. We’ve helped businesses in the B2B space maximise the potential of their podcast. Partner with us and do it right.