Let’s say you run a small business and are starting a podcast. You decide on a format and think of a list of episode ideas and potential guests—your content is essentially locked in. You think you’re ready to launch soon but haven’t considered how your podcast will sound or look. What type of thumbnail art will you use? Will you include music in your intro and outro? This is when it becomes useful to talk about branding.
Podcast branding is the practice of creating a distinct personality for your show. It’s the audio and visual identity of a podcast. From your logo and cover art to the theme music and social media presence, podcast branding can help listeners recognize your show anywhere it appears.
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What does podcast branding encompass?
Branding your podcast involves defining the following aspects of your show:
- Values. The values underpinning your show and your promise to listeners are the foundation of your podcast’s brand. For example, will your show embody the value of journalistic rigor, promising to get to the bottom of complex stories? Will you value inclusion, promising to create space for diverse voices to share their experience?
- POV. The point of view of your show and the voice of your host(s) shape the overall branding. For example, will your host take a critical eye to their topics and use a serious tone with guests or bring an upbeat voice and entertaining banter?
- Visual identity. The visual identity of your show includes color palette, typography, logo, and use of imagery.
If your podcast ultimately serves as a marketing channel for your core business, your show’s brand should feel synergistic with your business’s brand. It can have its own nuance and personality, but it should align with your core brand values and support your brand promise to customers.
Your podcast’s brand will come to life across all of your audio and visual touchpoints, including your intro music, the content of the show itself, your cover art, and your supporting visual assets.
How to develop a brand for your podcast
- Define your target audience
- Develop a visual language
- Create consistent audio branding
- Leverage social media platforms
- Study analytics
Here’s what you need to consider when cultivating a brand strategy for your podcast:
Define your target audience
The brand marketing strategy you create for your podcast starts with understanding your target audience. Who are they, in terms of age, location, profession, and more? What do they care about? What beliefs do they hold? What values do they share with your brand? Outline listener personas—representations of your ideal listener. If you run a business and have already created buyer personas for your business, you can leverage those here.
Develop a visual language
Your logo, cover and thumbnail art, podcast homepage, and other assets should be eye-catching but easy to read. All of your elements should be used consistently across channels. If your podcast is a marketing channel, consider how its visual identity will tie into your core business’s branding.
Your podcast cover art is especially important, since it will appear on podcast directories like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. When it comes to cover art, you can take a small, medium, or large approach in terms of effort:
- Small effort. You can simply use your logo as your cover art.
- Medium effort. You can treat your cover art like album art, with eye-catching colors or imagery, but keep the cover art the same for every episode.
- Large effort. You can develop custom art for every episode, corresponding with the content. If you opt for this option, make sure the style of imagery stays relatively consistent. You might find inspiration in cover art from the show Criminal, which includes a pen-and-ink illustration for each episode, and Twenty Thousand Hertz, which uses a consistent digital illustration style featuring bright colors. Though the content changes in each episode, every piece of episode artwork is in the same style, so it’s quickly recognizable.
Create consistent audio branding
Starting a podcast means developing a literal brand voice. Your brand’s sonic identity, or audio brand, sets the tone through music, the host’s voice, sound effects, and ambient noise.
For example, WNYC’s On The Media—a podcast that investigates the relationship between journalism and current events—uses a fun, jazzy intro song that evokes old-school public radio shows. The host’s voices are warm but authoritative, making the show’s audio brand straightforward and approachable. On the other hand, Spooked, which tells modern-day ghost stories, features a dramatic and stylized voice. The moody, dark music and sound effects make it feel as though you’re hearing a ghost story around a campfire.
Leverage social media platforms
With millions of podcasts out there, the sheer number of options can be overwhelming to listeners. And if you’re just starting out, podcast platform algorithms (which can introduce your podcast to new audience members) may not be in your favor.
To help new listeners find your show, invest in podcast marketing—particularly social media. This can mean creating profiles on popular platforms like TikTok or Instagram, posting weekly on the same day to build anticipation, paying to promote your posts or run ads, and sharing clips that tease a shocking moment on your feed.
Your podcast’s social media profiles and posts should match your overall brand identity. Though the format and approach may differ among platforms, it’s important to create consistency in your social media clips, visual brand, and tone so your show’s identity is always identifiable.
Study analytics
If you don’t know how your audience listens to podcasts, it’ll be hard to grow your audience. Podcast apps’ built-in analytics can tell you how they listen to your content and how they find it. For example, Spotify provides data on how listeners found you, whether through the home page, search, or other features.
You can also post surveys on social media and encourage your followers to provide details on what search engines they use to find new shows, what podcast apps they use, and what kinds of social media platforms they’re on so you can build audience engagement where they already are. It will be easier to increase your podcast's reach if you carve out a space where potential listeners spend their time.
Podcast branding FAQ
How do you brand a podcast?
Establish your own brand identity through a distinct voice, niche, and visual identity. Sonically, a consistent tone of voice and sound effects can help audiences recognize your podcast.
Should I trademark my podcast logo?
In the United States, you can trademark your podcast logo (provided it’s unique). This is a step you can take to protect your brand, although it may not be necessary for smaller podcasts with minimal income. Before embarking on this process, consider whether you’ll need a lawyer, how long it’ll take (12 to 18 months), and the application fees (it can be a few hundred dollars).
What is the difference between podcast branding and branded podcasts?
Podcast branding is the process of developing a brand identity for your podcast through logos and a visual style. A branded podcast, on the other hand, is a type of podcast that a brand creates or sponsors as a form of advertising.
