What Are the Parts of a Podcast Episode?

A podcast for your business needs a thoughtful structure – one that helps you acheve your specific goals as efficiently as possible.  This means haveing a combination of different podcast episode parts that is easy to produce, and easy to listen to.

A good podcast episode has anatomy, and understanding the different options for parts can help you to make the best possible choices for your business.

At a very high level a podcast will contain:

1. Introductory Content (usually called the Intro)
2. Body Content
3. Closing Content (usually called the Outro)

Each of these main sections can be composed of one or more pieces, and together they make up what we call Standard Podcast Parts. Some pieces are necessary others are just nice to have, and some you may not want to use, but if you have all or most of them in your show, then your podcast is going to sound like a podcast.

Everything else is optional, and you can take it or leave it depending on your specific goals for your show. 

Standard Podcast Episode Parts

Hook, Sizzle Clip, Cold Open

This is what plays before a produced intro. This can be a clip from the audio that comes later, or you can write and record something yourself to open the show, maybe asking the question the episode will answer or giving your own strong take that will be backed up by later content. This isn’t strictly required in a podcast, but it is good practice – there is a lot of competition for podcasts out there, and it’s really easy for someone to click over to the next one if the first 30 seconds aren’t that interesting, unless they already really know you and like you (which, to be fair, your loyal listeners will!)

Your hook/sizzle clip/cold open should be: 45 seconds or less.

Produced Intro

Your Produced Intro is a piece of audio branding that usually has theme music and a voice-over – it will be the same for every episode. It should also be short and explain briefly what the show is, why it’s valuable, and who it’s for. You might also want to introduce yourself as the host – or have your voice actor do so! (Alternatively, your personal introduction can be in your Welcome below) A lot of shows choose to have the music slowly fade out during the welcome to the episode, which sounds lovely.

Some hosts also choose to forgo the pre-produced element and have the same basic intro format they do live when recording their calls and laying the music underneath it. This gives them a little flexibility to shake up the verbiage while maintaining consistency in the format and branding. It’s your choice! The key reason to have a produced intro is to sound professional while creating a clear, repeatable signal that “the show is beginning now! The good stuff is almost here!”

Your produced intro should be: 30 seconds or less, set to background music, and give a clear message: This podcast is going to do XYZ, and it’s for this particular type of person.

Welcome

After the Produced Intro, it is time for you to personally welcome your listeners and your guest, if you have one, to the show. This can be a good opportunity to greet your audience, introduce yourself and the show if you forgo the produced intro, provide any news or updates your community might be interested in, banter a little if you have a co-host – anything that isn’t technically the main body content. This is also an opportunity to introduce your guest, if you prefer to handle the “who this person is and why they matter” bit by yourself, which can often be better than having guests share their own bios.

Your welcome should be: About 45-75 seconds long, clear and warm. You don’t want to go on and on with who you are and what you’re doing, but you do want to keep in mind that some listeners will be new, and they need a little information about what they’re in for. It can be an extension of the produced intro but a little more personal.

Sometimes the question: “Do I need to introduce myself and the show every episode?” comes up. The answer is yes – new listeners need an orientation to what is going on. It should be short however, so it’s not boring for old listeners.

Everything I’ve talked about so far makes up the TOP of your show – and you have plenty of wiggle room! If you want your intro and welcome to take the place of the hook, then just transition with a little music – go for it! If you want to start with a sizzle clip, then have music play over your welcome and save the VO for the end right before you start the body content – you can do that, too! You’re the boss of your show intro. 😉 A key thing to remember, however, is that you do want to let your listener go from pressing play to hearing interesting, meaty content within about 45 to 90 seconds, two minutes on the outside.

Main Body Content

This is the meat of your show. It can be an interview (and it will be if you want to get referrals from your podcast!), it can be a solo, it can be a panel discussion – it can be whatever you want, but it’s going to take up most of the time, and it’s going to deliver most of the value. There are segments you can add to the main body content, and you might want to include advertisements in it, which I’ll be getting to in the Optional Elements section.

Your body content should be: Whatever you like! Your show can be as long or as short as makes sense for your content and your audience, and it can be composed of anything we’ve talked about so far in this training series. If you want to go by the data, in the State of Business Podcasting Report over the last 4 years, we’ve found that the average business podcast is about 44 minutes long, and that result has been very consistent over time – but that isn’t a hard and fast rule. Many popular shows are longer or shorter.

Closing

A closing, goodbye, or soft call to action is an optional part of the show. Some shows go from the main body of the content directly into a produced outro without a specific closing segment (like when they thank the guest, say bye, and the music plays), but if you have things that you generally like to do, like ask your audience to engage with you a certain way, or provide some final thoughts of your own, then a closing is the place to do it. It can also be fun to use this space to tease upcoming episodes and to give people an idea of what’s coming down the pipe.

If you don’t want to have a produced outro, you can play music over your closing segment and let it play for a few seconds after you finish speaking.

Your closing should be: up to a few minutes, depending on how much content you are including, and if you are using a Produced Intro as well, it should have unique content.

Produced Outro

Just like a produced Intro, this is a standard pre-produced piece that you include at the very end of each episode. This is often where you’ll hear “Leave a rating and a review!” or “Like, Share and Subscribe!” If you have a catchphrase or slogan that you regularly use, it can be included as well. The content is up to you, just make sure it is different than what you include in your Closing, if you are using one.

Your Produced Outro Should be: About 30 seconds long, set to music, and the last thing people hear in your show.

These will be the bones of your show – the frame that you can alter and enhance to meet your specific goals. If standard elements will get you to where you need to be – amazing – there’s no need to mess around with it.

From a strategic perspective, however, you might want to consider adding regular segments and different elements to your show to give you more content to easily repurpose, meet specific audience or networking objectives, or just because it’s fun.

Optional Podcast Episode Parts

Ads

Lots and lots of podcasts have ads. They can be for your own products and services, for sponsors, they can be swaps or promotional exchanges with other podcasters, or even in support of causes and charities you’re involved with.

Whatever the content of the ad is, you have to make a few decisions about it: do you want ads to be ‘baked in’ as a permanent part of the episode, or do you want them to be dynamically inserted and subject to change at a later date? (Dynamic ads are more popular – and on balance, better for you as the podcast owner. Your podcast host should let you know if they have that capability!)

For both baked-in and dynamic ads, you can have them either produced or host-read. Produced means it is recorded separately, often by the person purchasing the ad, with its own music and voicing. Host-read means you, as the host, are reading the ad. Because of the relationship you have with your audience, host-reads are more valuable.

The three main places ads tend to go are:

• Pre-roll: before the episode,
• Midroll: within the content (there can be multiple midroll placements), and
• Post-roll: after the episode.

Pre-rolls and midrolls tend to be heard the most – it’s easy to just stop listening to an episode when an ad starts a minute before the end.

You also need to plan your transitions to and from ads for both baked-in and dynamic placements. That might mean including a note in your main body content that ‘you’ll be right back!’ and then ‘back to the show!’ or some equivalent. Some people like to use transitional sounds, called stingers, instead or in addition to a verbal note.

Your ads should be: planned as a part of your show structure if you are going to have them! It takes a little extra work and a little extra communication with your production team if you have one, but it’s going to sound better if you have created space for them within your episodes. People don’t love ads, but they are expected in many podcasts.

Topical Segments

These are segments that will add some important benefit to your show, either strategic or aesthetic – and these are where you can get really, really creative. You might place them at the top of your show, immediately before or after an ad transition or before the closing of the episode. You should try to be consistent from week to week, however.

Here are some ideas:

News: What is going on in your industry? If there is often something juicy to talk about, but your main show format isn’t all news all the time, having a “what’s happening” segment can be very valuable to your regular listeners and help you establish your place as a source for news and commentary.

Q and A: This is a particularly strong strategy for audience engagement shows, but all show types can make use of them. They can be either the host reading a question and then answering it or going a little fancier and getting people to record questions that you add to the show, followed by your answer. Some entire podcasts are Q and A shows – or it’s one of two alternating formats. They are also extremely easy and effective to repurpose on your site or on social media – do them long enough, and you’ll have a veritable library of questions you don’t have to answer via email anymore.

Standard Question/Speed Round: I’ve heard these on a lot of shows, and they can be really fun – possibly as icebreakers, maybe towards the end of the main body content. A really fun strategy is to have a standard question you ask every guest so, over time, you compile an amazing list of different takes on a key issue. Repurposing gold.

Action Steps: Provide a specific action your listeners can take. This is one of my favorites as a listener, especially when I’m listening-with-intent-to-learn as opposed to listening-with-intent-to-be-entertained. Something really clear and specific that your listener can do to either get some of the benefits they have just heard about or really solidify the learning that just happened

Reviews/Recommendations: Use a little of your air time to promote others: podcasts you like, books you’re reading – and it certainly doesn’t hurt to tell them you’ve done so!

Now, with the exception of ads that are going to be dynamic (changing over time) you don’t have to record all of these bits separately! They can all be recorded AS the body content of your episode. The main reason to think about them and plan them is to provide yourself with the editorial structure and consistency to record high-quality shows quickly. It also makes it really easy to extract parts of episodes for repurposing and reusing later on.

The only thing to really keep in mind is that the more disparate pieces you have, the more effort you are going to expend fitting them all together. It can be totally worthwhile, but there is a strong argument to be made for a simple show you can create and produce quickly.

Your Topical Segments Should Be: No more than a few minutes in length and provide a clear value to your audience or to the optimization of your show for specific metrics. It’s too much work to include them just for the sake of inclusion, so make sure you go into them with a plan.

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