Did you know it can take up to 9 days for your podcast to show up on podcast players? That’s why I recommend a 2 week lead time with my Podcast Launch VIP days! In today’s podcast episode, I’m breaking down exactly how long you should start planning ahead for your podcast launch!
Clocking In with Haylee Gaffin is produced by Gaffin Creative, a podcast production company for creative entrepreneurs. Learn more about our services at Gaffincreative.com, plus you’ll also find resources, show notes, and more for the Clocking In Podcast.
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A couple of weeks ago, I dropped a question box over on Instagram and I asked the question, what questions do you have about podcasting? I didn’t give you any guidelines. I just let you freeform into the question box. And Did y’all come to me with some good ones? Well, over the course of the next four weeks, throughout April, we are going to be answering some of those questions. Because you all asked me about planning, launching strategy and growth, which throughout the weeks in April, we’re going to actually be hitting on each of those.
So the very first question I want to touch on is, how early should I start planning my podcast launch? I cannot wait to dive into this one.
How early should I start planning my podcast launch?
I’m so glad you asked this question because I have a two part answer for you.
Give Yourself Two Weeks
The first part of it is a timeline is subjective, and you can plan as far in advance as you want. But let’s be realistic about this. We are all busy, we all get very easily distracted and long timelines do not necessarily make for an easy launch. So what I recommend to most of my clients is two weeks. Two weeks with you is not actually two weeks with you, I need one day with you. And then we have a lot to do in between that day and your actual launch day.
So what does this look like? I used to give all of my clients a six week timeline for their podcast launch over the course of six weeks. We would work on small pieces of their podcasts, get it all done, and have it launched at the end of the six weeks. But the problem with this is people get distracted, timelines alter, people get busy.
The other thing that time does is it allows for you to get in your head. So what I have done is I’ve taken all of the nerves and pushed them aside, I have helped my clients to get it done in one day. We are planning all of their podcasts, getting their intro outro trailer recorded, getting their description written, getting everything planned out, whether it’s graphics, or strategy or content or episodes, we’re getting all of that done in one single day.
We have moved to a VIP day structure for our podcast launches, with the expectation that you will launch about two weeks after that VIP day. Sometimes it’s longer. I have clients that launch two weeks after their VIP day. And then I also have clients that launch six months after their VIP day.
The reason they do that is because they are either batching ahead or they are planning quarters in advance, which I love.
Submitting Your Podcast RSS Feed
The other reason that I actually implement a two week timeline for your podcast after your VIP day is because we are submitting your podcasts on your VIP day. I’m taking your RSS feed and putting it out on all podcast players. The reason I do two weeks or about two weeks before is because it can take nine days for some podcast players to approve your podcast. I have seen a huge shift in this since 2021. During 2020, some podcasts were taking 10,11, 12 days to get approved. I saw some podcasts in Facebook groups that were taking over a month to get approved. But thankfully, that process with Apple specifically has now changed. It’s not nearly that long. But you always want to give yourself a little bit of buffer room. So for the most part, I’m seeing podcasts show up on podcast players within a day or two days. But sometimes it does take a little longer and you want to give yourself that extra time. Along with that you want to implement your podcast launch marketing plan. Now, I personally provide my clients with a 14 day launch marketing plan guide that they can take and customize to their own podcast and their own audience and whatever their own strategy is. I also sell this in my shop if you’re not a launch client of mine, so you can get access to this over at Gaffincreative.com/shop.
Mentioned in this episode:
Podcast Launch Marketing Guide: https://gaffincreative.com/product/podcast-launch-marketing-guide/
Connect with Haylee:
Check the Show Notes:
How early should I start planning my podcast launch? (2:00)
Subjective Timeline (2:05)
VIP Days (3:30)
Submitting Your Podcast (4:45)
Review the Transcript:
A couple of weeks ago, I dropped a question box over on Instagram and I asked the question, what questions do you have about podcasting? I didn’t give you any guidelines. I just let you freeform into the question box. And Did y’all come at me with some good ones? Well, over the course of the next four weeks, throughout April, we are going to be answering some of those questions. Because you all asked me about planning, launching strategy and growth, which throughout the weeks in April, we’re going to actually be hitting on each of those. So the very first question I want to touch on is, how early should I start planning my podcast launch? I cannot wait to dive into this one. Hey, y’all, welcome to the clocking in Podcast, the podcast for podcasters entrepreneurs and professionals making their way in the working world while building their own personal brand in the podcasting industry. I’m your host Haylee Gaffin, owner of Gaffin creative a podcast production company for creative entrepreneurs. If you’re a podcaster, or even just dreaming about launching your own podcast someday, this show was built to help you merge your love of conversation, education and business, you can find resources shownotes and more for the clocking in podcast at Gaffin creative.com. Today’s episode is brought to you by Mike check society, a community that was built for podcasters who are looking to take their podcast from good to great, scale your podcasts, improve your processes and connect with your listeners through our educational trainings, our private members only community and our monthly calls. If you’re ready to join us, you can head over to Mic check society.com and enroll today. And you can get $10 off per month with the code podcast. Now let’s clock in and get to work. All right, let’s repeat that question one more time.
How early? Should I start planning my podcast launch? I’m so glad you asked this question because I have a two part answer for you. The first part of it is a timeline is subjective, and you can plan as far in advance as you want. But let’s be realistic about this. We are all busy, we all get very easily distracted and long timelines do not necessarily make for an easy launch. So what I recommend to most of my clients is two weeks, I need two weeks with you. And two weeks with you is not actually two weeks with you it is I need one day with you. And then we have a lot to do in between that day and your actual launch day. So what does this look like? Well, I used to give all of my clients a six week timeline for their podcast launch over the course of six weeks, we would work on small pieces of their podcasts, get it all done, and have it launched at the end of the six weeks. But the problem with this is, like I said, people get distracted timelines alter people get busy. The other thing that time does is it allows for you to get in your head. So what I have done is I’ve taken all of the nerves and set them aside, push them aside, and I have helped my clients to get it done in one day, we are planning all of their podcasts getting their intro outro trailer recorded, getting their description written, getting everything planned out, whether it’s graphics, or strategy or content or episodes, we’re getting all of that done in one single day. You heard that right. We have moved to a VIP day structure for our podcast launches, with the expectation that you will launch. About two weeks after that VIP day. Sometimes it’s longer. I have clients that launch two weeks after their VIP day. And then I also have clients that launch six months after their VIP day. And the reason they do that is because they are either batching ahead or they are planning quarters in advance, which I love. Can I be that person? I’m not quite sure. I would love to get there to be the person that plans that far in advance. But I’m not, that’s just not me. So I do offer these VIP days to have a quick turnaround time for your podcast. But also like when you were in the moment and in the planning phase and you’re just so focused on your podcast, you can get so much done, because I can spend less time in a VIP day, but get more done than I did on my six week timelines for podcast launches. Now outside of the timeline just being important for focus. The other reason that I actually implement a two week timeline for your podcast after your VIP day is because we are submitting your podcasts on your VIP day and what Does that mean? Well, it means I’m taking your RSS feed and putting it out on all podcast players. Now, I do want to highlight something. The reason I do two weeks or about two weeks before is because it can take nine days for some podcast players to approve your podcast. I have seen a huge shift in this since like 2021. Because during 2020, some podcasts were taking 1011 12 days to get approved. I saw some podcasts in Facebook groups that literally were taking over a month to get approved. And it was so scary for a lot of producers who were like, I promise this and it’s not delivering it’s I can’t do anything about it. But thankfully, that process with Apple specifically has now changed. It’s not nearly that long. But you always want to give yourself a little bit of buffer room. So for the most part, I’m seeing podcasts show up on podcast player within a day or two days. But sometimes it does take a little longer and you want to give yourself that extra time. Along with that you want to implement your podcast launch marketing plan. Now I personally provide my clients with a 14 day launch marketing plan guide that they can take and customize to their own podcast and their own audience and whatever their own strategy is. I also sell this in my shop if you’re not a launch client of mine, so you can get access to this over at Gaffin creative.com Ford slash shop. It’s just the launch marketing plan. And we will link to that in the show notes of today’s episode. But what this does is it walks you through like how to invite people to join your launch team, how to tell your friends and family about it before your podcast officially launches, so that they can start leaving ratings and reviews for you so that when you do launch, you already have content there. Now some of those players do require you to listen to so many episodes before you can rate like Spotify is that way.
But if you have your trailer up, and you are sending out the apple link, or some of the other podcasts that allow you to rate you can ask friends, family launch teams colleagues to go and write in review, and download those episodes share about them on launch day. But you have to give them preparation for that you have to let them know what’s coming. And that’s why I recommend a two week timeline for your podcast launch. Now, keeping that in mind, in order to get on the books of a Podcast Producer or podcast launch strategist like myself, you might want to plan a little further in advance to say like, Okay, I’m gonna launch next month, but I need to reach out to so and so to see if they have availability because I personally only take two launch clients a month, sometimes less than that, depending on the season, and where we are in our business. But if you are planning this ahead of time, what is the minimum amount of time I need to give myself I highly recommend two weeks, at least and that is two weeks from I’m planning my podcast, I’m doing all the work. And I am submitting my podcasts and trailers and two weeks from there as when I’m launching or like I said at least nine days. I really hope this helped answer your question. And if you have any more questions, feel free to drop them to me over on Instagram at Haylee Gaffin I would love to answer these either my DMs or create a whole podcast episode about it. So make sure you connect with me over on Instagram at Haylee Gaffin. And if you enjoyed this episode, would you mind screenshotting it and sharing it to your Instagram stories and tagging me? I absolutely love seeing when y’all enjoy our episodes and get something out of it. Whether you’re planning for a podcast, you launched a podcast and you’re like, Oh yes, I I really resonated with this episode. I wish I had had this. Because that’s what I’m trying to create. I want to create the content I wish I had either when I was starting my podcast business or what other people wish they had when they were doing it themselves. Or maybe they’re looking for support and they just don’t know that there are people out there who will help them launch podcasts because we do exist. And I love absolutely love helping people launch and grow their podcasts. So if you have launched your podcasts and you want more tips like this, I would love to see you inside of my check society. You can grab $10 off per month with the code podcast over at Mic check society.com I’ll talk to you soon.
Thank you so much for listening to clocking in with Haylee Gaffin for resources mentioned in today’s episode head to Gaffin creative.com. If you’re a podcast or looking for community that will help you improve your podcast. Make sure you check out my check society, our community for podcasters who are looking to take their podcast from good to great enroll today at Mic check society.com and use code podcast for 10 dollars off per month. If you love this episode, I’d be honored if you’d leave me a review in the Apple podcast app. Until next time, I’m your host Haylee Gaffin clocking out
