You’ve scripted your podcast, and you’re excited about the quality of content to come. Now you’re wondering what to do at the end of a podcast.
Do you say “bye”? Do you play some fade out music and turn off your mic?
You’ll want to assume that if your listener has stayed, listening to your episode to the end, they probably enjoyed what they heard. And you don’t want to ruin that with a terrible ending.
The ending of a podcast is the last impression you’ll leave your listener.
So, what makes a good ending? Let’s get right to it.
Summary of Key Takeaways
Key takeaways are like your “30-second” elevator speech of value.
Your listeners might forget the valuable content you’d discussed toward the beginning or middle of the episode. This wrap-up would be an excellent time to remind your listeners why they stayed until the end with the most critical and interesting points.
It might also be the case that some listeners scrolled through toward the end of the episode to determine whether your podcast is of any interest. A concise and intriguing summary may interest these “skippers” in listening to the entire podcast while retaining them for future episodes.
In either case, you will want to reinforce the points of interest that caused your listener to stay.
Call to Action (CTA)
Your listener stayed with you until the end, consider asking them for a commitment in action. CTA can mean several different things, which are listed below.
But remember, you should make this action as simple as possible and don’t overburden your listeners with too many tasks.
- Visit your page: Ask your listeners to visit your website for added value such as
- Blogs of Interest
- Bloopers in edits
- Additional information
- Meeting the interviewee
- References
- Joining your community: Ask your listeners to join your community
- Blog
- Forums
- Social media groups
- Supporting your podcast: Ask your listeners to support your podcast through any of the following actions:
- Subscribing to your podcast
- Sharing your podcast
- Subscribing to blogs/emails
- Donating to your podcast or project of interest
- Rating and reviewing your podcast
In today’s social media saturation, people tend to see social validation as a sign of quality and acceptance. Your call to action can help make this possible.
Your call to action is a way of growing your list of followers to reach more listeners. This call to action hopefully engages your listeners with your community and podcast.
If you call your listeners to action, make sure you offer them value if and when they do. You’ll lose their interest pretty quickly if your call to action leads them to some disappointing result.
“Thanks” and incentive
Of course, thank your listeners for their time and tuning into your podcast. Of all the podcasts out there, your listeners chose to listen to yours. Make them feel appreciated. Especially if you are calling them to action.
To keep your listeners intrigued in the next episode, you can lure them with an incentive to stay. Incentives often come in the form of a reveal or the next top topic of interest.
Tell your listeners why they should come back for the next episode. What will you be offering them?
Never forget to thank all parties that contributed to your podcast/episode. Just as you appreciate your listener for their time, you want to thank your contributors for making your podcast possible.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is to communicate sincerely through the ending of your podcast. Your audience listened because they enjoyed your content, they wouldn’t want to feel like they’re listening to a pushy salesperson at the end of your episode.