Sponsorship Strategies From Radio That Can Help Podcasters Who Want To Monetize featuring Steve Moynihan

Sponsorship strategies from radio--that can ultimately help podcasters who want to monetize--can help when it comes to approaching a potential new sponsor. 

Today I speak with Account Executive for Hubbard Broadcasting-Phoenix, Steve Moynihan.  Steve has extensive experience in radio industry sales since the early 2000s and also a digital media consultant.  His wisdom and experience in traditional media is like hitting the jackpot for podcasters who need answers to the countless questions about sponsorships.

There is no doubt that you will get an inside look to how radio stations acquire business for the company, but how these strategies can apply to podcasters who are constantly on the hunt to  monetize their program.  Today's episode will hopefully give you some ideas of how you can monetize your podcast.

Here's a brief breakdown of today's interview:

• What a "sponsorship" means in radio.
• The easiest way to get a sponsorship fr your podcast.
• Where sponsorships can be integrated for your program.
• Which metrics radio focus on for sponsorships and which metrics matter for podcasters.
• Steve's process for creating a proposal for a potential new sponsor.
• Why making mistakes in sponsorship deals are super valuable.

As I mentioned in today's episode, you can connect with him via LinkedIn if you have questions about sponsorships:
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn right here.

=======FULL TRANSCRIPT=======

Shannon: 

Before we get started with today's podcast, I want to take this opportunity to ask you when the last time it was that you changed out the air filter in your home. Would you believe that most people don't change out their air filters monthly, or even know that they have to change them out monthly or until they realize that something is actually wrong with their HVAC system? That's why I want to introduce to you Second Nature air filters. Now, what's so special about them? Not only are they effective in capturing the dust, pollens, the molds, the bacteria, but they also help reduce the energy usage of your HVAC system up to 15% and avoid costly repairs whenever it matters the most. But let's be real. The real reason you're not changing your air filters, duh, is because you forget half the time. You're like how I used to be. That's why I went with Second Nature air filters. Second Nature has created a subscription plan to send your home's air filters each month, right to your door, which forces you to change out your old air filters before the new one arrives, keeping your air clean and your HVAC system in working condition. I've certainly noticed that regular replacement of my home's air filters has reduced the amount of dust flying around at my place, but has also reduced how much I've been sneezing in my place. Before I was cheating on my air filter every three months and I was sneezing constantly. Now that I change out my filter monthly, I hardly ever sneeze. This is all thanks to Second Nature’s filter subscription plan and it's the one delivery that I actually look forward to every month. Get started with Second Nature air filters today with my referral link at thepodcasttherapist.com/secondnature.

Welcome back to another episode of The Podcast Therapist. I'm your host, The Shan Man, radio broadcaster, podcaster, and a podcast producer. In today's episode, we are going to be talking about monetization. Once again, this is a big, hot topic that will never go away because there are so many different layers to monetization and monetizing your podcast, but I want to try and focus on them one by one, so that you get a better understanding of where your money can be coming from. Now in today's episode, I'm going to be speaking with an account executive professional who works with Hubbard Broadcasting. His name is Steve Moynihan. Steve has been working at this game for many years. He has brokered many different deals to get sponsorships through different media sources wherever he has worked. Of course, most recently in Hubbard Broadcasting, he is continuing to bring in business, especially during COVID 19 has been a very difficult time, I'm sure, for him and everyone else who's been trying to get business, but he is still making it work and still making it happen. We don't get into that, that was a conversation that we had talked about before we started the conversation. But what we did talk about were the methods that he uses to get sponsorships for the radio station, not only just the radio station itself for 98KUPD, but also the sister stations that are included in the cluster with Hubbard Broadcasting in Phoenix, Arizona. Today we're going to be specifically talking about, of course, sponsorships. We will be talking about what a sponsorship truly means, what it means for radio and what it can mean for your podcast, and where you can integrate sponsorships for your podcast and the easiest types of sponsorships that you can get. We're going to be talking about which metrics that you should be using for sponsorships and what metrics say he looks at whenever he is selling sponsorships for radio. Then, of course, we will be talking about the process of creating a proposal. It's a very broad explanation of how we create proposals, but I'm sure you can get an idea of what you can include in your proposal when it comes down to getting a brand new client to be a sponsor of your podcast. In today's episode, I want you to listen to all the way to the end, because there is some very motivational, inspirational content, a message from Steve that I think you should hear when it comes down to monetizing your podcast. It can be a challenge, I will tell you this, but it is something that you should not give up on iIf you feel as though the content that you are creating has value.

I want to remind you that today's podcast was also recorded on video so that I could create micro content. I used StreamYard in order to do this. What is StreamYard? Basically, it is a live streaming platform that helps you create seamless live recordings of your podcast interviews that you could push to Facebook, YouTube, YouTube Live, Twitch, LinkedIn, Periscope, and most recently, I learned that you can use Amazon Live with StreamYard, which is a very cool thing. If you've never heard about Amazon Live, it's something that I think you should check out if you have a podcast where you're creating merchandise. Either way, I didn't stream to those platforms, I just recorded it so that I could use it as a micro content and break it all up. If you want to learn more about StreamYard, check out my affiliate link thepodcasttherapist.com/streamyard. 

I've had something planned for you for a really long time, Steve, because what people don't know is that whenever I see Steve in the office, I always use this voice with Steve. I always say to him, “Ladies and gentlemen, number 32, Steve Moynihan,” because I feel like you have an athlete's name.

Steve: 

I don't have the body that goes with it.

Shannon:

I got something very special planned for you because I feel as though you need a big introduction, so I'm going to give you the big introduction. This is what it is. Ladies and gentlemen, from Hubbard Broadcasting, number 32 power forward, Steve Moynihan. Then, of course, the applause after that. There's your big introduction, my friend. 

Steve: 

Awesome, thank you. Appreciate the hype up. 

Shannon:

You're welcome, man. The reason I'm bringing you on to today's podcast is because the question always comes up on my YouTube channel, on my podcast, blogs, emails, it is all about sponsorships. I don't think that podcasters understand the nature of what a sponsorship is. They think it’s just getting a client or getting someone to come in, say like, “This podcast is brought to you by Blue Apron. Blue Apron is blah-blah-blah.” But I don't think they understand the nature of what goes into grabbing a sponsorship. What I wanted to do is I wanted to bring you in and define and identify what sponsorships are for radio, how you gather sponsorships, and how they could relate over into podcasting. I want to start first with defining what you see as a definition of what a sponsorship is in radio terms. 

Steve:

Sure. When I go out and I try to get a sponsor to do something with the radio station for some program we might be doing, it's really defining what that client is trying to do to be integrated into the station to connect with the listeners. It really boils down to that. If I'm meeting with an HVAC company and they want to get their brand out there in Arizona to all the possible customers in Arizona, and we identify one of our stations as being a good fit, then we identify what elements make sense for them to be part of in a sponsorship and try to connect the dots on maybe what the station is going on. I'm not a big fan of there's like taking a template sponsorship that the station is doing and saying, “Here it is, buy it this way,” I'd like to sit down with a client and address what their challenges are, what they're trying to accomplish, and seeing if the sponsorship with that radio station makes sense, and then building out the elements of that sponsorship to give that client really what they need, then also the additional exposure with the station. We're talking kind of generic right now, but we can get more specific, but the great thing about a sponsorship is it's designed to allow you to stand out above and beyond just running regular commercials on radio stations. If we're doing a sponsorship, we have a special event coming up, or we have a special campaign we're doing on the radio station for a three month or a six week window, by associating a client with that type of sponsorship, they really get to stand out above and beyond running just 20 commercials a week. They become part of the day to day programming of the station. 

Shannon: 

Right. It's just not prerecorded commercial ads, it's almost as though you are inviting them in to the radio station to be like “part of the family” for a specific period of time. Am I wrong on that or right? 

Steve:

Yeah. No, I would say that's a great way of assessing it. You want them to feel like they're going to be associated as much as we possibly can with the station during that time period of whatever the sponsorship is. Then they feel like they become a true partner and when it works out—getting a little ahead of ourselves—but when it works out, then they're our client that lasts for years. There's a reason why big companies sponsor things for years and years and there’s a reason why, I believe, Pepsi is the half-time sponsor of the Super Bowl. They've done it for years, even though they're sitting out doing a lot of major commercials with the Super Bowl this year, they're still underwriting the half-time. When you find a sponsorship that makes sense for a client and it works and they can receive a ton of branding out of it, a ton of engagement, and feel like they're generating business off it, then it's a win-win for everybody. 

Shannon:

Right. Let's back up real quick, can you explain what underwriting is just for people who don't understand in sales terms what that means? Whenever you say Pepsi is underwriting, but they're not running commercials or anything like that. 

Steve:

They're taking the marketing real estate space and exclusively getting that right to it. If it's something like underwriting the half-time of the Super Bowl, or becoming a studio sponsorship of a radio station, that sponsor is for them and only them and they stand out with their marketing partner for whatever they're spending the sponsorship dollars against. For example, with radio stations, when you do like a studio sponsorship, you're not just getting the “KUPD studio is brought to you by XYZ client,” you're getting commercials, you're getting association with digital elements with the radio station, on the station's website, in the station’s social media posts. If there's any upcoming charity opportunities or charity programs that the station might be doing, they're going to incorporate you as a long-term sponsor, giving you the first opportunity to do additional sponsorships. You're basically buying prime real estate in a marketing environment to allow you to stand out. There's more to it, but just a quick take on it.

Shannon:

Sure. What we're talking about here when we're talking about a client or some company that is underwriting with the radio station or with the TV station, or whatever it may be, there are these other components that fall underneath the underwriting. That's where I guess I want to go next. I sent you some questions ahead of time, I said, “What are the different types of sponsorships that exist?” and you brought some of those up, I don't know if you would call them sponsorships, but they would be a part of the overall scope of what that client or that person wants to sponsor. When we talk about breaking down different types of “sponsorships”, you mentioned a website, you mentioned commercial ads. Are those considered sponsorships? Are they considered just components of one sponsorship? 

Steve:

Yeah, I would say they're components and elements within a sponsorship. A sponsorship can be strictly a name mentioned, brought to you by. But in my understanding and my belief in the way the world is today, that's not what people are looking for, they're looking for integration of how their business, their product can really stand out with the partner they're working with. You’re seeing a lot of this on the social media platforms. The way TikTok has blown up and incorporated corporate sponsors into how they generate content on that platform, the content is designed to associate with that platform and not just be an ad that is placed right on that platform. If you're doing a sponsor with a radio group, with a TV station, with major events, you're trying to figure out all the different components, elements of what you're going to receive, saying we will be “your title sponsor”. If I'm the title sponsor of a 4th of July celebration in the town of Gilbert, what does that mean besides saying, “Town of Gilbert, 4th of July celebration and brought to you by Honda”? What are you getting? The goal is for you to get additional elements and components that can be offered by that partner to allow you to stand out and engage with future possible customers.

Shannon:

Sure. What are some of those popular components that you are utilizing right now to sell a sponsorship? I guess we should start with it first, because I think those should be the ones where I believe—this is just my belief for podcasters—but these are the ones that I believe podcasters should probably focus on because it provides more bang for their buck if they decide to go after a sponsor or after someone who wants to create a sponsorship. What are those components that you really focus on? 

Steve:

Great question. If you're talking about a radio station, or you talking about somebody who creates their own podcasts or some of those who create their own videos on YouTube, associating that podcaster, that youtuber, or that on-air talent with a possible sponsor through running commercials, running possible endorsements, live reads, receiving social media support with a sponsorship, being part of their website, being part of their email marketing campaign, if you are creating podcasts, creating YouTube videos, developing a new business, or promoting your small business and you have all these different marketing tools that you promote yourself on a daily basis, as you meet with a possible sponsor, you want to figure out how you can take all those elements that you're using for marketing to promote yourself and associate that sponsor with those things in a respectful way that you're not seeming like you're over commercializing.

Shannon:

Like Sally Gross being gross about it, right?

Steve:

Yeah. We can talk a little bit deeper about that, but does that make sense? Do you understand what I'm saying?

Shannon:

Right. I guess if we were to shorten it up in some sense, you're basically saying that when you grab a sponsor, for instance, for me, we could say I have a sponsor right now with my podcast and it's with my YouTube videos, it's Buzzsprout and it's for podcast hosting. What happens when Buzzsprout comes to me and they say, “Oh, we want to sponsor your videos,” then I go in, and this is just maybe who I am and because I've been in radio for so long, I've now integrated not only, maybe, just a quick mention at the top of the pre-roll and then maybe I mention some things inside of my podcast, I have it listed on my website, I write blog posts, something that integrates everything all into one. It becomes less invasive so that it doesn't seem like I'm selling too much. It just says, “These are the products that I use and these are the products that work.” Is that what you're saying?

Steve:

Yeah. It's easy to have this conversation when we're talking about somebody that's creating a podcast or you're doing YouTube videos, because if you're meeting with a possible sponsor, maybe they sell sneakers, it's a sneaker company, and you try on the sneakers, you like them, then you can have real life storytelling. You're not just talking, “These sneakers are made this way and they're great because of this,” you're taking a real life experience as somebody that's going to endorse them because you've tried them, you wear them, you're embracing their lifestyle and trying to incorporate it into a product that you would use, and then you give your opinion to your listeners. Then it's up to your listeners and your viewers to decide if that's something they're interested in and they'll maybe go and purchase the product. But when you're more genuine and you're real with the messaging, we are seeing that as where things really grow and become organic, and you have much better engagement than when you have a forced sales message to be like, “Let me tell you why XYZ chicken wings are the best. I eat them every day.” I don't want to single at any company, so I'm being generic, but the point is as you meet with sponsors, for people that want to find sponsorships, you also want to find things that you like, because it's easy to go to somebody that is a product you use or a service you use, that way you have some real life experience and when you meet with them to say, “Here's an opportunity for you to work with me and be part of my show,” or whatever you're selling, then you have a kind of an initial way to start a conversation to be genuine, then you can show that possible sponsor of, “Here's the resources I have and how I can get you guys more awareness and impressions and people to respond to you.

Shannon:

This would really fall into one of my questions where it says, “How do you determine what type of person you want to go after to sponsor one of the personalities on the radio station, the radio station itself?” Or this goes into finding leads really, it's all about finding leads. When you go in and you think about this, are there specific things you have in mind that you want to present? Are you cold calling these people?

Steve: 

I've been doing this for 20 years, so my brain never shuts off. I'm always watching TV, looking at billboards, looking on the internet. I’m constantly assessing different companies and different leads and figuring out how it might work within the scope of the radio stations I currently offer and the demographics that I offer. With KUPD being such a male-driven station and having great male audience, looking at prospects that are focused in targeting the men audience and realizing that there's a great possible fit here. It doesn't have to be a local company. There's actually a client that I'm currently speaking to that is an educational client that offers commercial diving school. They're trying to get young men to make a change and have a different career path. It's basically a seven-month program. A prospect like that, that's a great fit for a station that does very well with men, so then it's finding a way to align them with the station and developing marketing tactics and marketing assets through the station, through the station’s resources, through the station’s digital arms, and then putting together a sponsorship or just a general marketing campaign, presenting to the client, and then building that relationship with that client.

Shannon:

Right. That is, I think, where there might be disconnect with podcasters trying to do what you're doing. What you're talking about, basically, is what podcasters have been trying to do for many years. The ones that do it, they don't share exactly the process, they just go with it. But there is a process that you obviously have when it comes down to understanding what your assets are. For instance, like you mentioned, KUPD, I do my stuff, but we have two other radio stations, we have how many radio stations?

Steve:

We have a total of five radio stations. We have the classic rock station, the alternative station, an oldies format music station, and then we have the AM sports content station.

Shannon:

I have a hard time remembering this because I always remember, “Oh, there's the three core stations then I forget there's the other two.” Sorry to those other two radio stations. I actually listened to the oldies station quite a bit too. But you, having to understand the demographics of those stations, you have to understand how those metrics read out, that's where I want to go next, then we can talk about metrics. What are the metrics or the core metrics that you are using to determine whether or not you should sell a specific time of day? We open up opportunities to, “Hey, I could sell a specific time of day for a commercial,” that might be a part of the packaging that you are creating, what metrics are you really looking at and focusing on to make that proposal? 

Steve:

Sure. There are a lot of different sources of information we get to help us sell our stations and the different opportunities we have. But working at radio stations and how we get rated, there are rating systems of, “Hey, here's the number of people that listen to the station during morning drive time, during the mid days, during PM drive time, during evenings, during the weekends.” Then that information is compiled and then we can use that to go when we present to a client. You've shown interest in being on this station for the next 12 months, there's a strategy that you can take where you can just buy a one day part, you could say, “Hey, you know what? I just want to be on AM drive.” There are ways that you can take by just advertising in one timeframe, one day part area, and it can be successful or you can be much more organic and utilizing the power of the station across all day parts. That is more of my style. There is benefit to being on the station throughout the day, evenings, overnights, weekends, prime time, because there are different listeners. There is a different listener group that listens to you in the evenings versus the people that are listening in the mornings during the morning show. There's value to every one of those possible consumers to the advertiser. You assemble a campaign with a lot of different elements that include, “Here, you're going to be on all these different day parts. You're going to run X number of commercials a week.” You say, “What other metrics?” Typically if you're going to be on radio, you're doing a 30 second or a 60 second commercial, some clients like to use 50 second commercials, and then you buy a certain number of commercials a week to get a region of frequency and rely on you to stand out. I've had plenty of clients over the years where, after assessing what they're wanting to do in their budget, it's not worth them spending the money on the radio if they're not willing to put a certain amount against it because you're not going to just take money if you can't achieve the goal of getting to a certain number of metrics that you really need to generate results. Does that make sense?

Shannon:

It totally makes sense. Because I think when you're talking about the content, I think we have to split this up into two parts. We have to say we have the radio side of it, which is the content, which is the music, which is the jocks they're creating, I guess you could call it the product. If they don't generate the metrics, they don't generate the ratings, the numbers, then it's a little harder for you as the salesperson to, obviously, sell something to that person, to that client, or that potential new client.

Steve:

Right. But let's take it back a second and let's put it in perspective. Just like with a radio station, if the number of listeners is smaller for one station versus a competing radio station where they have a larger listener base, there's still value to a smaller audience. Same thing with somebody that's doing a podcast or someone that's creating a YouTube channel, maybe if you're starting out and you only have 5,000 followers, but somebody down the road has 50,000 followers, there's still a value to those 5,000 people that watch your YouTube page because they're loyal and they're engaged in your content. If you will find a sponsor that makes sense and aligns with that, with what you're talking about, your topics, then they still can generate results. Even smaller radio stations, you mentioned the oldies station, that is one of our smaller stations. We don't have a large audience for that, but it's a very successful station because it does a very good job of targeting a specific niche audience of a 55 to 74 year old. I'm not that age. 

Shannon:

I'm going to say old people, Steve, old people. 

Steve:

But that is the core audience. We have other listeners throughout the day but those are the ones that tend to respond. I highlight those because that is the target audience that responds when I have certain advertisers on. I'll give you an example. We've put HVAC clients on that do very well. We actually put financial planners that are around there, tax services, things that make sense for that demographic they're specifically looking for. That's the same thing, working backwards to one of your initial questions is like when you meet with a possible sponsor, you’re targeting your sponsors, you do want to go after people that align with whatever your topics are.

Shannon:

Yeah. I don't know if it's a huge thing, but I think it needs to be hammered into the heads of content creators, podcasters, especially, or YouTubers to know that there are avenues, but it should align with your values and your value system or things that you use. I try to bring this up in my YouTube videos and on my podcast and say, “I have an essential equipment guide that I offer to everyone,” I use that as a lead magnet, but I also use it as a means to help other podcasters and say, “Look, this is the equipment that I use.” Those pieces of equipment are affiliate links. Those are means for me to earn some form of money. It doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be through sponsorship itself, but if you're finding some client who aligns with your values, then it probably can go a little bit further from what I can see and what I imagine. I did some stuff years ago where, I think it was before you started at Hubbard radio, and I remember I had a sponsorship that lasted for six months or something like that, it was because I was valued in that. I don't know if it was you, but it was with a gym, I did something with a gym. There was one I'd done with a gym where I was promoting the gym for a solid three months and I was getting paid out for those mentions and to mention it on social media and whatnot. There are many ways, I think, you can skin this cat when it comes down to acquiring a client. Now I want to move to the next part here because when we talk about collecting the metrics and providing the information to a potential new client or someone who wants to sponsor, we collect the metrics, we have to grab the demographics. What do you do? Can you describe your process of creating a proposal to a potential new client?

Steve: 

Yeah, absolutely. Typically, I'll meet with a client first—and not typically, almost all the time—I meet with a client first to do a kind of a needs analysis and kind of discuss what their goals are. Then that initial meeting is where I do all my information gathering. Then I come back and if I develop a concept, a program, or a sponsorship for them, we build out a proposal for them. In our world, we use a lot of PowerPoints to present, but it could be as simple as an executive summary two-page document. I've sold a $150,000 deal off of a two-page word document. So it's not the pretty pictures in a PowerPoint, it's about what you're going back and story-telling them how you're going to help them grow their business. They're looking for you to come back after you've listened to them. I think that's the one thing I would say, it's very important to listen. Listen to these possible prospects. Don't just go in there and sell you. You're going in there to learn about them and then you're going back and just explaining what you do with your podcasts, with your radio station, with your TV station, with your YouTube channel, how that aligns with them and you can help them. I think people make a mistake when they go and they say, “Let me tell you how great I am first.” Once you get that information, you go back, you design a proposal, you send it to them, and then they buy into it and buy into an idea, they're like, “Yeah, this is something I want to do. I want to move forward with you,” then you want to be contracting with them—and that sounds like a generic sales term, but it's true—You want to be constantly engaging with any new potential advertiser or sponsor saying, “Okay. Yeah. We're excited about partnering. Here's how we're going to start this off. Here are the next steps. Here's what we're going to achieve. Here's what you said you were trying to achieve, and here's how we're going to try to do it. We're going to analyze the data, we're going to analyze the elements every two weeks, every 30 days.” Typically, in a radio campaign—I'll use radio as an example—if I have a brand new advertiser that's doing a sponsorship with me, or is just even doing a simple radio campaign, I'm checking in with them. I'm checking with them after the first week, I'm checking in with them after the second week, then maybe I'm checking with them after the first month, and then I'm just making sure they're happy with the commercial I'm having with them with content. There's a point where you do too much engagement with the client at the same time, most mistakes is people don't do anything, they sell something and they forget to engage. You’re talking about having a sponsor or endorsement you have for six months, that is a combination of you being as good as you are, and then the AE working in partnership with you to make sure the client stays engaged with whatever you're partnering with them on or whatever you're selling them, so it becomes a long-term partner. There are a lot of podcasts out there that have been with certain advertisers for long periods of time. People like Blue Apron--

Shannon:

Squarespace.

Steve:

Or any of these big national clients, they're great. When you get to a podcast level where you're actually being contacted by major agencies for these types of clients, that's fantastic. That is fantastic they want to advertise on your podcast, but a lot of that doesn't happen right away. People, I think, assume that's where all the money is, and it's not, there's a lot of money with the midsize and smaller advertisers that what they’re doing is developing a true partnership so they can be with you for a long period of time. That is more than just talking to them and saying how great they are, it's really developing something that they can see results from, and then they'll be with you for a while. Because once you have somebody connected with you, that's half the battle, it's the initial phase of getting a hold of them and connecting with them. Sorry, I kind of got a little bit off the topic of answering your question but in regards to the proposal, yes, you can take a proposal back to somebody that's a PowerPoint, there's a Word document. A lot of people get more creative and they have different ways of presenting their products or what they want the client to do. Then, really, once something is sold, like I said before, it's having a timeline and execution and following through. A lot of times smaller podcasters, it's really just that person, they don't have a team of people. You're doing iron man or iron woman marketing, meaning you're handling everything, you're creating your content and then you're acting as a sales rep for your product to that new prospect and that client, and that's part of the hustle.

Shannon:

Yeah. That's what it is. When I look at the scale of what you do at the radio station and all the other AEs, the account executives that work with you down in the sales pit, you guys are managing five radio stations trying to gather business for five radio stations. You might be assigned to KUPD and might be assigned to ALT AZ, you might be assigned to the oldies station and trying to harvest leads, and then someone else has got the same account structure or however it works. It's such a large undertaking whenever you're doing it with that amount of stations. There are radio conglomerates out there that are doing it way larger than that. When you're talking about one podcast, yeah, you're talking about doing it as one person and you're telling me that when you go out and you sell someone, and you give someone a proposal, that they can say, “Yes, this is going to help me grow and this is going to help me get more exposure to a different audience.” Whether it's mid-sized, small, it still is valuable when you're reaching out to them and following up with them and saying, “Look, this is what this campaign did for us, this period, or during these flight dates.” I think people have to understand that on a larger scale, that's why there are account executives. When you're doing it on your own, it's just you. 

Steve:

Yeah. When you're doing it on your own, that's fine. The biggest takeaway is just be honest, be truthful, be who you are. People make mistakes, I make mistakes all day long. If I own up to my mistakes, it usually gets me farther along with clients, after I'm in the middle of a campaign or I'm finishing up a campaign, I try to renew or extend, you’re storytelling the results, you're showing, “Okay, here's what we talked about in the beginning. This is what you wanted to accomplish. Here's what we generated on impressions. Here's how we had engagement with some social media posts. Here's what we will promise you are going to get two commercials a week, but oh, my god, your products, the on-air person loves your product so much, they did five commercials a week for you.” You’re your own cheerleader so you have to promote everything extra you did for that client without having ego, you want to say, “Here's what I did for you, here's what you paid for, and here's what additional elements we provided you partnering with you guys.” You're just constantly storytelling—I keep saying storytelling—but you're constantly re-explaining the process and what you're achieving so they stay engaged and so they see a value to continue to partner with you.

Shannon:

Right. That's a huge point. I think you brought up a couple of words, you want to be engaged with them. Not only are you creating content to engage with an audience, but the partners that you are choosing, you have to be personally engaged with them. It's not just, “Oh, you bought my stuff and thanks. Peace out,” it's like, “Hey, no,” you're almost becoming friends. In fact, friendships do form out of a lot of these partnerships. I've got long time friends. I did a sponsorship years ago, or I think I did an endorsement with someone, it was with an eye center, and the point of contact that had reached out to the AE at the time, we all connected, had a meeting and then this person from the eye center ended up becoming my friend. It's not even just a paid partner, it's just a friend for life at that point. You have to build these relationships and nurture these relationships too. 

Steve:

Yeah. Like Gary V, he talks about hustling. People realize if you're developing something, you're creating podcasts, you're creating content that you want people to hear you and share, nothing is easy, you have to work hard. But when you do work hard and you find the ingredients, the right way to develop great content that people enjoy and find a way to make your partners and your advertisers happy, then it will come back to you, but there's a lot of effort you have to put into it to make it successful. I've been doing this for 20 years and it's not like, “Oh my god, I'm set. I've been doing this for a long time.” Every year, I'm hustling to add more opportunities and more new businesses and work with new advertisers. That's why I do it because it's not boring. There's constantly new people to talk to and new things to develop for clients. 

Shannon:

Right. I think in the area of—we could call it for all intents and purposes, sales—sales is constantly evolving. The way we see things, I don't know if the process is evolving, but how we see the opportunities might evolve. 

Steve:

I agree. The principles are kind of the same, but what we can develop with technology, and just so much opportunity out there, you mentioned sales, I like to look at it more of consulting, because there are a lot of clients where I've met with and had done business with me, and then they talk to me about other things they're doing with other partners, and they asked me my feedback on it. The more I can offer my ability to give them recommendations, the more they trust me, and the more there's opportunity to do more business with them. Like you said, I'm not looking to be best friends with all of my clients, but I'm looking for them to trust me and look at me as a consultant. They call me and even if it's not something that I'm going to make a dollar off of, but if I give them some good advice, that will come back to me. 

Shannon:

So my question to you, Steve, is when are you going to start your own consulting business?

Steve:

Every day, I think about doing that. I'm going to pull the trigger on that. I think that's a great segue to point out something that it's very scary to go on your own and do something at it, but you do it, you'll surprise yourself, sometimes, you do something and it might work or it might fail. You know what, failing is okay. If you don't try, you don't know. I think that is the greatest thing we see right now with the growth of podcasts and the growth of YouTube channels is people aren't going on their own and trying things they never tried before. Before we started this interview, I was telling you I've gone down a YouTube channel rabbit hole about different people that talk about finances. One guy I watched, he had a regular blue collar job and there was nothing wrong with it, he probably made good money, but he started creating videos about finances and stocks and it just blew up on him. But again, it was a lot of hard work. He was putting 6 to 10 hours per video just to put it out with nobody watching it. It took him two to four years before anyone really was watching him. But now he's very successful. Nothing is free in life, you have to hustle for it, you have to work hard for it. But the more you try to partner with people, the more you just listen to what they have to say and try to figure out the correct marketing elements for them to align with you, the likelihood they will be with you for a long period of time.

Shannon:

Right. I look at it as a strength in numbers philosophy. The more you can partner with people, and hopefully, lift each other up and have the agreements be mutually beneficial—I like to use that term mutually beneficial because I don't like it to be a give and take situation—I like things being mutually beneficial to each other because it helps each other, you're raising each other to the next level. I appreciate that you brought that point up because I think it's important for content creators to understand that the partnerships are important. Steve Moynihan, I cannot thank you enough for coming on and doing this podcast with me. You have been someone that's been on my mind, I thought, “Who could I ask?” and I thought, “Oh, I could ask Steve Moynihan because that's my boy at the radio station who helps me out.

Steve:

I appreciate it, man. This is fun. I love it. 

Shannon:

No, I thank you. I know you don't have a website or anything like that, but I'm sure that people could reach out to you through Hubbard Broadcasting.

Steve:

Yeah. Through Hubbard Broadcasting, or even through my LinkedIn page—it’s actually one of my favorite ways to network currently in the last year and almost the last two years is LinkedIn—so look for Stephen Moynihan on LinkedIn. 

Shannon:

Yeah, definitely. Steve Moynihan, thank you so much for joining me on The Podcast Therapist today. I really appreciate it, my friend. 

Steve:

Yeah, no problem. Thank you.

Shannon:

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I want to do a real quick recap of today's episode because I want you to focus on five areas of today's interview that I think will be very, I don't know if it would be very vital, but it will be of significant importance for you and your podcast when it comes to getting sponsorships. I want to, again, thank Steve Moynihan for sitting down with me and sharing his knowledge and wisdom and his years of experience as an account executive in the media field and share that knowledge with myself, and of course, with you, most importantly. I think he did you more of the favor than anything else, because these were already things that I knew about before Steve came in and talked with me on that StreamYard interview. I want to thank Steve again for coming in and sharing his knowledge with us.

Today, I want to focus on five areas that I think we should recap about in the episode that we just heard. The first one that I want to focus on is number one, building great content. I know this is a no brainer for you, I realize it, but I have to also understand that a person who listens to this podcast for the very first time may not have realized how valuable this point is. Building great content to your podcasts is probably going to be the single most important driver of your metrics when it comes to your podcast. Without great content, it is harder to make a sale or harder to, I don't want to say convince, but it is hard to tell that potential new sponsor, “Hey, look, this is the type of audience that I have, and these are the type of downloads that I get.” Yeah, I've said in the past that you should not be focusing on downloads, but if this is the area that you want to focus on, then you need to start creating valuable content. If you want to get valuable content out to the world, and you want to get a massive amount of downloads and use that as your metric, then the content has to be valuable. Value can come in the form of evergreen content. It could be informational, it can be inspirational, it can be motivational, it could be something that someone goes back and listens to again and says, “Oh, I got a lot of value out of this particular episode. I'm going to go back, maybe even take some notes,” and they just so happen to hear maybe a sponsor in the podcast episode itself. When you're creating valuable content, create it with the intention of knowing that it's going to get listens even if you don't have a sponsor for that particular episode. Create valuable content. If it's informational content, great, it's got to come in that value form of possibly evergreen, informational, motivational, whatever it may be. Now, if it's in the form of entertainment and you're growing an audience based on getting the laugh, maybe you're a podcast that is a comedy podcast, maybe what you need to do is you need to create more valuable laughs for that person so that they can invest their time into tuning into your podcast weekly. There's loyalty there. Once you build that loyalty, then you can go to a sponsor and say, “Look, I've got this amount of downloads for my podcast, how can we get you involved with this? What can I do to serve you? How can I help you?” This whole game of creating sponsorships is about serving two different audiences. It's about serving your listening audience, and it's, of course, about serving your potential new client, that audience. You have to think of that audience as someone or something that is in consideration for paying you money to put something or involve themselves with your podcast brand.

Number two, put great content on your website. You got to find arms for your podcast. As Steve had mentioned in today's episode, the radio station has many different arms of sponsorships. It's not just putting a commercial on the radio, they also offer—at least, Steve may also offer—an opportunity to create a package where it involves something that is maybe a dedicated website on one of the property websites such as 98KUPD or ALT AZ FM or whatever it may be. These are areas in which you can implement and incorporate into your sponsorship strategy. Another strategy might be having your “home studio”, it could be your bedroom, but you could call it a studio, you could say, “Today's podcast episode is brought to you by the Apple studios,” and then that's all you have to say. That might be a lower premium price on the podcast, but you make the determination of how long you want that to be incorporated into your podcast—it could be six months, it could be out of the year the Apple is sponsoring your studio—just think of those areas. Find arms to your podcasts, different areas that you can try and monetize.

Number three, you don't have to go after the big dogs. There's plenty of money that you can find with the little dogs, local businesses. If you have a podcast that does e-commerce to the world, but it is a local business, but they're still doing e-commerce, you could probably approach them and say, “Hey, look, this is what my podcast is about. It is about pottery,” and you could go to maybe one of the local nurseries because maybe one of the nurseries does e-commerce and they sell flower pots. Maybe that nursery is looking for a more focused group of people who are interested in flower pots or maybe different gardening tools, who knows what it could be. Don't think of trying to go after the big dog, go after local businesses if that is what the case is, but do your research ahead of time.

Number four, know your audience to help your clients. This kind of works with number three, but know your audience to help your clients. Understanding the demographics of your audience is going to be equally important. You need to know where they're listening from, how long they listen, you need to know which episodes are the most popular. That's probably one of the most important ones that we should probably focus on are the most popular episodes. If you have a super popular episode, then maybe you need to consider going down that route of creating content that is very similar to that previous episode. But one thing that I do know, and one hack that you can incorporate, which I will tell you right now, if you are using Buzzsprout—and I think you could do this on other podcast hosting platforms—you can always go in and replace the audio platforms. Let's say you have a podcast episode that gets a lot of downloads, and you have a specific sponsor that is in that episode, maybe it has just retired or maybe you haven't incorporated a sponsor in that episode, you can re upload a brand new episode in place of the originally uploaded episode, but the new episode incorporates a sponsor. This is going to be very important for you when it comes down to editing your podcast and having the ability to access the templates of your podcast if you are saving the templates, that's an important point that I think you should take note of, save templates of your podcasts so that you can go in and interchange sponsorships as needed if you decide that you want to go ahead and re upload audio into your hosting provider. I use Buzzsprout, Buzzsprout just happens to be my favorite one. My second favorite one would be a Simplecast, that would be the other one that I would use. But I don't believe Libsyn allows you to do it. I'm not sure if Blubrry does, but the two that I really focus on are Buzzsprout and Simplecast, because they allow you to replace episodes if you want to go ahead and make a change to a particular episode that was originally uploaded.

Number five, and the last point, when you're building packages, build packages that revolve around the whole scope of your podcast. As I mentioned, you could give a package where you're saying, “I'm going to give you a certain amount of commercials or a certain amount of reads in the podcast, but I will also have you sponsor the studio itself,” and maybe a segment will be a part of this. You got to come up with different areas, the website, maybe a certain promotion that is involved with your website that you want to run, that you're trying to drive traffic to. When you're coming up with these different areas of sponsorships, it's just not about reading something on your podcast. If you want to get more, I don't know, value or more money for your podcast, maybe what you need to consider is how much visibility you can give that potential new client, just don't focus on the commercial, focus on the website, focus on the studio, focus on segments, focus on in podcast reads, focus on particular promotions that the company wants to participate in, they have a particular promotion they want to promote, maybe you are really trying to put something on your website to drive traffic to so that they can get more visibility as well. This is all about serving your client as well. It's serving your client because you know that you can help them with an audience that you currently have, but it's also serving your listeners because you know and believe in the client enough to say, “Hey, I think that you would need to go to this particular client. They can help you out.” That's something to think about.

I hope today's episode really gives you something to think about, some perspective on how radio stations go about getting sponsorships. If you have questions, you’re always welcome to reach out to me at thepodcasttherapist.com. You can leave a voicemail or you can leave me an email. Also, I will go ahead and leave a link to Steve Moynihan's LinkedIn in today's show notes. If you want to go ahead and contact him and have any questions and want to network with him on LinkedIn, he's a valuable resource. He was so gracious to share his time with us in today's podcast episode.

I want to thank you once again for tuning in to the episode. Of course, if you have questions, like I said, hit me up at thepodcasttherapist.com, and I would really appreciate it if you left me a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, even if you don't have an Apple Podcast account, head on over the The Podcast Therapist in Apple Podcasts, leave a rating and review, and let me know whether or not this podcast is good, it's bad, or whatever your review may be, it's going to help me become a better podcaster, and your reviews will be read on a future episode of The Podcast Therapist. In the meantime, you have a great week, we'll be talking to you next time.