🥜 The Science Behind Viral Podcast Clips

Want your podcast clips to go viral? Today, I am going to increase your chances dramatically.

I have personally been responsible for dozens of podcast clips going viral, generating 1M+ views and targeted traffic for podcasters.

I will share the secret sauce that has taken years of studying and countless hours of practice.

Class is in session, friend. Let’s get Nutty.

In Today’s Email

• How to make Viral Podcast Clips

• HIT & MISS of the Week

• Message from the author

The Secret Sauce

Stop Thinking In Stright Lines

One of the biggest mistakes rookies make when repurposing long-form content into clips is thinking they need to cut footage in the order it originally happened.

When picking a moment, think in terms of overall topics and themes you know are valuable or entertaining but pick whatever hook/opener you want. I don’t care if it happened 30 minutes earlier in the conversation. Pick the moment that sets the video up the best.

So often, great moments didn’t start in a captivating way. If you want this video to pop, you owe it to yourself to give it a chance.

Find the most compelling opening shot/statement that sets up the content in the most universally interesting way. You have less than 2 seconds to capture a viewers attention and most podcasters completely waste it and wonder why they cant pull views.

Keep Thinking Outside the Box

Once you have picked the perfect moment to open with, remember that you are competing for a viewer’s attention throughout the clip. You don’t have your typical captive podcast audience. Remove fluff, re-order points when helpful, and strategically use music and sound effects to enhance the emotions created from the clip.

A great rule in writing is to imagine that each line is there to convince the reader to read the next one. Take that same approach to your short-form clips. Each small section is there to keep the audience's attention.

Make a visual reminder wherever you or your editor work on editing clips (Sticky notes are what I use)—thinking like this when editing will dramatically alter how you approach structuring and pacing your clips & will lead to more views on these short-form platforms.

Study Virality

As a podcaster, you must know what your audience currently cares about at. Study viral content on all platforms that your desired audience is watching and list current and proven topics and themes around which to structure your clips.

You are already addressing these things in your episodes, so now prioritize them in your clips since they are proven to work.

When studying, make sure it is currently of interest (recently went viral or currently going viral) unless the topic is evergreen (not time-sensitive). Many new creators make the mistake of working with outdated data, which sets them up for failure.

Less is More

With so much competition, you are better off creating less content that is great than you are spamming out the same stuff as everyone else. The world's most famous YouTube has a saying he uses all the time: “It is easier to make one video with a million views than 10 that get 100k”. This is painfully true. Ideas matter, and effort gets rewarded. Shift your focus from getting as much content out there as possible to getting as many amazing pieces of content out as possible. You will see more results and can scale once you know what works and have the money to expand your team.

I could go on all day with tips but I will cap it here to not overwhelm you. If you enjoy content like this, please let us know. We look at all the emails we receive and use responses to shape future content!

HIT & MISS of the Week (Please Read!)

No HIT or MISS this week, just a very important question…

This section of the newsletter takes a lot of time to research and find content to break down. We will continue including this section if there is demand for it, but we don’t want to waste time on something you don’t find valuable. Please respond to this email with “HIT” if you would like this segment to stay in future newsletters!

P.S If you would like us to keep an eye on your content and potentially give you feedback in the HIT & MISS of the week, reply with the name of your show and the link to it on YouTube!

Happy Podcasting.

See you next week.

-Ben