When it comes to naming your show you can be cute or obvious.
Let’s look at doing a podcast about the show “Murders in the Building” on Hulu (a great show about a true crime podcast with Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez).
You Started With a Cute Podcast Name
So you decide to name the show “The Arconia” as that is the name of “The building” in Murders in THE BUILDING. Anyone who watches the will know that.
However, when a person goes to Google or their favorite podcast app to search a for a podcast about the show Murders in the Building which one are they going to type in:
- Murders in the building podcast
- The Arconia podcast
Maybe I’m a little too logical, but I’m putting my money on they search for “Murders in the Building Podcast.”
You see, if your show title requires an explanation, or if the audience will “get it” when they find the show, keep in mind that they are more than likely NOT going to find the show. Thus, they won’t get it.
They need to find you before they hear you.
I once did a show called the “Podcast Rodeo Show.” What do you think it’s about? When I asked people they would say, “Rodeos?” and they would look puzzled when I said, “No, it’s about me listening to podcasts and seeing how long I can hold on.” “Podcast Rodeo Show” was a “cute” name.
If you need to explain your show’s name you picked a bad name.
Fixing a Bad Name
When you realize you picked a bad name, there are two ways to tix it.
1. Add a tagline. If you look at any book there is the name of the book, and many times a tagline.
So if you look at my book, it has a name, “Profit From Your Podcast:” and then it has a tagline, “Proven Strategies to Turn Listeners into a Livelihood.” You can use taglines in your podcast.
If we go back to the ill named The Arconia Podcast, we could fix this with a tagline. First, let’s get rid of the word Podcast. It’s not needed. People will be listening in a podcast app. So we might call it “Welcome to the Arconia: A Murders in the Building Fan Cast.”
Now when people search for “Murders in the building” you should show up in the results (some apps have HORRIBLE search capabilities).
2. Rebrand the Show
The second option to fix a "cute" podcast name is to rebrand the show. This is what I ended up doing with the Podcast Rodeo Show. I rebranded it “Podcast Hot Seat” (and between you and me, I’d give that a 6.5 out of ten on the obvious scale). So I added a tagline and the title is now, “Podcast Hot Seat: We make good podcasts better, and help them grow.”
So when you are coming up with a name, keep in mind they need to find you before they hear you.
