Oh how nice of you! You want to treat the podcaster in your life? Very sweet. Well, let me help you run through 5 Christmas gift ideas for podcasters that will help their podcast more than a Shure SM7B microphone!
I know you’re confused by that statement. After all, pretty much every video and image you’ve seen ever, depicts the podcaster gobbing off into a Shure SM7B microphone.
Joe Rogan and Marc Maron started the trend with talking into them, and much like publishing new episodes on a Thursday, everyone thinks that’s the only way you can be successful in podcasting.
It isn’t.
Don’t get me wrong.
It’s a nice microphone.
A very nice microphone.
But it isn’t so nice a microphone that it’s going to guarantee your loved one’s podcasting success.
They might have told you that if they have this sexy microphone, they’re going to definitely have a better show.
Assuming they don’t currently have a Blue Yeti or any other kind of terrible cheap plastic microphone they ordered on Amazon, then their current microphone is probably just fine.
I will recommend a couple of decent bargain microphones to you at the end that you can maybe buy them with any left over pennies.
But in the meantime, my advice to you is to ignore them, buy something else, and then show them this article on Christmas day morning if they look sad that they didn’t unwrap a new microphone.
So let’s get into what will, shall we?
To be really helpful if you’re shopping around looking to treat your podcast-obsessed loved one this festive season, I’ve listed some ideas for gifts that might actually help their podcast.
And because the Shure SM7B is currently going for around £350 (or £439 on Shure’s own site!), I’ve decided to en-Shure (lol! Ahh come on that was pretty cute!) these suggestions all come in under that price.
So you may even make a saving!
new episode artwork
This is an often overlooked growth needle-mover.
You can usually lock down a designer on Fiverr who will do a decent job of sorting you out with some basic podcast artwork design.
And this may well go down a treat with your intended recipient.
But hey, you were going to spend £350 on a Shure SM7B so you can dig a little deeper, right?
In which case, I’d recommend you talk to these people at Podcast Branding.
For the same price you were going to pay for the Shure SM7B microphone, you’ll get some decent podcast imagery that’s been designed by someone who actually ‘gets’ podcasting.
Two professionally edited episodes - and a training walkthrough
Let’s face it, you love them but you know their podcast sounds like dog crap.
This is because they’re not a professional podcast editor.
Sure, they’re getting better all the time, but when you listen to your favourite true crime podcast, and then you listen to their podcast… well, it’s a little obvious where their shortcomings are.
For the same prices as a Shure SM7B microphone, you could gift them with two pristine sounding episodes edited and produced by yours truly.
And if that’s not all, you could have me show up on a training call with them to show them how I made it sound so much better.
The cost of this service is £300, so still £50 cheaper than that SM7B microphone you were considering buying them!
Feel free to reach out and ask me about this using the form.
Guaranteed ideal listeners for three episodes!
Let’s face it, they’re doing the work, showing up, and putting out the content. But nobody’s listening to it.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to see the delight in their face as they check their stats around New Year and see that some of the episodes they poured their hearts into now suddenly had legitimate IAB certified new listeners?!
And not only that, but they’re absolutely on target listeners who will not only be taking an interest in continuing to listen to the show, but will be likely to also follow it!
And, if they have a membership or offering attached to their podcast, they may even have new likely customers waiting to buy!
For the same price as you were willing to pay to buy them that overpriced microphone, you can have them delight at three of their episodes getting enough downloads to make them a top 50% podcaster, finally!
Again, feel free to contact me to find out more.
A month long campaign for new Apple Podcasts and Spotify followers
Not gonna be shy about it – at Podknows Podcasting we’re experts at podcast marketing.
In fact, we’re the best at it.
We’ve had lots of practice over the years, thanks to spending 20+ years honing our craft and learning what works when it comes to buying in results.
For the same cost of that blessed microphone, you could have a steady stream of new podcast followers in Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
This will not only help with surfacing your loved one and having them enjoy more visibility in the platforms, but also may even lead to more raving fans listening to each new episode!
You leave the creative to us.
You just sit back and enjoy them excitedly boring you to death with how many new followers they got on Apple Podcasts this week!
A professional podcast audit
I’ve left the best for last because honestly, as nice as the other things are, none of them will come close to the results they’ll enjoy from having their podcast professionally critiqued by moi.
For one hundred pounds less than the cost of that sexy but mostly vapid Shure made microphone, they’ll have the information and insight they’ll need to grow their podcast into something which might make impact on the world.
We’ll go through their content, quality, structure their SEO, and all other opportunities for growth.
Once we’ve got our report, we’ll arrange to join your podcasting loved one for a video call where we’ll run through the findings with them and answer any questions they might have.
You can book one of these on the dedicated page.
Click here.
And if their microphone really IS pretty terrible...
If you decide their microphone is really quite bad, and that they’ll really miss out if they’re not brought a new one by Santa and his elves, then here’s an offer for you.
Save your £350, and instead whack a quarter of that cash on one of these perfectly decent microphones.
And if you’re feeling tempted by the above offers but still want to be able to buy them a microphone and have plenty left over for your purchase, then check out this bargain mic that will leave you with £300 quid spare!
Again, if you want to discuss buying any of these things as a Christmas gift for your loved one, feel free to contact me to discuss!