Bad Podcast Pitches

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What happens when a "Podcast Promoter" reaches out to a 20+ year podcasting veteran? That's what we're talking about today.

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A "Podcast Promotion" offer landed in the inbox of my friend, Mike Wilkerson of the 2GuysTalking podcast network. I'll walk through the language, the repetition, and the red flags - especially the promises with no evidence of audience fit or long-term impact.

If you've been wondering why offers like these often signal artificial download inflation rather than real listener growth, you'll want to hear this. And, in typical Mike fashion, he had a candid response, pushing back on the vague claims and questionable value.

If that isn't enough, I also have an update on the service I mentioned in a previous episode and my efforts to test that service. Look for more updates in the future.

Mentioned in this episode:

• 2 Guys Talking Podcast Network
• The Podcast Gauntlet

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• Send in your bad pitches: pitches@badpodcastpitches.com
• Mastodon @BadPitches@mastodon.social

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[00:00:00] Bryan Entzminger:

A podcast promoter reached out to my friend, Mike Wilkerson,   at the Two Guys Talking Podcast Network.   We're gonna talk about that today. This is Bad Podcast Pitches. I'm Bryan Entzminger. I'm a podcast editor and producer,   host. I've made a number of shows over the years, and I keep getting these pitches. So we're gonna talk about these bad pitches. This is not a name and shame show, so I'm not gonna name any names other than the person who sent this to me. But we are gonna look through the pitch and identify some things. And then I do have a little bit of an update based on a previous episode.   So this pitch   comes to my friend, Mike Wilkerson. He and I cohost a show called   The Podcast Gauntlet where we showdown, rise, and shine, and talk about things in podcasting,   looking for a more nuanced discussion. I reached out to him. He said, yeah. I've got a pitch I can send you. That's this one. So it came to him. It says, I am a professional digital marketer specializing   in podcast promotion,   Apple and Spotify promotion.  

I am highly experienced and proficient in podcast promotion services since 2018.   My expertise is worth your podcast marketing   success.   I this is hard to read. I'm sorry. I am here to give you the best version of podcast marketing services if you want to get your podcast   top ranking in audience downloads   and ranking higher.   I developed the strategy and a team for the podcast promotion service. The strategy will ensure your audience downloads,   audience response, and popularity   increase across multiple platforms.   Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.  

Mike responded to this email reach out, and so I'm gonna read you his response as well. He says, quote,   my experience is worth your podcast marketing success.   What?   And then he says, I encourage you to revisit your own promotion before tempting a twenty year plus veteran   podcast with   I can't can't read that. Before tempting a twenty plus year podcaster with your valuable services.   If you'd like to work with me to help polish you what you're offering, let me know. I know a thing or two about the process of podcasting.   So that was what Mike sent back.  

As you noticed, as I was reading this, it was a bit hard for me to read. And I think that's because there's a bit of a language barrier. And I certainly don't want to,   show any disdain toward the language barrier because it's real. I only speak one language. Somebody else speaks another language. That's great. I I'm happy for that. But this was probably not the most effective outreach because there's a lot of repetition.   I'm not gonna call Super, a whole lot of attention to that, but I do wanna just mention a couple things.   First,   his expertise is worth my podcast marketing success. That's one of the things that Mike also called out. And   I   guess he's just saying it's worth the money. I'm not sure.  

But the thing the thing about this and the thing that I've harped on for a while now is there's nothing about this that makes me feel like   what I'm going to get   is an audience of people that actually care about my show if I were to go with this promoter.   What I believe, based on what's been sent, is that he's being truthful. He says he has a team for podcast promotion service.   I think, however, that team is probably just a group of people   or a group of servers, I don't know which, that download your show and artificially boost your numbers.   And once the promotion stops, the numbers go back down to the honest number.  

And that's the whole thing. This person, I believe,   is offering something   that   isn't real or isn't what it isn't what a podcaster believes it is. Maybe they're getting exactly what he says they're getting. Maybe they're not, but maybe they are. But it's not leading to the kind of growth and the kind of audience that they believe that they're going to get. And that's my concern here is just,   is this person   offering what a podcaster believes that they're getting when they get this?   And what I believe that a podcaster would believe that they're getting when they're getting this kind of marketing service is something that helps them grow the long term,   sustainable   audience for their show. It's helping them reach new people that care about their content,   and I don't believe that's what they're getting here. And so that's the the big thing I'm gonna keep harping on.  

If you, like Mike Wilkerson, have a pitch that you'd like me to address, you can send that to me at pitches@badpodcastpitches.com.   I would love to have the opportunity to see some of these other pitches because I get a whole lot of the same kind of pitch. Maybe you get all the same too. And I'd love to reach out and talk about that. And also, maybe then highlight a show. If if this is related to a show, I'd love to provide that information for people that are listening. Mike Wilkerson and I   co host a show called The Podcast Gauntlet, which you can find at podcastgauntlet.com,   where we talk about we have nuanced discussions about things that are in the podcasting space.  

In some recent episodes, we talked about hockey stick growth. We also talked to about mindset and getting started, and we've talked about   developing a legacy, all all things that maybe are relevant to podcasters,   especially,   you know,   maybe not when you're just barely, you know, getting started. But as time goes on and you start thinking about what's the actual impact of my show, we talk a little bit about that kind of stuff too. That again is at podcastgauntlet.com.   I mentioned at the beginning that I might have a little bit of an update. So in the previous episode, the one just before this,   which you can find at badpodcastpitches.com,   I talked about potentially taking advantage of or   the the offer. I was given an offer   to have free promotion services by one of these people that reaches out. This was a reach out on LinkedIn. You can go back to that previous episode and   find the the thread of conversation that he and I went through that got us to here.  

It's taken a bit of time, but I've gotten my Apple Podcast connect,   my my podcast account set up in such a way that I've been able to segment this show from the rest of the shows that I have connected to my account. And I've reached out to this person and said, hey. You offered free promotion,   so I think I'm gonna take advantage of that. And he has now, from what I understand, started that promotion.   So   I will be then, hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, providing some feedback. So the plan is to run three days of free promotion   and then stop   because I wanna see a couple of things.  

First, I wanna see what kind of impact   this actually has over the course of a three day trial.   And working with my hosting provider, which is podhome.fm,   I'm hoping to also get some information about the download information.   Can we sort of identify some patterns that might be related to this and whether or not it's   really real? I suspect that it's not, but whether or not it is. And then, also, after I stop, I wanna see if that download growth, if you will, continues because I believe that it will not. I'm   hoping that I'm wrong. It would be great if one of the people offering these services   actually gave something that gave us long term growth as podcasters   and actually delivered what we believe that we're getting. But, anyway, more to come on that. Look for that in the next couple of weeks. Go to badpodcastpitches.com.  

You can find the link to subscribe or follow in your favorite podcast app there, and, I would love to have that. With that, I'm gonna go ahead and sign off. I'm Bryan Entzminger. This is Bad Podcast Pictures. Subscribe to the show, and we'll see you next time.