Creative Ways To Use Voicemail In Your Podcast

00:00:00: All right, Kevin.

00:00:00: It's just you and me.

00:00:01: today Jordan is out sick with the podcasters nightmare.

00:00:05: she's lost her voice.

00:00:06: so Jordan we hope you feel better And your back on for our big episode.

00:00:10: Yeah!

00:00:11: Jordan I do Hope You Feel Better To call out the fact that Jordan is not on this show today.

00:00:17: You missed an episode, Jordan and I completely just forgot to even mention you weren't on the show.

00:00:21: we didn't want to do it Even

00:00:23: though she's taking the day off.

00:00:25: reached out was like but i can still edit if u record.

00:00:27: i could still edit it.

00:00:29: The whole idea of taking a good day off is don't have to work.

00:00:31: so If you dont' like the edit blame it on me.

00:00:40: Okay So he added voicemail for fan mail.

00:00:43: Yes, we did.

00:00:44: I just did a video about it and kind of want to ask you what did you envision when you made this?

00:00:49: And how do you expect podcasters to use that?

00:00:51: because i'm starting get lots of ideas but how he can use it.

00:00:54: But I kinda wanna hear your...I don't know What kicked us off in ur mind.

00:00:57: Sure well there's two ways u can look at one its.

00:01:01: for some people they would absolutely prefer Just be able to click record and talk as opposed to writing something It might not the safest thing in world like lets say you're on road trip or something listening in car.

00:01:12: You might be able to more easily.

00:01:15: just click, send us some fan mail and then hit record.

00:01:17: And then talk like you're doing a phone call or something from it.

00:01:20: again I don't want to recommend that you get this in my car thinking about this at real time.

00:01:24: maybe when your stopped on the traffic light

00:01:26: use case number one fiddle with your phone while driving.

00:01:29: see if he can leave his voice.

00:01:32: let's use walking.

00:01:33: the dog is better example.

00:01:35: you may not wanna look down at your phone but you could just click record leave a voicemail and send off very quickly.

00:01:41: so people will prefer.

00:01:42: And then also depending on the type of show that you have, it might be more appropriate for you to actually play voicemails and then respond them or whatever just given the type a show.

00:01:53: It may not as engaging all the fan mail that comes in.

00:01:59: Yeah,

00:01:59: so we've done these listener mailbag episodes in the past and one of things I think could be improved is actually having the audio on there.

00:02:07: yeah In the past i'm fumbling a read And then you're reacting to me misreading something just be So much better if We Could Be playing audio from All Of Our podcast listeners

00:02:19: right?

00:02:20: as written text messages that come in over the past couple years.

00:02:29: Now, just in the last week we've gotten... four, five voicemails that have come in.

00:02:33: So I can see us doing both and you have the option even if people leave you a voicemail If just want to read it we do transcribe It.

00:02:39: so You Can Just Read If You Want.

00:02:41: But If You Wanna Actually Use The Audio You Can And So i think That'll Be A Fun To Play Both Back-To-Back.

00:02:46: Just Be Like Hey We Got A Fanmail Message In Here.

00:02:47: I'm Gonna Read This One Or In This One.

00:02:48: They Actually Recorded A Voicemail.

00:02:49: So Will Play That One And You Can Hear Their Voice?

00:02:51: You Could Download Them or You Can Edit Them If Somebody Leaves Something That's Too Long And You Just Want To Play First Half Like You Can Do Whatever You Want With It!

00:03:00: into BuzzCast and I like the idea of, for today talking through how people can use these things in their own show.

00:03:05: One of the

00:03:06: things that i've noticed listening to this is a minute so much longer than what we thought.

00:03:11: you know?

00:03:11: We put one-minute limit and kind imagine oh!

00:03:14: People are going talk about.

00:03:16: it will feel short.

00:03:17: You could make a minute feel eternity if your just rambling not really sure what were saying.

00:03:23: So I liked downloading them rather then including the entire clip.

00:03:28: Yes.

00:03:28: Yeah, I agree and we do that with written messages as well.

00:03:31: sometimes We get some very long written messages And we do some editing ahead of time to capture the main points but not necessarily The full message that comes in.

00:03:40: i don't want To say cut the fluff because none Of it is really fluff like.

00:03:43: we love the full content That Is sent?

00:03:45: We enjoy reading that Because It's oftentimes its nice Its complimentary whatever.

00:03:49: yeah.

00:03:50: so when we ask how Do you use call-to-actions In your episodes we Get a lot of answers and then Some of them will be Like they're Really Love You Guys.

00:03:57: Jordan makes me laugh, I love Kevin's takes.

00:03:59: Anyway the way i use called actions is one two three.

00:04:02: so at the beginning while it's nice social proof It may not be in the right spot of the episode.

00:04:08: Maybe we do have a social proof section where we read reviews, feedback and compliments but I think that's separate from.

00:04:15: hey this is fitting into the main body of the

00:04:17: episodes.".

00:04:18: So some ideas on ways you can use content like those as Albin mentioned?

00:04:22: The mailbag episodes... Those are interesting!

00:04:25: We've done couple of them sometimes better than others But they haven't been blockbuster episodes for us.

00:04:33: I think one of the ways that you can take listener feedback and fan mail, incorporate it is to sort of grouping some these things together.

00:04:40: And then letting them lead you in a direction.

00:04:43: topics.

00:04:43: Let's just say over the course of a couple months, you get ten or fifteen different fan mail messages that come in.

00:04:49: three or four them might kind to be around the same topic and then I'm not... You could maybe chunk another three-or-four into a topic And then your sprinkling those into specific episodes about those topics?

00:04:58: That when using those three or for that is what we're using next batch of three or some times with this mail bag episodes it ends up being hard figure out What does this episode actually about because they are answering on ten different questions about ten different things.

00:05:11: so but it's probably not good as like regular episode type that you release.

00:05:16: Mailbag episodes seem to work quite a bit better for news podcasts, that are all about.

00:05:21: here is what happened in the last two weeks?

00:05:23: This is probably obviously anybody who does interviews or does journalistic or documentary style episodes But voicemails they're just going to evoke more emotion feels very different.

00:05:35: Some of our people have left those voice mails already.

00:05:37: Are people who've written this show many times through fan mail.

00:05:40: and then when I hear their Almost every one of you has an amazing podcast voice, but just second I'm like oh You have an accent.

00:05:47: I didn't realize your in another country.

00:05:49: Oh, I Didn't realize how cheerful you sounded.

00:05:52: get a lot more emotion and connection.

00:05:55: hearing someone's voice verse reading know it's essentially Just the text message

00:05:58: hundred percent.

00:05:59: And II don't know if this is something that will be unique to our podcast because we do a podcast for podcasters.

00:06:06: And so most of the people who listen, maybe they already just have great voices naturally or maybe they've trained their voices or whatever.

00:06:11: but I agree like when we're hearing voicemails come in through their new voicemail feature i'm like oh my gosh these people are so great!I can't wait to feature their voice on our

00:06:19: podcast.".

00:06:19: But I think it goes beyond just a podcaster's with good podcasting voices and uh...people who train their voices.

00:06:26: The reality is that there's an emotion.

00:06:28: There's another level connection.

00:06:30: So if somebody writes something, they have their own tone.

00:06:33: Their own inflection and emotion behind it And being able to capture the full context of that message just brings another level of depth an authenticity That you'll never get when someone write something in.

00:06:46: It happens all time in texting.

00:06:47: It happens a lot of times on e-mail is that somebodies might write something You take away what they didn't intend.

00:06:53: The chances for this happening When they record something in there voice Is much lower.

00:06:57: Yeah, so if it's jokie they're kind of poking fun.

00:07:01: It can come across as like oh man!

00:07:02: They really don't like the show and made a rude comment.

00:07:05: I mean that happens all the time with text versus talking to somebody on the phone.

00:07:08: yeah i cant remember exactly what happened but uh The Pod News Weekly Review said something And I wrote Something in A Silly Jokey Way and Sam On The Next Podcast was Like Uh Oh Kevin is Really Mad at Me.

00:07:19: He said he wrote this message and he was really upset.

00:07:22: But I wasn't at all, I was totally joking but that context was missed And so i'm sure if I had the ability to record a voicemail and sent it It would have come through more clearly.

00:07:31: we wouldn't of had that misunderstanding.

00:07:32: One

00:07:33: way that want us use voicemails is kind how were using fan mail now This call-and-response

00:07:39: Right?

00:07:40: And imagine are going experiment with in little bit.

00:07:42: If get ten...it might be only play two or three.

00:07:47: The reality of playing like ten clips in an episode with ten different voices plus three hosts and stuff just might be.

00:07:53: it might feel a little bit overwhelming.

00:07:55: And Jordan is going to make this decision, she's an expert at this but It might makes sense to have some actual voices come through the right times In the right context when it really adds value.

00:08:07: then we may summarize them.

00:08:09: But because you do a call-and-response doesn't mean that every single one that comes in, you're going to play it.

00:08:15: I think people will kind of figure out what's right for their show.

00:08:17: but i do think your write-in terms how do drive the most engagement?

00:08:21: What we've seen by far is when we mention that we need listener feedback or want listener feedback and there are a link on the show notes so just tap them to leave us a voicemail.

00:08:33: the reality of people just stumbling upon it themselves, It doesn't happen very often.

00:08:39: And so I like this direct invitation to participate in an upcoming episode and then telling them how.

00:08:46: Yeah, that's a good point.

00:08:47: I think I just need to see that voicemails or emails whatever i'm sending in.

00:08:51: you know there's at least an opportunity than what i'm setting.

00:08:54: it is useful for the podcast.

00:08:56: yeah all right.

00:08:56: so next episode we are talking about how you discovered your most recent podcasts.

00:09:02: listen What You've Been Binging Through.

00:09:04: uh We've Got A Bunch Of Good Answers But We Don't Have A Ton Of Voicemails Because It'S A Relatively New Feature.

00:09:10: So If You'd Like Your Voice Featured On The Podcast Leave Us A voicemail And Tell us How found your latest, most favorite podcast episode.

00:09:19: Until next time!

00:09:20: Thanks so much for listening and we'll be back with Jordan.

00:09:22: Oh

00:09:22: yeah... We need her.