15: Tips and Requirements for Creating Your Podcast's Artwork
If you're a creative or artistic entrepreneur, you're likely to be excited about this step of the launch process!
This week, we're talking about your podcast cover art. What size and format should it be? What background color should you absolutely avoid? What's the number one thing to consider when creating podcast artwork that the vast majority of podcasters don't even think about?
Find out the answers to these questions, and more, by listening to the episode below.
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Transcript
Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more. Welcome to another episode of podcasting for coaches. As promised last week, we are finally talking about your episode artwork. So if you are already an existing coach or consultant, chances are, you probably already have a logo or brand colors that you use or typography that you use for all of your content. So we're just going to transfer those things over into your podcast artwork. If you don't have those things ready. If you're not quite at that stage of your business yet, and you're wanting to use a podcast to build your audience, as you're thinking through your business model and your business plan. That's perfectly okay too. It's just that you're going to be kind of starting from scratch, and you need to think about all of your branding. Now, now is the time if you have not done so already, because we want your podcast artwork to be consistent with the rest of your brand and your website and your social media images. So if you are not skilled in graphic design yourself, I do recommend hiring a graphic designer, I have a list of designers that I will link to in the show notes for this episode, which you can find by going to podcasting for coaches.com. And then of course, you can also go to places like Fiverr Upwork, I actually got the artwork created for this specific podcast on Etsy, oddly enough, so the little microphone logo with the paint splatter actually came from a designer on Etsy. And then I created the rest of the image using my brand's colors and fonts. So if you don't actually know what I'm referring to, when I say your podcast artwork, that's essentially what used to be known. For those of us who listen to CDs back in the day, that's actually the album cover art. So whenever you'd buy the CD, you know the very front image that's displayed. That's what I'm talking about here. This is going to be the main image for your podcast. This is what will be displayed across every podcasting platform. This is a square image. And that is absolutely non negotiable. Every platform requires you to have a square, and we kind of tailor it to Apple, aka Apple podcast, aka iTunes, because they are extremely picky. And one of the things that will actually get your podcast to be not approved inside of Apple podcast slash iTunes slash just apple in general, is actually issues with your artwork. So right now Apple currently has size limits of a minimum of 1400 by 1400, and a maximum of 3000. By 3000. What I tell all of my clients is to do an image of 2000 by 2000. That way in case Apple decides to ever change those in dimensions, the minimum or the maximum, you should still be covered. We don't run into the situation of they decide to change your policy, and then all of a sudden your feed breaks because you're at work doesn't work anymore. And you're left wondering, oh, what the heck is happening here. So a huge, huge thing to keep in mind that so many podcasters Don't think about and even when they're told, they still it just goes out the window, and they completely ignore the advice but when a podcast is viewed on a phone, so when it is shrunken down to be viewed inside of an app on a phone, the podcast artwork is honestly about the size of a sugar cube, which is not very big. So when you're creating your artwork, we want to make sure that we're designing it for that don't design this huge 2000 by 2000 image. And think that that's what the audience is going to see. Because that's not the case. So if you put a bunch of text on there, or you know, just a ton of different elements and components, and it's a very chaotic, busy image, when that shrunken down to the size of a sugar cube. Good luck reading what it says. So I always recommend leaving off your name, because it will always be displayed right there with the you know information for the podcast. And to be perfectly honest, unless you're someone who is just huge in your niche, and you're going to draw people to you because of your name, it doesn't really matter. Your name is not what's going to draw somebody in who's never heard of you before. They want another podcast name, they want to know that it is super relevant content for them. And your actual name doesn't give them that. So since we need to limit the amount of text just get rid of your name altogether. If you can get rid of the word podcast do that as well. Because again, if they are viewing your episode artwork, chances are they already know as a podcast. Now, this does not apply if it's shared on social media, but we have some other images that we're going to use for that. So let's stick to pretty simple and basic designs, or a better way of putting it is a design that is very clean. It's not confusing for the potential listener to you know, figure out what's going on figure out what the theme is. And a tip that I always like to tell my clients is to go into the podcast categories inside of iTunes or Apple podcasts, wherever you're choosing to take a listen. And if you're confused by that wording, I'll explain it really quick. Apple podcasts is the actual app on iPhones and iPads and iTunes is the desktop version. They have gone through a rebranding, and they're really wanting us use Apple podcasts. But it's still iTunes on desktop. So go through either one of those categories, and go into the one that you want to be listed in, go into the categories that you will be choosing which we'll cover that very soon. But obviously, if your shows about entrepreneurship and business, go into the business category, and look through the top 50, the top 100 podcast, and just see what stands out to you good and bad. Are you really drawn to the podcast artwork, where it has the actual host on there, and they're smiling, and they look really inviting? Or are you drawn to the simple designs with bold colors? Are you noticing that, you know, gosh, like three quarters of the designs have really dark backgrounds? Well then make yours light so it stands out? You know, or, or the vast majority of the podcast hosts with smiling faces, you know, and then maybe you go with this really awesome freaking logo. And that makes you stand out? Are you noticing that there are certain colors that just look terrible and mixed in with everything else? If so, maybe avoid that one if you can. Another tip for background colors is to avoid the color white because as you'll notice, as you search through these directories, the background color of the platforms are generally white. So if you have a white background, you're going to blend in which is the exact opposite of what we want. So to recap here, I do recommend a 2000 by 2000 image, it needs to be either JPG or PNG. And it needs to be in the RGB color space, which if you don't know anything about graphic design, you're going to have no clue what the heck I just said there. But that's fine because your graphic designer should and if you're creating it yourself and you use a program like Canva, which I highly recommend, that takes care of it for you and you don't even need to worry about that aspect. Keep the design simple and clean with as few words as possible. And look through the directories that you are going to be listed in and see what stands out good and bad. If you have any questions or would even like to run your cover art designed by me just to get a little bit of feedback. I am totally open for that. You can email me directly Britany bR it a ny at podcasting for coaches, you can reach out to me on facebook@facebook.com forward slash podcasting regardless. And you can of course go to podcasting for coaches.com and contact me through the contact page on the website there. Thank you so much for tuning in today. And I will see you back here next week where we will dive into what categories you're going to be choosing. Have a fantastic day. And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you're wondering if now is the right time to start a podcast for your coaching or consulting business, head on over to podcasting for coaches.com where you can either take a free quiz or schedule a one on one consultation with yours truly, thank you so much for joining me today and I will see you back here for the next episode.