Heather Osgood was born to do business. She started her career in advertising sales and quickly learned the valuable lessons in what it meant to be a business owner. Since the beginning of her career, Heather has owned, operated and sold several highly successful businesses. Additionally, she has served as a business coach to hundreds of small business owners. With a background in radio advertising and a love for podcasting, Heather was in a unique position to start an agency that could help both advertisers get better results as well as assist podcasters in finding sponsors. She founded True Native Media in January of 2016 with the hopes of helping everyone find a bigger piece of that advertising pie and acquired j/k media agency in the fall of 2017 to further those goals. Heather is a happily married mom with 3 children and is based in sunny California. She spends her off time either frolicking at the beach or reading business books, often both at the same time.
Questions now closed.
Hey Heather, thanks so much for giving up your time for this AMA. If you’re an indie podcaster who’s just started a show, when’s the best time to think about pursuing advertiser support?
Do you reach out to podcasters to work with them or do they reach out to you mainly?
Hi Sean, a bit of both. If we see a show we’d really like to work with, we reach out to them. However, many podcasts reach out directly to us. If you’re interested in exploring representation you can complete this form on our site: http://www.truenativemedia.com/podcasters/
Hi Heather, thanks for doing this AMA. How much can you expect to earn with a sponsor supported show? How is the revenue worked out?
Susanne, it depends on the size of your audience. We work on a CPM (or cost per thousand) basis. What this means is how much is the advertiser going to pay to reach a thousand people. True Native Media usually works at a $30 CPM. So for example, if you have 5k downloads per episode in a thirty day period we would sell your ads for $150 per ad. Most podcast episodes can handle 3 ads per episode.
What do you look for in the shows you look for to connect with a sponsor?
Kate, great question. We are looking for podcasts to have the following:
1. Consistent content creation. The podcast must publish on a regular basis
2. Audience size- we need podcasts to have 10k downloads per episode in a 30 day period if they are doing baked-in ads, or 20k per month if they are doing dynamic ad insertion
3. We want to work with podcasts that approach their shows with a high degree of professionalism who are looking to grow both in quality and size.
Heather — How do you assess whether a smaller podcaster has a really engaged audience?
Mauricio, the best way to test the engagement of your audience is to ask them to do something for you and see if they respond. You might try something like a small favor, i.e. “if you liked this episode, go to your IG account and tell me why and tag the show” or you can run a survey and see how many people respond. Ask your audience to DO something and then see what happens. Your audience’s response to your requests will show their engagement level.
Do you think podcasting will ever take over radio for ad revenue generated?
OOOOhhhh, that’s a great question. I don’t think it is that black and white. My prediction is that radio will become more like podcasts and eventually, and it will all merge together. Like a big Pandora, Spotify, Podcast, Terrestrial Radio pie.
Hi Heather do you notice more and more big compnies dipping their toe in podcast ads?
Driton, absolutely! When I started in podcast advertising 4 years, I would call on companies that didn’t even know what a podcast was. Now, not only does everyone seem to know what a podcast is, they are interested in learning more about how to advertise on podcasts.
Another one from me: What can an indie podcaster with limited resources do to make themselves and their show more appealing to potential advertisers?
If you want to make your podcast more appealing to advertisers, do your homework. First, make sure you really KNOW your audience (find out through a survey). Once you know your audience find middle-level companies (i.e. NOT mega-companies like Starbucks and Nike) that REALLY want to reach your audience. Pay attention to that company’s marketing and see where you could fill a gab for them and then approach them with a well thought out advertising plan that would be hard for them to turn down. By doing this work, you show the advertiser that you care about THEM and that you know their company and their needs. If your proposal it’s turnkey and affordable most advertisers are will to at least listen to your pitch and many will buy ads. Podcasters often try to go for big companies when middle to smaller level companies are more approachable and have marketing dollars to spend.
Hi Heather you have a great career. Any words of wisdom from your time in business?
Pat, I LOVE what I do. I feel blessed each day that I get to live the life that I do and work in this wonderful industry of podcasting. My biggest takeaways from building my career are:
1. Set goals! Begin with the end in mind. What do you want to create in your life? Get really clear on what you want and pursue your goals with great focus!
2. Take ACTION. Many people have dreams but they lack follow-through. Dreaming is wonderful and necessary, but ACTION is what separates you for those around you 🙂
Heather is there a point to trying to reach out to advertisers directly or is it a fool’s errand?
Matt, I would absolutely recommend reaching out to advertisers directly. It is not a fool’s errand as long as you do the following:
1. Know your audience- you can’t sell what you don’t know
2. Get realistic about the size of your audience. You need to have enough listeners for it to make sense for the advertiser. If you are selling directly I would start with an audience of 1k+ or more (downloads per episode in 30 days)
3. Understand the companies that you are reaching out too. Don’t reach out to the advertisers you hear on all of the podcasts, like the Harry’s Razors or Casper Mattresses. They are working with agencies and you’ll be wasting your time trying to contact them directly.
4. Have a nice media kit put together that tells the story of your podcast, your audience and clearly lists your ad packages.
Excited to be here! If you are an indie podcast and are thinking you’d like ads in your podcast, I suggest you start with affiliate sponsors. You can use a resource such as Influencer Bridge https://www.influencerbridge.com/advertisers/