The Strategic Plan for
The Days of David Podcast.
Version 2.0
Prepared August 9th, 2023
Contents
overview
A solo podcast hosted by JB Shreve – Covering the books of 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, and 1 Chronicles, and into the prophets and even into the New Testament. JB Shreve is an author with previous success in podcasting, namely The End of History podcast. The Days of David podcast is a story of war, love, betrayal, loyalty, friendship, enemies, and just about everything that covers the gamut of the human experience. Targeted at English-speaking Christians, the podcast offers not only insight into David’s life and history, but also hope for our walk of faith today.
Below you will find the background to the strategy itself. For the action plan CLICK HERE
the "why"
The purpose of this podcast is to improve the lives of those who listen. An understanding of the life of David, of the God he served, can bring light, hope, and faith to the life of the listener. We want to broaden the audience of the podcast because doing so means that more people’s lives are enriched by the Word. They are also given insight into new ways to engage with the Bible, as it comes to life in a way that they may not have previously understood.
We want people to see the practical and spiritual value of increasing their understanding of David.
Goals
The overall mission is to maximize the potential for the podcast’s reach and impact.
Find, engage with, and grow the podcast audience
Find potential connections with other podcasts/media
Create and deploy a marketing strategy
Track process & gather valuable info for future podcast promotion
Current Position
Strengths:
- Connected to the global network of Congress WBN
- Established listenership through previous podcasts
- Positive word-of-mouth
Weaknesses:
- Difficulty standing-out in a large field of podcasts
- Limited series where most engagement is during period of releases (Once all the episodes are released, it may be difficult to create engagement)
Opportunities:
- Podcast at the intersection of faith and history; this is a unique an niche area
- Heavy research on David allows for a unique and comprehensive perspective; audiences haven’t seen David in this light before
Threats:
- Another David-focused piece of media could emerge, gaining popular attention
- The podcast could be ignored once all episodes are released
market analysis
Target Audience Profile
- Christian
- English speaker
- Possible interest in history
- 25+
Market Trends
- According to a report by Podcast Insights, the number of people who listen to podcasts has been steadily increasing over the years. In 2021, there were over 1.75 million podcasts and over 43 million episodes. The report also states that the most popular podcast genres are comedy, education, news and politics, society and culture, and true crime. However, religious podcasts have also been gaining popularity in recent years. According to a report by Edison Research, the percentage of Americans who listen to podcasts about religion or spirituality has increased from 9% in 2014 to 22% in 2020.
- Religious/Faith podcasts represent 16% of all podcast weekly listeners, which represent about 72 million people. To capture even 0.005% of that is 3,600. We aim to cut into that space and estimate that by implementing our marketing strategy, we can increase listenership to at least 1,000 per episode.
The Marketing Strategy.
objectives
Find, engage with, and grow the podcast audience
Find, engage with, and grow the podcast audience
Find, engage with, and grow the podcast audience
spotify
$100: Written Description
Writing and delivery of a new description (300 characters) of the podcast, for use on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and potentially the website. With account access provided, we can also upload to those locations.
$1,000: Audio Ad
Spotify has a minimum ad spend of $250 for their audio ads (this is included in our fee). We will write the 30 second ad, and have JB Shreve record the VoiceOver, along with testimonials from podcast listeners; this serves as an opportunity to establish expertise and trust in the podcast host. We will source and add the music and relevant sound design, as well as create the accompanying graphic design. This can also be converted to video for use on other social media platforms.
video
$500/Video
93% of businesses use video in their marketing. Most social media platforms emphasize and/or prioritize video since it is inherently more engaging than sound or images alone. We will create short form ‘snippet’ videos, and one ‘testimonial’ video to be used across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts platforms. To create these 1080x1920px videos we:
- Extract suitable audio clips from various episodes
- Source appropriate stock video and photography to accompany the audio
- Add sound design and musical elements
- Write descriptions including #hashtags
- Composite the elements together and post to the various platforms
We may request unedited audio files if/when selected clips have background music.
$500/Video + $610 16 posts (2 months)
In addition to the videos produced we also recommend bi-weekly posts for the next two months (16 posts, 1080×1080 px). Quotes taken from the podcast, with relevant background photography. The text will be kinetically animated, in a simple style, to capitalize on Instagram’s new preference for video. Quotes and captions would be designed to encourage engagement and commentary; This would also ‘fill-out’ the posts section of the profile, which lends further credibility to the podcast.
$70: Instagram Account Connection
Facebook will mirror the Instagram posts and stories.
$100/month
Meta offers the ability to hone-in on the target audience, using the videos created to draw people to the website.
Youtube shorts
$500/Video
- The short clips used for TikTok and Instagram can be uploaded as Youtube Shorts.
- Community posts can be used for notifications about new podcast episodes
education
$36/hr: Research and Communication
We see an opportunity to connect with educational institutions that teach/talk about David. This could be Christian homeschool networks (likely high school age), Bible schools/colleges, private Christian schools, etc. This requires further research, with no guarantee of results, but has high potential for increased listenership.
As discussed a devotional or study guide to accompany the podcast would be of great value.
We will reach out to various educational institutions, though having an outline of what the study will include might help us better sell the idea.
bible apps
$36/hr: Research & Communication
The development of a Days of David reading plan, with scriptures that accompany each episode; This will be designed to be a daily devotional.
JB Shreve would be responsible for the selection of the scriptures, while GUMBO will be responsible for the communication and implementation of the plan.
website
$108 initially; $36/hr
- Connect website to social media pages
- Connect website to Patreon
- Create popup email sign up
engagement
$36/hour
We want to engage with our audience when they engage with us. That means liking and responding to comments quickly after they’re posted. This service includes the writing of canned responses (approved by the client), and individual responses (also as approved by the client).
Conclusion.
$1,600: Spotify + Video
We recommend beginning with the Spotify package and one video. We capitalize on Spotify being the primary listening platform, while also being able to promote the website. We also want to gage the ROI of the videos before further investment.
The Educational and Bible app routes will require some further investigation before we can key-in on the ideal strategy. That said, we believe those two avenues offer the next best opportunities to grow the audience.
Get in touch with us as to how you’d like to move forward, and we’ll get back to you asap with details and a contract.
Thanks,
–The GUMBO Team