Audiograms are the most effective way to market your podcast or voice app (such as an Alexa Skill). Text-only posts on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook aren’t as effective as audiograms because text is a thinner medium and gives no preview of the content.

If you want someone to commit to clicking and consuming your content, let them know what they can expect by offering a preview in the same format as the content (in this cause: audio).

“Are Audiograms Effective?” – a clip from an interview with Emily Binder of WealthVoice on The Resilient Advisor Show on Financial Advisor TV with Jay Coulter.

For about a century, movie studios have advertised movies with trailers. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here: advertise your podcast by giving an audio preview. But make it move, because that’s what you’re competing with on social. Here, movement simply means captions and a sound wave.

Audiograms are the strongest type of social post for marketing your podcast or voice app. We’ve seen a 4x increase in engagement on social posts with audiograms vs. only text and a link.

Show, don’t tell. Check out some examples of audiograms below:

Audiograms promote your podcast or WealthVoice Alexa skill by sharing a clip and including either a podcast link (such as Spotify episode link) or instructions to 1-click enable your skill via your Alexa Quick Link.

When it comes to audio content like a podcast or video content like a YouTube video, showing through sound or visuals is the most effective way to get attention and engagement.

Attention is a scarce resource

Even ten seconds feels like a commitment when there is an infinite feed of FOMO-inducing content.

Decision-making produces some degree of anxiety because they involve calculation of risk and reward.

Clicking is a decision. You can reduce anxiety for your audience by showing them what they’re in for. If they like the audiogram (a clip of the longer content), they may just click to hear the full episode and subscribe to your podcast or enable your Alexa skill.

For podcasts, audiograms are the most effective type of social media marketing to grow your audience and engage listeners.


Jump to top 6 tips for marketing with audiograms

The Shure SM7B is the gold standard for podcast microphones. Looking for tips on easy podcasting equipment? Watch this video.

What is an audiogram?

An audiogram is a short video featuring audio from a podcast or video. The visual is usually a still image such as the speaker’s headshot or podcast logo with captions and a moving sound wave. Most audiograms are under one minute long because they first became popular as Instagram feed posts which have a 60-second limit. However, an audiogram can be as long as the length of a full podcast episode.

How do I make an audiogram? Free tools:

There are a few audiogram tools that are freemium SaaS (software as a service): they have a limited free service or a monthly subscription for more features, typically under $20/month. Two of the easiest audiogram tools include:

Steps to create your audiogram:

  1. Upload your audio (mp3).
    1. Choose an attention-grabbing clip.
    2. Start strong: make sure the first ten seconds are interesting or thought provoking or contain a tease of the juicy or helpful content to come.
      1. HOT TIP: At the beginning of the process, choose 59 seconds instead of 60 seconds because Instagram usually rejects full 1-minute clips that hit its max length for posts in the feed.
  2. Choose a design.
    1. Upload a graphic and/or edit the graphics and text within the tool (two tool options above). Use a free graphic design tool like Canva if you want to make it easy. (Get a free Canva Premium Element with this link.)
  3. Export and share: download your mp4 video and upload to social media.
    1. HOT TIP: Instead of manually uploading your audiogram to each social network, use a free social media scheduling tool like Buffer or Hootsuite and schedule the post for Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Audiograms are a slam dunk format for marketing your audio content, whether it’s a podcast or Alexa Skill. That’s why we provide custom audiograms for WealthVoice customers on our Platinum plan (request an invite to WealthVoice).


Examples of audiograms – Instagram podcast marketing:

6 Tips for Better Audiograms:

  1. Choose an attention-grabbing clip
  2. Edit captions to fix auto-generated typos
  3. Add the name of the speaker before the captions, like this: [SPEAKER NAME]:
  4. Include the moving sound wave but try to keep this element from overlapping other elements such as text or a face
  5. In the accompanying text post (tweet text for example), include a universal link to subscribe to the podcast. Tip: we like Plink 1-click podcast links.
  6. If you are promoting an Alexa app (such as a WealthVoice skill), include your Alexa Quick Link for 1-click enable