After considering the benefits of refreshing your podcast branding, you need to decide when it's the right time to do so. Here are some suggestions!

A metaphor you could imagine is that podcast branding is like your wardrobe. When do you change what kinds of clothes you wear? You most likely do that based on weather, current styles, fit, and condition. You can think of your podcast branding in the same way!

What is “podcast branding”?

Your “podcast branding” is one or more features that uniquely identify your podcast. It's the first impression for new audiences, and it's how your loyal audience recognizes your podcast distinctly from others.

Podcast branding is more than only your cover art. It could be the logo inside your cover art (and that logo can be used for all kinds of things)—and a logo is difference from cover art. It's the audio and video elements you use throughout your episodes. It's your podcast description. It's in your repeated phrases. It's even in how you communicate and host your podcast.

A “branding refresh” would then be updating any or all of these elements, but keeping the core of your podcast the same. A “rebrand” would be if you change much more of your podcast, including what you talk about and whom you try to reach.

1. When your podcast significantly changes

All podcasts will change and—I hope—mature over time. But you might decide to significantly change your podcast in a short amount of time. For example:

• Niche/focus: instead of talking about cake-decorating, you switch to focusing on the business of cake-baking.
• Subject: instead of being a podcast about dating, you change it into a podcast about marketing and networking.
• People: you add or remove a regular cohost, or you change your target audience (while keeping the rest of your podcast mostly the same).
• Brand: you do more than only a “branding refresh” but a complete rebrand.

These and other significant changes are a good time to refresh your branding to make it match and support the new changes.

2. When your branding stops growing with you

Like with clothing, you might someday outgrow your branding. This isn't the result of an immediate, significant change (like #1 above), but the gradual process of how your podcast changes over time. So you're looking for something that fits better now and with the hopes that it will last for a long time.

Although not podcast branding, this is a big reason I'm rebuilding My Podcast Reviews and actually rebranding it this year. I currently refer to it by the codename “v2,” and it will be built on all-new code that will grow much better with the service, a new brand that will grow with the features, and lots of all-new features that will grow with you and your podcast! I hope you'll check out My Podcast Reviews and watch for v2 launching in summer 2023!<