Podcast Storytelling: The Story Arc within the Hook Model to Engage Listeners

Today we are talking about how to infuse the Story Arc into the Hook Model and use these techniques when developing a podcast episode.

Let’s first start with the Hook Model.

The Hook Model is a four-phase process that businesses can use to create products or services used habitually by customers. The goal is to result in voluntary, high-frequency engagement. At its core, the Hook Model is about creating a customer habit. It also seeks to connect a customer’s problem to a company’s solution with enough frequency to make the engagement an ongoing practice. (https://www.productplan.com/glossary/hook-model/)

What does this mean?

1. Trigger – Notifications, SMS reminders, Email reminders, anything that will trigger the listener into action.

2. Action – Push Play and Listen

3. Variable Reward – Actionable Information, Entertainment

4. Investment – Time listening

5. Trigger – Like, Share, Comment, leave a review, etc.

One step farther

The Hook Model is a framework for creating engaging content that can be applied to writing a podcast episode script. It consists of four parts: the hook, the story, the offer, and the call-to-action.

1. The Hook: This is the opening of the episode that captures the listener's attention. It could be a surprising statement, a question, or an interesting fact related to the topic of the episode.

2. The Story: This is where you provide background information and context for the topic of the episode. It should be interesting and relevant to the listener.

3. The Offer: This is where you provide valuable information or insights related to the topic of the episode. This could be tips, advice, or a new perspective on the topic.

4. The Call-to-Action: This is where you encourage the listener to take some sort of action, such as visiting your website, leaving a review, or sharing the episode with others.

By following this structure, a podcast creator can write an engaging episode script that keeps the listener interested and wanting more.

The Story Arc

Podcasters can use the 5-element story arc, also known as the hero's journey when scripting an episode by following these steps:

1. The setup: introduce the main character and their normal world.

2. The inciting incident: present a problem or challenge that disrupts the main character's normal world.

3. Rising action: the main character takes action to try and solve the problem or overcome the challenge.

4. Climax: the main character faces the most difficult part of the challenge and experiences a turning point.

5. Falling action and resolution: the main character resolves the problem or challenge and returns to their normal world, which is now changed in some way.

I encourage you to put some thought into these uses for your episode preparation.

Join us in person or online for our presentation on “Podcast Storytelling: The Story Arc within the Hook Model to Engage Listeners” - https://sitchradio.com/events/

Industry News 

From Forbes.com written by Nancy Marshall

“Podcasting Is Growing For A Reason—Don’t Miss Out On That Growth”

“I’m just a small fish in a large pond, but you don’t need to have millions of listeners to make an impact as a podcaster.”

Link - https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2023/01/17/podcasting-is-growing-for-a-reason-dont-miss-out-on-that-growth/

From Bay Citizen.org

“Risk Management for Private Podcasting in 2023”

The root of this article it is explaining “Fair Use” for more information about Fair Use please visit - https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/what-is-fair-use/

For the full article - https://www.baycitizen.org/risk-management-for-private-podcasting-in-2023/

From Inside Radio

“Podcasting’s Growth Is A Having Spillover Effect On Radio”

The growth of podcasting and streaming audio and the adoption of smart speakers have advertisers paying closer attention to audio. While final figures have not yet been released, PricewaterhouseCoopers projected podcast ad revenues would top $2 billion in 2022.

Quote, Beasley Media Group CEO Caroline Beasley says her company has seen “increased programmatic and direct audio revenue due to this proliferation.”

Link - https://www.insideradio.com/free/podcasting-s-growth-is-a-having-spillover-effect-on-radio-industry-execs-say/article_3441aac6-9af8-11ed-9d8e-ff459341835e.html

From Morning Brew

“Spotify layoffs could spell trouble for the podcast industry”

I’m tired of the “Podcasting is in trouble” headlines especially when they are talking about Spotify.

I think the takeaway is in the business practices of some companies referenced at the end of this article.

“The podcast megadeals of the pandemic may have been premature—podcasting made up just 7% of total listening on Spotify in Q1 2022”

“Sirius XM and Amazon Music have also hit the brakes on pods, reducing signing offers and increasing their share of advertising revenue.”

Link - https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/spotify-layoffs-6-percent-podcasting

Links

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