Name, Artwork & Positioning

Three decisions to make before you record episode one. Get these right and your show has a fighting chance. Get them wrong and you’ll be rebranding in six months.

Naming Your Show

Two schools of thought on podcast names:

Searchable names include your niche keywords. “The Course Creation Podcast.” “Email Marketing for Creators.” “Teach and Profit.”

Brand names are personality-driven. “School of Greatness.” “The Tim Ferriss Show.” “How I Built This.”

Here’s the thing: searchable names work better when you’re small. Someone types “course creation” into Apple Podcasts and your show appears. Brand names only work if people already know who you are.

Recommendation: start searchable. Include your niche keyword. You can always rebrand later, and most successful shows do exactly that once they’ve built recognition.

Name checklist:

• Is it clear what the show is about from the name alone?
• Does it include a keyword your target listener would search for?
• Can you say it out loud without explaining it? (“Check out my podcast, it’s called…”)
• Is it under 5 words?

Cover Artwork

Technical requirements: 3000x3000 pixels, JPEG or PNG. Every podcast directory uses this image.

The critical detail most people miss: your artwork needs to be readable at thumbnail size. Podcast apps display your cover at roughly 55x55 pixels on phone screens. If your text looks like a blur at that size, you’ve failed.

Design rules:

• Bold, high-contrast text
• No more than 4-5 words on the art
• Dark text on light background, or light text on dark — no busy backgrounds
• Your face is optional but helps. Listeners form a parasocial bond partly through seeing you before they hear you. It’s why YouTube thumbnails with faces get higher click rates.
• Use Canva or hire someone on Fiverr for $20-50. This is not the place to spend weeks.

Don’t overthink the design. A clean, readable cover beats a “creative” one every time.

Positioning: The Most Important Decision

What makes your podcast different from the other 4.5 million out there?

This isn’t about being clever. It’s about being specific. Generic podcasts get buried. Specific podcasts find their people.

The positioning formula:

[Your niche] + [Your angle] + [Your audience]

Examples:

• “A show about email marketing for course creators who want to sell without feeling sleazy”
• “Video production tips for online instructors who hate being on camera”
• “Pricing psychology for knowledge entrepreneurs who keep undercharging”

Notice what these have in common: a stranger can hear the positioning and immediately know if the show is for them. That’s the test.

Where Positioning Shows Up

Your positioning isn’t just internal — it needs to be visible everywhere:

• Show description (the 4000-character description in podcast directories) — lead with who it’s for and what they’ll learn
• Episode titles — consistent naming patterns help listeners know what to expect
• Your intro — the first 30 seconds of every episode should reinforce positioning
• Social media bios — when you promote episodes, the positioning should be obvious

A Common Mistake

Course creators often want their podcast to appeal to “anyone interested in learning.” That’s not positioning — that’s the absence of positioning.

The smaller and more specific your target listener, the faster you’ll grow. A show “for course creators who want to use podcasting to sell more courses” will outperform a show “about online education” every time.

Not because the content is necessarily better. But because the right people find it faster, subscribe at higher rates, and tell their friends who have the same problem.

Specificity is a growth strategy. Use it.