Are you ready for your podcast to stand out on Apple and Spotify? It all starts with the cover art. 

Today, I'm sharing the do's and don'ts of podcast cover art so you can design something that makes you stand out from other shows and gets listeners to click on your show instead of somebody else's.

Why does your podcast cover art matter so much?

Why is your cover art so important when you're trying to attract new listeners in the podcast player apps?  

Your cover art is like the cover of a book. It can make someone click or scroll right past your podcast, and our goal is to make them click on your podcast so they can fall in love with you and become one of your new listeners.

When you're in a podcast player app and you're searching for a marketing podcast, you type in marketing and you're going to have all of these shows come up. 

And what you want to do is you want your cover art to stand out from everybody else's so that your eye is immediately drawn to your podcast cover art and it makes somebody want to click on it and listen to your show versus the show that shows up right next to yours.  

One thing to note is you want to make sure someone can tell by your cover art what your show is all about. 

So, how do we do that?

Here are design do’s when it comes to your podcast cover art

You want to keep your podcast cover art clean and uncluttered. 

Have your design be simple.

You want to make sure that it's easy to read your podcast name and it's not cluttered.

When it comes to fonts, you need to make sure that the font you choose for your cover art is legible in a small thumbnail size. 

One of the key things to remember is that in those podcast player apps, your cover art is a very small square and you want to make sure that you're using a bold simple font.

We don't want to use any thin or italicized fonts or anything in cursive. 

Cursive is really hard to read in those small squares in the podcast player apps.

You want to have a strong visual when it comes to your podcast cover art. 

Use a high quality image or graphic and you want to catch the person's attention in the player app.

Avoid using selfies in your cover art. 

Should you put your picture in your podcast cover art?

When it comes to having your image on your podcast cover art, there's two thoughts. 

Either have it or don't have it. 

Despite what other podcast coaches will tell you, I'd like to see your image on your podcast cover art because it's a connection point. 

If I'm looking at two shows and one does not have the podcasters image on it and the other has it then I may gravitate more towards the one that has the image on it because it makes it more human and personal. 

It's more of a connection point. 

It feels a little more authentic seeing somebody's picture on their cover art.

Plus, I like to see who's talking to me. 

Common mistakes when designing podcast cover art

Don't have a ton of clutter on your cover art and by clutter, I mean you have an image, you have your title, you have waveforms, you have a microphone, you have all the things!  

Waveforms and microphones really aren't needed on your cover art because people know it's a podcast because they're listening to it on a podcast player app.

It's really not necessary unless you're trying to fill a small space in your cover art.  

So, the goal is to keep your cover art simple. 

I know it's hard sometimes because we want it to be this really fancy cover art, but really simple is best.

When it comes to the photo you use on your cover art, I always tell my clients not to use a selfie.

 It doesn't tend to translate well into podcast cover art. I've had hosts that have tried to use selfies and they just don't look great on cover art.

You want to use images that are nice and crisp, maybe a headshot, something from a branding shoot you did, and then make sure that the image you choose makes sense for what your podcast is about. 

Here is a quick story about one of my clients.

I use a graphic designer for all of my clients' podcast cover art. 

I had a client that had uploaded all of her branding images to my designer.

The designer chose an image because the client had not told her exactly what image she wanted to use. 

She just uploaded everything and said, “feel free to use anything”.  

Well, at the end of the day, it wasn't a “feel free to use anything” because the client came back and  said “that doesn't really feel like it fits my brand anymore. It doesn't feel like what I'm going for for my show”. 

So when you're choosing your images make sure that you're choosing images that really convey what you're trying to come across in your podcast cover art.

How to design your cover art like a graphic designer would

Have your podcast name be the most prominent thing on your cover art. 

A thick font that's easy to read. 

Nothing italicized. 

Nothing cursive.

Just  a nice bold font for your cover art and have their image on it.

If the background is going to be dark, have your fonts be a light color.

If your background is light, have it be a dark color. 

You want to make sure there's enough of a contrast between the background and the color you chose for your font so that it doesn't blend into the background and it stands out.

Make sure you have a nice crisp photo on there and don't clutter it up with waveforms and microphones and things like that. 

As hard as it is sometimes you just really want to try and keep your cover art simple and convey what your show is about and have people click on it. 

So, the whole goal of your cover art is to entice people into your show so that they want to listen.

Your cover art is many future listeners' first impression of your show and sometimes it's really hard to get listeners, if we can pull them in with our cover art, that is key number one.

If you're looking for a step by step guide on how to launch your podcast with ease and simplicity grab my free Launch Your Podcast Roadmap in the description below.

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