Are you thinking of creating your own podcast? Great!
I personally see lots of businesses launch podcasts and then abandon it after a few episodes as they either find it a time burdon or cannot see any immediate results. You have to remember that a podcast is a top of funnel activity so you may not see results from the podcast but increases elsewhere.
Here are a few tips to consider when throwing ideas around…
Decide on who you are making this podcast for!
When I meet a new client, my first question to them is “who are you making this podcast for?”. After it’s been asked, I immediately get the response of “our audience”. Ok, well, that’s great, but an audience is made up of lots of different people at different points of their career, different interests and challenges. So, then, what groups of your audience within your audience are you specifically going to be speaking to? What do you know about these people already? Have you collected any data and analytics on them already? A nice little obvious tip which you could do is actually pick the phone up or create a survey to actually ask these guys whether they listen to podcasts, would they have time to listen to one if you were to create one and what they’d expect you to do if you were to do one.
What is out there presently?
Take some time to look on Google, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and your competitor sites to see what content there is out there presently. What type of podcasts and videos are there within your subject field? Are there any patterns between them in terms of production quality, content and time? Is there something a little different? Can you answer who they are hoping to listen? Doing a little bit of research like this will help answer some questions.
Resources!
So, by now, you are probably bursting with ideas. However, can I stop you in your tracks. This is crucial. What resources can you dedicate to the ideas you have already? There is no point making something which will take a day to produce every week if it will disrupt your everyday tasks. You need to know what you can do internally, what will need to be freelanced out and what regularity this podcast will be. Will it be daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.
Production
I’ll come on to talk about consistency in the next tip but here I’m wanting to talk to you about production. By now, you’ve determined a lot of factors and your ideas are taking shape. So it’s at this point you can start to decide where are you going to record the podcast. Perhaps you have you got a broom cupboard which you can deck out in soundproofing? Is there a local studio? Then it’s about looking at equipment. You want to make sure you can achieve the best sound possible so do not scrimp and save on microphones and recording equipment. If you are then to choose to have guests on the podcast episodes then it’s determining who these guests are and where are they situated. Will you get them to join you for a face-to-face chat or will it have to be done via a VoIP. Will you have music running underneath. There are lots of factors to bring into this but decide early on and stick to it for a certain time period.
Consistency
When you start a podcast and people start finding it, they will start to fit it into their everyday habits. Perhaps you’ll become part of their commute or perhaps something to listen to on a lunchtime walk or as you hurry between meetings. You need to remember this. If you are aiming at making a 30 min podcast, try and make them all 30 mins. If you release it on a Tuesday, always make sure you release it on a Tuesday at that time. If you have certain music within the show, then stick to that. People are creatures of habit and do not like surprises. By maintaining consistency you’ll notice those figures going up and up. Trust me!
I hope these points have helped you gather your thoughts and start to develop a manageable roadmap forwards.
