Do you have a message you want to share with the world? Perhaps you want to spread your brilliance around to a larger audience. Maybe you want to make a difference to a specific audience, or grow your business. All of these are great reasons to start a podcast, but first you need to know how to create a podcast that grows your business and generates loyal fans.
How to Create a Podcast that Grows Your Business
These days anyone can do a podcast. All you need is a microphone or smart phone, a connection to the internet and voila..you can spread your brilliant message to the world. But if you’re in business, it’s important to have a podcast that represents your brand and your message, so you can generate leads, reach more potential customers, create valuable content and potentially increase your bottom line. But, like anything in business, there is a process to success. Quality trumps quantity. So unless you want to spend a lot of time talking to your friends as opposed to making the cash register ring, you need to learn how to produce a quality podcast that will generate loyal fans who could help grow your business.
This article is the first of a 4-part series on how to maximize your podcast, so you can grow your business.
Here’s the breakdown of what you’ll be learning over the next 4 weeks:
1 – Getting Started2 – Producing Your Show3 – Hosting Your Show4 – Marketing Your Show
The Value of Podcasting By-The-Numbers
I alluded to your “why” earlier, but in relation to your business it’s also important for you to get the numbers. How about the fact that according to Edison Research, as of 2012, 29% of Americans have downloaded a podcast. That’s close to 30% of all Americans! Now that was 4 years ago and only counted Americans. There’s a whole world out there that has access to the internet and you! Those are potential customers for your business.
Already have a successful podcast? Tell us your secret below!
On the left is a really cool info-graphic from CopyBlogger that puts some perspective on the history and the potential influence of podcasting. What I want you to pay attention to is the number of podcasts that are active now on iTunes – – 60, 000 since 2015! What does that mean for you? It means you’ve got some work to do to stand out and get your voice heard.
Who Am I?
Before we get to the meat-n-potatoes of getting started on your podcast, here’s some background on me so you know I’ve got some cred to back up my advice. I have spent most of my 30+ years in broadcast news as Producer, Writer, Reporter and Assignment Editor in both network and local news. Some of those include producing for NBC and CBS network News and the Today show; Producer, Reporter, Show Host for CBS Radio; and producer for local TV stations in Baltimore and Dallas. I am currently Content Manager at eWomenNetwork where I write these awesome blogs ;-), produce & edit videos, provide on-camera coaching for our Celebrity Science and Starpower VIP clients, and oversee and Host my own podcast, “Spotlight on eWomenNetwork,” on eWN Radio Network.
Getting Started
What do you want to accomplish with your show? As Steven Covey said, “Begin with the end if mind.” What is it that you want your listeners to gain from your show, and conversely, what do you hope to gain from your listeners? Do you want to generate leads, generate content that you can re-purpose on your website, Facebook page or LinkedIN? Do you want to target a specific audience? For example, our eWN Radio Network is a great place to host your show if you want to target women entrepreneurs and all they represent. Once you know the purpose of your show, then you can consistently build your show around that.
I recommend listening to other popular podcasts to see how they’re doing it. Click hereto link to Top 200 Podcasts active right now according to Podcast Chart. It’s a good barometer for checking out what you like and how to structure the format of your own show. Listen carefully to the Hosts and how they present themselves as well as conduct interviews. We’ll be talking about hosting and interviewing skills in Part-3 of this series.
Pick a snappy title. Choose a title that will draw in your targeted audience and peak the interest of listeners. We host our eWN Radio Network on BlogTalkRadio.com that has thousands of podcasts. Take a look and see some of the creative show titles they have there.
Create a cool show graphic. If you’re not a graphic artist, I would go to Fiverr.com and find someone there. Services start at $5 and go up depending on what you need. There’s lots of talent there and it won’t break the bank.
Buy some equipment.
Microphone – You don’t need to get too fancy here, however, you do need a good microphone that can connect to your computer. There are mics like the Blue Yeti that plug directly into your computer. Or, I have a standard broadcast mic called an ElectroVoice RE20 that plugs into a mixer, which is then plugged into a Focusrite interface box that connects my mic to my computer. It’s probably a bit more complicated than you need. Click here for a list of quality podcast mics from The Podcast Host that could help with your selection.
Headphones – You need to be able to hear your guest, if you have one, but you don’t want to listen through your speakers. The sound from the speaker will be picked up by your mic and create an echo.Create a show topic list. Ok, now you’re ready to begin. I recommend creating a list of subtopics that you can talk about. We’re just brainstorming here. Don’t think too hard. Just let the ideas flow. If you understand your main topic, which is your area of expertise, this should be easy. You could never have too many topics, because you never know how long you’re going to be doing your show.
Decide on the format of your show. Based on the podcasts you listened to, how do you want to format your show? For example, one of our eWN Radio Network hosts, Johnell and Michael McCauley, have a show called, “Turn Knowledge to Profit.” They break down their show into 3 different segments: 1. Trends and Insights, 2. Success Interview, and 3. Business Builder. Other hosts choose to focus on 1 topic throughout the show and interview one guest to support that topic. The way you decide the format of your show is to think of yourself as the listener. What would you want to listen to? How long would you want to listen for? As you can see in the info-graphic above, the average length of a podcast is 22 minutes. Coincidentally, that’s about the same length of your average 30-minute TV show without the commercials.
Break it down. Look at your show list and decide the content you want in each episode. Guest? No Guest? If a guest, who would it be? We’ll be talking about how to actually produce your show in Part 2, but this will help get your creative juices flowing.
Create your show brand. Now that you have a better understanding of your show, you can have a show-open produced. The show-open sets up your show for your listeners, so they know the premise of your show. Check out the show-open I made for my show, “Spotlight on eWomenNetwork.” If you’re on a limited budget, you may want to check out Fiverr.com to get a voiceover talent. As for music, there are several royalty-free music sites you can use such as Audio Jungle, Royalty Free Music Library, Pond5 and Digital Juice.
Choose a platform to host your show. We use BlogTalkRadio, because they push your show to iTunes and Stitcher to expand your reach. We also love that they give you stats on who is listening to your show, what device they’re listening from, comparisons from one time period to another and so on. There are other platforms you can peruse in this article from the School of Podcasting. However, if your ideal clients are women entrepreneurs, consider becoming a Host on eWN Radio Network, because we have a database and social media reach of about 500,000 women entrepreneurs. I’m just sayin’…
Ready, Set, Go!
You now have the beginnings of a brilliant podcast. Up next is “How to Produce a Podcast.” In the meantime, you’ve got plenty to do before you get into the nuts-n-bolts of producing your show.
and then Add to Home Screen.
