Podcasting is a powerful way to connect with your audience, showcase your expertise, and grow your brand. But how do you plan and produce a podcast series or season that aligns with your goals and audience needs? In this article, you'll learn six steps to create a podcast content strategy that works for you and your listeners.
Before you start recording, you need to have a clear idea of why you're podcasting and who you're podcasting for. What are your objectives, values, and messages? Who are your ideal listeners, what are their challenges, and how can you help them? Knowing your purpose and audience will help you craft your podcast name, description, format, tone, and topics.
Podcasting has proven to be a game-changer for our clients when it comes to fostering B2B relationships. They utilize this medium to connect with prospects from companies they seek to deepen relationships with and partners they are already aligned with. These conversations could focus on discussing recent whitepapers, and upcoming campaigns, or even be recorded from exhibition booths at events they are sponsoring. The beauty of podcasting is its ability to facilitate authentic and engaging conversations that can unlock future business opportunities, and create meaningful content that resonates with their audience.
We know that content marketing is a long game. After you identify and connect to your audience you need a plan to grow. To get ad consolidation companies interested, aim for 5k-30k views per episode. But first, reach out to companies that relate to your podcast. Don't wing it and just hope for the best - The bottom line is to establish an effective strategy early. Avoid wasting time, effort, and money by planning ahead. With a solid plan in place, you'll be on your way to hitting those view goals in no time. Proper prior planning prevents pitiful performance. Cheers!
This is the teaching I started with three years ago. Starting with your 'why'. Yes, it's essential to understand your 'why' and your audience. It’s a good grounding point, but it’s not where the magic happens. Understanding your 'why' and audience is just step one in podcasting. In this crowded space, successful podcasters take a dynamic approach, continually adapting their 'why' and understanding of their listeners. It's about evolution - your purpose, audience, their needs, and your responses should evolve together. The magic isn't in knowing your purpose and audience, but in continuously rediscovering and realigning them, breathing life into your podcast.
I am the competitor for most who do job search podcasts. No BS Job Search Advice has been on since 11/2010 and more than 2700 episodes. I started it as a way of fostering trust because I understood that everyone hates recruiters and I was different. Now as a job search coach, too many people who don't know a tenth of what I do call themselves coaches and cheat people with bad advice. My show gives answers to people about how to job search and about the many situations they are unprepared for as a job hunter where they are at a disadvantage. Although I did interviews for years, I found a lot of the advice my guests gave was mediocre and I did too much prep reading their books for the value they brought. Trust your gut about what's right.
Once you have a general idea of your podcast theme and audience, you need to do some market research. What are the existing podcasts in your niche, and how are they performing? What are their strengths and weaknesses, and what gaps can you fill? How can you differentiate yourself from the competition and offer something unique and valuable? Use tools like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser, and Chartable to find and analyze podcasts in your niche.
Also, check the individual podcasts in your niche for their most recent episode. If it was released more than a year ago but is still coming up top in search, you have a great opportunity to steal their audience. So many niches have lots of podcasts in them, but the vast majority have podfaded. You only have to look in the stats in the Podcast Index to see that.
Next, you need to decide how you're going to structure your podcast series or season. How many episodes will you have, and how long will they be? Will you have a consistent format, or will you mix it up with interviews, solo shows, stories, or Q&A sessions? Will you have a recurring theme, or will you cover different topics each episode? How often will you release new episodes, and how will you promote them? Create an outline or a spreadsheet to organize your series or season plan.
Please don't put your podcast into seasons. That is all. (Unless you're doing batches of episodes on a specific story within a wider topic - in which case I'll allow you to do it in seasons. Otherwise, keep it episodic.)
Now that you have a plan, you need to create your episode content. This involves writing your script or outline, choosing your audio equipment and software, recording your voice or interviews, editing your audio, adding music and sound effects, and exporting your final file. You also need to create your episode title, description, show notes, and artwork. Make sure your content is engaging, informative, relevant, and consistent with your brand voice and style.
After you create your episode content, you need to publish and distribute your podcast. This means choosing a podcast hosting platform, uploading your audio file and metadata, submitting your podcast to directories like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher, and creating an RSS feed for your podcast. You also need to create a website or a landing page for your podcast, where you can showcase your episodes, collect feedback, and grow your email list.
Finally, you need to measure and optimize your podcast performance. This means tracking your podcast analytics, such as downloads, listens, subscribers, ratings, reviews, and retention. You also need to monitor your audience feedback, such as comments, emails, surveys, and social media mentions. Use this data to evaluate your podcast goals, identify what works and what doesn't, and make improvements to your podcast content and marketing.
If you're not accessing Apple Podcasts connect dashboard, and the Spotify for Podcasters dashboard, you should be. The data you can get from these tools is unmatched by any podcast hosting provider. Also, Amazon Music and Google Podcasts offer similar podcaster dashboards.