10 Steps to Successfully Launching a Podcast (For Beginners)

Whether you’re starting a new show or releasing a new season, it helps to have a checklist of important things to go through. This short checklist was created to take a lot of the guess work out of what’s needed to get a new show up and running.

[ ] Create a Show People Want to Listen to

Don’t worry about creating the perfect show for everybody. Get really specific about your ideal listener and create a show based around them. Create episodes around the topics and/or guests that they’re interested in. And don’t worry about fitting your show into a certain box. There’s no “right” type of show. So feel free to experiment with your length and formatting until you find something both you and the listeners enjoy.

[ ] Write Podcast Title and Description

Your show’s title should make it clear what the show is about. Survey your niche to get a sense of what keywords Use popular keywords and do your best to avoid branded terminology and inside jokes that listeners won’t recognize.

[ ] Pick Podcast Categories

You can pick up to 3 categories for your podcast. There are main categories and sub categories. These categories will determine where your podcast shows up in searches as well as rankings.

[ ] Create Musical Intro/Outro

This is where the fun really begins because this sets the tone for your listener - even before the host comes on. Think about the music that your ideal listener would have on their Spotify or Pandora and pick something similar. Maybe they’d enjoy something soft and “classic rock-ish,” or maybe your listeners are a little younger and may enjoy more of a hip hop vibe.

[ ] Create Transitions/Stingers

These are the short sounds that come in between segments. Just like brands have similar colors, fonts, and images - podcasts can create an audio brand by having similar sounds. We like to pick different parts of the song we use for the intro or even quick, short sound effects can be effective.

[ ] Create trailer/episode 0

Put together a short trailer detailing what the show is about or you can even just combine your intro and outro onto a single track. The real purpose you need this is to get your feed up on Apple and Spotify. They require you to submit some form of audio along with your feed, but you don’t need to have all your episodes ready to get your feed setup.

[ ] Create Cover Art

People absolutely judge podcasts by their cover. So make sure that you are conveying the right message and branding with your cover. If your personality is a big part of the show, you can include a picture of you. But you can also make the cover centered on the topic or theme of the podcast.

[ ] Setup your RSS feed/Submit to Apple, etc.

Once you’ve got all these, setup, you can setup your RSS and submit your podcast to Apple. It helps to submit your feed in advance of your launch because Apple has been known to take up to a couple of weeks to approve some shows but in most instances takes a few days.

[ ] Record 3 episodes

We recommend launching with at least 3 episodes. OF course you don’t have to, but giving your listeners a few episodes to binge right away can really help them become fans and it can also help to boost your rankings in the charts.

[ ] Write Show Notes

Show notes are an important but often forgotten part of launching a successful podcast. Effective show notes give your listener a better experience and also help your podcast to get discovered.

[ ] Schedule, Publish, and Launch!

Once you’ve done all that, you’re ready to launch! Get your network excited about your launch and secure an “advanced listener team” who are excited to listen AND leave a review on launch day. The more reviews and downloads you can get on launch, the better chances you have in getting into the charts!

After you do that, you’re ready to spread the word and get people excited to listen!

Feel free to bookmark this page or even print it out so that you can have it handy the next time you need it.

And please send it to someone else who’s thinking about starting their show!

See you next time!

Hector Santiesteban

Host of ‘Marketing Your Podcast’

Founder of Amplafy Media

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P.s.. If you want some ideas on how you can take your show to the next level, submit your info here and I’ll record a quick video with some ideas.