To maximise the reach of your podcast, it’s essential to consider your target audience, including podcast listeners, whether you’re new to the medium or an experienced creator. Here’s what you need to know about making the best one possible that works for you.
Starting a marketing podcast is not the most challenging thing, but it takes some planning to succeed. This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating a marketing podcast that resonates with your audience and helps you leverage the power of social media channels.
Choose The Topic For Your Podcast
It would be best to decide on a topic you are interested in and one your target audience can relate to. Developing effective podcast marketing strategies is crucial for promoting and growing your marketing podcast. Creating relevant and exciting content for your audience may be the difference between success and failure. Plus, if you are passionate about it, the conversation and information will flow much more accessible.
It needs to be on a particular niche or topic that others will find as interesting as you do. Employing strategic podcast marketing tactics involves selecting a focused concept for sustained discussion and potential expansion as your marketing podcast gains popularity.
If you’re not interested in the topic, creating relatable and interesting conversions around it becomes very challenging; getting and maintaining a listener is essential; you work hard to bring their time to listen, and you want the message you’re conveying to be interesting and have them follow.
No matter your industry, there is a niche; however, you may need to be creative in your delivery to remain entertaining.
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Make The Name Interesting
Selecting a unique name for your podcast is essential to attract and engage your target podcast audience. It needs to be catchy and descriptive about what you’ll do in the show.
Try to think of a name that might be a little broader than the topic itself. Hinting at a broader subject allows you to expand in different areas and talk about practically anything you like that will interest your viewers.
For example, if you’re a Plumber in our Australian demographic, your audience is likely other plumbers or homeowners. Creating something using comedy or an edgier relatability would help build rapport early.
Something like “Get Piped” and “Plumbers Crack” is edgy but comedic to a demographic.
Think out of the box, discuss possible marketing ideas with family, friends or staff and gauge their feedback, but like any advice from family or friends, take it with a grain of salt; they may not be your demographic.
Plan The Format
Lots of podcasts “experts” will claim that a certain length will be perfect for your podcast episode.
That’s not true.
You do NOT need to create a 30-minute podcast because that might be the average driving time from home to work. Neither do you need to keep your podcast under an hour because viewers can no longer pay attention?
Five and ten-minute podcasts are hugely successful, and four to six-hour podcasts hold viewers’ attention for the entire show.
Decide on a time that works for you and stick with it. If it doesn’t work for some reason, you always have the option of changing it.
There’s one thing you must remember, though. Please do not make your podcast any longer than it needs to be. Stick to the topic at hand. If you think about going off-topic, save it for another show.
Cover Art
The cover art you choose will be the first impression viewers will see when deciding which podcasts to visit.
It will also be the primary impression someone sees when you share your podcast on social media, much like a business’s logo.
Hundreds of designers online can help you produce a draft of your final cover art. A couple of options for affordable designs are:
Check out other podcasts that stand out and copy their concept to make them your own. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but make your cover art your own and never plagiarise someone else.
Choose The Right Music
The right music will enhance the perceived value of your podcast and help make it stand out.
If you already have something you like, make sure you can use it legally. A full license is mandatory when you go live.
Services like Melody Loops offer hundreds of thousands of royalty-free music you can use for your podcast.
The site sets you up with a multi-use license, and it’s easy to download the background music you like at almost any length you need.
Select Good Equipment
Audio quality is essential for your podcast, and we have all listened to a podcast, TV show or even a phone call where the audio was poor; it’s a clear standout.
Start with a decent microphone, not the one that came with your computer or the one your grandma gave you she bought on eBay.
Check Amazon and their reviews to find a good quality podcasting microphone. You’ll also find a great assortment of podcast kits to make your home studio look and sound more professional.
Many better microphones have both a USB and an XLR connection, allowing you to upgrade your equipment later without needing to buy a new mic.
Guests
If you plan to do an interview show, put together a list of guests you would like to invite to your podcast.
Then, reach out to them to see when they can discuss the subject you’re interested in.
A good proposal is significant, come up with an attractive proposition and understand you’re taking their time; you’ll need to sell it as if you’re adding value to them and explain why this is good for your guests.
A guest host will ensure your podcast stays interesting to regular viewers and new visitors.
Pick hosts with a well-known name who will have something interesting to share with your audience. There’s an excellent chance that they will share your podcast with their audience and ensure that your podcast will pick up a larger social following. This is great to promote your podcast when first starting out.
Recording
- Warm Up recording a podcast episode requires some talking, but never go into your session cold. Warm up your vocal cords by practising your script. You’ll find this will improve your dictation and help to keep you from stumbling over unexpected words.
- Use a Small, Quiet Room — Record your podcast episodes in the slightest and quietest room possible. This will help you to reduce echoes and outside noises.
- Seal Yourself In — Close windows and doors and turn off any machines or devices that make even slight noises. Put pets somewhere else. Fill the room with delicate items like pillows and couches, and use carpet to muffle noise and absorb sound.
- Position the Mic properly — Set it at the same title as your mouth and place your chair back a few inches. Always use a pop filter and adjust it to get the right volume level.
- Watch Your Volume — Monitor your volume levels while recording. Keep it at a normal conversational tone, and avoid distortion.
- Breathe Properly — Control your inhaling and exhaling to stop any big gusts of air from being recorded. Sit up straight and take small breaths. Move away from the mic when you need to take a larger breath than usual.
- Stay Still — Don’t move around. Anytime you move, it creates background noise in your recording. Don’t let the mic cable rub against your shirt or collar. Keep your feet planted on the floor. Don’t move things around on the desk. Anything you move must be a silent process so the mic does not pick it up.
Editing
Use a digital audio recording and editing application like Audacity or Adobe Audition. These work great with both PCs and Macs. GarageBand is popular, but it only works on the Mac platform.
Once recorded, save your podcast immediately, and make a backup or upload it to the cloud to avoid lost or corrupted files.
Optimising your podcast for search engines, known as podcast SEO, involves editing the audio to enhance quality and ensure proper timing. Use headphones so that when you listen, you don’t miss anything.
Add in the music and interviews, and Re-record any parts that don’t convey precisely what you need to make the entire podcast entertaining and never boring.
The editing software can also be compressed and equalised, but be careful to try and make the result clean and not unbalanced.
As a final step, use Auphonic to apply some normalisation for loudness, levelling, and filtering.
Auphonic is an automatic audio post-production web service for podcasts, broadcasters, radio shows, and movies. It helps to improve the richness and volume of the user’s podcast audio production and is free as long as you don’t exceed two hours per month of processing.
Where To Publish Your Podcast
To make your podcast accessible to a wider audience, it’s essential to submit your podcast to various podcast directories.
There are several good ones, but Buzzsprout offers a user-friendly platform to manage your podcast and establish a strong social media presence.
For Mac users, Apple’s iTunes works well. Just click on Apple Podcasts under the tab for Directories and follow the steps provided.
Other excellent choices are Headliner and Wavve, especially if you want to customise your podcast videos for sharing.
Website Hosting & Design
Most podcast hosting companies will give you a podcast website, but you should consider WordPress, a separate host of severe users.
WordPress walks you through the process in simple terms and gives you a bit more guidance than other sites, which can be very helpful for beginners.
As a digital marketing agency, we offer web designs and landing pages that convert and can create a fantastic website to host your podcast and provide branding. Still, there are undoubtedly accessible and more affordable options available.
Podcast marketing in 2024 is more complex than ever, and it’s important to stand out and have a proper Podcast marketing strategy that’ll take you from zero to hero.
Transcriptions
Getting a transcription is an excellent way for Google and the other search engines to “read” your podcast episodes.
They will also help your audience look your podcast up quickly, adding one more avenue for viewers to find your podcast.
In addition to using services like Veed.io for transcription, it’s crucial to leverage the power of social media marketing to promote your podcast effectively. Buzzsprout also has a built-in transcription service when you opt for one of their paid plans.
Suppose you’re looking to take things seriously and take them to the next level. In that case, descript is the most powerful podcast audio editing and transcribing tool for video and audio. We use it and recommend it where possible.
Show Notes
Show notes can also be transcriptions, which is another way to get more viewers for your podcast.
Show notes are usually a simple summary of what one of your podcasts talked about or even a whole blog post designed to be read rather than listened to.
Once you’ve set up your show notes page, embed your episode code so viewers can listen directly to your website.
Let’s Start Your First Podcast Episode!
To maximise your podcast’s growth and success, consider utilising professional podcast promotion services to reach a wider audience.
We hope these notes about starting your podcast have helped you get started. Be sure to share this tutorial with others who might be interested in starting their new podcast! Remember to define your marketing strategy before you begin.
If you have feedback, want more information or have any questions, please let us know in the comments.
Brodey Sheppard
Brodey is the CEO of sitecentre®, leading his distinguished Australian digital marketing agency using data analytics and Artificial Intelligence in SEO and Paid Advertising. His adept use of machine learning and AI has gained industry-wide recognition, Brodey has received several industry awards for SEO, Web Design and business, including the Young Small Business Champion Entrepreneur 2023 award. With 15 years under his belt, Brodey is amongst Australia’s most influential digital marketers.
Find them on their website: sitecentre®.
