As a small business owner, starting a podcast is a great way to gain visibility for your brand and to build trust with your consumers.
In the U.S. alone, more 100 million people listened to podcasts in 2020, representing a 54% increase in only three years. That presents a pretty massive audience for you to tap into. After all, having a podcast with even a few hundred listeners puts your business in the ears of a strong pool of qualified leads.
And best of all? Podcasting has a pretty low barrier to entry. All you need is some hardware, some software, some interesting ideas, a little bit of savvy, and some elbow grease.
Here’s a top level look at the steps you’ll need to take to start your own.
1. Pick a Podcast Theme and Topics
When we say pick a topic, we’re painting in broad strokes. What we mean is that you need to decide what you’re going to focus on, who your audience is, and why you want to start your podcast.
Some people create “hobby shows” but, for our purposes, we’ll talk in the context of a business endeavor. So, think about who your target audience is, what questions they have that you can answer, and what challenges they have that you can help solve in order to promote yourself and your brand.
One smart way to do this is to create “listener avatars” that represent specific (albeit make-believe) members of your audience. Then, tailor your podcast to them.
For example, if you offer marketing services for B2B companies, consider how you could host a podcast that teaches people helpful tricks, tools, and strategies they can use to connect with their customers. Take that one step further by thinking about who exactly would listen, including their role, interests, and more.
Then, consider specific questions you can answer in-depth with each podcast episode.
2. Pick a Name
This is a critically important decision: deciding what to call your podcast. As a rule of thumb, we’d recommend choosing a name that applies broadly to your theme so that you can have a wider range of topics available to you that would fit under that umbrella.
One great way to get inspiration? Check out the top 100 podcasts in the U.S. to see what avenues other successful podcasters have taken.
3. Think About Cover Art and Intro Music
You’ll also need cover art for anywhere that your podcast is hosted, and we’d also recommend adding some intro music into your episodes for some added production value and to give it an element of branding.
For cover art, it’s worth looking into a graphic designer–even someone from Fiverr or Upwork–who can put something together for you.
And for music, there are tons of royalty-free music services out there that you can pull from (check out this list for some ideas).
4. Create a Podcast Calendar
It’s really smart to create a calendar for your podcast–one that tells you what episodes you’re creating, when they’ll be recorded and released, who’s in them, the status of each episode, and more.
This will help you stay both organized and accountable which will be worth its weight in gold when you’re in the midst of planning, scripting, recording, editing, and releasing your episodes.
If you’re looking for a free podcast editorial calendar template, you can find one here.
5. Get the Right Equipment and Software
You don’t need a whole ton of equipment to start a podcast, but it’s worth investing in some decent hardware to ensure your podcast sounds professional.
At the very least, start off with a decent microphone, like the Rode NT1KIT package.
It’s also worth ensuring you have some good headphones, like these Audio-Technica studio headphones.
Last but not least, you need to get set up with the right audio recording software. The right choice for you can vary widely based on your technological prowess, so we recommend doing some research of your own. But this list of the best podcast recording software is a good place to start.
6. Pick People to Interview (Or Not)
Once you’re set up and ready to record, it’s time to pick people to interview–or decide whether you’re going to record certain episodes solo.
Guest appearances can be a great way to add credibility to your podcast, but it’s not mandatory. If you’re going to bring on a guest, make sure they’re an expert on a particular topic and that they can lend some insightful and actionable takeaways for your episode.
7. Create Scripts and Interview Questions
Don’t try to record podcasts off the cuff. That’s a quick way to record a rambling and incohesive episode.
Instead, take some time to script out your podcast and to create some high-quality interview questions.
Your intro and conclusion are especially important to script, but remember that the best podcasts are conversational, so it may ebb and flow with each question you ask. Just remember to always come back to your script eventually.
Pro tip: When you’re writing your scripts, write how you’d talk. Make it conversational. Short, punchy sentences. Minimal jargon. You want people to feel like they’re in a discussion with you, not sitting in a lecture.
8. Edit Out the Unnecessary (Carefully!)
Once you’ve finished the interview, the real work starts: editing out superfluous portions and editing it all together.
Start by getting a very basic editing software. Then, assess what you want to keep, what you want to remove, and how you’re going to put it all together.
If this seems daunting, check out this comprehensive show editor’s checklist that can help give you some guidance and structure for the process.
Pro tip: Editing interviews requires some care. It’s important that you make sure you’re not cutting out or editing anything that provides valuable context or changes the way something can be perceived.
9. Get Transcriptions and Create Show Notes
It’s wise to get transcriptions created for your podcasts because it helps search engines to “read” your episodes and help them rank and be searchable. We’d defer to Fiverr again for some inexpensive transcription services. You may have to edit them a bit, but it won’t cost you much.
You should also include show notes that summarize what the episode is about and includes and links, resources, or references.
10. Start a Channel and Share Your Podcasts
One of the most important steps in this entire process is creating a channel (or channels) where you can host your podcasts.
The biggest and best known ones include Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but you can also leverage SoundCloud and a number of others (check out this list for more).
11. Host Your Podcast On Your Site
As much as it’s vital to have your podcast on the major streaming platforms, it’s only important to have it online on a domain of your own as well. This could be a page on your existing website, or even purchasing the domain associated with the name of your podcast. Either way, just make sure it’s available on a platform you own as well. There are a ton of tools you can use to embed your podcast onto your website.
Podcasting can be a labour intensive endeavor, but when you do it right, you’ll be rewarded for your efforts. It can be an incredible way to directly connect with your target audience in a meaningful and engaging way. And best of all, it can be used by businesses and professionals in almost any industry.
If you’d like to learn how a flexible office space can support the success of your business, get in touch with us today. Our team is available to speak with you.