Podcasting is something that every business should consider. It is a simple and effective way to put yourself and your business out there for more exposure. In this article we will get into specific reasons as to why you should start a podcast and how you can do so.
Benefits
Getting yourself out there is the main reason for you to start a podcast. If you have something you’re passionate about and want the world to hear it, start podcasting. It is more content for your customers who will then in turn like your business more and are therefore more likely to buy products/services from you.
If you are trying to reach new audiences, having a podcast is one way to do so. It is achieved through multiple ways. Firstly new customers will naturally hear about you through your podcast. Secondly you can grow your audience through guests. It is a good idea to have guests on. Even if you are planning to do a solo podcast, every couple episodes, it is a good idea to feature a guest. There are just too many benefits not to. If your podcast becomes a hit, the guest will come to you.
Becoming more relatable to customers is yet another thing that happens when you start your podcast. They get to know you as you are, not as a business. This is great as it will unlock another side of you to the customers.
Monetizing your podcast
There are three main ways of making money from your podcast. Sponsors, Advertisements and Affiliate Marketing, The first way of monetizing your podcast is through securing sponsors. Sponsor deals are when you sign with a company who then in turn gets to be affiliated with your business or project. They pay you an amount you agree on and in turn they get shout outs and more visibility from you.
The second way to get money out of podcasting is through running ads. This way involves advertisers paying you to put their ads in your podcast. So in the middle of the podcast, you have some sort of ad break where you shout out all your sponsors and ads.
Lastly, the third way of monetizing your podcast is through affiliate marketing. Once you become affiliated with a company, you receive a special code or link where you perhaps offer the customers a discount if they use your code/link. For every purchase made through your affiliate code/link, you receive a cut of the sale.
Content
When it comes to what content to use from your podcast, it should most definitely not be about selling our product. You can maybe look for a way to subtly mention it, but don’t turn your podcast into a sales pitch. A podcast is there to entertain its audience and not to sell your latest product.
The best thing to do here is find something that interests you, you have passion for and most importantly know a lot about. That way you know what you’re talking about and since it comes from a place of passion, it is going to be a lot more entertaining for the audience than something that you dislike.
For some episodes, finding content will be very easy, this is the case with guests. If you are planning on doing a solo podcast, you should bring on a guest every once in a while. It has numerous benefits including relatively easy access to content. You have another person there to provide content for you. With a bit of background research on what the guest does and who they are, the episode will write itself.
How often should you release episodes
Now that you know why you should podcast and what content to make, it is time to think about when to release your episodes. There are three main options to go for. Weekly, fortnightly and monthly. However, no matter what option you chose, it is important to be consistent and publish it on the same day each time.
Weekly is the most frequent out of all three of our options. It works well if you want to provide your audience with consistent content on a regular basis. If you are able to monetize your podcast, putting it out weekly will mean more money for you but at the same time an increase in production costs if you’re outsourcing the editing or an increase in the amount of time you need to spend editing it if you are doing it yourself.
The middle option is fortnightly so once every two weeks. This is a nice middle option as it does not overwhelm your audience with weekly content and instead they have something to look forward to every other week. It is also easier not to run out of content as you don’t have to record a podcast every week.
The last option to go with is monthly, this option will take the least amount of work, but will also result in the least amount of content for your audience as well as the least amount of money from sponsors, ads and affiliates.
It is also recommended that when starting out, you have at least 3 episodes ready and release them at the same time to give your audience a good amount of content.
Equipment
To get started on your podcast, it is vital that you have the right equipment. Luckily, podcasting doesn’t really require too much tech and can be done on a relatively low budget. Everything you need is pretty much a microphone and a pair of headphones. Everything else, such as pads on the wall for better sound quality are just luxury items to increase your sound quality. Don’t forget, all you need to start is any microphone you like and a headset.
Programs
When it comes to creating the ideal podcast, there are 3 essential programs that you should use to make your podcast as good as it can be.
After you’re done with your podcast, you must next upload it to every platform you want it to be available to listen to on. This includes platforms such as Spotify, Apple music amongst many more. So why do all that when you can just use a program which will do it all for you. Once you sign up to Buzzsprout you can then link all your other accounts to it and when that’s done, you just publish your podcast to Buzzsprout and let it do the work. It will spread it around to every account you have linked.
If you’re trying to save money and edit your own podcast, Audacity should be your go to editing software for sound. It’s free, easy to use and all you need for the beginning. You can use it to level your audio, take out any background noise amongst other things that need to be done to make your podcast a pleasure to listen to.
The third one is not essential, but helps a lot. Having a good logo and art for your podcast will go a long way to making it look like something your audience will want to listen to. You can once again outsource this to a professional or you can do it yourself using Canva. Canva is a simple editing program that’s easy to use, offers you countless templates and stock photos that you can use to create the perfect logo and cover for every episode.
Hopfully you are able to see all the great reasons as to why you should start podcasting. It’s simple, effective and can be great for your business both from a financial side and from a customer relation side. If you still have any questions or would like to know more about how to get your podcast started, don’t hesitate to reach out.