Podcasts are emerging as one of the most efficient tool for creating an original content and promoting your business across the internet. It looks like all you need is a mic, camera and interesting guest and you are set. Piece of cake, right? Well, this is somewhat true, but if you want your podcast business to flourish and differ from anything else on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify, you need a bit more than just that.
You might ask yourself: “What do I need to start a podcast?”
Well, Vuk and Ivan are our Middle East “change officers” with over a 100 podcast episodes under their belt and they have built their podcast by themselves. Now they are helping other to start their shows. We asked them to make a video tutorial in which they will explain how to make a successful podcast such as The Change Officer.
If you want to know how to create a podcast that will stand out, check out this video below. Contact us with any questions you have or any tips you would like to learn about podcast production.
Okay. Let’s get started.
There are plenty of reasons to start a podcast:
As our friend Gary Vee would say, today every company is a media company. Having your own podcast is certainly the easiest way of becoming one.
Learning from their own experience, Vuk and Ivan created 20 steps that will help you to create a successful podcast. Let’s dig into their insights!
Defining podcast concept starts from defining your most profitable buyer, and this is one of the key elements. Whether you are a startup, small business or a large company, define who your target audience is and design a podcast concept around them. The podcast concept should be relevant to your ideal customer. So if your most profitable buyer is a CMO in Real Estate industry from Dubai, then you want to design a podcast concept that will host those CMOs and share insights suited for the same CMOs.
There is no need to get cute and fancy here: just be direct so your most profitable buyer can understand what your podcast is about. Using our example of real estate CMOs, you can go for:
“The Real Estate CMO Show”
Simple, clear and straight to the point.
If you are starting a podcast that is region-specific, feel free to use the location in the name to help you further target your ideal listener.
Not completely sold yet? Well, here’s what Apple Podcasts has to say on the topic.
It’s important to have a clear, concise name for your podcast. Make your title specific. A show titled "Our Community Bulletin" is too vague to attract many subscribers, no matter how compelling the content.Pay close attention to the title as Apple
Podcasts uses this field for search.
Apple Podcasts
Some will say that this step is not important, but we couldn’t disagree more. Branding your podcast is crucial because you want to differentiate yourself in the sea of content across the internet. When someone is browsing through their social media, or through podcast platforms, you want to make sure that you will capture the eye and the ear of your listener. Get a professional designer to work their magic here!
Some of the key elements to keep in mind are:
Don’t search for “how to start a podcast for free”. It will not lead anywhere useful. You don’t have to go crazy here, but you don’t want to look or sound like an amateur as well. It’s okay to start with your phone camera, and then, later on, switch to a slightly better DSLR. Do a bit of research on a microphone selection. You can find some great options at very affordable prices. Also, you can search online for “podcast starter kit”. There are some great options bundled together that offer a lot of value for how affordably they are priced.
Once you recorded your episode, you will need editing software to put everything together into a nice episode. We recommend using Premiere or Final Cut, but you can also use any of the other NLEs out there if you are more familiar with those platforms. DaVinci Resolve is also a great option and there’s a free version that has many of the same features as the paid version.
When you start a podcast, you’ll need a place to store all the raw material and final videos that are going to come from your show. You don’t want grainy video and crackling sound: you want the highest quality. These files can be huge. We suggest creating separate folders in any cloud storage like Microsoft One Drive to hold your audio and video recordings, show notes, and blog posts.
There are lots of things to do about one episode of the podcast and you can easily get lost. That’s why you need a tool to manage the workflow of each episode that you produce. Monday.com is our pick, but you can use tools like Trello or Asana as well.
What we found is that setting up a step-by-step workflow in place and using one of these tools is the best way NOT to get overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to be put in place to continuously produce the podcast.
We divided our workflow into these 9 phases:
Tools like Monday allow you to get the tasks assigned between your team along with the deadlines so when you get to 100s of prospect guests in your funnel you don’t get lost in who was contacted, who wasn’t, which episode was recorded, published, promoted and what’s next.
Quite a straightforward job these days, right? You can use some of the free website builders WordPress or Wix and have a website in just a couple of days. Get a domain name that is as close as possible to your podcast show name so people can easily find it. Make sure that all SEO parameters are in place so you get good organic reach.
Be active on social media channels as much as you can. It’s simple as that. Go for:
This is a central place where you will host your podcast. From here, using the RSS feed, you’ll be able to publish your podcast on all the other podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify for audio content and YouTube and Vimeo for video content.
This step is probably the most important because the number one reason why most podcast fail is a struggle to get guests on your show regularly!
For this part, we found that LinkedIn works the best, but you can support it with email as well. For LinkedIn, usually, the best practice is: approach the potential guest directly with a simple message introducing the podcast and ask if they would be interested to join. Keep it simple and straight to the point.
To support LinkedIn efforts, and if you want to scale up the outreach, you can go for any marketing/sales email automation software that allows you to send bulk “personalized” emails. This means that you can upload a list of 100 prospect guests and send them all a personalized email inviting them to become a part of your podcast. You can also set up automatic follow up emails as well, but have in mind that people usually reply to a 2nd or even 3rd follow-up!
This is it! You made it, everything is ready for your first episode.
It’s best to start with at least 3 to 5 people that you already know. This helps a lot because it’s easier to start with someone that you are comfortable with already. Furthermore, it’s easier to get them on the show when you haven’t yet recorded any episodes.
These first couple of shows will be a great warm-up as well. In the meantime, start the outreach to new guests. These guests will buy you at least a month or a month and a half to get new guests in!
A key thing for a smooth conversation is to have the questions ready. This requires some preparation, but it is so worth it. Ideally, you already worked out a specific topic and talking points with each of your guests before it’s time to record your interview. Organize an introduction call and ask the guest to suggest a couple of topics of conversation. Then, based on those topics, develop a list of guiding questions that you can use during the interview. As a fallback, have a list of “questions for everybody” ready as well in case the show is scheduled at the last minute.
It’s always a nice thing to give something to your guest to remember you by. It’s also a good way to spread the word about your podcast. It’s always nice to say thank you and it’s always appreciated, but it’s also a good way to build a long-lasting relationship with your base audience and most profitable buyers.
You made it until here and now you need to mix it up into a nicely formatted episode. These are the things you have to pay attention to.
Opening title and closing title. These are the animated sequences with your logo and appear at the beginning and end of the show. Choose suitable music to follow the tone of your show.
On top of that, you need to add an Intro and Outro, scripted sequences that you say at the beginning and the end of the show. At the beginning, you usually say what the show is about and tease what we will discuss in this episode, and at the end, you create a call to action by asking listeners to Subscribe or Follow.
Once you have all the elements in place, using your editing software you can put it together and have your first episode of the podcast series. Congratulations!
You didn’t do all this hard work so you end up having only 1 piece of content! This is NOT how you become a media company. Go through recorded material and create as many pieces of content as possible!
This means:
But also:
This will help you communicate the episode extensively. From only one recording, you can get enough content for 1 or 2 weeks of active communication that helps you stay top-of-mind with your audience on all your social and content channels.
After the episode has been published, you want to make sure to send a thank-you email to your guest. This is best done if you put it as a step in your workflow to remind you. When sending the thank-you email, you want also to initiate the next step in this new relationship that you started building with your guest. That can be a casual catch up to continue the discussion from the podcast or a formal meeting to discuss business opportunities.
Create engagement on all video and audio platforms. You have to reply and engage with every comment that you get from your audience to stay relevant. Direct the audience to your website so you can create a remarketing database and keep following up with all new content that you produce.
Don’t forget that producing a podcast is a long-term investment, and the most valuable source of your lessons and insights will be your own experience and your audience. Film a lot, produce a lot, and listen to your audience!
This is the single best way of becoming a pro podcaster and getting the most out of your media channels!
Maybe this sounds like a lot to you as a podcasting newbie, but if you build a team that is passionate about podcasts as much as you are, it is going to be a very exciting adventure.
If you are serious about starting a podcast for your brand, make sure to watch the video Vuk and Ivan prepared for you and follow the steps. We can assure you that you will make it if you put in the effort!
In case all of these sounds overwhelming and you feel you won’t be able to pull it off on your own, we can help you. We have offices in Dubai/UAE and Singapore. Get ready for an amazing journey into the world of podcasts!
We can’t wait to see your first episode go live!
Good luck and don’t forget to have lots of fun!
