Creating a top podcast

Concept

The importance of deciding what your podcast is about, why you’re making it and – most importantly – who you’re trying to talk to before you start recording cannot be overstated. Once you have those things in place, everything else – the name, logo, style, tone and episode length – will flow from there. Put the podcast before the brand: use the brand as a signpost to the podcast, rather than creating an hour-long advert for your products.

Knowledge leader

Podcasts are not effective as a direct sales platform; their role is more about increasing brand awareness and authenticity. As such, businesses should ensure the content they’re creating is an extension of their expertise in their particular field – which is also where their listeners’ interests lie. You must also differentiate your podcast from others in the market, whether that’s through the talent that you use, your guests or how the subject matter is presented.

Be consistent

The likelihood is that the people featuring on and producing your podcast will have full-time roles to perform away from the mic – so you must consider these demands when deciding how often the show will run. Creating great, engaging content is pointless if you don’t keep episodes coming on a regular and consistent basis, even if that means once a month. As with social media, don’t leave it to fester.

A social approach

On that note, platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn can give your content a major push. If you were promoting a thought leadership series for your CEO, you would rinse every last drop out of social media and email marketing to get in front of as many eyeballs as possible; therefore the marketing campaign for your podcast should follow a similar process to reach as many ears as it can.

Don’t scrimp

If you produce a podcast on the cheap, the final product will reflect that – the very opposite of what you are trying to achieve. If you invest so much in your visual brand – think logos and product packaging – why would you record your flagship show on your phone?

Hardware

With that in mind, sourcing a decent USB mic is vital and will hugely improve the quality of your recording. It doesn’t even have to break the bank: you can get them for under £100 apiece. Google ‘Best USB microphones’ and refer to the comparative review features in specialist tech publications for an up-to-date list of the options.

Recording

You can record a podcast remotely using the built-in recording function of apps like Zoom or Skype, but there’s a big problem with this: every glitch on the connection will end up on your finished podcast. Instead use a service that records the audio at each end then uploads it to a shared folder, such as Zencastr.

Editing

There are a couple of big – and fairly expensive – players in the world of audio editing, but for most podcasters Audacity is the way to go. This free-to-download, open-source software provides all the tools you need for simple and efficient editing once recording is done.

Location

The simple rule is to record in a room with the fewest hard, reflective surfaces possible. If you set up your mic in your kitchen or in front of a window, you will sound too echoey. You ideally want to be in a bedroom or a living room with carpet or a rug and lots of soft furnishing to deaden the sound of the room. If you are forced to place your mic close to a wall, just put a pillow or cushion between it and your microphone.

Hosting

Once you have your finished audio file ready to go, don’t just publish it on the company website and hope for the best. Platforms are available to host the file and push it out to all the major platforms for you – such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Castbox – but setting it up in the first instance can be fiddly so seek out assistance.