How To Get Your Podcast From An Idea To Launch
Is “Start a Podcast” on your list of things to do for 2023?
If you answered yes, your time to start planning your launch is now.
As a business owner looking to establish yourself as an expert in your niche, a podcast is a medium you should consider.
In my last blog post, Why A Podcast Should Be In Your Marketing Plan, I shared insight on how a podcast can help you build trust and personal connection with your audience. Your episodes can be repurposed in multiple ways across your social channels and you can align your audience with your business’s purpose leading to quality potential clients.
So now onto the how…
Planning is Key
Going in with a strong plan is the most important part of podcasting. You may have a fancy microphone and headphones to make the audio sound amazing but if you don’t have a good execution plan, you may not even make it past the first episode!
While you can get away with “winging it” in your launch, you’ll want to consider how consistent and successful your podcast will be in the long run.
The first thing I like to ask my launch clients is why?
Understanding your why, how you can impact listeners, as well as how it will benefit your business and fit into your content marketing strategy, will give you a greater chance of growth and success.
You can also download my free episode planner for solo and guest episodes here.
Nail The Basics
This is the piece where you’ll lock in the basic details.
To get your podcast started, you’ll need:
Your Show Name
Topic
Show Description
Host(s)
Structure - Solo, Interview, Mix of both
Podcast Duration
Ideal Listener
Who Is Your Ideal Listener?
Creating an avatar of your ideal audience will help you develop content that will attract and retain listeners.
To create your avatar, consider these few questions.
Who are they?
What do they do for work?
What do they enjoy doing?
What do they want to learn about?
Be Consistent
Get clear on when you want your podcast to be ready for listeners and create a season schedule. If you want to do seasons, you can choose to have 15 episodes and then take a break, whatever works for you.
My number 1 tip, regardless of the frequency or season schedule, is to be consistent. Figure out how often you can keep consistent with preparing new scripts, be able to edit and create social content etc. OR if you want to up the frequency, outsource these tasks to a podcast manager.
Spread The Word
Now you’ve got the basics sorted - your topic, audience, structure and schedule, it’s time to let the world know you’re going live!
The top 3 directories to submit are iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts. You’ll want to submit your podcast to all of these top directories as a starting point. Hosting platforms allow your episodes to be distributed on the directories where listeners might find your podcast. My preference for hosting platforms is Anchor, there are many out there with different pricing and benefits.
Optimising the user experience on your podcast website is really important to marketing a podcast to new listeners. It can mean the difference between them becoming a subscriber or never listening again. Your podcast homepage is a sales funnel. Although, instead of a purchase you want the site’s visitor to convert to a podcast subscriber.
Hot Tip: 65% of podcast consumption happens on a mobile device. Be sure to have your podcast homepage focused on being mobile friendly.
Leveraging your already established or growing community on social media is a no-brainer. However, only posting the link to your facebook page and hoping people will listen isn’t going to cut it - you’ll need to create a strategy to make an impact. You can repurpose the content in your episode to create multiple posts over your social platforms. Eg. Pull quotes from your episode and bite-sized teasers to hook your followers.
For more information on How To Get The Most Out Of Your Podcast, head to my blog post about repurposing your content.
So, if you’re ready to launch the podcast of your dreams in 2023, let’s chat!
