Starting a Podcast to Market Your Business
32% of Americans listen to podcasts at least once a month, and that number is growing.
You can find most podcasts easily for free on different platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
As a business, podcasts offer an easy barrier to entry, free marketing cost, and access to a wide audience for free.
The audio form of podcasts, today’s modern-day-radio, allows people to listen to your content as they go about their day, from doing daily chores, to travelling, or even exercising.
Are you interested in using podcasts to expand your business’s marketing reach?
It’s relatively simple to start a podcast and reach a brand-new market.
What you need to start a podcast:
1. Audio & sound equipment.
Get a microphone and find a place to record your podcast.
The Blue Yeti USB is a great starter mic and sells on Amazon for $99.99
Here’s a link to get the Blue Yeti on Amazon
Record episodes in a sound-proof room or quiet area.
2. Recording software.
Choose how you are going to record and edit your podcast.
Which software are you going to use to edit episodes?
Garage Band and Quicktime are free for Mac users.
If you aren’t using Apple, Anchor and Audacity are free as well.
3. Podcast hosting software.
After each podcast is recorded, edited and ready to go live, how will it be hosted and broadcast to your subscribers?
I recommend Buzzsprout.
4. Brainstorm content theme.
What’s the overarching theme or concept that will guide your podcast episodes?
People search for podcasts related to certain themes, topics or ideas.
What do you love to talk about?
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
What theme or idea does every podcast episode relate back to?
Will your episodes be conversational interviews, solo-shows, or tell a story?
What types of content will you produce?
Do you want your podcast to be helpful and informative, inspirational, practical, or conversational?
5. Set a publishing schedule.
How often will you publish podcast episodes?
You might also want to create podcast “seasons” where after you publish a certain number of episodes, your podcast takes a scheduled break.
Tim Ferriss is a very seasoned podcaster and he recommends starting with 6 episodes.
First of all, because it helps you get broadcast by iTunes and the other networks.
Also, the first 2-3 episodes are probably going to be time-consuming and frustrating as you are learning how to put together a podcast for the first time.
Doing 6 gets you passed the initial learning curve so you can decide truly if you enjoy podcasting and if it’s sustainable.
6. Create a podcast marketing plan.
After each episode is published, how will it be marketed?
Use these ideas to promote episodes and help with content exposure, SEO and authority-building:
Repurpose the clips from podcast episodes into Instagram reels, Twitter audio, or YouTube videos.
Podcast episodes are awesome content for everything else you are doing.
Highlights, takeaways, and time stamps from your podcast can be typed into “shownotes” to be published on your blog or website for SEO purposes.
You can also include links or resources mentioned on the podcast in your shownotes.
Create graphic images of inspirational or informative quotations from the episode and circulate them on Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter.
Interview other companies, businesses, or influencers in your industry and ask them to promote the episode when it’s live.
If they are somewhat new or up and coming, they would likely promote your podcast on their show if you promote theirs.
This can get your show into more peoples ears.
Add keywords and search terms to your podcast titles and descriptions so that people can find your podcast when looking up a topic.
Now is the perfect time to start reaching a new audience with a podcast.
Podcasting builds brand awareness and people that hear your voice will like and trust you more.
Don’t worry about being bad at first (it probably will be).
Just get started.
Thanks for reading.
Also, if you are interested in starting a profitable podcast, see my other post:
Setting up a Podcast that Makes Money
Please Leave a comment below and let me know you liked this post or what you would like to learn about.