When I started my podcast years ago, I had three distinct goals:
- Authority – by interviewing leaders in my industry, I wanted to get my name known. It definitely worked and has led to some incredible opportunities – like helping co-host Dell’s Luminaries podcast which resulted in the top 1% of most-listened podcasts during its running.
- Prospects – I’m not shy about this… there were companies that I wanted to work with because I saw the cultural fit between my strategies and theirs. It worked, I worked with some amazing companies, including Dell, GoDaddy, SmartFOCUS, Salesforce, Angie’s List… and more.
- Voice – As my podcast grew, it provided me an opportunity to share the spotlight with other leaders in my industry that were talented and on the rise but not well known. I’m not shy that I want to make the podcast more inclusive and diverse to improve its visibility and reach.
That said, it’s not easy! Lessons learned:
- Effort – the effort to research, produce, publish, and promote the content takes much longer than actually doing the interview. So a 20-minute podcast may take 3 to 4 hours of my time to prepare and publish it. That’s critical time out of my schedule and has made it difficult for me to maintain momentum.
- Momentum – Just as blogging and social media work, so does podcasting. As you publish, you gain a few followers. That following grows and grows… so momentum is critical to your success. I remember when I had a hundred listeners, now I have tens of thousands.
- Planning – I do believe I could maximize my reach if I was more intentional in the schedule of my podcast as well. I’d love to develop a content calendar so that, throughout the year, I focused on specific topic. Imagine January October being e-commerce month so that experts were preparing for the coming season!
Why Should Your Business Start A Podcast?
Outside the examples that I provided above, there are some compelling statistics on podcast adoption that make it a medium worth exploring.
- 37% of people in the US listened to a podcast in the last month.
- 63% of people bought something a podcast host promoted on their show.
- By 2022, it’s estimated that podcast listening will grow to 132 million people in the United States Alone.
Businessfinancing.co.uk, a business finance, and lending research and information website publisher in the UK, does an amazing job at walking you through everything you need to get your podcast up. The infographic, A Small Business Guide to Starting A Podcast walks through the following critical steps… be sure to click through to their post where they add a ton of resources!
- Choose a topic only you can deliver… be sure to search iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Google Play to see whether you can compete.
- Get the right microphone. Check out my home studio and equipment recommendations here.
- Learn how to edit your podcast using editing software like Audacity, Garageband (Mac only), Adobe Audition (comes with Adobe’s creative cloud suite). There are also a growing number of online platforms and apps!
- Record your podcast as a video so you can upload it to YouTube. You’d be surprised how many people listen to YouTube!
- Get hosting specifically built for podcasts. Podcasts are large, streaming files and your typical web server will choke on the bandwidth necessary.
We have an in-depth article on where to host, syndicate, and promote your podcast that details all of the different hosts, syndication, and promotion channels that you can take advantage of.
Another go-to resource for me (with a great podcast) is Brassy Broadcasting Company. Jen has helped thousands of folks start and build their business podcasting strategy.
Oh, and be sure to subscribe to Martech Zone Interviews, my podcast!
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