Essential Podcasting Tips

Regardless of what type of endeavor you’re engaged in – from running a company to writing books – starting a podcast is a terrific way to boost your audience, followers, or customers. But you need to connect somehow.

Just ask Plurawl, producers of a Hispanic podcast as well as having their own clothing line, who lean in to a specific demographic and create podcast content that they care about. This is but one example, but as recent studies have shown that over 55% of the U.S. population listen to podcasts, it would almost be foolish not to get in on what could potentially be a massive audience.

Nevertheless, podcasting is a skill, and a skill which is likely to be quite distinct from whatever business or cultural endeavor you are primarily engaged in. This means there are few skills to be learned and a few tips to be followed if you want to make it a success.

How to Podcast

Podcasts also vary a great deal, of course, and they can coveranything at all. Nonetheless, just as a company needs to target a market, a podcast needs to target an audience if it’s going to be successful. And with podcast audiences as varied as the podcasts themselves, that’s a lot to have to deal with and consider before success comes along. It wouldn’t be correct to say that this is easy.

What is easy though is making a start – but you still need to do it right. All you really need is the right equipment and an internet connection. But there’s no need to get the top-of-the-line equipment right away. A decent video camera and microphone is the place to start, so first thing to do is make this small investment and get started. Thenit is all about growing your audience.

Podcasting Tips

The first step towards growing your audience is always to cover the basics, which do not vary from podcast to podcast. Afterwards, you can start doing the more specific things which are connected to the type of podcast you have and the type of listeners who tune in. This is a topic for another article though.

Starting with episode one, here are the fundamental tips:

Make Attractive Content

A podcast is a non-starter if the content is poor. The competition can be very intense, and the number of podcasts out there is testament to how easy it is to get started – and how hard it is to stand out.

Be Heard

Just like the radio, a podcaster needs have a good voiceand be able to speak well. The trick is to take advice from the world of motivational speaking and learn how convey your thoughts and ideas in a way that fosters a connection between you and the listener. High quality audio is fairly essential, so invest in this sooner rather than later

Build a Backlog Before Launch

A good practical tip is to build a backlog of episodes before your launch so as to give you a grace period in which to focus on promotion and spread your podcast far and wide.

Build a Brand

Finally, you should treat your podcast like a brand. Make sure it is easily identifiable (wrap your podcast in an intro and outro) and spread it as far and wide around the internet as you can. The typical business advice about brand identification certainly applies here.

This is all you need to get started and to make it through the first couple of weeks or months. If all goes well, the time to take a step up or fall back will come along sooner than you think.

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