Podcasting is experiencing a revival or a rebirth. Back in 2005 when fatBuzz first produced our corporate podcasts, the process for capture and consumption was very clunky. Now, it is a fairly simple task to record content and an even simpler task to consume it.
If you read part one in our series, you’ll know how powerful podcasting can be. From broad listenership to longer attention spans, there are many benefits to creating a podcast.
In the second installment of our Podcasting 101 series, we’ll walk you through how to get started making a podcast for your brand or business and what you should be considering.
Target Audience:
The most important start to your podcast is understanding who your listeners will be, as this will affect all your other decisions.
If you have consumer personas for your company already, it’s time to review them. If you don’t have consumer personas, you should consider making them. As you analyse these, think about how audio might fit into that consumer’s life. When might they be listening? How much time do they have to listen? How do they find out about podcasts?
That will help shape your target audience and maybe it will define a new consumer persona or create a subset of existing ones that is reached through audio content.
Keep in mind, podcasts don’t need to be just for external purposes. Maybe your audience will be internal to the company. You could consider using a podcast to deliver newsletters and updates with the audience being your own stakeholders or employees. By using voice for these kinds of updates, it feels more personal than email.
Choosing Episode Topics:
Once your audience is defined, you should have a clearer idea of information they’re seeking and pain points that you can address through a podcast. This will be a jumping-off point for creating a list of topics that you can cover in your podcast.
Remember to always frame it as ‘what topics bring value to my target audience’ that way you don’t expand to have too many adjacently related topics.
If you have a brand community, it’s easy to just ask what the intended audience might want to hear about from your brand and develop more ideas from there.
Podcast Length:
Not only does should you consider the duration of each podcast episode, but the duration of the entire series.
Will it be a serial that goes on indefinitely? Are there seasons comprised of a certain number of episodes? Or is it a defined run of just a few episodes?
Length can be a powerful tool for framing and marketing the podcast, so consider if having a certain length matters to you. In last week’s blog, we mentioned Zendium Toothpaste’s podcast. They made the decision to keep episodes at a length that worked for the time you spend brushing your teeth.
This gave their podcast a built-in gimmick and a clearly defined time for consumers to listen that they may not have considered as a good podcasting time previously.
Is there an activity you want your consumers to listen during? Consider a length that matches that activity.
If you don’t have any other parameters to guide you, consider that for students listening to a lecture, the average attention span is often quoted to be 20 or 25 minutes. If you think about the average attention span for other types of media, many TV shows have 30 minutes episodes.
Episode Frequency:
The frequency with which you release podcasts can be determined by many different factors. As always, one factor is the needs of your target audience. But it’s also important to think about your capacity and what you can consistently deliver on.
Is releasing a podcast per day for one week ideal for you, or is one per week for 7 weeks better? Can you keep the pace of releasing a new podcast episode every day for any more than a week or will the idea fizzle and burn out?
Recording is only half the battle, as podcasts also need to be edited, so if doing all this work in-house seems daunting, consider using an agency to help out. With an extra set of hands, you might be able to produce your podcast at more frequent intervals. Find out more about podcasting services at fatBuzz and get in touch if you want to find out more.
Podcasting Styles:
Once you know what you want to talk about and who you’re talking to, choosing a style should be pretty simple! Here’s a few of the more common podcast style’s we’ve come across to give you a few ideas:
- Interviews
- Educational segments
- Improv entertainment
- News recaps
- Panel discussions
- One-to-one discussions
- Narrative shows
If you go for a style that requires guest interviews or multiple people, start putting names of ideal guests next to specific topics you’ve outlined. If you can’t think of achievable guests or groups for most of your topics, then maybe that isn’t the right style for you.
Each style will have its own pros and cons, so weigh those up! For example, groups can be more dynamic to listen to, give a platform to more voices and give you access to more networks. However, there’s also more potential for talking over people, losing focus in the conversation, and having to edit down the content to fit your timeframe.
Host:
Think about who will keep people coming back to your podcast for each episode. Is there someone you have access to who would be a big draw for the target audience?
Think about your internal resources and external resources for getting a host. If you don’t have much of a budget, an existing team member might be your best choice.
The choices for your host are endless, but make sure they have the right skillset for your podcast style.
Feeling inspired? Making a podcast could be a great move for your business, but it can also be a lot of work. fatBuzz can help you with creating and marketing a great podcast that is relevant to your brand. Get in touch to discuss your podcasting possibilities with our team.