Episode Summary
Podcasts can fuel your company’s entire content strategy. And more and more B2B companies are using them to give their brands a voice to connect with their audiences.
But podcasts created for your business require a lot of resources. Often, you have to combine the work of both internal and external talent. So, if you want to jump-start your podcast, you have to be willing to put in the work.
In this episode of the Recorded Content podcast, our host Justin Brown shares five key steps to get through in order to launch your company’s first podcast episode.
Featured Podcaster
- Name: Justin Brown
- What he does: He's the co-founder of Motion.
- Company: Motion
- Noteworthy: Justin is the co-host of the Recorded Content podcast.
Key Insights
- There are five steps to publishing a podcast. An effective and easy-to-follow process can make all the difference when publishing your podcast. Justin explains, "The process we outline below is based on the route that we've taken with nearly 50 other podcasts for tech companies. So here's what we're going to cover. Number one, plan your podcast. What will it be about, and who's going to be involved? Number two, record your podcast. What's the right equipment and tools for good video and audio quality? Number three, edit your podcast. How do you remove any mistakes or awkward pauses, construct a story, and add intros and outros and music? Number four, publish your podcast. Where will you store your episode so people can listen? And number five, promote your podcast. How do you get the podcast distributed to your audience?"
- Find a reliable resource to help you create a successful and high-quality podcast. If you want to create a successful podcast for your company, start by learning from other experts. Justin says, "B2B marketers on small, scrappy teams have to wear a lot of different hats. In order to get the best information, you rely on a combination of Google, communities, and your peers, but when it comes to producing a new podcast for your company, a lot of marketers find it difficult to find a reliable source. If you search on Google, you'll find a ton of resources for independent podcasters or hobbyists. If you reach out to your peers, you're going to find that companies are still trying to figure out the best approach to launch a business podcast."
- Consistency is key. There's no secret sauce to creating a successful podcast. The only key to success is consistency. Justin says, "It's not enough to start a podcast. The hard part of podcasting is consistency. A successful podcast requires more from your team — you have to put a consistent publishing schedule in place. If you release new episodes on a regular basis and constantly refine your approach, you'll find it much easier to attract new listeners and retain your existing audience."
Episode Highlights
#1 Plan your podcast strategically.
“What will it be about, and who’s going to be involved? Before you produce a podcast, it’s important to take some time to plan the show, and it’s way more involved than just designing your cover art. What topics are you going to cover? Who will be your target audience? Who’s going to be involved in the production? These are important questions to answer before you hit the Record button. Once you have a clear vision for the podcast, it’s going to be much easier to produce a high-quality show that people will enjoy watching or listening to.”
#2 Record your podcast using the right equipment.
“When producing a podcast for the first time, you can get started with your iPhone and AirPods. That’s probably not the approach I’d recommend for your company show. With a budget of as little as $250 to $500, you can get the recording equipment you need to produce a podcast with good sound quality.”
#3 Edit your podcast.
“First, remove any mistakes or obvious awkward pauses in the podcast interviews. For this podcast itself, recording directly into the camera, my team and I are going to have to remove quite a few ‘so it happens.’ Remove any filler words that are used too often, such as, um or ah. I am a sucker for using the word ‘like,’ and I think about it all the time and try not to. Number three, remove any background noise in each audio file, and use a noise reduction filter with your audio editing software. Number four, adjust levels of all podcast participants to ensure that there’s consistent audio quality across the board. Number five, add in that pre-recorded intro, which includes voiceover and intro music, and the outro to bookend the conversation.”
#4 Choose a hosting platform and start publishing your podcast.
“A podcast host is a service that stores your audio files and enables you to distribute them by creating an RSS feed to popular podcast directories like Apple Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify. There are a lot of great podcast hosting platforms out there. To be honest, most of them are gonna be just fine, but the two that we recommend most often at Motion are Buzzsprout and Castro. We use Buzzsprout for the majority of our customer shows and usually only recommend Castro if your company plans to provide a private podcast — a show that’s accessible only to approved subscribers.”
#5 Promote your podcast.
“Congrats! You prepared, recorded, and edited your episode. But now that you’ve created it, how do you get people to listen to it or watch it? There are a number of ways to promote your podcast and get the word out. When you produce a podcast for your company, we recommend a three-phased approach to distribution.”
