Episode Summary
Podcasts have become content powerhouses for marketers and businesses of all sizes. And they are a great way to deliver engaging and educational content to your ideal customer. But some podcast creators and marketers tend to get stuck in a rut and one way to get out of it is to change the format of your podcast.
In this episode of the Recorded Content podcast, our co-founder Tristan Pelligrino talks about the many different podcast formats that are popular right now and how they can help you freshen up your entire content strategy.
Guest Profile
Name: Tristan Pelligrino
What he does: He’s the Co-Founder of Motion
Company: Motion
Noteworthy: Tristan is also the co-host of the Recorded Content podcast
Key Insights
- Your company’s podcast can have many different formats. Podcasting is a great way to drive engagement and connect with your audience through personal conversations and educational interviews. But if you keep on doing the same routine interview episodes, your listeners may lose interest. Tristan suggests exploring different types of formats.
- I think of a podcast as a way to power your marketing flywheel. Your podcast is a conversation flywheel that helps create audio, video, and written content around your ideal customer. But even though marketers get a sense of how a podcast can drive their overall content marketing strategy, some still get stuck in a rut with one single podcast format.
- What’s the difference between a podcast format and a podcast structure? Even though structure and format are often used interchangeably to refer to how your podcast episode flows, they are two different concepts. Before you decide on the right format for your podcast, you should understand the difference between these two. Tristan explains: Your podcast structure refers to how your podcast episode unfolds for the audience. Think of it as a meeting agenda or a story. Sometimes it can be rigidly scheduled and sometimes it’s a little looser to allow for a more natural conversation. On the other hand, a podcast format is really the vehicle you use to convey the information. Your company’s podcast may have a co-hosted format, a round table format, or some sort of hybrid format.
- The right podcast format is the one that brings your team’s strengths into the spotlight. There are six major podcast formats right now. When choosing the right format for your company, start by identifying your team’s biggest strengths. Tristan says: I believe that the type of podcast formats you use for your company’s show largely depend upon the strengths of your own team. If you have a single host with deep subject matter expertise in-house, then you may want to take some chances with a solo podcast. But if you have talent that’s more comfortable with a co-hosted show, then explore a type of format that highlights the rapport of both of the hosts.
Episode Highlights
Podcast Format 1: Industry Expert Conversation
This is a show involving a single host and a guest. It’s a very common way to build a foundation for your company’s show and this is where a host invites an expert from their industry to have a conversation. And this is where you uncover insights around how your guest overcame a specific challenge.
Podcast Format 2: Panel Discussion or Round Table Scenario
The panel discussion podcast format is similar to the industry expert conversation. However, a host involves the perspectives of a few different guests. The purpose of this format is to capture stories from a few experts at the same time and perhaps get the guests to interact with each other during the recording session.
Podcast Format 3: Internal Conversation with Your Company’s Subject Matter Experts
One of the most common drawbacks of a standard interview show is that your company’s host doesn’t really get an opportunity to provide their own perspective unless they fit it in during the conversation. So unless the host is interjecting quite a bit, it can be a challenge for listeners or viewers to really get insights specifically from the company. But a conversation involving internal subject matter experts helps your company communicate its point of view.
Podcast Format 4: Solo Story
While guests and stories are key aspects of a podcast, listeners also come back because of the host. An interesting, engaging, and curious host can be the difference between a successful podcast and just another failed experiment. If you’re lucky enough to have a consistent, dedicated podcast host, consider the occasional solo episode.
Podcast Format 5: Reflection or Remix Episode
Listeners love storytelling podcasts and one of the main ways a company can build more storytelling within their branded podcasts is through a reflection or remixed episode format. The reflection format provides the host a chance to build a narrative around segments from older podcast episodes. By telling an overarching story and weaving in segments from previous episodes, the host can sell them a more dynamic story.
Podcast Format 6: Live Event with a Q&A
Using an event as a foundation for a podcast episode is also a good forcing function. If you’re spending all of this time building the event strategy and coordinating the event itself, then why not get more out of the content by sharing it with others in your community.
