After a company records its first podcast episode, I often get asked, “What did you think?”
And I used to stumble through some feedback. I picked a few things that stood out to me when listening to or watching the episode.
But after a period of time, I realized I wasn’t helping customers that much. It’s not that the points I identified weren’t helpful. It’s that the entire feedback loop wasn’t constructive.
I realized the feedback process had to be more actionable. And I realized there had to be a way to incorporate feedback so your company’s podcast improves.
And so, I started to use a simple, five-part framework enabling teams to get better feedback and incorporate adjustments after each podcast episode. This feedback loop has helped me — and the companies I work with — make much-needed improvements to our podcasts.
Here’s a breakdown of the key steps to improve your company’s podcast after each episode:
- Analyze the content of a previous episode
- Assess the performance of the host and guest in a past episode
- Analyze the quality of the audio and video files
- Review the distribution of a previous podcast episode
- Prioritize adjustments to make with your next podcast episode
Analyze the content of a previous episode
The first step to improving your company’s podcast starts with an analysis of the content within a past episode. And I don’t just mean the topics that were discussed. I also mean the structure of the episode, the transitions, interview questions, and the overall flow.
You can assess the content of a podcast episode by doing a quick gut check yourself. But I also recommend going a step further with some specific questions in mind.
Analyze the objective of your episodes
I strongly believe every podcast episode your company produces should have a clear objective.
And this objective should be something more than just “deliver value to the listener.” That’s a great goal. But it’s too vague.
Instead, you need to get more specific. For example, if you’re interviewing a customer on your B2B podcast, your objective might be to provide listeners with actionable tips on how to use your product to solve a specific problem.
This objective should guide everything else in the episode — from the introduction to the questions you ask your guest.
So when you go and review a past episode, see if you can clearly state the objective based on what was finally released to the public.
If you can’t clearly state the objective of the episode, it’s likely your content isn’t focused enough.
Analyze the structure of recent episodes
Your podcast needs a clear episode structure to keep your audience engaged. Without structure, you lose your audience because the episode never seems to reach a conclusion.
For the most part, a podcast episode needs to have a beginning, middle, and an end. It sounds simple, but many podcast hosts just jump on the mic and chat.
If you do that, your audience can get lost.
So when you go to review recent podcast episodes, map out the flow of the conversation.
Was the conversation structured in a logical way for the viewer/listener to follow along?
Did the conversation focus on a core conflict?
Did you reach a conclusion and help your audience?
Evaluate the quality of interview questions
Asking great questions is one of the best ways to produce a high-quality podcast episode. And your goal should be to ask questions that help you fulfill the objective of the episode.
But you also want to keep things interesting for your audience.
That means you might want to avoid yes or no questions. And you want to ask specific questions to help your audience.
When reviewing the quality of your interview questions, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Were the questions specific?
- Did your questions tie to the objective of the episode?
- Did you ask enough questions to provide sufficient background information for your audience?
- Were there follow-up questions to gather more detail?
Identify the key takeaways/lessons learned and determine if they’re valuable to the audience
Your audience should be able to identify the key takeaways or lessons learned from each episode.
If they can’t, that’s a problem.
When evaluating the content of your podcast episodes, determine if the key takeaways are valuable to your audience.
You can do this by going through each key point and asking yourself, “So what?”
If the answer to “So what?” is clear, then you likely have a valuable take away for your audience.
But if the answer is unclear or nonexistent, then you likely need to adjust the content of your episodes.
Assess the performance of the host and guest in a past episode
Assess the performance of the podcast host
After each episode of your company’s podcast, take some time to evaluate your performance. What went well? What could be improved? What did you learn? An honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses will help you grow as a podcaster and improve your show. Some things to keep in mind when assessing your performance include:- Did you prepare enough for the episode?
- Did you ask enough questions to keep the conversation going?
- Did you provide enough value to the audience?
- Did you sound interested in the conversation?
- Did you keep the conversation on track?
- Did you satisfy your own curiosity or were there gaps?
“As weird as it sounds, sometimes you have to critique yourself, too.”
Tricia Ruiz
Content Manager
Anteriad
Review the interactions between the host and guest
Your company’s podcast should be a conversation, not an interview. And that means the interactions between the host and guest should be natural, not forced. When reviewing your interactions with guests, ask yourself:- Did the conversation flow naturally?
- Did the conversation seem like a Q&A or was it more like a true dialogue?
- Did you allow the guest to speak or did you talk over them?
- Did you ask enough follow-up questions?
- Did you challenge the guest when necessary?
Review the guest’s responses
Your company’s podcast guests are a key part of your show. They provide valuable insights and perspectives that your audience wants to hear. So it’s important to choose guests wisely and prepare them for the show. When reviewing your guests’ responses, ask yourself:- Did the guest provide value to the audience?
- Did the guest stay on topic?
- Did the guest ramble?
- Did the guest offer helpful insights?
- Did the guest provide concrete examples for listeners to learn from?
Want to see how other B2B marketers get the most from their podcasts?
Recorded Content is a show for small, scrappy marketing teams who are looking to launch & grow a successful B2B podcast. In each episode, we provide stories on how to overcome the challenges of launching, running and growing a show. We tackle issues with technology, content marketing, distribution and more. We help you become a B2B podcasting hero with an amazing show.
Analyze the quality of the audio and video files
The quality of your company’s podcast is important. After all, you want your audience to be able to hear and see your show clearly.
When reviewing the quality of your podcast episodes, ask yourself:
- Is the audio quality clear?
- Is the video quality clear?
- Is the audio level consistent throughout the episode?
- Is the video quality consistent throughout the episode?
If you answered “No” to any of these questions, it’s time to invest in some new equipment. Or it’s time to learn how to use the equipment you have more effectively.
When recording a podcast remotely, a lot of the quality comes from your environment. If you record in a large open room with hard surfaces, it doesn’t matter what type of microphone you get. The sound won’t be great.
Furthermore, if you use a basic webcam on your laptop, the video quality will only be but so good. If you want to look better on camera, then you have to level up your camera, lighting, and recording software.
Review the distribution of a previous podcast episode
Once you review an episode of your company’s podcast, take some time to review the distribution of the podcast episode.
You can do this by first looking at the number of downloads and the performance of the full video on Youtube.
Then, you can review how social posts performed. Analyze which posts performed well and which posts did not.
When reviewing the distribution of your podcast episode, ask yourself:
- What social channels did we use for promotion?
- Did we use engaging visuals?
- Was the title “catchy” or was there a better title that could’ve been used?
- Did we repurpose soundbites for social media?
- How was the text content that accompanied each post? Did it help your audience?
Answering all these questions will help you assess the distribution of your podcast episode and identify areas for improvement.
Prioritize adjustments to make with your next podcast episode
The best way to get better at podcasting is to solicit feedback from both your team and your audience.
Your team can provide feedback on the content and performance of the podcast, while your audience can provide feedback on the overall production and distribution.
When you elect to make a refinement to your company’s show, don’t try to do too much at once. Based on my experience, I believe it’s helpful to adjust one thing during the recording session and one thing in post-production or distribution.
After you make an adjustment, get some more feedback and rinse/repeat.
Podcasting is an iterative process.
And the only way you get better is by making small adjustments over time.
Written by Tristan Pelligrino
Tristan Pelligrino is the Co-Founder of Motion. He’s a serial entrepreneur who started his career as a consultant with large IT companies such as PwC, IBM and Oracle. After getting his MBA, he started and grew one of the fastest video production companies in the country – which was listed on the Inc. 5000. Tristan now enjoys leading the content marketing strategies of some of the most innovative B2B technology companies in the country. You can find him on LinkedIn and Facebook.
