What technique or best practice should entrepreneurs keep in mind when they are launching a podcast?
These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year and have created tens of thousands of jobs. Learn more at yec.co.
1. Be a Guest on Other Shows
Building a podcast audience from nothing is a challenge. One of the most effective ways to get started is to be a guest on other podcasts in the same niche. Being interviewed, talking about your specialist subject, and sharing your experiences on relevant podcasts exposes you to an audience who are likely to find your podcast as interesting as those they already listen to. – Corey Northcutt, Northcutt Enterprise SEO
2. Tap Into the Knowledge of Experts and Influencers
If you’re just starting out and aren’t well known, it will take some time to convince people that you’re an expert. One way to fill the gap is to partner with more established voices. You could interview business leaders, authors and other influencers in your industry. Another option is to review their books and other content. Discussing their work is also a good way to make them aware of you. – Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting
3. Know Your Target Market
As with any marketing initiative, the key point is to know your ideal target market and create your branding, messaging and content around what your ideal target market wants to hear. So many businesses or personal brands forget this step and go straight to creating the podcast without doing the upfront research. – Jean Ginzburg, JeanGinzburg.com
4. Focus on Production Quality
Podcast competition is fierce, so you’ll want to make sure you invest in a base level of production to make your show sound credible. Investing in a microphone and basic sound balancing is key. Your show doesn’t need to be perfect, but make sure you have a good connection when you record. You should be able to find someone to do basic edits and upload your podcast for about $150 per episode. – Matt Wilson, Under30Experiences
5. Watch Your Voice
Our body language and facial expressions play a huge role in how we communicate with others. If you’re running a podcast, you have to step back and analyze your voice. Do you need to slow down your speech? Do your words sound crisp and clear? It doesn’t matter how interesting the topic, if your podcast voice is boring, consumers will not tune in. – David Henzel, LTVPlus
6. Be Consistent
With all the podcasts my business partner and I have been on, we have had time to ask hosts how they got started. They all said that consistent posting within a clear niche is how they managed to get ahead. It often takes over a year of dedicated work before the fruits of the labor emerge, but podcasting is still a fantastic way to either make a living or promote one’s own business. – Ismael Wrixen, FE International
7. Inform and Entertain
I’ve found that the commonalities in the podcasts that I listen to or have been a guest on is that they both inform and entertain simultaneously. Focusing solely on information will make your audience very niche and not attract a larger audience. Focusing only on entertainment has mass appeal but will eventually fade without staying power. Find the balance between educating and entertaining. – Joel Mathew, Fortress Consulting
8. Provide Distinct Value
Given that there are literally millions of options for listeners, you must ensure your podcast is highly valuable to a specific audience, for specific reasons. Just having a chat isn’t enough — deliver distinct value to a target audience with a branded voice, and create or deliver on the stated business goals for your podcast. Be distinctly valuable, or be silenced by the roaring sea of choices. – Magnus Simonarson, Consultwebs
9. Have a Marketing Strategy
“Build it and they will come” is not a concept that applies to podcasting. For you to reach a significant audience, you have to work hard on promoting each episode and building up a community. No guest will promote you to their audience unless they see you putting in an effort on your behalf to promote their episode. Most listeners stick around for more than one episode, so it adds up quickly. – Karl Kangur, Above House
10. Leverage Podcast for Link-Building
Maximize the value of your podcast by using it as a link-building strategy. If you become the go-to podcast in your industry and are able to attract subject matter experts, not only will increase brand awareness but also SERP rankings. Pitch your podcast the way you would your blog. – Chelsea Rivera, Honest Paws
11. Create Optimized Ads
Your podcast ads are invaluable for marketing purposes. You can promote a product, a new project or shout out someone deserving you know. It’s an opportunity to bring you closer to achieving your goals and growing your business. Take advantage of podcast ads by creating ones that are optimized for your target market and promote your content. – Jared Atchison, WPForms
12. Collect User Feedback
If you have an existing audience before you launch your podcast, ask them what kind of content they want to listen to and what they’d expect from your brand as podcast hosts. The best way to create content for your target market is by including them in the conversation, which you might as well do from the beginning. Ask them for topic ideas and opinions so you launch a successful first episode. – Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
13. Develop a Retargeting Strategy
When launching a podcast be sure to also create a process for distribution and reformat all of your podcast content for video, blog posts, and social media. Strategic retargeting broadens the impact of your content and brings in more listeners from a variety of existing platforms and it is incorporated directly into your brand’s total marketing. You can add this content to your existing calendar. – Matthew Capala, Alphametic