Before You Start a Podcast, Consider This
With 80,000 podcasts launching every month, everyone’s making a podcast.
Original photo by Olena Sergienko
You’ve listened to every episode of Tim Ferriss, Planet Money, Unlocking Us, Call Her Daddy—whatever tickles your Airpods—and you’re ready to tell your story.
You’ve read that podcasting is pretty easy (at least, compared to video!).
Conveniently, you already have editing software downloaded onto your computer! (It came free with the Macbook).
Although it seems as deceptively simple as opening up Audacity or Garageband, dropping in a trending song from TikTok, and plopping down a Blue Yeti on your desk, producing a great podcast requires a little more thought.
The most beloved shows are well-planned, well-produced, and well-promoted.
So, before you even think about hitting record, take a good look in the mirror.
Ask yourself:
Why are you doing this?
Are you making this podcast to entertain? To educate? To inform?
How do you want people to feel when they listen?
Is your podcast a dialogue between you and your listener? Or is it a lecture?
Will your listeners feel like flies on the wall, or like they’re developing an intimate friendship with you?
Figuring out the answers to these questions now will help you make production choices once you actually get into the editing phase.
Who will listen?
Back in 2009, if you made it, they would come. If you release a new show in 2021, you’re competing with ~80,000 other podcasts landing in Apple Podcasts every. single. month.
You can publish, tell all your friends about it, bribe them into leaving good reviews, and you still might not make a ripple.
Enter: The Four Magic Ingredients
Making a podcast is like baking bread. Deceptively simple, but so easy to get wrong.
Sure, bread takes just four basic ingredients—flour, water, salt, and yeast—but anyone can tell the difference in quality between a crusty artisanal sourdough and a squishy, expired Dempsters in one bite. And let me tell you, the first five minutes of your podcast are the equivalent of that bite.
A successful podcast launch relies on four magic ingredients:
Right time
Right content
Right people
Right message
Time - When is the right time to hit publish?
There’s a right time to launch, and there’s a wrong time. If you try to compete with global events, you will lose. Don’t publish on major politically-charged days, like election day, unless you make a daily news or current events show.
Society and culture podcasts flatlined over the last year, while news and current events podcasts (especially ones offering COVID-19 news and views) spiked. It doesn’t mean you have to make a news or current events podcast, but don’t try to compete with what’s going on in the world; just plan around it. You can make the world’s most special podcast, but if people don’t know it exists (either from lack of promotion or getting smothered by the 2020 news cycles), it won’t gain traction.
You can release your podcast any day, any time. The choice is yours! Weekdays often perform better than weekends. I recommend releasing either early morning or late evening, so people know when to update their podcast apps.
Audiences love predictability. It helps them build listening into their daily routines. So, stick to your release cadence—publish on the same day, at the same time—and remember that iTunes considers a podcast inactive after about 28 days without new episodes.
Content - What should my podcast be about?
The podcast market is a pretty saturated one. You want to make sure that your podcast is hitting just right by tapping into an unfulfilled need. Survey the landscape: pop in your topic into Apple Podcasts and see what comes up. Listen to those shows!
What are they doing right? Where are they missing the mark? That’s your niche!
Here’s a simple way to brainstorm concept ideas after you’ve done a little market research into what already exists.
1. Is there a need for a podcast about topic A?
2. Is there a need for a podcast about topic A for B audience?
3. Is there a need for a podcast about topic A for B audience that’s C minutes long?
If your podcast idea is too broad, it’ll be difficult to market, because you won’t be able to differentiate yourself within the landscape.
So, using my handy guide below, you can start to narrow down your podcast concept until it’s super granular.
Here are some examples of weak vs strong podcast concepts.
Example One:
finance podcast ☹️vague, dime a dozen
10-minute finance tips for new moms 🌈specific! searchable!
Example Two:
Healthy living podcast 😰so what? everyone’s got one now
45-minute guided meditation for men 🔥niche!
People - Who should I have on my show?
Is it your story to tell? Are you the best one to tell it? Does your host bring the correct energy to the show? Are these guests helping further the narrative? Will your guests help promote their appearance on the show? (Do you need them to?) A great way to decide on a potential podcast guest is to check out other shows they’ve been on, and see how they sound.
Make a list of your dream podcast guests - and then underline who’s actually bookable for you right now. Whose contact details do you already have?
Message - How will I promote my show?
Medium posts, Instagram Reels, newsletters, ad buys on other podcasts, paid posts in Facebook, Twitter threads, cross-promotion on other podcasts… whatever you do, don’t publish and then sit quietly!
Let people know where they can listen, how they can listen (especially for less tech-savvy generations), and when they can listen—it should be ridiculously easy for an interested listener to play the episode they want to listen to. I have much more to say about podcast marketing strategies, but I’m saving it for my next blog post.
Closing Thoughts
Sidebar, but I just accidentally typed in clothing thoughts, which is a great podcast name imho.
As a takeaway to this blog, remember this: before you launch, you have all the time in the world to plan.
But once you’re in production, you only have the time between banked episodes to develop new ideas and strategies.
So take the time to plan now, and you’ll be saving your future self from stress!
Happy podcasting 🌈🌈🌈
