Why You Need to Start A Podcast Today!

It’s no secret. Podcasting is the new blogging and there is no better way to build your audience, develop relationships with industry leaders, and establish your authority in your chosen space.

Whether you are a coach looking to scale your practice, an entrepreneur looking to grow your network, or hobbyist who is passionate about sharing your knowledge with the world, podcasting is the number one way to do this.

After I started the Ted Teo Business Show podcast, I was able to interview billionaires, shark tank alumni, and picked the brains of the best coaches for free. I am humbled by everything I have learnt from each episode especially since these opportunities would not be possible if I had not started my podcast.

These opportunities are right there for you to grab as well.

Step 1: Choosing The Right Podcast Niche For You

Finding the right podcast niche is one of the most important decisions you have to make for your podcast. Here are some steps you can apply to make sure that you choose the right one.

1. Pick a topic that you are passionate about – using your heart

The first thing you should consider is to pick a topic that you will truly enjoy. Building a successful podcast takes time, so your podcast needs to be on something that you will be happy spending time on and to hit record every week.

Avoid choosing a topic just because someone you admire has succeeded in it (or just because it looks easy) but you have zero interest. Not only will you be less likely to be able to develop a genuine connection with the listeners, you will also likely end up podfading (gasp!).

2. Make sure that there is longevity in the topic that you pick – using your head

Now that you have picked a topic that you are passionate about, it is also important to make sure that there is longevity in the topic you have chosen.

Take a pen and paper and start writing down as many episode topics that you can cover.  While there is no magic number of episodes topics that you need to be able to come up with, this exercise is meant to help give you a sense as to just how far you would be able to take the podcast topic you have chosen.

In general, you should be able to easily come up with up at least 10 to 15 episode topics. If you find yourself struggling to come up with topics to speak about, you should probably choose a different topic. Otherwise you might just find yourself out of fresh ideas shortly after you’ve launched your podcast.

3. Niching down your podcast topic

The last step is to think about how deep within a niche you can focus your podcast topic on. As podcasting is getting increasingly more competitive, choosing a clear and identifiable niche will allow you to provide a clearer value proposition to your target audience and ultimately find success. As they say, the riches are in the niches!

Write down the topic of your podcast that you have identified thus far. Next have a think as to whether you are able to go one step deeper into the niche.

A great example of an extremely well niched down podcast would be The Essential Oil Revolution Podcast with Samantha Lee Wright which has over 5 million downloads and is the number  1 essential oil podcast today.
Instead of creating a podcast that focuses on general health and wellness, Samantha made a conscious effort to only speak about health and wellness within the confines of essential oils. By going one step deeper in her niche, Samantha was able to clearly provide value to a specific segment of listeners (i.e. listeners who are interested in the beneficial effects of essential oils), and stand out as an industry leader with her podcast.

Repeat steps 1 to 3 (as necessary) to find a podcast niche that you are excited to host with a healthy list of podcast topic ideas within as tight a definable niche as possible.

Even if you have already started your podcast, you can always niche down your podcast as you grow. Communicate this clearly with your audience if necessary (especially if this means that you are rebranding or renaming the podcast).

Step 2: Deciding on Your Podcast Format

Once you have chosen a podcast niche that you are passionate about that you are confident will have a sufficient long pipeline of topics that you can speak about. The next step is to choose the format of your podcast.

As your chosen podcast format may influence the overall branding of your podcast, you should have a clear idea on your podcast format before you dive into picking your podcast name and designing the podcast art.

For example, you might not want to call your show “The Daily Musings” podcast if the podcast format you decide on is a weekly podcast instead of a daily podcast. As there are many steps that go into choosing a good podcast name (such as checking for domain name availability), it is best to avoid having to repeat the process because you the name you originally chose does not match your podcast format.

A podcast format helps give you structure your show, and helps your listeners understand what they can expect from you in each episode. Some important questions to consider when choosing your podcast format include:

• What style will the podcast be?
• How long will each episode be?
• How often will you publish an episode?

What style will the podcast be?

Your podcast style is often dictated by the type of content that you want to produce and landing on one should be relatively straightforward.
Popular podcast styles include:

(a) The interview podcast – where you (and your co-host(s)) interview an individual who can bring value and insights to your listeners.
(b) The solo/monologue podcast – where you share your expertise and stories in your chosen podcast niche. This is one of the simplest formats to start with and is one of the best ways for you to build a very intimate relationship with your listener.
(c) The conversational/roundtable podcast – where you and your co-host(s) sit down to speak about your chosen podcast niche, often with differing views. This format is popular amongst friends who are passionate about a common topic and have a great chemistry together.
(d) The narrative/storytelling podcast – where you bring a story to life for the listeners in a manner similar to an audiobook.
(e) The repurposed content podcast – where you repurpose content that you have already produced (such as a YouTube video), and upload the audio file as a podcast.

Whichever format you choose, it should be one that allows you to deliver the most value to your audience. You can also choose to have a mix of styles. For example, if you have a twice weekly show, you can release a solo monologue every Monday and an interview episode every Wednesday. Experiment what works for you and your audience.

How long will each episode be?

As general rule of thumb, your podcast should only be long enough to communicate the values bombs that you want to share with your audience.

If something can be said in 30 minutes, don’t drag it on to an hour just because you think that it is something that is expected of you. There is no magic number that you must hit.

When it comes to the editing process, always trim the fats off. If there is something that you find that does not bring value to your listener, don’t be shy to remove it if necessary.

How often will you publish an episode?

The answer to this question is whatever posting frequency that you can be consistent in. If you are keen on building an audience, you must post episodes consistently.

The more consistent you are, the better you will get at podcasting, and the larger your audience will grow.

Of course, life sometimes gets in the way. Remember to not be too hard on yourself and be open to switching your posting schedules to what works best for you (whether it is posting once every fortnight or a month).

At the end of the day, podcasting should be an activity that you enjoy as well. If posting a thrice weekly show is causing you to burn out, don’t be afraid to take a step back and recalibrate.

In fact this happened to me as well when I started my first podcast. For the first six months, I was posting new episodes thrice a week, all while still working as a corporate lawyer. It got to the point where it was taking a toll on me personally, and switching to posting only once a week every Monday was just the thing I needed to get back my groove and stay consistent.

Your fans want to hear you at your best, so find a schedule that works best for you, and let them know if it changes. Speaking from experience, they will be with you every step of the way.

Step 3: Picking The Perfect Name For Your Podcast

Picking your podcast name is tricky, but let’s work together to get it right!

The name of your podcast is essentially your brand. As it is the first thing people think of when they think about your show,  it needs to clearly reflect who you are as a host and what your show is about.

On a more technical point, it is also one of the most important factors that determine whether your podcast is searchable on a podcast directory.

In brief, podcast names can largely be categorised as follows.

 

Descriptive podcast names

If you are a new podcaster who is looking to build an audience from scratch, choosing a descriptive podcast name stating exactly what the podcast is about would be my recommendation.

Descriptive podcast names are ideal for new podcasters because they make it easy for your target audience to understand exactly what the show is about.

Descriptive podcast names also tend to be more search engine friendly on podcast directories, and this will give you a helpful edge on discoverability.

 

Creative podcast names

Creative podcast names when done well can be witty and able to cleverly reflect the podcast’s topic in an indirect, yet impactful manner. Creative podcast names can also leave a level of intrigue to a potential listener.

A famous example would be the 99% Invisible podcast which has an amazing podcast cover which reflects the name perfectly.

However, creative podcast names also run the risk of being too abstract which will end up alienating a potential listener who does not know what your show has to offer. If you want to use a creative podcast name, get some feedback from your friends and family to see if it is able to translate what your show is able to them before coming to a decision.

 

Personal brands

Podcasts named after a personal brand are great if you already have an established personal brand and want to leverage on the same. This therefore works particularly well for individuals who already have an established brand name. Great examples include The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and The GaryVee Audio Experience podcast.

One thing to note is that you will have to make sure that your name is part of the name of the podcast itself. Show names like “Great Interviews with Joe Rogan” may not be accepted by Apple.

Whatever you decide to name your podcast, it is ultimately your content that matters at the end of the day. Don’t stress out too much about the name because you can always rebrand/rename your podcast as you figure things out along the way (though it would of course be best to get it right from the start).

 

Here are some quick tips that you should also consider:

Make it short and sweet

When it comes to naming your podcast, the shorter your podcast name the better. Having a long podcast name creates several problems:

• It becomes harder to remember and say out loud – which can in turn affect word-of-mouth sharing.
• It becomes harder for you to fit your entire podcast name into your podcast cover art.
• The longer your podcast name, the higher chance your episode title will end up being truncated when it shows up in a podcast directory.

As a general rule of thumb, try to keep your podcast name to 4 words or less.

Keep it easily searchable

As podcast directors are ultimately search engines, bear in mind that having overly witty and creative podcast names may be less than ideal when it comes to discoverability. As podcast directories mainly look at what’s in your podcast name, the host name and episode titles, it will serve you well to have your podcast name search engine optimized to allow yourself to be found easily by your target audience.

For example, if I was looking to check out a fishing podcast, I would type in a keyword like “fishing” into my podcast directory and it will probably turn up shows such as “The American Fishing Podcast” or “The Fly Fishing Podcast”, but not “The Codfather Podcast”.

Check for duplicates

Before settling on a podcast name, make sure that no one else has beaten you to the punch. If there is another podcast that is already using your name, using it will likely cause confusion between listeners of both shows and may potentially even lead to legal disputes (whether for trademark infringement or otherwise). In such a scenario, it is also likely that the previous podcast may have taken the relevant website domain and social media handles which can be a problem as you grow your online presence.

So do a search on both your podcast directories (minimally Apple Podcasts and Spotify) and on Google to make sure that your podcast name is still available. Also play around with the arrangement of your keywords to ensure that there isn’t another show that is similarly named (for example, The Startup Stories Podcast would be very similar to The Startup Story Podcast).

If your podcast name has already been taken by another show, I would generally recommend going back to the drawing board and picking a new one.

If you are dead set on using it, check if the podcast show is still active. If it isn’t, you could perhaps try reaching out to the owner of that podcast for permission to use the name or to even takeover the show. Either way, it would be best to create a podcast is unique and not a duplicate of an existing show.

Avoid Keyword Stuffing

While keyword stuffing was possible in the early days of podcasting where one would try to rank in as many categories as possible, it is now a big no-no and can get your account removed from Apple.

An example of keyword stuffing could look like this

Wrestlers of America Podcast l Professional l Amateur l Independent Circuit l WWE l The Undertaker Fan Club

As suggested above, try to put your podcast name short and sweet with no more than 4 words. This helps to avoid any issues with keyword stuffing.

Avoid Explicit Words

Podcast names with explicit and offensive words are likely to be rejected by Apple, or worse removed in the future (after all your hard work). My advice would therefore to avoid using such terms in your podcast name.

Step 4: How to Write A Podcast Description That Gets You Listeners

Now it’s time to write a compelling podcast description that will get you listeners.  Apart from your podcast art and podcast name, potential listeners rely on your podcast description to decide whether they will want listen to your show.

As podcast listening is a zero-sum game (the average podcast listener only listens to 7 shows), it is critical for you to write a podcast description that is compelling enough for a new listener to decide to invest their time in you.

Unlike your podcast name which you should keep short and sweet (and avoid keyword stuff), the podcast description has more room for freedom for you to play with. You are therefore highly encouraged to take advantage of this by writing a podcast description that is keyword optimized. As your podcast description is part of your RSS feed, this means that the podcast directories will display your podcast description and rely on the same when sorting it for searches.

Here are my tips for a good podcast description:

• Write for humans: The best podcast descriptions are written for human beings. That means you should introduce your show (and yourself) in a manner that is clear and straight to the point as to how the show will address the needs of the listener. At its core, a good podcast description should help the listener understand why exactly they should listen to you.
• Don’t write for machines: While you are supposed to insert your relevant keywords into the podcast description, avoid stuffing them in for the sake of it. Not only is this a potential turn off for a human reader, search engines may also penalise you for this.
• Front-loading: Aim to front-load the most important facts about your show. Not only will this be more likely to hook potential listeners in, this is also where most of the attention is applied by the search engines of the podcast directories.
• Length: While you have up to 4,000 characters, that does not mean you need to use up every character. There is no ideal length for a podcast description and it should be only as long as it needs to be to get your message across. If something is not important, it is better to just leave it out.

To help you get started, you can use the following podcast description structure that can be broken down into three parts.

Part 1 – Raise an issue or topic that matters to your target audience

“One of the biggest challenges that digital entrepreneurs face today is creating an online course that stands out from the sea of noise that converts paying clients.”

Part 2 – Introduce yourself, the show’s format and posting frequency

“Join Sarah Marshall (multiple 7 figures online course creator) every Monday morning as she interviews successful digital entrepreneurs for their best tips that went behind their own online courses.”

 Part 3 – Explain who the show is for and include any keywords relevant to your show:

“If you are a digital entrepreneur who wants the best advice on building a successful online course, or if you are struggling to convert your target audience into paying clients, then this show is for you.”

The finish product will look like this:

One of the biggest challenges that digital entrepreneurs face today is the creation of an online course that stands out from the sea of noise that converts paying clients.  Join Sarah Marshall (multiple 7 figures online course creator) every Monday morning as she breaks how she interviews successful digital entrepreneurs for their best tips that went behind their own online courses. If you are a digital entrepreneur who wants the best advice on building a successful online course, or if you are struggling to convert your target audience into paying clients, then this show is for you.

As you can see, a great podcast description is easy when you know the fundamentals. With just a few targeted sentences, you can craft a unique podcast description that will hook in potential listeners.

Step 5: Creating Your Podcast Art

While your podcast name and description plays a big role in conveying to a potential listener what the podcast is about and helps with the discoverability of your show so that it appears in front of a potential listener, your podcast art is the most important factor in convincing them to click on your podcast for a listen.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Whether you like it or not, people will may a snap judgment about your brand and supposed quality of your show even before they have heard your show based on your podcast art alone.

As stated in Apple’s website on the artwork requirements of podcasts:

“Your artwork is what helps listeners visually identify your podcast and should represent the brand or logo of your show. Creating interesting and compelling artwork can help your show attract new listeners and gain new followers and subscribers. As a general rule, keep artwork simple and legible”

Technical specifications

According to Apple, these are the technical specifications you need to be aware of:

– Your resolution should be 3000 x 3000 pixels.

– Your design should be in RGB color space and in 72 DPI.

– The file should be in JPEG or PNG.

While you should design your podcast art at 3000 x 3000 pixels, Apple displays your podcast art on your desktop at 220 x 220 pixels, and on your mobile at 55 x 55 pixels. Export your podcast at these sizes and make sure that they looks great at these sizes as well. If your main text or image looks too small and/or is illegible, you should redesign the podcast art to address this.

Designing the podcast art

Your podcast art should ideally be able to visually communicate what your podcast is about to your listeners while communicating your unique brand.

Whether you are still thinking of the concept for your podcast art or you already have an idea in mind, you can always benefit from looking what the existing and popular podcasts in your podcast niche are using for inspiration.

On your chosen podcast directory, do a quick search of the podcasts that are in your chosen podcast niche. Take a look at what stands out to you and why. Whether it is the use of colours or the arrangement of the images, make a mental note of what you like about each of them and you can incorporate these elements into your own design thereafter.

When it comes to the words on your podcast, less is more. As your podcast art will be displayed at 55 x 55 pixels on mobile devices, you risk your words being too small if you have too many crammed into your podcast art. Most of the time, the podcast art should only contain the name of your podcast.

A tip on reducing the number of words would be to omit the words “The” and “Podcast”. The logo of your favourite sitcom is just “Friends”, and not “The Friends Television Show”, so you do not need to put the words “The” and “Podcast” in your podcast art for the same reason.

If you want to create the podcast art on your own, Canva.com has a ton of free templates at your disposal.

Alternatively, you can outsource this to a designer at a very reasonable price by using platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork. If you have a larger budget, you can use 99Designs where you start a contest and designers from around the world submit their best ideas, and you can choose a winner amongst the submissions.

Step 6: Choosing Your Podcasting Equipment

When first starting out, you may be tempted to rush out and purchasing the best podcasting equipment (which can run in the thousands).

I would advise against this so that you can avoid a situation where you spent a ton of money on the latest gadgets only to realize later on that maybe podcasting isn’t really for you.

That however doesn’t mean you should use your computer’s built in microphone which will most definitely not do you and your podcast any favors in terms of audio quality.

The simplest and most direct set up (apart from recording directly on your handphone) is to use a USB microphone which you can plug directly into your computer and start recording. The following are great beginners USB microphone to consider:

• Audio-Technica ATR2100x-USB Cardioid Dynamic Microphone
• Samson Technologies Q2U USB/XLR Dynamic Microphone

If you fancy an XLR microphone like the Rode PodMic (which I am currently using), you will need an audio interface to act as the bridge between the XLR microphone and the computer. Essentially, the audio interface converts the analog signal from the XLR microphone into a digital signal for your computer.

An affordable and reliable audio interface that I would recommend would be the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (3^rd Gen) which I started with as well. Since then I have upgraded to the Rodecaster Pro.

On a quick note, you will notice that I have only recommended dynamic microphones because they are less sensitive to ambient noise as compared to condenser microphones. This means that dynamic microphones are more likely to only pick up your voice when you speak directly into it as compared to condenser microphones which are more likely to pick up sound from the rest of the room and hence ruin your audio.

Step 7: Choosing your Podcasting Recording and Editing Software

Once you’ve got your podcasting equipment ready, you will need the right software to record and edit your podcasts with.

If you are just starting out, you can tap on free software like Audacity and Garageband (note Garageband is only available on Mac computers).

My preferred recording and editing software however is Adobe Audition.

If you are recording interviews remotely and want to record it for free, you can use Skype or Zoom though the audio quality will not be top notch.

When you are ready to make the investment, you can consider upgrading to a professional web based recording platform like Riverside.FM (my preferred platform as it progressively uploads your audio and video files during the interview itself while keeping your recordings safe, even if internet connection is lost). Other platforms worth considering also include Zencastr and Squadcast. 

Step 8: Choosing Your Podcast Hosting Service

While we consume podcasts on directories such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify, we can’t actually upload our files directly to these platforms. Instead, we will need to upload our files onto an RSS feed and this process is made incredibly easy today with podcast hosting companies.

The competition between the podcast hosting platforms is stiff, but one clear winner in my eyes would be Buzzsprout and I have been using them since day 1 of own podcast.

The feature I appreciate the most from Buzzsprout would be its advanced podcast statistics which makes it easy for me to not only track my total downloads over time, it also shows which apps my listeners used to listen to the podcast and where they are listening to the podcast from.

Additional features that make Buzzsprout stand out include:

• Podcast Directory Listings – Buzzsprout makes it easy for you to easily list your podcast on all of the top podcast directories.
• Magic Mastering – Which helps give you a professional quality podcast by optimizing your audio to match industry best practices for spoken word or music heavy productions.
• Automatic Episode Optimization – So that you don’t need to worry about filetypes, bitrates, or ID3 tags. Just upload your audio file and Buzzsprout will optimize it automatically.
• Dynamic Content – Buzzsprout allows you to add and remove pre-roll and post-roll segments to and from your podcast episodes easily so that your listeners will hear from your latest sponsors no matter which episode they are listening to.
• Built-in Transcription – With a built-in transcription service, you can get your podcast episode transcribed for a reasonable fee which you can use to make your podcast more accessible to search engines.
• Partnerships with Existing Brands for Affiliate Marketing – Buzzsprout has partnered with some amazing brands which you can work with to monetize your podcast fast. 

Step 9: Recording Your First Podcast

Now that it’s time to record your first podcast episode, just remember that it’s probably going to stink!

Like any new skill, you will need time and practice to get good at it and podcasting is no different.

Don’t compare yourself to your favourite podcasters who probably have hundreds of episodes released. If you revisited their early episodes, I am sure that you will also be able to see how they have grown over time.

Planning Your Outline

Whatever podcast style you have chosen, your podcast will definitely benefit from having an outline.

To begin, have in mind your intended episode length and theme, and list down what are the major points that you want to hit.

Next break down the points that you have written down into a three-act structure to give your episode a logical flow. Here’s an example of how I structure my interviews (with a 30 minute episode length in mind):

• Act 1 – 5 to 8 minutes – Introduce the interviewee (and share his/her story, accolades and expertise), the main theme of the episode and what the listeners can get out of the episode if they sat through the whole thing.
• Act 2 – 14 to 20 minutes – Go deep on the actionable takeaways that the interviewee has to share. Cover the problems they faced, how they overcame it, and how the listeners can apply it for themselves.
• Act 3 – 5 to 8 minutes – Round up what we have learnt from the interview. Ask the interviewee for their calls to action for the listeners and share how the listeners can get in touch with them.

While it is good practice to also prepare the questions that would fit into each segment in an interview, the best interviews happen when you go with the flow, as opposed to artificially sticking to the questions that you have prepared. So long as you stick with the general three-act structure, you should have a natural flow to your conversation.

Where should you record?

The best place to record is in a quiet room with minimal reflective surfaces to reduce echo.

If your only option is to record in a less than ideal environment, you can try using blankets and towels to help absorb the sounds. Another option would be to soundproof your room with acoustic panels.

When it comes to getting good quality audio in your recordings, picking the right environment to record and soundproofing it properly is often times more important than upgrading your microphone. In fact, expensive microphones tend to be more sensitive and will likely pick up more of the room noises that have been bugging you in the first place. 

Microphone techniques For Better Audio

Apart from good podcast equipment and choosing the proper recording environment, your microphone technique forms the last part of the holy trinity of what goes into good audio.

Bad microphone technique can cause a multitude of problems that make it hard for a listener to listen to (especially if an episode is over 30 minutes long). For example, speaking too closely and directly into a microphone can cause annoying (and sometimes painful) plosives (i.e. popping “P” sounds) and sibilants (i.e. hissing “S” sounds). As we want to make the listening experience as enjoyable as we can for the listeners, good microphone techniques should be something that you strive for in every single episode.

Simple microphone techniques you can adopt include:

• Positioning your mouth about 4 inches from the microphone
• Maintaining a constant distance between you and the microphone whenever you speak
• Positioning your microphone off-axis by angling it about 45 degrees away from your face
• Keeping your hands off the microphone and the microphone stand
• Limiting ambient noise by turning off your fans, mouse clicks, handphone vibrations etc

Step 10: Editing Your New Podcast

Now it’s time to make the magic happen. Whichever editing platform you choose, the basic principles would be the same.

While editing is an intricate science, here are the general steps to get you started

1) Import your audio into the platform

2) Separate each audio file into separate tracks for each speaker

3) Remove any unwanted background noise with a noise reduction tool

4) Edit the podcast to keep only the content that you want

5) Remove any unwanted noises (such as awkward pauses, coughs, and loud breaths)

6) Optional: Use the compressor tool to lower the volume of loud peaks

7) Optional: Use the equalisation tool to optimize the sound of your voice

8) Optional: Add in your podcast theme music and sound effects

9) Export your podcast as an MP3 file with:

– a bitrate of 96 kbps mono for purely spoken word podcasts

– a bitrate of 192 kbps stereo for podcasts that contain music

10) Add ID3 tags – If you are using Buzzsprout like me, Buzzsprout adds ID3 tags to your file automatically. Otherwise, if your podcasting host does not provide the same service, you may want to include the same manually – [here’s a guide on how to do it]

Once you have successfully exported your podcast, you can upload it to your podcast host and get ready for your launch.

Step 11: Launching Your New Podcast

Simply uploading and clicking publish is not enough for your podcast to succeed. You must promote your new podcast or nobody will be aware it even exists!

It is crucial that you spend as much time marketing your podcast as you did producing it. You may have the best content in the world but unless you already have an established brand and following, it is likely that your podcast will launch to the sound of crickets unless you have a solid launch strategy in place.

Before we discuss launch strategies, it’s worth noting that while you can of course launch your podcast with just one episode, my recommendation would be to launch your podcast with at least 3 to 5 episodes already uploaded so your new listeners can binge your podcast. This can help you with your download numbers which in turn helps you stand a higher chance to get into the “new and noteworthy” section of Apple Podcast.

Avenues To promote

In order to have a successful launch, you must help others become aware of your podcast. Here are the main avenues you should tap on to promote your launch:

• Your network – Tell your friends, family and colleagues about your podcast. Encourage them to not just listen to it, but to share it with their own network as well.
• Social media – What’s important here is that your promotional materials are contextualised to the platform that you are promoting on. For example, a well written post introducing your podcast and who is it for may work well on LinkedIn, but a short audiogram of your podcast would probably work better for an Instagram audience.
• Interest groups – Reddit and Facebook groups have tons of interest groups that have users that fall into your target audience. Don’t be shy to tastefully share your show with them (seek permission with the admins if needed).
• Your Podcast’s own website – Apart from having a place to share your show notes and resources, having a dedicated website for your podcast is also a great way to capture the emails of your listeners.
• Email Marketing – If you already have an existing audience and have their emails, sending them an email informing them about the show’s launch (and updates on future episodes) is a great way to help them become aware of your podcast and what it has to offer.
• Cross Promotions – If you had guests on your show, ask your guests to promote your show but make sure that you provide the promotional materials so that they can easily share it for you

Running A Contest

A great way to create attention as part of your podcast’s launch would be to run a contest. It never hurts to give a little incentive to encourage your listeners to tune in regularly or to share it for you.

When running a contest, it is important to have a clear call to action and an easy way for you to reach out to the winner. For example, if you are asking your listeners to leave a review on Apple Podcast, note that Apple Podcast does not reveal the email address of the person leaving the review. You may therefore want to ask your listeners to drop you an email with a screenshot of the review they left so that you can easily let them know if they have won.

Whether you choose to give gift vouchers or physical items, do also ensure that you contextualise it to your target audience. While it may be appropriate for you to giveaway running shoes if your podcast is about fitness, it would probably be better for you to giveaway free make-up if your podcast is about beauty instead. You want the individuals who are interested in participating in the contest to be as close to your target audience as possible so that they will return as a lifelong listener.

Ultimately, the takeaway is that a badly run contest may burn a hole in your pocket without getting the results you wanted.

Step 12: How To Keep Your Podcast Running

If you’ve gotten this far in the article, congratulations on launching your podcast!

As podcasting is a marathon and not just a sprint, you will need to consistently publish new episodes to not only grow your audience, but to retain your existing audience as well.

The best way to help ensure that you stay consistent is to have systems in place that make it easy for you to continually publish new episodes.

The easiest way to do this is to have a content calendar planned and to produce your episodes in batches. So instead of having to sit down each week to record a new episode, you can plan to have several episodes recorded in one sitting and you can release these episodes over the next few weeks according to your posting schedule.

To end this article, I would like to officially welcome you to the world of podcasting!