By: Carla Etheridge
It’s no surprise that podcasting has been deemed the new talk radio. I know if I hop into a friend’s car, they’re way more likely to be listening to an episode of How Stuff Works or S-Town than the local radio station. Beyond daily entertainment, did you know that podcasts can also be a powerful marketing tool for businesses? Business decision makers are listening to podcasts in the airport, during their commutes or over a working lunch. Podcasts are a great channel to educate on new concepts or elaborate on complex messages that don’t fit well in other types of media.
There are many benefits to podcasts, including sharing insights with industry peers and establishing a position as a thought leader. Podcasts are an engaging form of content that can be a great addition to your current content marketing plan — but creating one is a big time investment, so be sure to get it right the first time.
We’ve been working with The John Maxwell Company (TJMC) to produce their first-ever Executive Leadership Podcast. Here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way:
- Have a plan, and stick with it. The first thing you’ll want to determine is who will be the host. Will you have one or two people speaking? Are you going to have guests? The first time around, we had TJMC’s Vice President, Chris Goede speaking solo. But, for the second round of recordings, we added in Coach and Facilitator Perry Holley and found that they were a dynamic duo and really fed off of each others’ energy. Once you’ve decided who’s involved, you’ll want to make sure you have a schedule, location (we use a recording studio at Atlanta Tech Park) and your talking points prepared. Keeping consistent recording times is key to keeping the podcast on track and in regular production. For instance, we meet once a month and record four podcasts in a 2-hour session.
- Be real to get results. Podcasts have an intimate feel to them and are more personal than written content, so it’s important that you really open up to your audience and share your personal experiences. Rather than trying to promote your product or service, tell personal and relatable stories that will engage your audience. The more open you are, the more people will trust you and tune in for the next episode.
- Chop Chop. Of course, there will be some editing involved. Luckily for us, our awesome hosts Chris and Perry make it pretty easy. We use Garageband for editing and recommend aiming for 10-14 minutes per episode. Once they’re ready, you can start releasing them on your platforms of choice. The Executive Leadership podcast is currently on SoundCloud, iTunes and Google Play.
- Share everywhere. Not only do you want to have your podcast on various platforms, but you’ll also want to share on your company’s website and social channels. Every other week, we add a new blog post that includes a link to the most recent podcast, along with the transcript underneath. That way, the audience can choose if they’d rather read or listen. We also send a weekly marketing email about the latest episode, continuously share on social and urge TJMC’s employees to share, as well.
While our podcast journey is just getting started, we’ve already reached 5,000 listens in the last 30 days, including a record of 476 listens in one day. For now, we’re getting lots of great feedback, new subscribers and interactions on social — and we’re excited to see the long-term results ahead…we’ll keep you posted.
