Creating the perfect pod - how to reach out to your audience

What makes a successful podcast?

In a saturated marketplace it's hard to make your voice stand out. For this reason, as part of our pre-production support, we ask our clients to consider several key factors ahead of any other marketing strategies including social media promos and paid promotion:

Who is your audience? What's their demographic?

This is crucial in determining the format, style and branding of your pod. It will also determine the promotion of the content once it's produced.

What are your expectations and objectives?

Consider how popular the subject matter is. This will determine how many genuinely engaged subscribers you will attract and help manage expectations!

For a specialist company offering a very particular, niche service, 250 listeners might be considered excellent while a podcast with broader, popular subject matter will be looking to attract thousands. 

If your ultimate objective is to monetise, be realistic and ensure there's a big enough market for your pod. Monetising podcasts is a subject we'll cover separately.

How often will you drop episodes?

Be realistic about your capacity to work on the pod - sourcing guests, writing copy, etc. Although we can help with this, the man hours required to pull an episode together can often be underestimated. Perhaps starting with monthly pods and increasing to bi-weekly (and potentially weekly) is better than starting with a flurry, realising you can't maintain it, then backing down to less frequent releases.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY!

Genuinely engaged listeners will expect regular releases, e.g. 8am on Wednesdays so they can listen on the way to work - so don't disappoint them.

Where to find your pod?

As covered in our blog about video pods, it's important to make your pod available in as many places as possible - that includes embedding a simple player into your own website.

Make it as easy as possible for your audience to consume your content so they aren't switching apps if they prefer Apple to Spotify but yours is only on Spotify, for example. 

Market leaders are YouTube, Apple and Spotify (with a few minor apps such as Pocketcast taking their feed from Apple automatically). It's also worth making your pod available to Amazon.

As every app works slightly differently, we would guide you through the process of sharing your feed to each.

Logo, titles, show notes, keywords...

Designing an eye-catching, yet not overcomplicated logo is vital. Too much text will be hard to read as a thumbnail. There are many AI generators that can design for you (Canva, etc.) but first, check out the many existing pods of similar subject matter to yours and see what works (and what doesn't).

All major platforms allow you to upload individual logos for each episode which makes them more visually appealing than those that show the same generic logo. So make sure every episode has its own logo.

A strong series title is obviously essential. Not too long, or ambiguous. 

A DIY podcast called "Hitting the Nail on the Head" might seem witty, but SEO algorithms and a roving human eye are more likely to pick up on the one called "DIY for Dummies".

Show notes will initially describe the overall series - think of it as your elevator pitch giving a brief, engaging summary of what it's about and who it's for. Here's an example:

"For anyone who's failed with a flat-pack to more advanced enthusiasts, DIY for Dummies has something for everyone. Host Jonny is joined by DIY experts in his workshop to talk tools, tricks and ultimately the talent you'll gain throughout the series. Every episode focusses on a different DIY project and there's a mailbag section where Jonny and experts will answer your DIY queries and generally de-mystify the world of DIY...so you really can Do It Yourself."

Thereafter, it's episodic show notes which will need to convey the main topics covered in the ep.

Both show notes should be loaded with keywords for SEO purposes (as above, DIY!) and footnotes should include links to relevant sites, articles, etc. as well as guests' websites, blogs, social handles etc.

The hosting platform will ask you to categorise the podcast, with options for sub-categories, too. Take time to get this right as it often can't be amended.

So, there are many things to consider and to action in the pre-production/planning phase through to post-production that will optimise the chances of success.

Quality is key

It may seem obvious but if a podcast is produced badly, no amount of promotion will elevate it. From format and recording quality through to branding - planning properly is essential to get these elements just right.

Promo assets

Depending on the demographic of your audience, your social media promos should be created to appeal to them. For businesses and corporations who might prefer to promote via Linkedin, widescreen format works best with slick, high-production values recommended.

If you're appealing to a younger, sporty audience however, a rough-and-ready, high-energy style is favoured with aspect ratio to suit the platform - e.g. vertical 19:6 or square for Insta.

The production style works for both audio only and video promos; for audio only, we'd produce audiograms with options for a montage of images, moving voice waveform and karaoke-style subtitles to give as much engaging animation to the promo as possible.

Spread the word!

Word of mouth is still one of the best ways to spread news of your pod - and there are many ways to achieve this.

You'd obviously start with any 'already engaged' potential listeners, e.g. subscribers to your newsletter, members of your organisation, an address book of clients, etc. and then spread your net further afield to people who subscribe to similar podcasts (via social media).

Invite guests onto the pod (if possible) who have a large social media following and who are maybe wishing to promote something themselves. Quid pro quo. 

For the same reason, invite the presenter of a similar pod onto yours, if possible. 

Be part of the conversation when you see similar social media posts or any such forums and drop the links to your pod there.

Pay for it?

Paid marketing is not something we offer at TPC as there is no way of guaranteeing success and we'd rather not charge for a service we can't 100% deliver. However, there are many PR agencies and promoters who will gladly assist with social media campaigns, etc.

In conclusion...

There are many things that can be done in terms of 'best practice' to give your podcast the best chance to succeed and they needn't cost a penny. Plan well, follow the above guide and you'll be in good shape!