Launching a new podcast is one of the best ways to grow an audience and nurture your company's brand. Podcasts are not limited to creative industries and many SMES, e-commerce scale ups and UK businesses have benefited from launching their own award-winning podcasts. Wondering how to start a business podcast for your company? We’ve got you covered with this beginner’s guide to podcasts. You’ll learn: why you should start a podcast, how to create and launch podcast including which tools to use to host your own podcast, what equipment you need and how to promote your show.
What are the benefits of starting a business podcast?
Starting a podcast as a business offers many benefits, especially if your own business is new or if you are self-employed. A podcast can add an additional layer of trust and credibility by offering your customers an opportunity to hear your voice, especially when meetings are less frequent because of the pandemic. Interviewing relevant and recognised figures can also contribute to your startup's credibility. Transcribing a podcast can also benefit your startup for SEO purposes which can in turn increase your organic traffic. Finally, releasing podcast episodes periodically will result in your show being distributed and recommended by the podcast hosting platforms which will grow your audience and brand awareness.
How to define the focus of your business podcast?
When you launch your podcast you will be competing with other shows so it is important to first define your focus and target audience. Your audience will determine the format and content for your podcast and the focus will help you distinguish yourself from competing podcasts. More importantly, a podcast is not a radio show which means that it should be designed to create value for your audience. This can be in the form of top tips or insights from relevant business people in your audience's field.
For example, if you are targeting soon-to-be entrepreneurs or small businesses you can discuss the challenges of entrepreneurship and bring on small business owners who can share business advice for starting new businesses and tech entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs starting online businesses. If you have a marketing agency you might wish to start a marketing podcast to interview other marketing specialists who can share their own unique marketing tactics, strategies and insights.
How to define the cadence of your business podcast?
No matter how frequently you choose to record or release episodes, the cadence of your podcast must be sustainable. Whilst recording a podcast episode can be straightforward, it can take time to edit the audio, transcribe the episode and prepare materials for the distribution of your episode. Moreover, depending on whether you choose a short format (sub 20 minutes) or a long format (30 minutes to 1 hour), your audience will need to manage their schedule to listen to the episodes. This means that longer episodes should be released at most weekly whereas shorter episodes can be released multiple times a week as long as you can cope with the post recording workload. For weekly episodes, determine the weekday so that your audience know when they can expect new episodes. For example, Legislate has a weekly podcast about entrepreneurship and legal tech which releases a new episode every Monday and Thursday.
How to identify the guests you'd like to interview for your podcast?
After you have defined the focus and cadence of your podcast, you should list the guests you would like to be on your show. Guests should be selected based on what unique insights they can share with your audience. Moreover, guests should be considered from a holistic approach so that you have a diverse range of experiences to share in your podcast series. For example, a podcast about entrepreneurship can interview a combination of successful entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs and business leaders. A podcast about content marketing could interview bloggers and marketing specialists. To lift your podcast off the ground, build a list of people from your network who would be a good fit and as you release episodes reach out to target guests outside your network. You should explain to them the purpose of your show and how it can benefit them and their audience. You can also offer your product or services for free or at a discount as a thank you for being on the show.
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Prepare the questions and podcast template
No matter your focus or target audience, it is important to prepare your podcast interviews and prepare a set of questions to follow especially if you are recording short episodes. Whilst it might not always make sense to ask the same questions to all your guests, using a similar format will make it easier for your audience to follow your episodes and know what to expect. Questions can help extract insights and tips from business stories which can help your audience build successful businesses or work on their personal development. Planned questions can also help elevate topics which might be important to your audience or focus such as mental health or tips for choosing a co-founder. Finally, a common closing question is a great way to build consistency across your episodes. Legislate's final question is "if you were to receive a contract to sign today, what would impress you?".
What is the best podcast software to quickly and easily launch your business podcast?
Whilst many of the most popular podcasts have top quality recording equipment and post-production teams, starting a podcast does not need to be capital or time intensive thanks to tools like riverside, podcastle, and descript which leverage automation and AI to improve the quality of the audio and transcribe episodes efficiently. This functionality means that you can release quality episodes very quickly and cost-effectively. Once you have recorded and edited your tools, you can use a podcast hosting platform like audioboom to distribute your show to Spotify, itunes, Apple and google podcasts and many other platforms in one go. You may also choose to host your episodes and transcriptions on your website in order to offer your listeners additional content and resources.
How to make sure your podcast episodes are listened to?
Publishing your podcast to hosting platforms like Spotify will not be enough to build an audience and acquire listeners. In order to grow your audience you will need to distribute the episodes and links to communities where your audience is present. For example, you can find these communities in groups on Facebook or Reddit. Moreover, it is important that your guests share your episodes with their network as their followers are more likely to want to listen to them. Preparing engaging thumbnails to share on social media and Linkedin can also help increase the number of listens. Finally, as you publish your episodes consistently and acquire new listeners with each new guest, the podcast hosting platforms will start to recommend the episodes to other listeners.
This guide has explained the steps for starting a business podcast for entrepreneurs and small business no matter their stage or size. The playbook described in this guide was developed to launch Legislate podcast which interviews amazing guests in property, business and law to share the latest insights and trends in entrepreneurship and contracts. To see a live example of this guide, you can listen to the Legislate podcast now!
About Legislate
Legislate is a contracting platform where business owners can create contracts to help grow and develop their business. Legislate's employment offer letters and contracts are key in protecting your IP and Legislate's NDAs are crucial to ensure you can have conversations and partnerships to help develop your business and brand. Book a demo or sign up today to put the confidence back into contracting.
The opinions on this page are for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice on which you should rely.