Editor’s note: Sean Campbell is CEO of market research firm Cascade Insights, Portland, Ore.
As the CEO of a boutique B2B market research firm, I have had the opportunity to get creative with our marketing. We have a solid team of analysts but no dedicated marketing department. Nevertheless, we have to make sure our name gets out there. One of my better ideas was to start a podcast.
As someone who enjoys mentoring anyone from MBA candidates to young baseball players, a podcast seemed like a natural outlet for me to teach various subjects.
The podcast is a vehicle for me to interview tech industry thought leaders, talk about major B2B marketing and sales trends, describe my firm’s research philosophy and dive into the nitty-gritty of methodology dos and don’ts. Positive feedback and listener growth has convinced me to keep on making room in my schedule to record a show every week or two.
I’m now three years in and I have picked up a few tips that may be helpful for anyone interested in starting their own business-themed podcast.
1. Audio quality is a top priority.
No one wants to get interested in a topic only to have the thought lost in a murky sea of static just as it’s getting good. Or worse, to not listen at all because the sound is so poor it leaves the audience with doubts about your professional competency.
That being said, if you’re a small business, odds are you don’t have a sound studio and you are probably never going to sound as crisp and clean as NPR. However, there are some attainable tools that can really help with sound quality.
First off, you should buy a great USB microphone such as a Blue Yeti or the Rode Podcaster. If you want to get really fancy, you can use dynamic mics, leveraging XLR hookups and the like. But for most business podcasts, this is more than you need. A professional quality USB mic will more than suffice. Just don’t look for the standard fare in Best Buy.
There is also a plethora of excellent podcast editing software out there. Products like Audacity for Windows, GarageBand, Audio Hijack and Hindenburg can help you polish your recordings. Remember that you may not notice issues with your audio quality until you listen to it. It’s always a good idea to play it back after you’ve generated the output file. Definitely listen to the audio before you publish it.
2. Mobile: Don’t do it.
I never record podcast interviews with someone on a mobile device. Never. It’s landline or no go. My strong aversion to mobile is largely because mobile tends to have terrible sound quality. Same goes for Skype, as you never know when the call is going to garble the voices or make them sound creepy and metallic.
You may be tempted to bend the rules for an awesome or important interview but it’s really not worth it. If the sound quality is abysmal, no one will listen anyway.
3. Get your podcast listed in as many repositories as possible.
Obviously, you want your target audience to be aware of your podcast so you should do everything in your power to make it accessible.
You should get your podcast on all of the platforms one would normally search for or listen to shows on. There is a myriad of such platforms: iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Stitcher, iTunes – the list goes on. An added bonus is that most of these platforms give excellent statistics for listens on their site.
A word to the wise: You’ll probably want to keep an eye out to make sure the platform is updating your podcast in a timely manner. Sometimes new episodes or edits are not added as quickly as you may like.
4. You have to have stats.
Statistics on listens are essential for gauging the success of your podcast.
From the beginning, you should decide on a stats provider – such as Libsyn or Spreaker – and stick with it. If you’re not tracking engagement, your content is the equivalent of a shot in the dark.
5. Your logo is the first thing they’ll see, so make it a good one.
Invest some time in creating a clean, professional logo. It will be the first thing subscribers see when they click on your podcast, especially as most people will be listening on a mobile device.
As a listener is scrolling through a sea of podcasts on their phone or tablet, you want a logo that gives an immediate positive impression of your show. Create a logo that draws people in, not drives them away.
6. Hook listeners with your show notes.
After the logo, the show notes are the second thing your subscribers will notice, so you want to make sure they are compelling.
Don’t weigh it down with titles or a bland general summary. Put the punch in the description by asking a cliffhanger question or dropping a tantalizing insight from the episode.
7. Go audio AND visual.
Sometimes your target audience won’t have headphones on them or it would disturb their coworkers to blast a podcast from one desk over. Some people just prefer reading to listening. You don’t have to lose these folks; you can give them the episode in a readable format.
Since a conversation that is easy to listen to doesn’t necessarily translate into a flowing, grammatically correct, perfectly formatted piece of prose, it is preferable to do some heavy editing to turn the transcript into something that resembles an article.
This can be time-consuming, however, so if you can’t take the time to edit, you can post a transcript. There are services that will transcribe your episode for you, though you should still give it a light edit before posting.
8. Brevity is still the soul of wit.
For weekly business-oriented podcasts, I would suggest keeping episodes at 15 minutes or less.
The business world is as hectic and fast-paced as ever, so don’t scare listeners off by a daunting recording length. If you have a great interview that runs over, you can always break it in half and use it as two separate episodes.
9. SOS with SEO.
Of course you want your podcast to be as easy to find as possible. SEO can help a lot with that, especially in terms of choosing a good title.
An SEO specialist can help you make sure your podcast pops up when people search for certain related key phrases. They can also help you make sure you are including the words and phrases that will improve your visibility and search engine ranking.
10. Have fun!
You can package a lot of useful, technical and professional information with humor, relevant personal anecdotes and intriguing observations and predictions.
The more fun you have recording it, the more fun it will be to listen to.
I have found that the podcast is one of the easiest and most natural ways to communicate what my business is all about. It gets us out there without an old school branding campaign and gives current and potential clients an opportunity to hear what we’re thinking about as a firm.