Podcasting continues to gain more traction as each year goes by as people listen to episodes on their commutes, in the grocery store, and while performing chores.
You can’t produce the same effect with books and videos which both require visual elements. With podcasts continuing to grow, now is the perfect time to build your brand with a podcast.
How Do I Set Up A Podcast?
You can set your podcast up on Libsyn where they’ll help you get your podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Android, and a variety of other platforms. You’ll then need a tool to record the interviews such as Skype’s Call Recorder or Zoom.
I use Zoom for my virtual summits and the Skype Call Recorder for podcast interviews. Both are reliable options although I see more people moving towards Zoom.
Once you decide on the technology, you need to decide on the basic structure of your podcast. Will you interview an expert every week, or will you host a daily show where you share some tidbits for 5-10 minutes?
You can create multiple podcasts later on, but for your first podcast, decide which of these two options you’ll pursue. Just you, or you with an expert.
If you go the expert route, understand that you’ll need to contact many experts in advance. I recommend publishing a podcast with at least a month’s worth of episodes scheduled. That means you’ll have to get a certain number of people to say yes.
The amount of yeses you need depends on how many episodes you want to publish each week. The more episodes you want to publish, the more experts you’ll need to get in advance.
How Does This Grow My Brand?
You can get the top experts or deliver an amazing daily show, but if you don’t connect your pod-cast with your brand, you are missing out.
Sure, people will become more familiar with your name and your style. Relationships will be built.
But you want to lead people back to your website. More importantly, you want to make revenue from your podcast.
The most common tactic for getting more traffic and sales for a podcast is to leverage the intros and outros. At the beginning of your podcast, mention a freebie, giveaway, or a product and make the link easy to remember.
Sometimes a custom link is necessary (I use the Pretty Links WP Plugin to create those custom links).
For my eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter, I tell my listeners they can get it at marcguberti.com/retweets instead of the hard to remember (and even harder to say) http://marcguberti.com/27-ways-retweets-twitter.
Both links lead to the same page, but one of them is much easier to remember than the other.
By leading your listeners to your landing page, you’ll get more subscribers on your email list, and when you get people to convert through your auto responder, that’s when you generate revenue from your podcast.
You can also lead people back to your website with the show notes. By taking notes for your listeners and providing a memorable link, you can lead more people to your website.
Leading people back to your website over and over again will make them more familiar with your brand.
That familiarity will result in more customers.
Similarly to how I made the retweets eBook link easy to remember, I make the show notes link easy to remember. Here’s the breakdown for any of my show note links:
marcguberti.com/e# where # = the number of the episode. For instance, Episode 30’s show notes can be found at marcguberti.com/e30.
What’s The First Step I Should Take?
If you want to interview experts, start sending them emails. The moment you get your first yes, you are committed to hosting the podcast.
I didn’t know how to do any of the technology when I started contacting potential guests.
When I got my first yes, I focused more of my time, attention, and energy figuring out how to host the podcast with the technology I mentioned earlier.
If you want to host a daily show, start recording episodes. Get comfortable with the process.
You’ll have to do some preparation, but it isn’t much. If you want to interview experts, you just need to write a great intro and think of some good questions to ask.
For a daily show with quick, insightful nuggets, write out the introduction to the topic so you have a starting point.
In any episode, the introduction matters more than anything else because that sets the gist for the entire episode. People will love or hate your episode based on the intro.
See More: 9 Best Successful Influencer Marketing Trends of 2017
In Conclusion
Podcasting is a wonderful opportunity to grow your brand. Taking the first step now will set you on the path to becoming a successful podcast host.
Make sure you use the intro and outro to promote easy to remember links that point back to your website.
What are your thoughts on starting a podcast? Do you have any podcasting tips for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.
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