Podcasting is a good way for smaller businesses to make sure that they are reaching larger audiences. Our step-by-step guide will take you through everything you need to consider. 

What are the benefits of starting a podcast?

Podcasts are very popular; they allow you to reach a wider audience but perhaps more importantly an audience that neither your website nor social media might reach. 

Cost 

As a low-cost marketing strategy, podcasting is an incredibly cheap form of marketing beyond the initial outlay for the equipment that you need. However, once you have made this investment, the cost of additional podcasts will be very low. When you compare the cost of this initial outlay to other forms of marketing it is actually not very expensive at all. 

Be seen as an authority in your field 

Podcasting can help to create a position for you and your company as industry leaders in your field and this can give potential customers the confidence to choose you over your competitors.

Good for networking 

As a podcaster you may want to bring guests onto your podcast. This can help you to develop relationships with others in your industry. Starting a podcast helps you to meet others with simillar knowledge. Networking with other known names in your industry will also help to promote confidence in your customer base. 

Creating content

Before you start your podcast, it is important to remember that gaining a follower base is not easy, so you will need to be patient. You should also remember that because a podcast is an indirect marketing opportunity it will not necessarily drive your sales directly. 

With this in mind, think of your podcast as a way in which you can help you audience and hopefully the sales will follow later. 

Once you have that in mind you need to think about what your podcast will be about, people want honest and authentic content and they want to be educated, in addition to this they want to be entertained. The best way to achieve this is to choose a topic that interests you, make sure that you avoid any niche topics with too much competition. 

Do some research and make sure that your topic is a popular, but not too popular as that will give you too much competition. Don’t forget to pick a name for your podcast. 

Next you need to choose the format for your podcast. Do you want to do interviews, conversations with a fellow host, monologues or a mixture of things? You should also consider how long you want your podcast to be. 

Once you have all of these decisions made you should create your podcast, publish it and then promote it to gain an audience. 

Building an audience base

As we have already mentioned this can take time so be prepared to wait it out. Make sure that you are posting quality podcasts that offer great information and do so with just the right touch of humour. Once you have a small audience, they may bring others with them to listen to your podcast so keep creating content and promoting it.