The perpetual popularity of podcasts is a testament to the efficacy of the medium. With behemoths such as Apple, Spotify and Amazon’s Audible making it extremely easy for an audience to latch on to a regular stream of their favourite audio content, there has never been a better time to aspire to be a popular podcaster. With that in mind, we have compiled a few tips to help you make your podcast more successful.
1. Set a clear goal
The purpose of your particular podcast is critical; with no clear goal or agenda, you will find it hard to build an audience. You need to think about two things: your audience and your passions. If you have topics, hobbies and pastimes or even something about your job that you’re particularly excited about, your audience is more likely going to engage with what you put out. A consistent theme is also important if you want to build those big subscriber numbers; make sure your audience can rely on you to be consistent with your podcast theme.
2. Create a clear identity
You need to create an identity that people can relate to, that clearly infers your topic areas and is, of course, extremely memorable. Don’t be afraid to inject a little personality into your identity, as personality is important. There’s no denying that in the podcast game, you are going to be up against stiff completion regardless of your niche, and so your podcast name is a great way to stand out from the pack.
3. Find great interviews
Audiences love great interviews; in fact, securing high-quality interviews with interesting guests in your field is an important part of establishing and building an audience and a good reputation. When you start out, this can be one of the hardest parts of the job as you will have built little kudos to help compel your interview targets; consider instructing the help of a broadcast media relations agency to get things moving in the right direction for you. A little investment up-front could pay huge dividends down the track.
If you struggle to secure face to face interviews, then don’t be afraid to interview over the phone. Skype can be a great way to conduct remote interviews with people all over the world.
4. Monetize your efforts with sponsors
As you start to grow your audience and your content, you can start to think about how you might begin to make some money from all your efforts. The more money you can make to support what you are trying to do then the more time you can invest in making more high-quality content.
Sponsorship is a great way to boost revenues and typically involve you talking about or promoting your sponsor’s product or service on your podcast. Try to keep your sponsors relevant to your core themes and retain your integrity by only featuring sponsors that will resonate with your audience. After all, you want to keep your audience happy and interested in your podcast. The last thing that you want to do is annoy them with too many ads, so be sure to get the right balance as soon as possible.