Podcasts have become a very popular form of entertainment today, and there are lots of reasons to consider starting your own. The first question to ask before you get started is why you want to make a podcast. Perhaps you are thinking of starting a podcast to pursue something that you are interested in, or maybe you’re running a business and want a podcast that will help you raise awareness of your brand and build your audience. If you’re looking to start a podcast as a business owner or marketing manager, it can be an ideal way to build more brand authority and provide your target audience and customers with content that is valuable and entertaining.
Who Your Podcast is For
Once you have determined why you want to start a podcast, the biggest factor to consider is who you’re making the podcast for. It is important to know exactly why you’re creating your show and who it is aimed at to be in with a chance of growing your audience. For example, if you are coming at it from a business perspective, your audience are likely to be your customers and prospective customers, who are interested in topics that are related to your brand. On the other hand, if you’re creating a show that is based on a personal hobby of yours, your ideal target audience will be people who share this interest.
Come Up with a Reason to Listen
Whether you are providing information that is relevant to what your brand offers or providing an entertaining interview regarding your hobby, the main thing to consider is whether or not you are providing value to your listener. Nobody is going to listen to a podcast that does not offer them any value or doesn’t teach them anything new, so it’s important to consider what your reason is going to be to encourage your audience to choose your podcast and engage with it. When you provide value to your listener, you’re not only giving them a reason to listen, but a reason to keep coming back for more.
Naming Your Podcast
What to call your podcast is likely to be a question that you’re going to be thinking about a lot as you get everything set up. There are plenty of options to think about when it comes to coming up with a name for your podcast, but the most important thing here is to remember that people need to be able to easily find your show when they are searching for information about your topic. While a catchy or clever name can work well, it’s important to consider incorporating a description into your title to make it easier to find.
Planning Your Episode Length
Once you’ve got these basics covered, it’s time to consider how long your episodes should be and start planning them. The length of your podcast episodes should depend on the content. A short episode is generally considered to be anything less than fifteen minutes, while an episode that lasts for an hour or more would be considered to be long. A good length to aim for is the length of time that an average commute takes, which is around twenty minutes. In general, between 20 and 45 minutes tends to be the best option for planning your podcast length, but ultimately, your content and audience will dictate this.
Releasing New Episodes
Another question to consider is how often you should release new episodes. The best way to do this is to come up with a schedule that you will find easy to stick to regularly. If you can manage to release a new episode once a month, this is always better to do than giving your audience the idea that they’re going to get a new episode once a week, only for you to disappear after a couple of episodes because it is too much work for you. Weekly episodes tend to do best, but don’t worry too much if you won’t be able to manage this.
Recording Your Podcast
Once you’ve planned out the basics of your show, it’s time to get the right recording equipment. The good news is that you can easily do this at home if you have a computer with a USB microphone and internet access. However, since the quality of sound when it comes to your podcast is important for making a good impression on your audience, it is always a good idea to invest in professional equipment or find a recording studio that you can hire with the equipment that you need. Pirate offer recording studios in various different locations for recording music and podcasts. You can hire a studio from PIRATE on a short-term basis to record each episode with access to professional state-of-the art equipment rather than buying your own, to ensure the best quality sound for all your episodes.
Editing Your Episodes
Once you have recorded your podcast episode, you will also need some software for editing it. Editing is the final stage before you upload your podcast episode to Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere else that your audience can access your show. To do this, you can choose from a range of different sound editing software programs. Adobe Audition, Audacity, and Alitu: The Podcast Maker are some popular choices to consider. Alitu is the best option for beginners. It offers a web app that you can use to automate cleaning up the audio add music and publishing, along with a great range of tools for episode building and editing. Audition and Audacity are a little harder to get to grips with, but you can find many great free and paid online courses to help you get started with learning the basics of using and mastering these programs.
Creating a podcast can be a great way to explore your interests or provide great content to your business audience. The best part is that with the right plan and good equipment, starting a podcast is something that anybody can do.
