There’s no doubt that the podcasting industry is growing, especially after the COVID pandemic. There are nearly 465 million podcast listeners globally as of February 2023 and it’s predicted that there will be around 505 million podcast listeners worldwide by the end of 2024. This is a huge increase compared to 2019 where there were a reported 274 million podcast listeners in the world back then.
Our team at Convince & Convert has produced over 550 episodes for the Social Pros Podcast and more than a dozen separate shows for corporate clients and ourselves. As the producer of the Social Pros Podcast for the past two years, I’ve seen a huge amount of interest in podcasting and picked up tons of tricks along the way.
With millions of podcasts being produced, it may seem intimidating to start your own. But once you find your hyper-relevant topic and nail down an audience group that you’re aiming to reach, all you’ll need are a few guiding tips and patience.
Here are 6 tips to producing a killer podcast:
1. Be Prepared to Allocate Time
Recording content for a podcast is not a walk in the park. No matter how long or short your episodes are, you will need to dedicate a sufficient amount of time on your calendar for it. Our hosts for the Social Pros Podcast (Anna Hrach & Daniel Lemin), usually record two episodes per week with a 1-hour time block for the recording. This does not include any potential pre-show calls that may be added into the weekly mix that some guests request to have either.
Producers tip: If you’re working with hosts for your podcast, make sure you’re actively attending those pre-show calls and recording sessions with them too. Do not leave it all up to your hosts as you’re the one that holds the entire process together.
2. Develop Guidelines for Your Podcast
Guidelines are meant to help you ensure a seamless production experience, not only for you but for your guests too (if any). We’ve perfected our process from the start of a guest selection process, all the way to the end when an episode is released. Our guests are given a pre-show questionnaire that helps them brainstorm topics that they are interested in speaking about. And of course, it helps our hosts prepare any additional information that is needed for their episode. From there, we log each guest into our AirTable sheet and track down everything from episode publish date to guest headshots and logos.
There’s many micro steps and rules that you go through with each guest or episode. So having a guideline and checklist for yourself helps you stay on track and leaves no surprises for your guests too.
3. Avoid Being TOO Pitchy When Recruiting A Guest
If you plan on having guests on your podcast, the first thing you need to avoid is being too “pitchy” and desperate. This often leads to a very lengthy invite that a potential guest will need to read (in most cases, completely ignore), and it will turn someone away if you come to them with an entire bibliography that doesn’t get to the point right away. The typical human attention span is just 7 seconds. So make sure your ask is within that 7 second time frame.
I find the best turnaround for a guest to respond is by asking them, “Would you be interested in being a guest on our podcast?” at the very start of my conversation with them. Also, make sure to link the URL to your podcast website in that question. Adding one stat or important note about your podcast is a good addition too, but if someone is genuinely interested, they will naturally want to know more and inquire about it.
Producers tip: Talk to your guests on the platform where they are comfortable. Most of my inquiries to a potential guest happens on LinkedIn messaging. Most times the conversation transfers over to email, but some guests have preferred to stick to LinkedIn throughout the entire process and that’s okay. Being flexible with your guests makes it easier on them.
4. Utilize User-Friendly Platform — Especially if you record virtually.
If you decide to record your episodes virtually, you want to make sure the recording process is as simple as possible. We have been using Riverside.fm for a while now and we absolutely love how easy it is to use. Guests only need to either log in through their computers or phones and it stores all of our episode recordings for our editing team at Content 10x.
You want to avoid having your guests do too much work on the day of their episode. The most that they need to do on the day of is test their audio and log into the recording site that you choose.
5. Share Your Podcast Episodes
Leading up to an episode publish date, you want to make sure you have plans to share it across your social media platforms. In our case, all of our guests receive creative files that we produce so that they can also share across their own socials.
Yes, you can try to depend on native searches for your podcast on listening platforms, but go the extra mile and share it online so that it reaches more people who may not have heard of it. Encourage your guests to share it by tagging them and alerting them of when their episode is going to air so that they have time to add it into their own content calendars.
6. Always Say “Thank You”!
If you’re inviting a guest to speak on your podcast, make sure to thank them after they have recorded their episode and once again on the day their episode airs. It’s a small gesture that goes a long way.
Producers tip: Always stay in contact with your guests even after their episode publishes. This builds connection and also leads to some of the best re-invites.
We know that starting a podcast can be scary. But with the right tools, proper preparedness, and patience, there’s no doubt that it’ll reach the audience that you hope to aim for. Good luck!
If you would like help with launching or improving your podcast strategy, reach out to Convince and Convert today.
