Benjamin Shapiro, the host for The Martech Podcast – was a guest on The Nootka Sound Podcast and brings to the table his decade long experience in the field. As the episodes starts, Ben reflects on the times when they were just starting out and how much podcasting has affected his career and what it has done for his brand over the years. Like most podcast hosts, he had ventured into podcasting with his mind set on becoming a full-time marketing consultant, however the surprisingly fast growth of his show has made him reconsider this and since then Ben has become a full-time podcast host instead.
Setting up a podcast may seem very complicated at first glance and this tends to discourage a lot of people before they even start considering launching a new show. We’re here to tell you it’s not really the case – especially if you’re tech savvy – which is a skill that almost everyone possesses in the 21st century (to an extent). Even if you’re not that well versed with computers, you can always reach out for help either to professionals or different DIY communities all over the internet.
Many people who find themselves wanting to start up a podcast usually have so many questions on how to get their podcasts up and running. And the first thing they think about when they do decide to start a podcast is the actual name of the show – which in our experience is something that’s better left for later. First, we need to think about our goals, formatting options for the show and our target audience – the people for whom this podcast will be intended. And only after we’ve done all that, we can confidently brainstorm a proper name for our show.
Here’s a couple of things to consider before you actually start producing your show:
1. Identify Your Audience
The first thing a podcast host should do is set out on identifying who their listeners and followers would be. You should know who your audience is and target them specifically. Try to be as specific as possible – don’t just say they are gamers, age 18-30. Really think about this person that’s going to listen to your podcast. What are they like, where do they like to hang out, what kind of music do they like, what is their income, etc. And then start creating the show in regards to the person who’s going to listen to it. Furthermore, once you do this, you will have a specific target for your marketing campaign which is always a good thing to have, even if you’re not considering pushing ads at the moment. Make sure to market the podcast only to people who are interested in the topic!
For example, if you are talking about fintech, a person who has no interest in financial technology would probably not find your podcast appealing. Unless, the content is chewed up in such away people find it irresistible.
2. Produce Irresistible Content
Now that you have identified your audience, the next step would be to create entertaining content that would keep them interested in checking out your podcast. And once they check it out, you need to ensure they not only stay, but keep coming back. Easier said than done, right?
Well, yes and no!
So how do you ensure they keep coming back?
You just need to provide value for them.
Be of service and provide them with content that actually has value. That should be your goal. Think about what kind of message would you want to create and how it can be (directly or indirectly) beneficial to the listeners.
3. Keep It Short!
Every host needs to be careful so as to the amount of information they keep offering per episode. You need to avoid boring your listeners and making them lose interest in the subject at hand. If there’s a lot of tech lingo, keep the episodes shorter. For example, for the Martech Podcast, Ben likes to keep his episodes between 15 to 25 minutes in length. This is perfect because there’s a lot of industry talk and not everyone may be interested in listening to a 90 minutes episode of somebody talking about B2B marketing.
4. Come Up With The Perfect Name!
Finally, when we’ve identified our target audience and decided on what type of content we’d like to produce and thought about the format and the style of the show, we can finally come up with a proper name.
A good podcast title is a clear and concise representation of the topic the show will be covering. It needs to be unique, catchy and preferably contain at least one key word from the industry you’re targeting. Before settling down with a name, make sure to do a thorough Google search and see if there are any podcasts with the same or even similar name.
And the chances are, there are more than a few. We need to try and avoid this at all costs. Think hard about a podcast name that no one else uses. It really does need to be unique – just trust us on this! Make sure you brainstorm until you come up with a perfect name that is a true representation of your brand and your show.
Different Ways of Growing The Show
One more thing Ben talks about is different channels for growing your audience base. He likes to think of it as 4 distinct ways you can do that:
- Organic reach – This is the slowest, but the most reliable way to grow your podcast. It’s just about producing your content in a meaningful way and in this case, the content itself would be the growth engine. Because people are always searching to find different shows they like and topics that interest them. Be it Google, App stores, Reddit or something else – people are always searching for new content ideas. If you’ve properly identified your core audience and you’ve come up with a system of creating content specifically for them, people are bound to run into your show. You just need to stick with it and play the long game!
- Virality – This should be an obvious one. So, virality is all about mass sharing. If you get enough people to share your episode this can create a massive inflow of listeners and you can become a big thing over night. However, this is kind of hard to plan for and achieve, so just focus on being the best possible version of yourself and hope that one day people will appreciate you enough so they want to share your content with their family and friends.
- Paid reach – This is where paid advertisements come in. Apps like Facebook and Instagram can help you engage more listeners by boosting your social media posts. This is probably the best and the fastest way to grow your audience base, but it requires a lot of funding. You would also need to hire a social media marketer to help you set up a proper strategy so you make sure you aren’t wasting any money.
- Partnerships – Either through brand deals or through collaboration with other podcast hosts, setting up a mutually beneficial partnership can help you reach out to people who normally wouldn’t be exposed to your content. This is a great way to bring a lot of new people in, but it kind of requires that you already have a big listener base so you can provide at least some value to your partners / sponsors.
If you’re interested in learning more, check out our own podcast or continue reading our blog posts. If you have any questions about the work we do here at Nootka Sound or you just want to say hi, be sure to reach out to info@nootkasound.online.
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