More people are listening to podcasts than ever before.
According to Edison Research, the number of Americans listening to a podcast each week has grown 120% over the past four years, and 90 million Americans listen to a podcast every month.
As the audience for podcasts continues to grow, there has never been a better time to start a podcast for your business, brand, or a personal hobby.
If you follow this guide, it will prime you to launch your own podcast and take advantage of this exciting new medium.
What makes podcasts different?
Podcasts are a great way to build a genuine connection with your audience.
Instead of the fractured connection you make through social media, podcasts allow you to engage your audience with unique long-form content. Podcasts are more convenient than blog posts; people can listen to podcasts while driving, working out, or just doing chores around the house.
There is a lot of unexplored space in the podcasting industry. There are at least 600 million blogs, 23 million YouTube channels, but only 800,000 podcasts in Apple Podcasts.
That means for every podcast, there are 750 blogs and 29 YouTube channels.
Imagine the incredible opportunity there was to start a blog in 2004, and you’ll have an idea of where podcasting is today.
Step 1: Develop a podcast concept
Podcasts are as varied as the people that create them.
There are excellent podcasts about history, pop-culture, neuroscience, and even a fictional town where aliens are friends with the Yeti. The only limit to what you can do with a podcast is your own imagination.
Before we tackle questions about choosing a podcast name, format, and show length, let’s consider some fundamental questions.
To start, ask yourself, “Why am I starting a podcast?” and “What is my podcast about?”
Once you’ve answered the why and what, the rest of the concept will fall into place.
Identify your podcast goals
So, “why are you starting a podcast?” To phrase it another way, “what’s your goal or purpose for your podcast?”
To help you get started, here are some common goals in podcasting:
- To generate leads for a business
- To be recognized as a leader in an industry
- To share an important message
- To have fun
It’s helpful to write your answer down so you can refer back to it as you develop your show’s concept.
Pick a podcast theme or topic
Now it’s time to figure out your show’s topic. Your topic can be as broad as pop-culture or as focused as discussions about recent Supreme Court rulings.
The only requirement…..
