Podcasts 101: 4 Things Your Competitors Are Doing And You Should Too

With the growing popularity of podcasts, more and more people decide to try their luck in this form of creative expression. It doesn’t come as a surprise, either – podcasts are relatively simple to produce, don’t require a lot of money or expertise in the subject, and their success depends heavily on the speaker’s charisma and personality, rather than the professionalism of the production crew. Moreover, a good podcast can become a hit overnight, which brings incredible satisfaction, recognition, and, of course, money!

No wonder, then, that more and more people aspire to try their luck in podcasts making. Currently, we experience the heydey of home-made productions, created with the use of the simplest devices. How to achieve success if the market is so full of great productions, you might ask? We’ve prepared a few tips on things your competitors are doing, and you should too if you want to become a great podcast producer!

Structure Your Podcasts Well

One thing that differentiates an ordinary podcast from a great one is its smoothness and effortlessness. In fact, if that’s the sense you’re getting from listening to someone’s production, you should know that it’s really not that effortless as it seems. Behind every episode, there are hours of hard work. And the smoothness? You might be surprised, but it all comes from the mixture of practice and excellent structuring of the content.

Just think about it: your favorite podcasts possibly flow at their own pace, with the creator changing the subjects smoothly and starting new topics without hesitation. You can do it all too, by learning how to script your podcasts well. Importantly, always remember to structure your speech into such parts as introduction, topics, conclusion.

Of course, that’s the most basic template available: to become a professional, you might need a more advanced guide on scripting podcasts. Don’t worry, though; there are multiple templates available online that can give you an overall understanding of the topic.

Choose Unique Theme

What do you think is the most important to the audience when it comes to a podcast? You might be guessing audio quality, advanced linguistic solutions, or professional content. Although all these are important, what is even more crucial, is a unique theme of a channel. The theme should be outstanding, unusual, and close to your heart. Don’t create your content around something you’re not generally passionate about because your audience will sense that.

Moreover, think about something unique: what is the area of knowledge that you know better than your own pocket, and you’re passionate enough to talk about it for hours? What content can you give to the audience that no one else can?

Get inspired with the best: guys from “PNR: This Old Marketing” talk about content marketing; “Think Again” focuses on confronting this planet’s sharpest minds with the ideas they’re not ready to discuss. What is something that screams “you” and is different from everything else?

Be consistent with your theme. If you decide on a specific subject, don’t change it every few seconds whenever an episode doesn’t gain instant popularity. Define your target group, and always remember to focus on them – talking to a selected audience will help you attract more people than if you were talking to everybody. Some podcast platforms even offer additional features like podcast analytics to help you better understand your audience.

Make Your Podcast SEO-Friendly

If you’re wondering how to create a successful podcast, you should start thinking about making it SEO-friendly. You may not realize that podcast platforms, such as Google Podcast or iTunes, are, in fact, search engines based on keywords and ranking – just as our good old Google is.

For your channel, this means you should be putting the most critical keywords in the title and descriptions of your podcast to give yourself a substantial boost in the rankings!

This way, your podcast will be much easier to find, prone to rank higher in searches, and will achieve success much faster. Lastly, remember not to overboard with the keywords: try to make it sound as natural as possible.

Invite Guests (and Be a Guest!)

Have you noticed that the best podcasts very often include interviews with guests? In fact, it’s a significant factor for the overall success. The reason for that is that guests – especially experts in the niche – add quality to your content, making it seem verified, truthful, and generally a good source of information. Even when you’re an expert on a specific topic, getting a different voice and perspective is always valuable.

It would be best if you become a guest, yourself, too: this way, you can promote your show among other audiences and further improve your skills.

Conclusion

Many paths are indeed leading to a great podcast; however, real success always lies in a good idea, excellent quality, as well as a hefty dose of hard work and patience. Please remember that the road to fame is bumpy, and no one ever gained it overnight; on the contrary, behind every great podcast, there are hours of practice, ups, and downs.

Do you think Joe Rogan just woke up one day as a professional? No way! He worked his way up, treated his listeners with respect and empathy, recorded episode after episode, and simply made a good host. Only then, after a lot of podcasting work, people decided they need to listen to his podcasts to have a good day. The same will happen to you if you don’t give up and just give it time. Good luck.

Małgorzata Koch