Discover the Essential Steps to Answering the Question: How Do I Produce a Podcast?
My business partner, Roger Nairn, and I get this common question from prospective clients: How do I produce a podcast? But it’s not just us. A quick search on Google shows that one of the most common questions that marketers seek to answer is:
“How do I produce a podcast?”
Honestly, even as the co-founder and chief creative officer of a branded podcast company, – someone who has spent the past 21 years working in audio storytelling and the past 8 in branded podcasting – I can’t answer that question. I simply do not have enough information about the “I” who is doing the asking. “I” might be anyone from a frustrated HR professional looking to find a better way to talk to employees, to the CMO of a billion dollar tech company wanting to shine a little light back into the important and under-represented corners of the internet. “I” could be an expert storyteller looking for production and marketing support, or someone who’s never before tried to articulate the intricacies of their highly specialized professional world to an audience. It’s impossible to know. Like Walt Whitman said in his seminal 1855 poem ‘Song of Myself’, from his collection Leaves of Grass:
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
I’m telling you, this question “contains multitudes.” And the best way to address it is to ask yet another question:
Why do you want a podcast?
Only by unpacking this question of WHY can we begin to address the HOW. So, my first tip would be to determine why you want to make a show in the first place. Answering ‘how do I produce a podcast?’ starts with understanding your purpose. Some reasons for why include:
- Brand Awareness and Identity: Podcasts allow brands to craft and disseminate a unique voice and identity, reaching audiences directly. This media form offers the opportunity to consistently communicate key messages, values, and the personality of the brand, helping to build recognition and loyalty.
- Engagement and Community Building: Podcasts create a platform for brands to engage intimately with their audience, fostering a sense of community. Through regular episodes, brands can connect with listeners on common interests, encourage interactions, and even build a dedicated following that feels a part of the brand’s journey.
- Content Marketing and Thought Leadership: Through podcasting, brands can establish authority in their field by sharing insights, industry news, and expert opinions. This positions them as thought leaders and go-to resources in their sector, enhancing credibility and trust among potential customers and peers.
- Direct Communication Channel: Podcasts serve as a direct line to consumers, allowing brands to bypass traditional media gatekeepers. “Internal” podcasts can also open up lines of communication with employees. This control over content and messaging can be crucial in shaping perceptions and directly addressing customer or employee needs and concerns.
- Marketing and Revenue Opportunities: Podcasts can also be a tool for marketing products and services subtly and effectively within the content, or through sponsorships and advertisements. Furthermore, they can open up additional revenue streams such as branded merchandise, live event hosting, or premium content offerings.
Of course – there could be loads of other reasons: You’ve always liked the sound of your own voice, you enjoy long-form, deep dive interviews while you drink your morning coffee, you have a hankering to get out of the office for a walk but don’t want to waste the opportunity to learn something new… the list goes on. The important thing is for YOU to be clear about your reasons for uncorking the podcasting genie from the bottle.
The next question I’d ask you to consider is:
Who is your podcast for?
And until you can answer this one clearly – you’re not to turn on that microphone.
Seriously. Put it down.
A common initial response I get when I pose this question about target audience is “C-suite.” People are convinced that a ubiquitous group of high-performing executives are sitting around somewhere, waiting to hear their podcast and immediately order their products or services. But here’s the thing: “C-suite” is a job category. It does not describe a living, breathing, audience member. To really connect with people through podcasting, you need to be a bit more specific. Think about the whole person – not just their job. Think about what they need. So instead of a show for “C-Suite” maybe it’s a show for “a stressed out 45-year old female CTO in the med tech industry, intent on innovation but worried about data security and looking for advice.” Or perhaps it’s for “the CMO of a digital media company looking for creative re-invigoration because their broadway musical career – once a real possibility– is now but a ‘memory, all alone in the moonlight.” Remember: your audience is made up of real people, with real interests and real problems. They consume media in specific ways, and for specific reasons.
Make an audience-driven show from the get-go
Knowing this kind of intel about your target audience ahead of time can help inform decisions like ‘should my podcast be audio or video?’ or, ‘should my content lean towards entertaining or informative?’ Understanding your audience is key when answering ‘how do I produce a podcast?’. For C-Suite executives polled across a number of different verticals, for example, recent data from Signal Hill Insights suggests they often consume podcasts while on the go, and choose podcasts because they like “learning.” This makes sense, if you think about it. Leaders, after all, are busy people who must squeeze-in their media consumption between board meetings and site tours. They find time to listen to content while commuting, or while on the treadmill at the gym, where they’re working off the stress of their demanding jobs. Also, leaders of companies often feel the pressure to be ahead of the curve, to learn about a wide variety of topics in order to make new connections across silos, and be able to offer guidance to others within their organizations. So you can safely assume that informational audio podcasts are a great vehicle for them. Of course – this won’t apply to everyone in your target group, but by considering the whole person in context, you begin to get a sense of the common needs and habits that might drive their media consumption preferences, and from there, you can create a show that “lands” appropriately.
“It’s for everyone” is not a thing
Another typical response clients give to my “Who’s it for?” question is the friendly and inclusive, “it’s for everyone.” Here’s the thing: “everyone” is an utterly meaningless designation. If your podcast is “for everyone” it’s actually for no-one, as the saying goes. You can ultimately seek to include a wide variety of people in your audience, but you need to start somewhere. Who will be the core audience? The early adopters? The “ride or die” friends of the show? Those are the people you want to identify and tailor your content towards. I like to think about the Campfire Agency’s “skimmers, dippers, and divers” theory of audience behaviour. Some audience members will skim the surface, others will dip into the content, and still others will dive deep and roll around in as much content as you can give them. Figure out who your “divers” are in your particular audience group or topic area. Make a show that’s explicitly for them. Then, if you have a desire to bring the show to a wider audience, you can look for ways to keep your language inclusive, and to tie your storytelling to larger social trends or topics – increasing the accessibility of your show.
Zero-in first, then widen your lens
A great example of this principle at work is the show we recently did for Staffbase, an innovative digital internal communications platform. They wanted to create a podcast aimed specifically at internal comms professionals who routinely run up against particular challenges in their jobs. Staffbase wanted to make the kind of show these beleaguered comms warriors would listen to and then talk about in the bar, after work. So we created Infernal Communication, a fun, irreverent show that directly addressed some of the biggest gripes that this core group has. Our episodes focused on things like dealing with bosses who say stupid shit, give vague instructions, love tacky outdated font, or insist on sending out tone-deaf emails. Then, we made these episodes widely appealing by ensuring we talked to people outside the internal comms industry about wider trends in communication, storytelling, and culture. The show ended up winning awards for its storytelling. It appeals to anyone who gives a flying petunia about writing or communication in general, but it is very much still “for” the target audience of internal comms professionals. Remember: You can work on inclusivity through your storytelling and diction, and by trying to tell stories that connect to larger social trends – but nothing is “for everyone” – just like nothing is for free.
Ok, so now what?
So now, you know why you’re making a show – and for whom. Presumably you’ve gathered some information about the needs of your target audience, and their media consumption preferences. You have considered their values in relation to your own – or your brand’s. Congratulations, Campers! You’re ready to begin.
Hire professional storytellers if you can
Producing a podcast is not like producing a widget. Every podcast will have its own particular quirks when it comes to the process of creating it – and that is as it should be. Every podcast is a special flower, and they are definitely not all created equal. You do not want to end up with a podcast that sounds exactly like every other unimaginative show out there, or worse, one that sounds like it was recorded in a tin showerstall. Your show needs to be better – more noteworthy – if you want to use it as a way to drive business. My suggestion is that you leave a little room for iteration in your production approach. Trust the creative process. Invest in talent – be that by hiring a great host, a great producer, or a full-service podcast agency. Also trust that your show will perform better if it embraces certain known tricks of the trade for grabbing and holding audience attention. This is why many brands choose to involve professional storytellers – podcasters who do more than point a microphone and nod. But either way, be sure that you consider elements such as pacing, clarity, voice, tension, audio quality, and sound design.
Spend the money up front
Hiring a professional team to support you may or may not be in the cards for you. It all depends on your time, your own team’s capacity, and your budget. Nobody can tell you how much money to spend on your podcast. But I can tell you when to spend it.
Don’t spend the money after-the-fact, cleaning up the mess you made, and trying desperately to connect with an audience as an afterthought. Instead, spend the money up-front on strategy, planning, and execution. Create a timeline, and adhere to it. Create great artwork that helps your podcast get noticed. Learn to articulate the value of your podcast to your target audience before you launch. Reserve some budget to help market your show once it’s made.
And while every show is different – it can be helpful to have a sense of the basic phases of podcast production. After defining the purpose and target audience for a podcast, a brand will likely need to follow some version of these basic steps to successfully launch it:
- Content Development: Plan the content structure, including episode formats (interviews, storytelling, panel discussions), themes, and key messages. Ensure the content aligns with the brand’s voice and audience’s interests.
- Technical Setup: Invest in quality recording equipment and software. Decide whether to build an in-house studio, record online, or rent a space. Additionally, consider the editing software or service to use for post-production.
- Team Assembly: Gather a dedicated podcast team, which might include a host, producer, sound engineer, and content writers. You may wish to employ a full-service podcast agency to handle all of the above, plus marketing. Assign roles based on skills and experience relevant to podcast production.
- Scheduling and Logistics: Create a production timeline, scheduling recording sessions well in advance. Decide on a release frequency that maintains audience engagement without overextending resources (e.g., weekly, biweekly). Again, a full-service podcast agency can handle this part.
- Distribution and Promotion: Choose a hosting platform to distribute the podcast across major streaming services like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. Develop a marketing strategy to promote episodes through social media, email newsletters, and other channels.
- Launch and Feedback: Release the first few episodes. Monitor listener feedback and analytics to understand what works and make necessary adjustments for future episodes.
- Cross-Promotion with Influencers and Other Podcasts: Partner with influencers and other podcasts that share a similar target audience. Guest appearances on each other’s shows or sharing content (feed swaps etc.) can significantly broaden your listener base. This method expands reach and adds credibility and variety to your content, making it more appealing to potential new listeners.
All of these considerations go into answering that original question of “How do I produce a podcast?” But there is another consideration that I’d like to throw onto the pile for your consideration – and it ties back to that Walt Whitman poem I quoted at the start of this blog.
And that is:
How can you be different?
Whitman’s “Song of Myself” was written in free verse – a form considered radical at the time. This was his attempt to “fuse the cadence of the Bible with the musicality of opera,” a form which he’d apparently developed a taste for covering the music beat as a journalist. I advise every brand making a podcast to take a leaf from Walt’s book, examine the landscape of podcasts already out there in their topic jurisdiction, and think about how they might create one that will stand out. Perhaps it is a show that blends two forms together, or combines two topic streams in a new or unusual way. A famous example of this would be the wildly popular Hot Ones video podcast – which fuses earnest, deep-dive celebrity interviews with the sticky act of eating increasingly spicy chicken wings, live, on camera. It’s basically the bible meets opera, on a sliding Scoville heat scale. Who would have thought this would be a combination that worked? And yet somehow, it does. Not to say you need to rush out and find a ridiculous gimmick to underpin your podcast. Just look for ways to embrace a new or different side of yourself, or your brand. Strive to present a different perspective or perspectives. Don’t be afraid to give your critics some air-time. You can handle a little discussion, or a questioning viewpoint, because it’s your podcast. You’re in charge of the edit – so effectively, you get the last word. But it’s incredibly important to know that people will respect you more for allowing real dialogue to occur. Remember: You are a brand. You are not a monolith. You contain multitudes, and so does your audience.
Make a connection: “I to I”
Radiolab’s Jad Abumrad has spoken eloqently about audio’s ability to create empathy. It basically works like this: As one person describes something on a podcast, the listener leans in, listens – and with any luck, simultaneously pictures that very same thing – or a version of it – in their mind. This quality of active “co-authorship,” uniquely inherent to audio storytelling, is a way for brands to make a powerful mental connection with their target audience.
Finally, there is one last theme that comes up in Whitman’s “Song of Myself” that really gets at the heart of what podcasting is all about: connection.
The poem opens with these lines:
I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
According to the official Penguin.uk blog, Whitman’s work has been “universally understood as a paean to humanity: its “I” is a great, inclusive “I”, and the goodness he finds in himself, as Whitman iterates in that latter line, belongs to the reader and all human beings.”
The person who works for a brand and wants to produce a podcast needs to keep this larger, Whitman-esque definition of “I” in mind. The “I” of the individual brand creating the show is connecting to the “I” of the individual audience member, the human being on the receiving end of the podcast. So when you ask “How do I produce a podcast?” be sure it’s that broader definition of “I” you’re asking about. The “I” that includes your audience, includes their wishes and desires. Because if you are going to make a podcast, the thing you ultimately need to understand is that you are not creating a 1-way form of communication. You are creating a portal – a vehicle for empathy, dialogue, and authentic connection.
Hopefully, this blog has thoroughly confused the SEO algorithms. If you’re still reading and would like some advice about effective podcasting that helps you meet your business goals – feel free to reach out to us at JAR. We contain multitudes.
5 Key Takeaways on How to Produce a Podcast:
- Clarify Your Purpose: Understand why you want to create a podcast before diving into production. Whether it’s for brand awareness, engagement, or thought leadership, knowing your purpose is crucial.
- Know Your Audience: Define your target audience specifically. Knowing their needs, preferences, and habits will help you create content that resonates.
- Professional Quality Matters: Invest in professional storytellers and quality equipment to ensure your podcast stands out and effectively engages your audience.
- Strategic Planning: Spend resources on strategy, planning, and execution upfront rather than trying to fix issues later. This includes content development, technical setup, and marketing.
- Empathy and Connection: Remember that a podcast is a tool for empathy and dialogue, creating a connection between the brand and the audience.
Roger transitioned from a 22 year career in advertising account management to co-founding JAR, a podcast podcast production agency. As CEO of JAR, he propels the company’s growth by prioritizing audience engagement and podcast marketing. Under his guidance, JAR flourishes with a global clientele, aiming to broaden its reach across North America and revolutionize brand connections through immersive storytelling.
