- All right, I'm gonna let you in on a little 2022 secret.
Brands big and small are discovering the power
of podcasts that tell stories and connect with customers.
So, if you're not doing that, you're kinda missing out.
What's up, it's Jamal from HubSpot, welcome to the channel.
In this video, I'm gonna teach you
how to start a podcast for your own business
with a minimum investment of time and money.
To follow step-by-step, download HubSpot's free
"How to Start a Podcast for Your Business" e-book
in the description below.
And, while you're down there,
be sure to hit the subscribe button for this channel
and click the notification bell
so that you never miss an episode.
Podcasts are one of the most popular forms of media today.
41% of Americans listen to podcasts at least once a month
and 28% of Americans are regular listeners,
consuming an average of seven podcasts every week.
That's more people than subscribe to Netflix.
And unlike most digital marketing,
podcasts connect to your customers
when they're away from their screens
and free from distractions,
either because they're driving or working out
or maybe doing chores at home.
Or if they're like me, doing none of the above
and just lazing about.
It's also reported that podcasts have higher recall
than social media or websites.
Wanna hear something even more impressive, though?
When it comes to getting customers to take action,
podcasts wipe the floor
with even the best Facebook Ad campaigns.
So, how can you not get into the podcasting game?
To get started, I wanna introduce you
to the four Ps of podcasting,
planning, production, performance, promotion.
As with any new marketing endeavor,
you wanna start with planning.
The first thing you wanna ask yourself is,
what sort of podcast best fits your brand?
Do you want a conversational podcast
or a narrative style of storytelling?
You'll also wanna give some thought
to the stories you wanna tell.
You can focus on your own brand,
like the Trader Joe's podcast
that takes you behind the scenes to study everything,
from wine making and recipe testing
to supply chain issues and new products hitting the shelves.
I'm gonna be honest, I didn't even know
that Trader Joe's had a podcast until researching this story
and now I'm like, "I need to know everything that they do
'cause their snacks are so darn amazing
and maybe I can learn a little bit of that at home."
Thanks, TJ.
Or you can focus on issues that relate to your brand
but aren't specific to it,
like Slack's "Work in Progress" podcast
that explores the meaning and identity
we find in work.
Or, HubSpot's "My First Million" podcast,
where host Sam and Shaan brainstorm new business ideas
and ask founders how they made their first million.
It's kind in the name.
Choosing the right host is essential to success
of any podcast.
Lots of brands chose someone from inside the organization
to host their podcast, the charismatic CEO
or someone else known across the industry.
What matters most is that the host
has a strong understanding of your brand
and an outgoing and engaging personality.
Unfortunately, I don't know anything about that,
so don't bother ask me for help.
I lied, that's kinda my entire job,
in addition to the whole video thing.
So, with that in mind, I've got some top tips
to help anyone become a good podcast host
that I'll share a little bit later on in the video.
So, you'll wanna stay tuned for that.
Once you've confirmed your host,
you'll probably wanna book some guests for your podcast.
Some experienced podcasters can help maintain
the listeners' attention by just talking for an hour,
but inviting guests helps keep things fresh and interesting
by bringing new perspectives to the conversation.
We should probably get some guests on this show.
That'd be nice, wouldn't it?
Hm, look into that.
It's also a great way to strengthen
your professional network,
and most guests will promote their appearance
on your podcast, bringing more listeners.
Make a list of possible guests,
starting with people connected to you and your team.
Then, go ahead and add some guests
that nobody personally knows but who would be great
to speak with.
You can also add a few dream guests to the list,
but remember that no only are these folks
usually the hardest to book,
they're also the least likely to promote their appearance
on your podcast because they kinda do this thing
all the time, you know what I'm saying?
For you, you want to feel special, but for them,
it's just a regular, regular Tuesday. (laughing)
You know?
So, once your list is ready,
you can use the email outreach templates included
in HubSpot's "How to Start a Podcast for Your Business"
e-book to quickly compose your requests and send them out.
Now, while you wait to hear back from your guests,
let's focus on the second podcasting P, production.
Making a professional sounding podcast
gets easier every year with new technology,
but there are some constants you need to consider.
The first is sound quality.
No matter how great the conversation might be,
if the listener has trouble hearing the speakers,
they won't stick around for long.
COVID has made recording podcasts remotely the norm,
which isn't always great for sound quality,
but there are some tips to improve
your typical Zoom conversation.
The first is, don't use Zoom or Google Meets
or any other web meeting software.
The reason is that audio's compressed
when it goes through the internet
and can still have hiccups and distortion
if the connection is weak.
Instead, try using software like Zencastr,
which connects all of the podcast participants
like a Zoom meeting but records high-quality audio
on each individual's computer
then uploads the files once the recording is complete.
Not only does this eliminate online audio distortion,
it also gives you several audio tracks for each speaker
so that you can later adjust individual volume
and equalization to make the sound as even as possible,
even if the speakers use different mics
in different rooms.
Speaking of mics,
there are dozens of high-quality podcasting mics
that plug directly into your computer via USB.
One of the most popular is Yeti by Blue Microphones.
It costs only about 80 bucks and sounds really great
in most circumstances,
so consider shipping one to one of your guests
and let them keep it as a thank you
for appearing on the podcast, if you can afford that.
My company, personally,
I'm gonna send them out and I'm gonna very aggressively
ask for them back,
'cause I'll be in the red (laughing) if I don't do that.
You know what I'm saying?
If custom software and milling out mics
sounds too complicated,
you can start by using traditional platforms like Zoom
to have the conversation and have all of the speakers
record separate audio tracks using the voice memo app
on their smartphones.
In fact, it's a pretty good idea to have everyone recording
on their smartphone as an emergency backup,
should there be some sort
of tech breakdown mid conversation.
Which reminds me,
where is my phone?
I don't know.
The other trick to getting quality sound
is finding the right room.
You kitchen or office might look great,
but no offense to the live, laugh, love sign
you got in there, it probably has lousy acoustics
with lots of hard flat surfaces
for sound to bounce off of.
Try recording in a closet with lots of clothes hanging
to absorb sound waves
or under a duvet or at least in a room
with curtains drawn and soft furniture,
anything to keep reverb to a minimum.
Once you've got recording captured,
you're probably gonna want to do at least
a little bit of editing.
Even the best podcasters take some time
to clean up the conversation.
Here's a pro tip.
When editing, try removing the ums and uhs
or other natural verbal ticks out of your podcast.
These things are typically uh, not noticed
when someone is talking but can make the conversation
feel slow and stilted when listening back.
This sort of editing used to require slowly listening back
to all the audio,
but this is a pretty big but,
new machine learning technology found in softwares
like Descript lets you upload the audio
and get a word-for-word transcript in minutes.
You can use the text displayed to quickly delete
any sort of pauses or stutters or false starts
you don't want in the recording.
There's also an automated setting
that removes all filler words.
And you can even shorten the gaps between words
so all the speakers sound quick-witted and engaging.
I sure would love to know what that feels like.
You know what I'm saying? (laughing)
You could also cut out whole parts of the recording
that you want to leave outta the podcast
or reorder parts of the conversation,
all just by copy and pasting text.
But do this judiciously and be sure to listen back carefully
to every edit.
Because while something might make sense in text,
it can sound funny depending on the inflection
and intonation of the words being spoken.
And when you're done, you can export and upload the audio.
You can also utilize a transcript to promote the podcast,
which I'll talk about in just a minute.
But first, I wanna go back to give you the tip
I promised about making anyone a great podcast host.
This is the third of our four podcast Ps, performance.
Meaning, how do you actually perform
when the mics are on?
The technique is called The P.A.S.S. Method
and it was developed by Troy Sandidge,
the host of the "iDigress" podcast.
P.A.S.S. stands for present information and facts,
which allow your community to come
to their own conclusions,
ask questions to spark conversations,
share what others are saying to amplify the voice
of the community,
and sway with your content to not appear tone-deaf.
If you wanna read even more tips from podcast professionals
about how to sound great on the mic,
download that e-book I mentioned,
"How to Start a Podcast for Your Business,"
from the description below.
You already know what it is.
And now, the moment we've all been waiting for,
the final P in our four podcasting Ps is promotion.
Now that you have your podcast in the can,
it's time to get it out to the world.
The first thing you have to do is
(drums rolling)
drum roll please,
post your podcast, yeah, no duh.
(laughing) This is simple,
as there are dozens of low-cost podcast distributors
that will upload your podcast to all major platforms.
To do this, you'll need to create eye-catching artwork
to display with your channel, as with every episode.
You'll also need to write a description of your podcast
and each episode you upload.
In each case, you'll wanna follow the rules of SEO
to help your podcast be found.
It's also a good idea to create a website
or a landing page for your podcast
where you can include more in-depth show notes.
And remember that transcription you made
when you were doing your edits?
Posting it on your podcast website is a great tool for SEO.
You can also use the transcript to pull the best clips
to include when promoting your podcast on social media.
And, because I'm feeling generous,
here's one last tip for promoting your podcast.
After everything else is done,
create a video version of your podcast,
even if it's just the podcast artwork
with the audio beneath it.
Why?
(laughing) Why would you do such a thing?
Well, because despite all the hype around podcast apps
and platforms, the biggest place people turn
to a podcast is YouTube.
Yeah, YouTube is still number one at everything.
And of course, whenever you post your podcast,
you're gonna wanna track the performance.
And there's a whole section on podcast metrics
in our free e-book.
You already know where it is.
As always, keep watching this channel for more videos
about digital marketing in all of its forms.
Now if you'll excuse me,
me and my microphone here, all right, we're gonna,
come on, mic, come on.
Do you see it? There it is.
We're going, all right, we're gonna start a podcast.
I don't even know about what, but we're gonna do it.
All right?
Don't play with me, I'm serious.
Please subscribe, we'll see you next time, goodbye.
Free from distractions, distractions.
Dozens of low, low, low, low, low, Loki.