5 Secrets to Stand-Out Podcasting |EP188

Ever dream of launching a podcast that's not just another face in the crowd, but one that truly stands out and captivates listeners? Say no more. I'm peeling back the curtain and revealing the secret recipe to create a successful podcast that resonates, engages, and soars. I'll guide you through the process, starting with a clear concept and a unique niche, making sure your podcast has its own identity. I'll also teach you how to use a compelling hook to reel in listeners and reveal the importance of high-quality content and meticulous episode planning to retain them.

I'll take you on a deep-dive into the art of creating captivating content, considering episode length, frequency, and the benefits of batching. Plus, I walk you through the gear needed for high-quality recording and editing, and why sound quality can make or break your podcast. 

We also explore the potential benefits of releasing a series podcast. Discover how to optimize your podcast for SEO and foster a dedicated community around your podcast. Get ready to embrace the insider secrets, practical advice, and expert insights that will help you navigate the podcasting waters with confidence. 

If you want to Launch a podcast in Q1 of 2024 then my Black Friday offer is not to be missed save £500 on my core program bringing the price well under a grand and spread the cost further with my 5 pay option. Get registered for all the details and advanced access at the link below👇🏻

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Chapters

• 0:00 Launch a Successful Podcast
• 11:27 Tips for Successful Podcasting
• 21:47 Key Elements of a Successful Podcast

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:33

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, bringing you the map to grow and streamline your business in 2023. I'm your host, dona Eade, your go-to gal for all things podcasting, planning and productivity and I'll be bringing you all that plus Mindset Goodness from experts with knowledge to share. Let's make 2023 the year of success in your business. You have a message to share and your voice is the most powerful tool. You have to share it. Dona Eade, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so glad to have you here with me today, friend. I hope you are doing well.

Speaker 1: 1:19

In today's episode, we are uncovering the essential ingredients you need to launch a podcast that not only takes flight but soars. These five must-haves will ensure your podcast is a success. Let's jump in. So the first thing that you must have in your podcast to ensure its success is a clear concept and unique niche, so it's really important that you know exactly what it is that you want your podcast to be about. What is the focus of your podcast? So I will use mine as an example throughout.

Speaker 1: 1:57

This is a podcast for small business owners who have passion for their business and have a message to share. Its aim is to help them to grow and streamline their business using four pillars audience building, where I focus on podcasting, but I also bring in other audience building activities. Planning, because I am a planning queen. I love a good plan. Productivity, which is all about making the most of the time that we have so we can get the most out of it. And mindset and mindset is a really important part of the funnel, because if you do not have the right mindset in place, you can plan all day long, you can do all the productivity hacks, you can do all of the audience building strategies, but if your mindset is saying, then it's not going to work for you. So I think it's really important that there is a mindset element to it as well. So that is the concept of my podcast.

Speaker 1: 3:01

Now yours may look different. Maybe you are working with customers, so you're going straight from your B to C rather than B to B. So you need to really lock down what it is your podcast is and what you want it to do for you. What do you want it to do for your audience? So you can do this in a number of ways. I absolutely love the idea of doing a bit of a post-it party around it and brainstorming the themes, the ideas, the pillars, the content that you are going to create for this podcast, and what that's going to look like. Some of you may have a very clear idea of what your podcast would look like, and if you are somebody who is not looking to do a podcast, you don't have to switch off. If you haven't switched off already I hope you haven't but you can use this for video and for blogging, you know, for any of that sort of weekly content that you're putting out, so you can use all of these tips for those things as well. Don't forget that you are also going to need a hook that attracts your audience in. So what can you do that is going to really make your audience think this is a podcast I want to listen to. So for me, my tagline is grow and streamline your business. Now, what small business owner who is working on their own doesn't want to grow their business so that they can make more money and streamline it so that they don't feel so overwhelmed doing all of the things? That is my hook, that's my tagline. You might want to think of doing something similar where you have a tagline that really sort of hooks the audience in, explains what it is you do, in a nutshell, to make them want to listen.

Speaker 1: 4:38

In Number two on our list of things that you need to make sure that your podcast soars is quality content and episode planning. So it is really important that the quality of your content is there and that you plan for this. I have said it before and I will say it again, that 90% of podcasts that start don't get past the third episode, and that, to me, is a crying shame. But often this is because the quality, the ideas and the planning just aren't in place, and when that happens, it is so easy to fall off the wagon. It is really important to make sure that you've got a clear plan, a clear content plan of what it is that you're going to be doing If you're interviewing people. That is a whole another level of organization that you need to have. I talk all about that in depth in my start your podcast program, because it is so, so important to have systems in place to help make this easy. I think a lot of times people don't have the systems in place and that is why it ends up failing. But if you are really wanting to start your podcast and you want to use it as a tool to talk to your audience, then make sure that the quality is there.

Speaker 1: 5:54

So brainstorm ideas. Don't just go with the first thing that comes into your head. Sit there, brainstorm your ideas, write them all out, do a little sort of summary of what it would be about and then look at it again, put it away for a couple of days and then come back to it and look at it and say, is this really the best of me? Is this what I can put out and create something for my audience? Is there something they can learn? Is there an action point they can take away? Is it of value? And then if you think actually no, that doesn't work for that purpose, then you can scrap it. Or you can look at it and go okay, but if I tweaked it, if I changed this, would that make it better? And so don't look at this as just you know well, I'm gonna swear shit. You slap on the wall and hope that it sticks. Don't do that.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Be conscious about what it is that you're doing and have a plan in place on how this is gonna work in your marketing calendar and what it is that you want it to do and how you want your audience to feel when they get to the end of an episode. So make sure that the quality is really there and then plan it out. So for me, I plan out a quarter at a time and I sort of start planning my next quarter in the middle of the quarter. Before I start looking at the guests that I wanna have on, I start looking at the episodes that I wanna produce myself and I start playing around with working titles on what that would be, so that I can send out invites to guests that I want on the month before the quarter starts, so that I can have them recorded and ready to go when the quarter starts. That's how I work my system and that's what works for me. That might not work. For you to work with a whole quarter, that might be too much. Other people will do six episodes at a time, so you're working in six episode blocks. It is up to you. But whatever you do, make sure that you have planning time written into your diary, so make it part of your week. Don't look at it as an afterthought. This is a marketing tool in your business and it deserves time, just as social media deserves time if you are somebody who advertises on social media. So whatever time you're giving to your social media, you need to be looking at well, I also need to give time to the podcast. So make it so that it is in your diary and there are set times where you're working on it so that you can produce quality content that you want to do.

Speaker 1: 8:32

Now I will share a little bit of my advice when it comes to length of podcast, frequency et cetera, and for me, I have found that a great length for a podcast is around 30 minutes If it's a solo episode. I try not to go longer than 30 minutes on a solo show. Sometimes I talk a little bit more, sometimes I have more to say. A guest episode anything under an hour I think is really good. I think when you start going over an hour, that can be a little bit off-putting to a listener if they've not got a long car journey. If I've got a long car journey and there's a podcast that's like an hour and a half, I am fine to listen to that. If it's one that I can actually listen to in the car, that's a different issue. We will talk about another day. But if it is longer than an hour, often people will be like I haven't got an hour so I'm not gonna listen to that one right now and they'll listen to a shorter one. But if they're going on a car journey then an hour one might be perfect because they've got a car journey to do. So they'll just put it on and play in the car. And people do break up podcasts, like I will listen to one.

Speaker 1: 9:44

When I used to work just 15 minutes from my house, I would try to work listening to a podcast and it may take me two days to get through a podcast because it's like 15 minutes there, 15 minutes back, so I'd listen to a short one. I could get done in a day, but if it was longer than that it could take me two or three days to get through one episode of a podcast. But I just plugged it in and pressed play on my way to work. So people do listen in that way to podcasts. So I would say just be mindful, don't try and fill the time.

Speaker 1: 10:13

If it's a shorter episode and they do tend to be short when you first start, then let it be shorter. It is much more important that there is impact within what you are talking about than it is 30 minutes long, cause if you're just 30 minutes of talking absolute nonsense, then people are quickly going to not listen anymore. If it is 10, 15 minutes of pure utter value that they can go and input, then they are going to come back and listen again and again. So whatever the length is, make sure that it is quality content. Don't be worried if it is slightly shorter, don't be worried if it's slightly longer. But as a rule of thumb, solo episodes around 30 minutes is great, no more. If it is a interview episode, up to an hour is great. If it is more, if there is good content, if it is a really in-depth conversation I'm thinking the Stephen Bartlett's of the world Ramit Saitis podcast those tend to be longer than an hour, but they tend to be that long for a reason. So if there is a reason for it being that long, then sure go for that.

Speaker 1: 11:27

I'm actually going to try and keep my guest episodes to around 30 minutes in the new year. I want to really keep it to hard actionable points. So you will see some changes coming up on my podcast in the new year which I'm really excited about and I will tell you about them nearer the time. But it is going to be exciting. So, yeah, just play around with it and see what your listeners are. You can always do surveys of your listeners on your socials and say hey, how long do you listen to podcasts? For? What's the average length of a podcast you listened for and crowdsource the information. As for frequency, I think it should be weekly, no less than that.

Speaker 1: 12:05

If you aren't ready to commit to doing a weekly episode, then I would suggest instead you look at doing a series podcast where you perhaps do 12 episodes, take a break and then do another 12 episodes, because what I suggest you do is that you batch your content. So I batch all of my episodes and that means that I'm not working on the podcast every single week of the year. There are weeks slash a month in the year where I'm fully focused on the podcast For the next quarter, and then I don't touch. I don't do anything with the podcast for a couple of months, except for maybe the uploading Part of it, but all the recording and editing is done in one batch and then it goes off. So if you are somebody who doesn't feel that they can commit to doing weekly and batching in that way, then maybe batching just, you know 12 episodes and taking a eight week break and then doing another 12 episodes might work better for you. Maybe then you can kind of Do smaller batches over the weeks and get it up that way. So you've got to look at what works for you.

Speaker 1: 13:20

But I would seriously not do Gaps longer than a week between episodes, just because people then lose you in the feed and if they're not listening every week then it becomes something that they can't remember whether you released one last week, whether it's this week that it's coming out. And then if you were to go on holiday on a week that you would normally release and you're doing them as you go and you miss an upload, then that's three weeks. Or if they're away and they're not listening to their podcast for whatever reason, it can just really throw off the rhythm. So I think weekly is the best option. If you don't want to commit to doing 52 episodes a year or 50, as I do, then you may want to look at doing series and making them sort of. You know a set number that you do, then you take a break, then you do a set number, but that's for another day. So that is my advice on your content, episodes, planning and stuff.

Speaker 1: 14:16

Area three is your recording and editing equipment. So I have a kit list. It is in my show notes that you can go and have a look at what I use and you really don't need a lot. You don't need loads of fancy equipment. I'm really an advocate for starting simple with podcasting and growing from there. You know I am still somebody who is working off the same microphone that I got after I rewarded myself for getting so many downloads. You know it's really funny because I can't actually remember how many downloads it was. I was like when I get to this many downloads or when I get to this episode number, I really can't remember what it was.

Speaker 1: 14:57

I rewarded myself with an upgrade on the microphone from my headphones. So I began on my Apple headphones with a microphone plugged in wired ones. That's what I use to start my podcast and I upgraded to the Samsung Q2U, which is the microphone that I recommend for podcasters. I upgraded to that at a certain point in that first year and I haven't upgraded since because it works and it's a really reasonable price as well. So I use that.

Speaker 1: 15:33

I also have a mic boom arm that I use. You don't have to use one of those. You can use a little tripod. I just find that the boom arm allows me to actually sit up rather than hunt over those. Tripods tend to be quite low desk tripods and you can't really. You have to sort of sit it on some books to get it up to a height where you can actually sit up. So I like the boom arm for that reason. And then I have a pop cover over on my mic as well, and then I literally use cushions from around my house to help to deaden the sound in the space where I record my podcast. So that's really fancy and cost me nothing except the price for sofa, but I don't think you could write that off as a business cost. So just grab your sofa cushions and get in there. Make the sound as good as you possibly can.

Speaker 1: 16:30

I will go on all day about how important it is to try and get the best sound quality you can out of the equipment that you have, and that is because people are listening to your podcast. Only they can't see you, they can't touch you, they can't taste you. I don't know why they would want to taste you anyway, but they're only using their hearing. It's the only sense that people use when they're listening to a podcast Now, the visual ones, obviously Steven Bartlett, ramit, satie. They do their online ones on YouTube, but if they are only listening, then it has to be good for them to listen. I have listened to podcasts that have not had great sound and it frustrates me and I don't like thinking that somebody's sitting in a bathroom talking to me which is what a lot of them sound like and then there are others that have a lot of hiss to them and I just don't understand that either.

Speaker 1: 17:32

It is really important, when people are using just one of their senses, that you are delivering the best quality to that sense that you can, because otherwise it's gonna put people off. Now, if you sound more like you're in a bathroom and it's still, this isn't the best option actually, but you're on YouTube and you're doing a video, it's not as much of an issue, I would say, although I do watch people on YouTube and think, why are you recording in that room? But people are watching you as well as listening to you. So then you've got 50% of the sense is visual, 50% is audio, so you're not having to create as perfect a sound. You can get away with it not being as good, because there's another sense that is taking over. So that's what I do with editing, I suppose, is where that comes in. So with a podcast audio only, I am much more likely to go and edit ums and ars out to create a better sound experience for my listener than I am if it is on YouTube. I don't edit them out when I'm on YouTube and that's because people can see the conversation and are part of the conversation and because they're seeing it as well as hearing it, you don't notice those filler words as much. So that's probably a better example of how you produce the better quality for just audio. So that's really, really important.

Speaker 1: 19:07

The fourth thing that you need to have a successful podcast is effective marketing and promotion. So I have spoken about this recently, about having your launch squad ready to go, your hype squad, to help you promote your podcast when you first launch. But it is really important that you have ongoing marketing and promotion for your podcast. The great thing about podcasts is that the opportunity to promote it is endless. You can create so many different sound clips from one episode. You can create so many different quotes from one episode. You know MarieTV, for example. That's a YouTube channel. However, she used to do like tweetables and she would put up and I don't know if she still does, but she would put up on screens tweet this, and so there are so many parts of a podcast that you can go well, that's tweetable and you can create a quote out of it. Especially if you've got guests coming on, they can come out with some great golden nuggets. I'm sure we'll come out with great golden nuggets yourself, but there are things that you can share with people again and again that are going to bring them back to the podcast consistently. So you don't have to worry about creating new content all the time. You can use your old content, share it, share the link to that episode, and that episode is gonna get more listens as well.

Speaker 1: 20:35

So it is really important that you take advantage of all of the content within a podcast to do that promotion. So not only that you can create little video clips so Canva has a great selection of video clips within their library that you could create something visual that's pretty, that sort of goes with the theme of the podcast, or maybe something that's just eye-catching and beautiful, and put a snippet of your podcast over the top of that and you've got a reel. You know simple things like that, but you don't even have to be on the camera for it, or you can put some clips together. You could do some behind the scenes B-roll of you podcasting. If you follow me on Instagram over at Donna underscore, ede underscore, you'll know that I do that little bit of B-roll footage here and there of me and I will put that over different reels under different reels. So you know, you've got that opportunity to really use the content that you've created and make it work for you again and again and again, rather than constantly feeling that churn of new content.

Speaker 1: 21:47

Now, obviously, I have said previously that you should be producing your podcast on a weekly basis. Well, that's great because it just means that you've got content for days and days and days. It is really useful to have a new influx. But you know, on a day where you don't feel like posting a social media post, where you don't feel up for getting on camera, and you'd plan to, you know, pull on an old episode, say, hey guys, you know I was just listening back to this old episode with ex a guest. You know I would probably use guests for those because it's probably a bit narcissistic to just listen back to yourself but share the episode again and say, hey, go over and listen to them. And these are great opportunities for you to share other people with your audience but also to get listens on episodes of past. So it's really a great way to use your podcast for promoting it and promoting who you are. So it's really important also that you set your podcast up for SEO success. So I'm looking to bring an SEO expert in next quarter to talk to us about how we can optimize our podcast best for SEO, because obviously it is audio, it is not written and Google is not yet at the stage where it's listening for the keywords in the podcast episodes to pull out. So there is a written element to podcasting that needs to be working for you. So you need to make sure that you are optimizing your SEO for the podcast platforms.

Speaker 1: 23:18

And number five on our list of things that you need to create a successful podcast is consistent engagement and listener interaction. This is why we do our podcast. We want to engage our listeners. We want them to interact with us. I want you guys to interact with me. I am not sitting here talking to myself for the sake of talking to myself. I'm talking to you, guys. I want to have conversations with you. So, yeah, put polls up on your Instagram, asking questions about episodes. Ask for your audience to go over and connect with you on social. I say it a lot, but if you've got any questions about an episode, then DM me, ask me. I am happy to answer them. So this is something we're probably not as good at doing as we could be, and that is encouraging that conversation, that engagement from our listeners.

Speaker 1: 24:15

So, if you are collecting emails for your podcast and getting people on there, make sure that you are sending out your emails on a weekly basis, communicating with them, asking questions, getting that feedback. It's really important as a small business owner and, guys, I am a small business owner, it is just me here and I am the one that answers all of my emails. So when I put out to you guys, please send an email back, tell me this, tell me that, ask me a question or let me know. I really want to hear from you and I'm going to respond. It's going to be me in that inbox responding to you. We can have a conversation about it, and you all know that this goes out to my entire list, but you don't know how big my list is and I don't know how big your list is, and it's nobody's business how big your list is. But know that if you are going to reply to me, I will take the time to reply back to you and have a conversation with you, and it doesn't matter how many people I have on my list.

Speaker 1: 25:16

The likelihood is there's not going to be many people that actually respond to those questions. It's just a fact of life. Everybody's busy. But if you're sitting there thinking oh, and then you stop yourself and think, oh, no, she'll get loads of replies or she's not going to email me back, there's no point. Please, don't, please actually hit that reply button and send me a reply, because there is only ever a handful of people that do that, and I would love to speak to more of you and have a deeper connection with you, and that's what you want to foster with your own podcast, because that is the lifeblood of the podcast is your listeners. These are the people that come back week after week to learn from you, to get value from you, to learn from your guests and it is really good to have it as a two way street and obviously they're not going to do podcast replies to your podcast but reaching out in the DMs, reaching out on email, having those conversations.

Speaker 1: 26:14

I have a speak pipe which I think is linked in my show notes so if you want to actually leave me like a voice note, like you would on WhatsApp, you can actually go over there and leave me a question. So if there is a topic you'd like me to talk about on the podcast, or if you've just got something nice to say about the podcast, or if you have a question that you want to ask me, you can go over on to the speak pipe and leave me a little voice note and if it's nice words about the podcast, I might share it on an upcoming show. If it's a question, I might answer it either directly to you or go on Instagram and answer it, or answer it in an upcoming episode. If it is a topic idea for a show, then I will completely take that on board and try and work it in to my next quarter. But be aware that I do batch by quarters so it might take a while for your episode to come out.

Speaker 1: 27:08

But I am absolutely open to hearing from you guys and growing this podcast together, and you should be open to hearing that from your audience as well, because the more engaged your audience is in the content that you're putting out, the more collaborative it is, and the more collaborative it is looks really hard to say. The more collaborative it is, the better the podcast is gonna be, the better it will be received, the more listeners you will get and it's just gonna have an overall better community feel to it. And that is what I love about podcasting is that it can really create an intimate community of people and it's not necessary that the community is getting together as a group, but you have that community with them and they have that with you and that is so, so special. So that is a really, really important part of podcasting for success. So those are your five must-haves for launching a successful podcast. You need to have your concept and your niche. You need to have your quality content, your equipment, your marketing during engagement. It is so important to have a plan and be dedicated to your podcast as a long-term marketing tool.

Speaker 1: 28:35

I am inviting you guys to reach out to me, ask your questions, share your podcasting journey with me, head over to the Speak Pipe if you'd like to leave me a voice note head over to Instagram? Send me a DM. I would love to know where you're at with your journey. If you've got any questions about podcasting, then please do reach out. It is a fantastic way to build your audience. I have said it before, I will say it again after my first year podcasting, I discovered that 50% of my email list had come from people signing up to freebies from my podcast or signing up to my podcast newsletter. That is an astonishing level of audience from your podcast versus all the other methods that you use.

Speaker 1: 29:21

So make sure that if you are looking at starting a podcast, that you have that kind of long-term plan in place for it so that you can have a successful podcast, because I want that for you, I want that for me and we're gonna keep on showing up on a weekly basis with the Mindset and Action podcast so that you can learn to grow and streamline your business. So until next week, guys. Thank you so much for joining me Head over. Follow me on Instagram Donut underscore, ead underscore and please, if you are listening on Apple Podcasts, leave a review. It means the absolute world to me. I'll speak to you soon. Bye for now gén 뛰en Ringletoe d joinedo me in Patreon and other stuff.