058: Ready to Start a Podcast for Your Business? Here are 3 Things to Consider
If you want to set yourself apart as a business owner and build authority, you might be considering starting a podcast. Before you do, there are 3 important things to consider before you hit record and put your first episode out into the world.
You’ll hear about the benefits of starting your podcast, what you can realistically expect as a first-time podcaster and why getting a good rhythm can help your success as a podcast host.
What’s in this episode:
The 3 important things to consider before launching your podcast
How your podcast can streamline marketing efforts
Why you have to get into a good rhythm
Links:
042: Streamline Your Marketing with a Podcast
048: How to Make Your Podcast an Employee of Your Business
043: Ways to Outsource Your Podcast
051: How to Revive Your Podcast After a Break
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The Transcript:
058: Ready to Start a Podcast for Your Business? Here are 3 Things to Consider
What is the action item that people are doing after they listen? Are they signing up for our newsletter? Are they opting into a freebie? What is the thing and can you track that specifically? Maybe there's a special link that you use just for the podcast, or maybe it's in a form that you have on your website that says, Where did you hear from this and has a drop down in one of those is your podcasts. These are ways that you can kind of track. Sometimes it can be hard because people definitely can come to you roundabout ways, right? But there are some things to kind of look at.
Welcome to the Wild Home Podcast, where we talk about podcasting, life and all the wild in between. Join me, Caroline. Every week I share a peek into the world of podcasting and my wild life as well. Ready? Let's get into it. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Wild Home Podcast today. I want to talk about three things to consider if you are ready to start a podcast for your business.
So specifically in this episode, when we talk about starting a podcast, we are talking about using it as part of the marketing for your business, using it as a way to build authority, a way to showcase what you know, and to build a library of knowledge. And I talk about that a lot. How podcasting is so cool, especially for businesses, because you do kind of build this library of what you know how you like to share it with the world, what your message is. And then you put that out there and people are able to get to know you, get to know what you're all about, get to know your style, how you like to work with people. There's just so many benefits to having a podcast for your business, and it also doubles as a really great way to drive SEO or to drive traffic through SEO to your website, which we love, and it kind of streamlines content creation.
OK, I just threw a lot of benefits at you because I've talked about this on a lot of episodes over the years on this podcast, and it's something that I'm really passionate about and not only having a podcast but making sure that it's working for your business. And so I would recommend that you go back through my library of knowledge, my podcast, and look for episodes that specifically have to do with how it relates to having a business and we'll leave a couple in the show notes for you as well. But so let's say you've gotten past all of that. You're like, Yes, I'm here for the benefits. I'm ready. Let's do this. But there are three things I want you to consider before you hit record and before you put it out into the world.
And so the first thing is what is your goal? And I think this is like the biggest thing that all podcasters who are using it as part of their marketing for their business need to consider is like, what is your actual goal for the podcast? And I want you to get very specific. Is it to bring in leads? Are you just hoping to create more visibility, like what is the thing that you're trying to do?
I love the idea of using a podcast to generate leads. And I think it's a really great way to share who you are and what you know, but also how you work with people and what they could expect from working with you. This is especially effective, I think, for business coaches, health and wellness coaches, things like that, people who do strategy and coaching because it really helps people get a chance to hear your voice and hear how you feel about things and how you approach them and how you share them.
And so when I'm setting goals, I mean, I think you can definitely set pretty concrete goals and say, I want the podcast to generate X amount of leads each month. That would be amazing, and I think that's a really cool goal to have, and you just have to make sure that you have a way to track that. Like what is the action item that people are doing after they listen? Are they signing up for a newsletter? They opting into a freebie? What is the thing? And can you track that specifically? Maybe there's a special link that you use just for the podcast, or maybe it's in a form that you have on your website that says, Where did you hear from this and has a drop down in one of those is your podcasts. These are ways that you can kind of track. Sometimes it can be hard because people definitely can come to you roundabout ways, right? But there are some things to kind of look at.
Now there are some other goals that you can set for sure. And I'm actually going to talk about these in another podcast episode about numbers and metrics and how to use them for your podcast and for your business. But for right now, I want you to just start to think about that goal and reframing the podcast as being a productive member of your team of your business, right? So the podcast is working for you. It's generating leads. It's part of your sales and marketing team. That's what I like to say.
So the second thing that I want you to consider is exactly how you're going to use this with your marketing. If you've ever heard me talk about marketing and having a podcast for your business, you know what I'm going to say, and that is, is that we spend so much time on the podcast and there's just such a wealth of information from each of your episodes that it makes a lot of sense for the podcast to be like the top tier of your marketing. And there's a lot of ways to do this.
Whenever I'm teaching this, I always have this drawing of a funnel, and at the top of the funnel is your podcast and then everything drips down from there. So from. Where you create a blog post from there, you create an email newsletter, from there you create social media posts and so on and so on. I think that one of the most underutilized things I see a lot when businesses first start podcasts is the shownotes. And so what we really try to encourage here is that if you're going to work on the podcast and you're going to post it somewhere and have to write a description for it, definitely like compose some really great show notes that can be used on your blog that are so friendly and then use the show notes to also help you compose social media posts.
And so you're doing a lot of work on the podcast, and then that in turn, is giving you so many snippets and pieces to be able to share. So a really great example is this episode. So in this episode, I am giving you three things to consider if you're starting a podcast for your business and each of those three things could be its own email newsletter. It's on social media posts. There's so much I could pull from this episode, and so just kind of approaching them that way is going to be really key as you start integrating your podcast into your marketing for your business.
It's really good to have a plan at the front of it when you're first developing your podcast, but sometimes that doesn't always happen, and it can kind of happen naturally. I find that, you know, when I first started podcasting, I didn't necessarily think I'm going to pull everything from my podcast. I would just like, create content. And then I realized I was creating content in so many different places when I could just, in fact, sit down record, right? Some amazing show notes and use that to create content everywhere else. And it saves a lot of time. It streamlines your messaging and it kind of gives you, I think, like an unlimited amount of of things to pull from.
So for instance, if I'm stuck this week, I was a little stuck and I was thinking about something that I wanted to post on social media, and I realized I had a really great episode. A while back, I think it was episode fifty one and I was like, Oh, I need to pull from that again, because whatever I talked about in the episode is so timely for right now, so annoying to share it. And it's really easy to do that if you have a really good show, notes that are very thorough and have quotes pulled and all that kind of stuff. And so as you start to think about your marketing, not just for your podcast, but for your business. Think about how the two can mesh together and integrate and become one. And it's going to save you a lot of time, a lot of energy. And it's also going to make it really easy to keep directing people back to the podcast and then from the podcast back to your site, right? And so it's kind of like the circle, and sometimes you can bypass sending them off to Apple and Spotify because you have a really great blog post on your blog with a player right there.
And so making sure that all the things are connected, that we are taking the time to use the content that we are creating and a really great way. And the last thing that I want you to consider if you're ready to start a podcast for your business is time and outsourcing. So time, I feel like becomes a really touchy subject with a lot of podcasters after they get started. I feel like intentions are always good, and then as you jump in, you realize how incredibly time consuming the process is, and soon your time starts to get away from you and then you start to feel like you're doing episodes last minute.
If you are a CEO of a business or even a solopreneur, or maybe you have a couple of people who work for you. One of the things you will quickly figure out is that incorporating a podcast into your weekly schedule can be a challenge unless you really get yourself into a good groove. I actually posted today on Instagram when I'm recording this about having a rhythm, and I think this is really important and something that you need to kind of think about before you start the podcast. Like, what is your weekly rhythm going to look like? How often are you going to record? When are you going to record? When are you going to work on all the other pieces that go with it? When do you want to have that episode scheduled?
And this is something that I am still working on because you can have good intentions and then things happen. And that's why I don't like to use the word schedule. I like to use the word rhythm because I feel like rhythm allows for a little bit more wiggle room when things get busy or crazy or something pops up. But it is something to think about because as you start to work on your podcast, you want to make sure that you are A) ahead on episodes. And if you're not ahead, you have a plan. So that way, you can keep the podcast momentum going, right? Keeping consistent keeps listeners consistent. All the things I've said on all the episodes, right?
So find that rhythm and. You know, if time feels like it's going to be something that is going to be really difficult for you, let's say your plate is just maxed, but you know that you want to have a podcast, what can you outsource? What are the things that you know you could get off your plate? What are the things that you want to tackle? Maybe you want to do the editing and the audio and the show notes and then have somebody post it and schedule it. Or maybe you're ready to offload the whole thing.
And a lot of times we don't know the answer to these questions until we get into it. But it is something to kind of have in the back of your mind as you're starting the podcast process. Because, like I said, the last thing you want is to get so far behind that you're having trouble keeping up with it and not getting episodes out when you want, right? And so having some kind of rhythm having outsourcing help is going to really help with that. And I think too, you have to be honest with yourself. You know, how much time do I have to give to this? How much time each week am I going to dedicate? Is this something that maybe I'm going to have to do on the weekends for a while? What does that look like for me? And I do have an episode about outsourcing for your podcast, so we're going to link that in the show notes as well. Lots of things. We're going to link to this episode because a lot of this does refer back to things that I've talked about before, and they definitely bear repeating because they are really, really important.
I think outsourcing can be really overwhelming, especially if you haven't done it before. But I definitely like when I encourage you as a business owner, you know, with so we're wearing so many hats, right? Just make sure that the podcast isn't an extra hat on top of all the hats that you're already wearing, and thus goes back to my previous point, which was about marketing, and if you can use this to also streamline your marketing and help save time as well. And so these are the three things that I think are very important to consider as you get ready to start a podcast for your business.
I think these are the things that sometimes aren't thought about until down the road, which is totally fine, too. I mean, sometimes you just got to do the thing and learn as you go and find out what works for you and what's going to be the most impactful for you and your business. And that's totally OK. I'm not saying that you need to have all of this figured out before you hit record. I'm just saying as you start your journey as a podcaster and as you start your journey sharing and using this to get your message and your voice out there, these are things that you want to be thinking about.
And the other thing too, is I always tell people to like, give yourself 10 to 20 episodes to kind of figure these things out as well. You may start and have time and then things change. Things happen. Things evolve and decide now it's time to bring somebody. And then what does that feel like for a couple of months, you know? And so it's all a big experiment. I say all the time, that it's still the Wild West. Everybody's still kind of doing what works best for them. And at the end of the day, that's what you have to do as well is do what works best for you.
So if you are ready to start working on your podcast, I have a free audio series that you can listen to, and it actually just goes right into whatever app that you like to listen to podcasts when you click the link and sign up. And that's at WildHomePodcasting.com/launch and this whole audio series is all about making sure that your podcast is going to work for your business and kind of reframing podcasting for a business owner who wants to have it as part of their marketing. Like we've talked about in this episode, so go and subscribe to that. Let me know what you think. I'm super excited. It's my first audio series to be offering as an opt in, and I feel like they're very beneficial and I'll have to share more about that on another episode. Again, you can get that at Wild Home Podcast dot com slash launch, and let me know if this episode was helpful. You can email me hello@wildhomepodcasting.com or connect with me on Instagram at Wild Home Podcast. I will see you next week.
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. To stay in the know, head to WildHomePodcasting.com and be sure to connect with me on Instagram @WildHomePodcasting. See you next week!
