A brand-focused podcast is high-quality valuable content designed to convert listeners into customers or increase brand loyalty (and spend) with existing customers.
If you are considering a podcast, here are six tips to help you create a brand-focused podcast that does all you want it to and more for your business. Your brand identity will be strengthened, your reach extended, and, most importantly, you’ll be able to create meaningful connections with your customers, which, after all, is the foundation of any successful brand or business.
Put these tips into practice, and your venture into brand podcasting will be a hit!
1. Think Before You Act
Before you dive headfirst into starting your podcast, buying equipment, renting studio space or working with a professional producer like DustPod, it’s a good idea to think first and determine if a business podcast is even the right move for your business. It’s not for everyone you know!
If you are running a very niche business, starting a podcast could be an amazing way to get the word out about what your company does. If you have a multi-platform brand you want to build, a podcast is a sound marketing strategy. Or if you can offer something your customers are after that they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else, such as industry-specific advice, or access to niche experts, starting a business podcast should meet with great success.
2. Who Is Your Audience
You need to know what business goals you want to achieve with your podcast and then think about what kind of audience will get you there. The answer to this question will be a great guide in determining the direction your podcast should take.
If you can figure out the best way to satisfy the listeners’ needs and achieve your own business goals, you have the recipe for success.
3. Choose Your Name Carefully
Don’t try to be too clever. Go for something strong and importantly, short! Naming your podcast “The [insert your business name here] Show” may not be the most creative but it absolutely does what it says on the tine. It’s also undeniably yours and unique.
Branching out a bit, do your clients or customers have a unique identifier which groups them? Is there a name that they use to group themselves online? Is there a word or phrase that is no doubt associated with your brand? These could be a part of your podcast’s catchy name.
Try to stay away from a play on words. While they can work great on paper, they don’t carry so well when they are spoken or worse cause confusion when somebody is searching and they use the wrong spelling.
Short names work great, are easy to remember and help enormously when designing your podcast artwork.
4. Which Format Works Best
There are many formats for podcasts, not just interviews. Again, think back to your audience and consider what would they be looking for in a podcast from your brand? What are their needs? How will your podcast meet those needs?
It could well be that they would benefit most from interviews. Or perhaps you should share your expert knowledge in a solo format. You could even consider a roundtable podcast with your team, and focus on particular aspects of services or products you offer.
5. Stay On Brand
This may be the most important tip of all! We’ve seen serious businesses use comedy as a format or electric firms whose podcast is more about the presenter’s adventures in social media. (Seriously).
Stay on brand because this is why people press play in the first place. Let your brand ‘be itself’. One of the ways podcasts are great for business is that they can build real relationships with your customers. You get to speak directly to them, and through the nature of the medium, and that podcasting magic, authentic relationships are formed.
Make sure that the content you’re sharing is on-brand and business-oriented so that there’s a smooth transition from listener to customer.
6. Pay Attention to Getting Attention
This is the number one reason a lot of podcasts fail.
People make podcasts, and after the initial launch, they stop talking about it. They imagine that they just have to put it online and people will come in their thousands. Not so. Just like your business, you need to constantly put the word out about your podcast.
At DustPod, we know podcasts will do three great things for you: It generates amazing content you can use across all your platforms, it gives your brand something to talk about across all your platforms and for those who listen, it gives them a deeper connection with your brand than any other social platform can.
Attention is everything, so before you even do your first show, plan how you will consistently promote your podcast and consistently use the content it generates across all your platforms.
These tips will help you create a brand-focused podcast that does all you want it to and more for your business. Your brand identity will be strengthened, your reach extended, and, most importantly, you’ll be able to create meaningful connections with your customers, which, after all, is the foundation of any successful brand or business.