by
Yasi ZhangWe’re here to help you tell your story and promote your business. Podcasting is one of the best ways to do this because it’s a personal medium that allows for greater authenticity, transparency, and trustworthiness.
Podcasts can help solopreneurs better connect with the audience. Podcasts can help startups raise brand awareness and establish brand authority. Having your podcast show and talking about the latest trends, developments, or stories in your expert domain can help you gain an audience, increase brand awareness and build thought-leadership online.
Even when you don’t have your podcast show, you can be a podcast guest and sponsor ads. There are many ways to leverage podcast marketing and build a solid personal brand.
A survey by Nielson found that of 78% consumers don’t mind ads or sponsorship messages in podcasts. 80% of them listen to most of a podcast episode without skipping ads.
Businesses can grow brands via podcasts, and individuals can build a solid personal brand with podcasting.
Why podcast casting is perfect for personal branding
Podcast content is driven by information, storytelling, and education. The format can be an interview, solo or group discussion, or snippets from audio files mixed with commentating. It is similar to blogs and videos that creators should focus on delivering value to the audience. The content is valuable, relevant to the target audience, and educational. When your audience learns something from your podcasts, they build trust in you. Therefore they are most likely to become your customers by purchasing your products or services.
If you are a service provider, a personal coach, you can talk about fitness, nutrition, workout tips, physical health essential for mental health, etc. If you are a LinkedIn expert, you can talk about building a personal brand on LinkedIn, the new functions, the trend, and the tips and tricks to use LinkedIn and connect with people.
By talking about what you know and help your audience to solve a problem, be better at something, you are building authority in this area and a personal brand.
If you are a startup founder and don’t have to have your podcast, you can be on other people’s podcasts relevant in your expert domain. You can share your startup stories, and you can share the technology you are building; you can talk about personal learnings. It is essential to find the shows that have the relevant themes to what you want to communicate. If you are a tech founder and you join a food show talking about cooking. It is not going to help with your brand or company brand. Stay relevant!
How to create a podcast
To start a podcast, you can follow these steps:
1. Find your niche. I like what Pat Flynn said, “The Rich is in the Niches.”. The more niche you go, the more likely you will gain a group of superfans. It is better to have 1000 avid listeners/followers than 10,000 occasional listeners who don’t care about you, and they bump into your show by accident, then move on to something else.
Find a specific topic that you are passionate about and relevant to your brand. If you are not passionate about it, trust me, the audience can feel that in your show. Passion is key.
2. Create a website to promote your podcast and drive traffic. You should have a website for your business or a personal page. You can put the podcast on your website where visitors can check out your show, or your audience can check out your business. You can insert podcast episode HTML code to your website, and it is similar to have a blog. Instead of pure words, you will see a player on the page. Codes are usually available on podcast hosting sites.
3. Create an account with a podcast hosting website. There are many hosting sites in the market, paid ones and free ones. Few popular hosting sites are Buzzspout, Achor.fm and Podbean. I used both Buzzsprout and Anchor.fm. The first one offers a free membership tier which you can use as a starter, and the second one is free. Once you have a recorded and edited episode, you only need to upload it to the hosting website. It will distribute your episode to Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and so on. You can schedule the episode, write descriptions and see stats.
4. Record your first show. Once you know your niche, the topic you will talk about, and the format, you then record your first show. However, I recommend that you have at least five edited final episodes before officially start your podcast. You want to avoid the situation that you upload the first episode, then a week later, your second show is not ready. That is not consistent. Record a batch of episodes beforehand and schedule them on the hosting platform.
If you record it with a guest, you can use Zoom, Zencastr, or other recording platforms. You can record one track or separate tracks for you and your guests.
Many people asked what microphone I use for the Fast Track Podcast. I give you one recommendation here after I spent hours researching. Blue Yeti Nano will be my recommendation if you look for good quality, versatile, good price microphone.
5. Edit the episode. If you have a MacBook, you can easily edit your episode with Garageband. Nothing too complicated with it. If you watch one or two tutorials on YouTube, you can easily edit it yourself. However, I would highly recommend using AI-powered software — Descript. This software has changed how I edit my podcast, and now I can edit, transcribe, make audiograms, and share all at one go. You can edit both audio and video files, and the software will transcribe for you with a high accuracy rate and identity filler words.
6. Use social media to reach more listeners. You can create multiple content pieces from your podcast episode to post on social media. It can boost your reach and build brand authority. Few examples of audiograms for social media are episode 6 audiogram, episode 4 audiogram. You can create other designs on Canva.com once you have the audio clip and transcription.
It is effortless to start a podcast. It requires minimal investment, and you can do almost everything yourself. It is perfect for solopreneurs or startups that have a limited budget. When you want to grow faster and bigger, you can of course, outsource it to a media production company and hire a marketing agency like us, Promote and Scale, to help you build an even stronger brand. We can repurpose your content, connect you with industry leaders and find key influencers to come to your show. As a result, you can have a stronger and more recognizable brand. And you can focus on growing your business, leave the marketing activities to the specialists at Promote and Scale.
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We are Promote and Scale, an agency specialized in digital marketing and lead generation for early-stage start-ups.
It is our mission to help you stop wasting your time and money on ineffective and inconsistent marketing activities. It is our vision to offer you comprehensive, high-quality, and efficient marketing services, so you can focus on what really matters — building your product, business development, and acquiring new customers.