Every few years, there’s another marketing approach that’s all the rage—sponsored articles in industry publications, being a news or talk show guest, publishing a book, maintaining a blog, having a newsletter, posting like mad on social media. The list goes on and on.

One of the more recent attractions for content marketing is a podcast.

Although some podcasts are the product, a good number of them are also used primarily for some form of marketing or keeping in touch with their audiences.

Many business coaches and consultants have been recommending podcasting to their clients. Podcasts are a more novel format than more traditional blogs for long-form content marketing—but is it right for your business?

Podcast Reach

Starting a podcast can seem like a lot of fun at first. It’s a new skill to learn with the thrill of seeing yourself on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

But here are some realities to consider:

So before we even get into the usual benefits and considerations of hosting a podcast as a marketing tool for your business, let’s face the reality of the impact:

Unless you already have a huge audience and have been podcasting for a long time, you’re likely going to get 30 or fewer downloads of each episode.

Best Uses for a Podcast

That being said, a podcast can still be a great marketing or other business asset—if it complements your business strategy and you have the time and resources for it.

Podcasts can be great for building trust and familiarity with your audience, especially if you’re offering very personal services or high-ticket services that people will consider for a long time before buying.

Keeping in mind some of the stats around podcasting, one would be useful for you if:

  • Your audience prefers to consume podcasts;
  • Your service includes a lot of audio content;
  • You run webinars or other video-based lead-gens, but don’t have many visuals to show;
  • Your audience prefers to listen to things on their own time (rather than showing up to live events);
  • It’s easier for you to “talk out loud” than write;
  • You’re introducing your audience to something that is easier explained verbally than through writing or visuals.

In my case, I started my Daring To Succeed podcast as a way to record and share LinkedIn audio events (my audience usually can’t fit another live event into their calendars). I now use it to give my potential coaching clients a window into how a conversation with me could be like, and to network with others in my space.

When To Consider Something Else

I’ve cautioned a lot of people against starting a podcast—mostly from my own experience of starting and maintaining one.

I estimate that every 30-minute episode I publish takes a minimum of 2 hours of invested time. This includes:

  • Deciding on a topic or pre-screening a potential guest;
  • Drafting my topic outline or topics for my guest;
  • Preparing my guest or rehearsing my solo episode;
  • The actual recording;
  • Post-production of the audio and creating and scheduling marketing materials to promote the episode.

This doesn’t include the time needed to pick the right set of tools, learn them all and setup the podcast in the first place.

There’s a seemingly unending number of podcast managers available to help you with all of this, but unless the end result will help your business in some way, it could very quickly become an unsustainable expense.

So from someone who has a podcast, here are some reasons you should consider something else:

  • The technology overwhelms you;
  • Your audience prefers to consume text or video content;
  • You have a small audience;
  • The podcast format doesn’t solve a problem for you.

Essentially, if you’re considering a podcast because it’s there, you probably don’t need to invest the time, effort or money to create one.

So…Should I Start A Podcast?

My usual recommendation for entrepreneurs and small business owners is no.

Unless you have a business need that the podcast solves for, the investment really isn’t worth it. It’s not quite the same investment as trying out Tik Tock or even experimenting with paid ads. And if you want to delegate the peripheral work, you can very quickly sink hundreds, if not thousands, into maintaining a podcast.

What To Do Instead

If you still want to be in the podcast space, or want to test out whether your audience resonates with the format, I recommend guesting on other podcasts instead.

Most of the bigger podcasts have stringent requirements for their guests, but modestly sized podcasts are typically more open to bringing on guests who have a topic that resonates with their audience.

Not sure where to start? Download the FREE Guesting Starter Guide from Podcast Guest Strategist Candace Dudley.

Still not sure? Check out my conversation with Candace about the power of guesting on the Daring to Succeed Podcast.

I Still Want To Start A Podcast—What Do I Need?

If you decide that a podcast is the right format for your business, here’s the standard tech stack I recommend for my clients:

Recording Tool

Zoom used to be my go-to recommendation for recordings, but now I’m testing out Fathom because it automatically transcribes videos with speaker identification. Zoom works well for recording solo or guest episodes and is more reliable than competing meeting software for the recording quality. If you’re not paying for a subscription, this can also encourage you to record more concise episodes to stay in their free time limit.

If you’re an Apple user and only recording solo episodes, Voice Notes or Garage Band are good options as well. They’re pre-loaded on your device, and Garage Band can double as your editing software.

Riverside is also an option, and can double as your editing tool too. They have a free tier that includes unlimited single-track recordings, which is plenty to get you started. As a beginner, I would advise against trying to use multi-track recordings. They seem like a great idea to produce the perfect episode, but you could lose hours trying to stitch the multiple tracks together.

Recording Hardware

If you want to invest in a professional microphone, the Yeti Blue mic is the standard for most podcasters, especially when just starting out. They’re reasonably priced for the quality and easy to use. Note that if you’re a Mac user, you’ll need an adapter to convert the USB-A (mic) to USB-C (Mac).

You can still use your headphones if you’re not ready to invest in something else. If your audience is serious about your content, they won’t be fussed about the quality of your recording. Just make sure you’re in a quiet spot and dampen any echoes.

Editing Software

This is usually the trickiest part of the tech stack. Audio editing can take a long time to learn, and is one of the key reasons I discourage people from starting a podcast unless there’s a clear benefit to their business.

Here are my top 3 recommendations:

  • If you’re an Apple user, Garage Band will do more than what you need (and it’s pre-loaded on your devices). The learning curve is steep, but there are tons of great tutorials available on YouTube.
  • Riverside is a good starter option, especially if you decide to use it for recording too.
  • If you’re a PC user, Audacity is a good alternative to Garage Band. Like Garage Band, it has a steep learning curve, but is 100% free and open-source software. They also have a version for Mac.

Publishing/Hosting

There are a TON of different services that offer podcast hosting and redistributing them to other podcast platforms.

I highly recommend using Spotify for Creators.

They’re 100% free and don’t have any limits on the length of your episodes, how many episodes you can host or how long they’re hosted for.

They’ll also push your podcast to all the major podcast apps, including Apple Music, iHeartRadio and Amazon Music. YouTube can also pull your episodes from your Spotify for Creators feed to create a channel for your podcast.

Website

If your podcast is an asset of your business (and not it’s own product), you probably don’t need a dedicated website for it. Most people follow podcasts on their preferred podcast app, so anything more is extra work you don’t need!

If you prefer to have a web presence for your podcast that isn’t Spotify, Apple Podcasts or another app, you can simply add a section to your website dedicated to the podcast. Spotify offers the ability to embed your podcast or specific episodes to your website, which can simplify keeping your website up-to-date with your latest episodes.

Summary

A podcast can be a tempting marketing asset for an entrepreneur or small business, but requires much more investment in time and money than alternative platforms.

For most situations, I recommend people start by guesting on a few podcasts first. This will let you test whether you like the format and whether it resonates with your target clients—before spending hours learning all the tools.

If you decide to start your own podcast, there are many free tools available that you can use to get started. Once you get a better sense of your needs and preferences, and you decide whether you want to invest in your podcast long-term, you can consider paid tiers, switching to more robust platforms or outsourcing the more time-consuming parts of maintaining a podcast.

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