Want to know how to scale a business podcast and expand your reach?
Today we’re going to explore the audio-centered knowledge world. We’re going to tackle initial set up, audience engagement, and even how to outsource tasks for maximum efficiency. If any of this interests you, lend me your ears!
Laying the Foundation: Key Initial Steps
Identifying Your Podcast’s Niche and Target Audience
With so many podcasts out there, it’s often not as simple as picking a topic and deciding to talk about it. Notice how there’s a ton of business growth and entrepreneurship podcasts out there.
Yet, somehow, they still manage to find their place in a seemingly congested market. This is because they found their niche or a way to aim their podcast at a specific people group with specific problems.
One way to find a niche is to identify gaps in the market and fill them. You can also leverage your unique experiences and tackle topics with a new twist.
If you can identify a problem you want to solve, that’s usually where your target audience is. Note that a target audience doesn’t have to be completely unique. Most podcasters have overlapping audiences. Audience research can help you identify what they need and even what they enjoy.
Setting Realistic Goals for Podcast Growth
A majority of people who start a podcast have growth in mind. They want to be able to reach the most people in the shortest period of time.
However, hosts should create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound) goals. You can establish these long and short term objectives alongside your vision and mission.
Establishing a Strong Brand Identity
Branding consists of many factors, including physical and relational aspects.
Physical aspects of branding include your logo, banner, and even the music you include in your program. Relational aspects include the tone of your podcast (can be on a scale from casual to formal), the format (interview style, structured, free flowing).
When creating your brand identity, you should be asking questions like
- What makes us identifiable to our audience?
- How do we stand out from the crowd?
- How do we attract the audience and sponsors we want through our branding?
Building Your Virtual Team
Roles to Outsource for Podcast Production
When starting out, doing most of the production tasks yourself is common. However, it does take away time from other important tasks like planning episodes, researching, and developing your audience.
Not only that, but you also have to consider your time investment learning the skills and software associated with production.
If you want greater flexibility and leverage outside expertise, outsourcing might be the better option.
Some of these tasks include:
- Audio editing, sound engineering, and mixing
- Research and creating show notes
- Calendar management, coordinating, and scheduling with podcast guests
- Social media management
- Video editing (if podcast has a video version)
- Graphic design
Hiring Process: Finding the Right Talent
Searching
Maybe you’re convinced that outsourcing is a good solution for how to scale a business podcast you’re starting. Your next question is likely “Where and how do I find the right hires to fulfill these tasks?”
We always echo that you should hire from sites, agencies, or freelance marketplaces with good track records.
These platforms should also have ways to vet and gauge the performance of these candidates. This includes reviews, ratings, and resumes. This can also reveal if they have had experience with podcasting before.
Interviewing
It’s also important to set up targeted interview questions. This can help you find out if they are a good fit.
Onboarding
Onboarding is the process where you educate and integrate a hire into your team. This includes mission and vision sharing, meeting the team, and going in depth on their roles.
Managing Remote Teams Effectively
A good onboarding process can make managing remote teams a lot easier. Onboarding helps you introduce communication channels and other software early on.
Another key thing with remote teams is regular updates, team meetings, and check-ins.
- Updates keep tasks and projects on track.
- Team meetings build rapport, cooperation, and cohesion.
- Check-ins ensure individual morale and well-being is up.
Enhancing Content Quality
Importance of High-Quality Audio Production
We live in a time where streaming platforms and other media platforms have made high definition graphics the standard. With that, high fidelity audio is following closely behind.
It should go without saying that a podcast should focus on its audio quality. However, audio is a much larger barrier of entry for a lot of people now more than ever. The bar for what is considered “good, crisp, audio” has been raised.
This sound quality factor goes beyond purchasing a good mic. You also need the right people and/or skills to mix the audio in a way that is pleasing to listeners.
Podcasting is an experience. As creators, your goal should be to make that experience as pleasing as possible. More than investing in good equipment, you should also consider investing in a space that contributes to good audio quality.
Using Advanced Editing Techniques
Other ways you can elevate your podcast experience include
- Removing unwanted background noise without compromising the rest of the recording
- Editing out words or segments while still making it sound seamless
- Fixing variations in volume levels
- Creating seamless audio transitions from intros to segments and ad reads
Engaging Content Creation: Planning and Scripting
Even the most unscripted sounding podcast you’ve heard likely has some level of planning. For educational content especially, hosts need to make sure they have their facts correct.
More than just accuracy, scripting can also help make content more engaging. This can look like creating a structure so listeners can follow along.
Other ways to make a podcast more interesting include inserting stories, gags, and even games. Podcasters can even encourage audience participation in these segments.
Leveraging Marketing Strategies to Grow Audience
Social Media and Content Marketing Techniques
Sometimes people don’t know how to scale a business podcast because they don’t know how to approach marketing.
After all, you can’t grow your audience if you don’t feed them. In other words, more people won’t watch you if they don’t know you or don’t feel engaged.
Most podcasters leverage social media “feeds” to market and advertise their episodes.
Here are some helpful tips to consider:
- Know which platforms your listeners use the most. If the data shows the majority of your audience uses Instagram, meet them where they are. This is part of leveraging analytics we will talk about later on.
- Know what devices your audience uses to listen. This is similar to the first point but mostly applies to video formats. It’s about creating posts and content that is easier to view.
- Post Reels, Shorts, or TikToks to tease the next episodes or provide highlights. I’m sure you’ve come across more than a few podcast clips during a “doom-scrolling” session. This is likely because short form content is incredibly popular and effective. It’s a way to pique interest and start conversations in comment sections.
- Create with your target audience and demographic in mind. Having a targeted audience makes it a little easier to target your ads, keep retention up, and improve your bottom line.
SEO for Podcasts: Best Practices
One of the best ways to scale any business is through organic marketing. One of the most popular ways is search engine optimization.
Audio SEO is quite a recent development. However, there are things you can do to help it rank on results pages and reach more people.
This includes
- Creating high quality audio recordings
- Posting on multiple streaming platforms
- Creating a website with specific web pages connected to each episode
- Doing keyword research and including popular searches and answers in titles and descriptions
- Driving traffic (a ranking factor) to your site through marketing methods
There are also things to consider for YouTube SEO and promoting and growing your video podcasting.
Networking with Other Podcasters and Cross-Promotion
When you prioritize creating valuable, unique content, the likelihood that someone influential notices goes up.
But are there other things you can do to actively build up a network?
One way is following and engaging with other podcasters online. Comment on their posts regularly and share their content.
Another way is to research and reach out. Research the guests other hosts have on and reach out to them or their management if they’d be interested in a collaboration. Something to keep in mind though is that they might have booking fees which is part of the growth process.
You can also mention podcasters in your show and in your posts. You can also encourage your followers to tag that creator on social media. Make sure that it is organic though, and not as a way to “clout chase”.
Lastly, you can try attending events, seminars, etc. that these podcasters frequent.
Using Technology to Scale
Essential Software and Tools for Podcasting
There are two main areas of consideration for podcasting software—recording and editing.
Some of the most popular recording software includes Audacity, Riverside.fm, and Spotify for Podcasters (formerly Anchor).
When it comes to audio editing software, some of the most popular include Audacity, Adobe Audition, and Hindenberg Pro.
Your audio editor may have a preference so take that into consideration as well.
Automating Workflow with Tech Solutions
Leveraging AI and automations can make production a lot easier. You can use AI to help create show notes and summaries. Automation can also help you with your email marketing and newsletters.
You can also use these tech solutions for streamlining scheduling, outreach, and project management.
Analyzing Data for Improved Decision Making
Podcast data and analytics can provide actionable insights to help you better strategize your marketing, engagement, and creation.
For instance, Spotify for Podcasters has analytics that show listener drop-off rates. This is basically where listeners stop listening or skip a part.
You can examine this data and see which parts of your program listeners don’t really enjoy. From there you can determine if you should change the format, rewrite similar segments, or remove them altogether.
Maintaining and Growing Listener Engagement
Community Building Techniques
Community engagement and building can be as simple as answering questions and comments on your posts.
Other techniques include
- Running polls on who they think the new guest is gonna be
- Promoting fan art, etc.
- Promoting places where they can get access to exclusive content like Patreon
- Using platform-specific perks like stickers, emotes, membership exclusives, etc.
- Hosting live stream events and episode premiers together with your audience
Regular Listener Feedback Loops
Platforms like Discord and Reddit are a great way to engage with audiences and hear what they have to say. You can crowdsource and ask them what episodes they want to see and even what to release first and when.
Creating Engaging and Interactive Content
When you have a good understanding of your target audience, it helps you create content catered to their interests. As you interact and engage with them using the aforementioned methods, you learn how to hold their gaze – or ears in this case!
Frequently Asked Questions
What key metrics should I track when learning how to scale a business podcast?
Here are the main podcast performance indicators to consider:
- Number of listeners
- Average consumption time
- Number of downloads, follows, and subscriptions
- Revenue generated
- Number of positive reviews
What are the common legal considerations when outsourcing podcast production?
Before outsourcing, you need to research country-specific labor laws and regulations, data privacy and security policies, and intellectual property laws.
How often should you reassess your podcast growth strategies?
Once a month is usually a good time to properly test out a strategy. However, this also depends on how many episodes you put out within that time.
What are the signs that you need to enhance your technology stack for podcasting?
- Plateaued growth
- Substantial audience feedback regarding quality
- Spending too much time on repetitive tasks (need for more automation solutions)
- Coming across issues that current subscription plans or software cannot solve
How can you maintain a personal touch as your podcast audience grows?
- Consistently engage and interact with your audience.
- Create with the same mission, vision, culture, and tone that you establish from the beginning.
- Don’t outsource everything. Stay involved in your podcast production in some way.
What Is Outsource School?
Outsource School helps you to unlock the potential of virtual assistants and accelerate your business growth.
This is the exact system Outsource School’s founders, Nathan Hirsch and Connor Gillivan, used to go from zero to 8 figures and 40+ virtual assistants with an exit in 2019.
Since being founded in 2020, Outsource School has helped 1,000+ business owners hire 2,000+ virtual assistants for their companies.
Schedule a free sales call to learn more
Free resources you might like:
- Outsource School Case Study: How We Scaled to 45+ VAs and 8 Figures in Revenue
- Free VA Calculator | See How Many VAs You Can Afford
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- Learn Outsourcing 101 | Guides, Downloads, and Checklists
Conclusion
Now that you know how to scale a business podcast, go out there, tell your story, and help others scale their own endeavors. Virtual teams and outsourcing can be long-term partners in this venture, supporting you in whatever area you need.
