The Ultimate Planning Guide For Starting A Podcast
So you are thinking of starting a podcast? Here are the 7 steps for planning & prepping.
- Decide on 3 T’s
- Create The Avatar
- Structure & Style of Episodes
- Tech Needs
- Podcast Marketing
- Content Planning
- Monetization
STEP ONE: Decide On The 3 T’s For The Podcast
When planning your podcast remember you are doing the same thing as planning your business but going to a level deeper.
For step one, you want to brainstorm your 3 T’s.
- Theme
- Title Name
- Tagline
Some coaching questions you can ask yourself to help brainstorm are
- What will the podcast be about?
- What is the purpose of this podcast?
- What is the intention of the podcast for supporting my business?
- Is the intention to assist in getting a specific result or teach a specific process in your business?
- Is the intention to nurture your existing audience & be your value hub?
- Is the intention to be a part of your business awareness strategy?
- What results do I want to come by having this podcast?
- What is a good title that would be search engine friendly with a keyword if someone was looking for what this podcast offers?
- How can you define what is expected on the show in a few additional words to complement the title?
While this is the first step, you are just brainstorming some ideas. Create a few to get the creativity flowing and as you go through the remaining steps you will come back & revise to get more on target choosing the exact T’s.
STEP TWO: Create Your Avatar
Okay, okay, I understand you already have your target market avatar in your business plan but again when planning a podcast you usually are going a level deeper with all of your business plan details.
Who out of your target market is this podcast for while thinking more about the intention of the podcast and how it will serve your business?
For example, if you have a marketing agency that helps all small businesses but perhaps you have a lot of potential clients who inquire specifically about paid advertising but can’t afford to hire someone to manage it just yet… you might create a podcast directed specifically to teach the basics of paid advertising that leads to a D-I-Y course. So the podcast would specifically be directed toward D-I-Y Business Owners even though those people are only a fraction of your target market. Make sense?
This is why you need to understand the intention behind WHY you are starting the podcast so you can more clearly understand WHO it’s for getting more detailed with the demographics of the avatar.
Some things you might want to jot down to aid in content planning about this avatar is
- What are their current learning interests?
- What specific problems & challenges are they trying to overcome & solve right now in this specific part of their journey?
- What immediate goals do they have?
You may have to do a little market research to understand these people a little better and to validate that your idea for the podcast is something these individuals need.
STEP THREE: Structure & Style of Podcast Episodes
When choosing the structure & style of your podcast episodes you will want to consider
- Episode Segments
- Episode Length
- Episode Framework & Release Dates
- Episode Content Types
Episode Segments
With segments, this is where the fun & complex brand planning of a podcast comes in where your episodes have a beginning, middle, and end.
Your podcast can become its own elaborate business model as it can serve many purposes for your business if you take the time to carefully plan it out.
While you can get started with just content, without needing an intro, ad commercial, or outro we all know that the more professional podcasts that create monetizations (more about this in a bit) from their pod are very much their own brand & are like radio stations.
Additionally, these things give your podcast its own culture to engrain more awareness & create a vibed environment through sensory selling.
But again, something to consider is your ideal avatar.
Some people just feel it’s a distraction & they don’t like it so you may want to limit how often you use them.
So the main question is, are segments a good fit for your podcast right now?
We will go more into detail on segments & what’s included further down in this article in the monetization section but go ahead & begin pondering on what segments you would like to include based on what you already know of podcasts.
Episode Length
You may want to refer back to your in-depth business plan & consider the time you have to operate your business, especially if you are a solopreneur.
How much time do you have to devote to the podcast itself for recording, editing, and marketing?
Now that you have that information, how long do you want your show episodes to be & how often does this fit in your operational schedule?
Some people structure their episodes for 10-minute shorts based on the intention of the episodes, whereas others have shows that average 30 minutes to 1 hour.
What will be best for you based on the time you have?
Also, consider your listeners and the time that they can devote.
What’s their life like? Do they have a lot of time to commit to listening or watching or just a little?
What do you believe is the right “goal length” that’s best for your podcast episodes?
Episode Framework & Release Dates
Next, you want to figure out your framework & release dates.
Release Dates
You pretty much have a good assumption of release dates if you really done the work & planned out the prior section.
Now all you have to do is put it on the calendar… when will new episodes be recorded & published?
Will there be a certain day & time your audience can expect a new episode each day, week, or month, or will this be an inspired-action-only project?
You may also want to plan out how you want them to subscribe to be a VIP follower so they can get a notification when new episodes are released that way they don’t miss anything.
Be mindful of release dates if your intention is for the podcast to promote itself & be at the top of the charts on your hosting platform as you will benefit from having consistency with content creation.
Once you know your schedule & what works for you, it makes it a bit easier to determine what kind of framework you need to have but you may need to choose your framework before commitedly deciding.
Your framework will either be the Evergreen Continual Framework, Seasonal Framework, or Mini Series Framework.
Evergreen Continual Framework
The Evergreen Continual Framework is for ongoing podcasts that are released regularly all year long whether it’s daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. They have a routine consistent schedule.
Totally up to you on what your release schedule will be.
Again, refer back to what works best for you & consider your listener’s schedules, too & consider wether or not you are trying to achieve top of charts so your hosting platform assists with doing some of your marketing for you.
This framework is very much like your favorite tv series that you can not wait for the next episode to come on LIVE next week.
Seasonal Framework
The Seasonal Framework is for podcasts that will have a start & stop date each year.
For example, I take summers off with my kids so for a podcast schedule to work for me, I have to use the season framework. My calendar year for marketing & podcasting would be from August to May as I only do bare-minimum in my business & work with prior clients + do business planning & focusing on my husband’s construction business since his business is busiest during this time of year. Therefore, the evergreen model wouldn’t be beneficial for me.
So is this option best for you or your listeners? If your listeners are Moms with kids in public school they may be less tuned-in during the summer months & more focused on home life, too.
This framework is more like your favorite Netflix series where a whole season of episodes are released at one time & you have to wait what feels like years to watch next episodes but when you do, you couch rot & binge for days.
Mini Series Framework
The Mini Series Framework is for podcast that are super intentional with a sole purpose of teaching a concept or process within your business.
This framework can be released as episodes are created or it can be created & released as a full season all at the same time & ironically it will be evergreen being able to use it over & over again by just marketing it. SAVVY!
A mini series is more like a really good movie that you can watch over & over again always grabbing some new detail from it.
The biggest thing to consider when choosing a framework is not only time devotion but the intention of what the podcast is being used for as this helps distinguish which framework to use.
This leads us into having to consider content types.
Episode Content Types
Sometimes in order to choose which framework is best for your podcast, you need to first consider what type of episodes you will have.
Will you have specific trainings, more of just a talk show biography that is a journal sharing stories & wisdom from your life as it progresses (think audio version of a homesteading blog), interviews with other experts, or perhaps case studies from your previous clients?
Only you can decide the types of episodes that will be best for your show based on the intention of what the podcast is for. I know I keep repeating this but everything podcasting basically revolves around knowing the root intention for WHY you will be doing a podcast.
If you intend on having more than one episode type & plan on doing a mix, do you want your episode types on a strategic alternating system or will they just be whatever is needed in the moment based on polls from your audience that they vote on?
Again, just something to consider & plan out to have your ducks in a row.
STEP FOUR: Tech Needs
While you are conducting market research, you may want to go ahead & order any tech equipment you need so that once your podcast is planned you can dive right on in to recording.
Some things you will want when starting your podcast are
- A good microphone
- A camera or 3 (if you plan on doing video podcasting) and want to have guests and/or to go high-tech pro with video editing giving different focus directions for more entertainment. One camera would focus on just you zoomed in, another on both you and the guest zoomed out, and the third zoomed in on just the guest. But no worries you can totally use Zoom for virtual interviews and only have one angle.
- An editing software like Supersound or VideoEditor for cutting out any mess-ups or long pauses that happen during recording.
- Accounts like Spotify and iTunes for where your podcast will be hosted and which will be the main upload channel along with starting the page on your website if you want it hosted there as well.
- PRO TIP: The sound quality – What is the specific setting you want your volume to be? You will want to set on the same setting with every edit so every episode has the same volume in case listeners are binging from one episode to the next.
- P.S. – Lighting if you will be doing a video podcast.
While these things only take a small bit of time to plan they are necessary & require some prep work to get your podcast up, tested, and started quickly.
However, don’t get too hung up on as you don’t have to go pro on day one, these tasks can be broke down into milestone goals and you can easily just get started with your cell phone. We all know that something is better than nothing & even a phone audio podcast can change lives.
STEP FIVE: Podcast Marketing
That’s right, just like in business planning, you have to create a marketing plan.
How are you going to get your podcast seen & listened to?
Some hosting platforms will do some of the marketing for you once you get the channel going but to have a good podcast launch, you will want a strategic marketing plan to rank to the top of the listens & downloads list.
Therefore, we are diving deeper into what you already have in your business plan. What strategies are you currently using to market your business that we can take advantage of when launching the podcast? Do you have social media channels you can post to? Do you have an email list? An already built & engaged community? How can we leverage what you have already created in your business to grow your podcast and create an effective launch campaign?
And again, this is also why you want to understand the intention of the podcast. If you want the podcast to be the awareness marketing strategy for your business, you may want to direct people to it through paid ads to gain exposure to your business. Whereas if it’s your nurture strategy, you would leverage some of the other options mentioned above to assist in moving people through your sales process.
Additionally, to take it one step further you can go ahead and start brainstorming ways that you can repurpose the content for added advertisement and curiosity especially if you are using social media.
STEP SIX: Content Planning
Yay, now for the exciting step you have been waiting for & probably what you thought podcast planning was all about.
Let’s plan that content with compelling titles & descriptions.
Now that you know for sure the intention of the podcast, it will be easier to plan the content. As always, the intention should stay top-of-mind with every episode created when considering episode titles & content.
Some coaching questions to consider
- What do your listeners need to hear in the episodes?
- What titles & descriptions will spike their curiosity so they want to listen?
- Does your podcast have a strategic outline like a course or program or will it be more free-form?
If you have a multiple-pillar podcast & different types of content episodes (free-form), you can implement the Consistent Content Method to inspire creativity & plan episode topics.
Otherwise, an outline of the journey you are taking them on from A-Z would be of great benefit. Just map it out as if you are planning a course & run with it to lead them through the journey.
Some other things you can include to kick off your podcast are episodes on
- The mission of the podcast
- Your credibility & own story experience with achievements
- Your own framework or process of how things are done differently
- Myth busters
- Belief & Mindset Shifts
- Q&A’s
- Case Studies
STEP SEVEN: Monetizing Your Podcast
One of the intentions of a great podcast will always be to create sales within your business. To do this podcasting takes strategy.
To kickstart your pro podcast, before your launch, you will want to create a podcast trailer as a part of your launch campaign instead of just diving right into the first episode so listeners can share with others & get excited about what is coming with your podcast. Hello, referral word-of-mouth marketing to your advantage.
Now let’s rewind & dive deeper into strategic podcast segments that will strategically create growth in your business & sales.
The Breakdown Of A Professional Podcast
Within a professional well-planned podcast you will have at least 5 segments that consist of
- Intro
- Content
- Ad
- Remainder of Content
- Outro
The intro is the fun part of podcasting that has music that sets the tone of your brand, creates the culture vibe for distinct brand awareness, & engrains sensory selling into your listener.
It will include a brief introduction stating the name of the podcast, who you are, & what’s expected (mini of your trailer). This is a pre-recorded intro that can easily be added to every episode you record allowing new listeners to understand the podcast. You can take a listen to the Aligned Entrepreneur Podcast here for ideas.
Additionally, you can have a double intro if you want an intro specifically for each new episode to do a brief highlight outline of what you will be talking about in the episode. This is usually recorded once the episode is already recorded & then edited to add in especially if you don’t pre-outline your episode content with a script allowing highlights to come out naturally in the episode.
Content
No description is needed as it’s just the actual content that is specific to that episode title.
Ad Commercial
The Ad Commercial is exactly what it says & it’s totally optional but if you are wanting to monetize your podcast, it’s THE THING that creates your sales conversions. It’s where you break the actual content for a very quick current sales call to action that is time sensitive & relative to what you have been speaking about in the episode or to update on a sale that is coming.
Example One: you are a homesteader and in this episode, you are talking about how you pressure canned some freshly harvested chicken. You may break for a commercial to direct people to your affiliate link on Amazon for the pressure cooker you have so they can get theirs, too. CHA-CHING, money in the bank.
Example Two: again same scenario of a homesteader with an episode on pressure canning chicken but this time you may break for a commercial to let people know your new course is about to launch that will include a module on how to pressure can meat & give the launch details plus how to pre-order.
The main thing with the commercial is you want this to be content that is directed to a paid sell within your business & include the information links or how to buy.
Remainder of Content
Again a description isn’t really needed. It’s just the remainder of the actual episode content once you have broke it up for the commercial.
Outro
You can get as fancy as you want with the outro.
It can have music or not but the main goal is to thank your audience for listening & give them a non-sales call-to-action like signing up for the VIP notifications, a downloadable freebie, to join your community, follow you on social media, etc.
This is where knowing your customer pipeline that you are tracking in your CRM comes in handy from your in-depth business plan sales system so that you know what that first step action is in your business that gets them in the door of your business instead of just window shopping.
The outro like the intro can be pre-recorded & easily added into the edit of your new episode or you can personalize it based on something relevant to the podcast episode.
Conclusion
Planning a podcast can be quick or it can be complex.
The best advice is to implement the steps that are most needed for you to get started and use what you currently know as just like your business, your podcast will grow in complexity with time.
However, the more complex you can get with your planning, the better off your initial launch of your podcast will be.
Need Support?
As you can see through this article there is a lot that can go into planning your podcast launch and most of it is specific to the business intentions you have and the industry you are in so this article can only give the general step. If you need more support, be sure to schedule a Next Steps Call and we can work through it together and get the support you need to have the launch you desire.
