6 Essential Tips to Consider Before Starting With Podcasting

What is one of the most important things to get right when starting a podcast?

To help you best prepare for podcasting, we asked seasoned podcasters and business leaders this question for their best insights. From finding your audience first to choosing a unique format and hosting style, there are several important things that anyone serious about podcasting should get right to ensure a successful start.

Here are six essential tips these leaders followed to prepare them to start podcasting:

• Find Your Audience First
• Have a Few Episodes Ready for Launch and Be Consistent
• Sell the Content and Not Yourself
• Ensure Good Audio Quality
• Understand and Target Your Audience
• Choose a Unique Format and Hosting Style

Find Your Audience First

You can produce the most fascinating podcast with the most interesting guests and intriguing topics, but without the audience, it will all go to waste. That is why you must know how and where to promote your podcast. Look for Facebook groups that might revolve around matters you discuss, and search for communities on Discord or Reddit, where you’re more likely to find people interested in what you talk about. Once you’ve raised awareness of the podcast, you’ve made a significant step forward.

Natalia Brzezinska, PhotoAiD

Have a Few Episodes Ready for Launch and Be Consistent 

I think the most important thing is to be consistent. You don’t get a lot of listeners from day one so you must keep on publishing new episodes. It takes time, so it can also be an advantage to shoot 5 – 6 episodes before launching your podcast. This buys you some time and puts less pressure on your schedule.

Anders Thornild, CyberPilot

Sell the Content and Not Yourself

I listen to a lot of crime podcasts and I have found that when hosts are touting themselves, or trying to sell to the audience that they are the right people to tell the story, they are putting off the audience. It’s more of a repellent than anything else. The stories are what bring people in. The stories of tragedy and triumph, if told effectively, will leave listeners with an impression. They will remember the story and the title of the podcast before they will remember the name of the host – and that’s fine. That’s actually a good thing. You’re selling the content, not yourself. The same thing applies to those who host news, sports, and financial podcasts, too. Content always wins out.

Alan Ahdoot, Adamson Ahdoot Law

Ensure Good Audio Quality

One of the most important things is definitely your audio quality. If your audio quality is poor, it will be very difficult for people to listen to your podcast and they may quickly lose interest. There are a few ways to ensure good audio quality, such as recording in a quiet environment with minimal background noise, using a high-quality microphone, and ensuring that your microphone is positioned correctly.

Adil Advani, Stream Digitally

Understand and Target Your Audience

One of the biggest aspects of starting a podcast is your target audience. Just like with SEO and other types of marketing, you must know and understand your target audience before you start podcasting. This is also one of the many things most of those getting into podcasting don’t do. They tend to “just wing it” with what they want to say and some just fall flat. Outlining your scope of topics with how you are going to present comes as part of understanding your target audience. You know what they are looking for, what they want, and what isn’t currently available that you can produce. That helps draw more to your podcast.

Fadi Swaida, Halton Village Dental

Choose a Unique Format and Hosting Style

An itch to start talking about something you love and starting a podcast is a great way of podcasting. Before you start podcasting it is very essential to decide the format and hosting style. This should be very unique and attractive. Nowadays it’s a different style to the podcast with a friend or a group of friends. Having multiple personalities and hosting styles can add more interest to the listeners and increase their range of them. My interest is in a podcast hosted by multiple people rather than solo, starting a podcast with a friend could be a fabulous way to explore interest alongside making money and having fun. So, choosing a unique format and hosting style is a wonderful way to dip your toes in the world of podcasting and reach the sky.

Scott Krager, WODReview