Ever because the launch of Serial, This American Life’s runaway hit, the advertising and marketing world has rekindled its love affair with podcasts.
Abruptly, entrepreneurs are speaking concerning the benefits of podcasting, which embrace:
- Catering to completely different individuals’s studying kinds
- Talking immediately to your listeners with no interruptions
- Constructing model consciousness
- Discovering new methods to ask your prospects to take motion
However even with all this buzz, nobody is educating tips on how to truly podcast successfully – in a means that engages prospects and truly will get them to convert.
When Unbounce launched the Call to Action podcast this previous January, we have been nonetheless studying the ropes. However inside our first week on iTunes, we had secured the #1 spot for the advertising and marketing class (the place we stayed for our first a number of weeks). #humblebrag
How’d we do it? By leaping in feet-first and studying the do’s (and don’ts!) first-hand.
Now, I’m going to allow you to in on how we did it. On this submit, we’ll cowl all points of making and distributing your very personal top-ranking podcast:
- Brainstorming ideas for your podcast
- Conducting and recording your first podcast interview
- How to edit your podcast episode
- Publishing your podcast
- Ranking your podcast in iTunes
- Promoting your podcast
And we’ll high all of it off with a super-slick landing page template that can assist you simply pull in podcast subscribers.
Sound good? Let’s leap proper into it.
1. Brainstorming Concepts for Your Podcast
Earlier than you got down to create your podcast, you want a stable concept that may scale simply and cater to your viewers’s wants.
Selecting a podcast matter doesn’t must be sophisticated. For a straightforward win, strive content material that you just’ve already produced and see if any of it may be repurposed.
After we determined to interview our weblog contributors for our podcast, we have been capable of pull from a treasure trove of content going again years, authored by a number of the brightest minds in conversion price optimization.
And since we already knew which weblog posts our viewers LOVED, utilizing articles as interview fodder was a good way to vet content material earlier than placing time and assets right into a podcast episode. Mainly, it was a win-win.
Discover your area of interest
The subsequent step is positioning your podcast and figuring out who your podcast viewers will likely be. Are you focusing on new leads? Present prospects? A normal viewers?
As a result of iTunes’ search performance makes it straightforward for brand spanking new individuals to search out you, it is perhaps tempting to solid a large internet and go for a normal matter. However having a tremendous focused and particular matter will pull in extremely certified individuals looking precisely for that.
In different phrases, you could not get a whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals clicking in your podcast, however you’ll get loyal listeners comin’ again each week.
If you happen to’re having hassle determining your target market in your podcast, I like to recommend drafting a proposal utilizing this mad lib-style positioning assertion template:
This podcast is for [TARGET: the audience you will be targeting] that [PROBLEM: your audience’s pain point that you’re aiming to solve].
The podcast is [MANDATE: the form and function of the podcast] that gives [VALUE PROPOSITION: how you’ll provide the solution to the audience’s problem].
Not like [COMPETITION: other sources your audience could be turning to in order to solve this problem], this podcast will [DIFFERENTIATOR: how the content will be uniquely distinct from that of the competition].
Filling this out helped us slim down the imaginative and prescient of what the Call to Action podcast was going to be:
This podcast is for [professional marketers] that [are looking for smart, actionable advice on running more successful campaigns].The podcast is [an educational interview-style podcast] that gives [actionable tips explained through engaging stories].
Not like [any other marketing podcast], this podcast will [bring depth and an element of human interest/humour to popular conversion marketing topics found on the Unbounce blog].
Resolve on the interview format
If you happen to’re a giant podcast fan, you’ve in all probability seen that there are a lot of various kinds of interview codecs. Some are production-intense and contain inventive modifying (suppose RadioLab or This American Life), whereas others have a direct query/reply type (Louder Than Words) or take the type of a chat (The Showrunner).
As soon as you realize what type of interview you’re gunning for, discover a visitor and begin brainstorming questions for them. Then, go these questions alongside to the individual that will likely be conducting the interview.
That means, the interviewer can tweak the inquiries to be in their very own voice. That is necessary, since you don’t need your interviewer to sound like they’re talking in pressured language. If it doesn’t sound pure, individuals will hit the pause button and transfer on to one thing else.
Numerous skilled broadcasters will inform you to not ship inquiries to interviewees forward of time to maintain your interview from sounding scripted. Nevertheless, we elect to ship our questions forward of time since we reference case research and statistics – it’s awkward sitting in silence whereas somebody appears up their article to refresh their reminiscence.
If you happen to’re informal together with your interviewee and set up the tone, they’re prone to comply with your lead. However, like the rest within the advertising and marketing world, I might encourage you to check out what technique works greatest in your present’s format and tone.
2. Conducting and Recording Your First Podcast Interview
Firstly of the interview, make it clear what you count on and put the interviewee comfy. Be sure you warn your visitor in opposition to hand speaking, beard scratching and finger tapping, as these sounds will intrude together with your audio (and are tremendous onerous to edit out in post-production).
To report our podcast, we use a program referred to as Call Recorder, which comes with a free trial.
Name Recorder works together with Skype and information to an .mp4 file that you may then convert to .mp3. Keep in mind to show off the video recording function in the event you gained’t be utilizing it – it might degrade the standard of your audio.
Intro
As soon as your podcast interview is recorded, it’s time so as to add some aptitude! Document your self introducing the interview. That is the place you may get artistic. Do you introduce the interview with a narrative? Or some attention-grabbing details concerning the speaker?
Outro and name to motion
On the finish of your podcast, report an outro together with your call to action. That is your probability to plug different content material that you just suppose the viewers would profit from, or an ideal place to request suggestions on the present.
We’ve experimented with cross-promoting different items of content material comparable to our free ebooks, or encouraging individuals to make use of a selected hashtag on Twitter. That is difficult, as a result of most individuals hearken to podcasts away from their laptop, so that they’re much less prone to full the motion.
We’re nonetheless experimenting with this one, and so do you have to!
Selecting music in your podcast
Subsequent, you’ll need to select some music to accent the interview. Ensure that the music you utilize adheres to copyright laws. One of the simplest ways to do that is to buy a royalty-free monitor from an internet site like Premium Beat, or pay somebody from a website like Fiverr to put in writing an authentic theme for you.
If you happen to don’t need to spend cash in your theme music, strive trying out Freesound.org for an archive of artistic commons music and sounds. All you can be required to do is credit score the monitor while you submit your episode.
3. How one can Edit a Podcast Episode
Now that you just’ve received all of your .mp3 recordsdata recorded, it’s time to edit your podcast. Put within the effort to edit out heavy respiration and vocal tics. Podcasts like Serial and Startup can get away with that (they’ll contribute to the emotional and generally suspenseful narrative), however in a advertising and marketing interview, they’re simply distracting.
Podcast modifying software program and instruments
If you happen to don’t have already got audio modifying software program, I like to recommend ProTools or Adobe Audition, that are trade requirements. That stated, in the event you’re solely mixing two or three tracks, you may get away with cheaper software program. There’s a free software referred to as Audacity that may do the job.
That is the Audition interface on opening. Aww yiss. Let’s get began.
Placing all of it collectively
After getting your entire recordsdata in place, it’s time to create a session! A session is a multitrack editor that permits you to put collectively a bigger sound mission involving a number of sound recordsdata. You do that by toggling to “Multitrack” view and dragging the recordsdata into place.
You possibly can see the progress of a session in “Multitrack” view in Adobe Audition. The inexperienced file is intro music, and the purple and orange recordsdata are the spoken intro clips.
If you happen to select to have music operating whereas somebody is speaking, ensure that the music ranges are low sufficient so that they don’t drown out the speaker. I might use music sparingly in an interview format.
When you’re completed modifying your podcast episode, it’s best to get another person to hearken to it. Once you’ve been listening to one thing for an extended time frame, it’s straightforward to start out lacking errors. A contemporary set of ears can let you realize if the theme music is just too loud, if any cuts sound rushed, or if sure elements of the interview are repetitive.
Saving and exporting your podcast
Now that you’ve your theme music framing your interview, it’s time to avoid wasting and export your file!
In Audition, head to your menu bar and click on on “Multitrack.” Then, click on on “Combine session to new file” after which “Whole session.”
Clicking on “Whole Session” will create a brand new .mp3 out of your multitrack session.
This may export each audio clip in your session into one audio file.
Then, all it’s a must to do is save the brand new file as an .mp3. A .wav has a better high quality of sound however takes up more room and will eat up your allotted RSS gigabytes.
4. Publishing Your Podcast
Now your podcast truly has to reside someplace.
iTunes pulls your podcast via an RSS feed, and there are a lot of RSS hosts that you may select from which have various plans to swimsuit completely different podcasting wants.
We use a service referred to as Libsyn. It’s reasonably priced and reliable. Their help section has intensive step-by-step directions on tips on how to use the service.
You might select to embed Libsyn’s audio participant or go together with a secondary service comparable to SoundCloud. I choose the design of their participant.
SoundCloud has the added advantage of a web-based neighborhood that may give you further publicity.
Importing an episode
When you’ve saved your .wav as an .mp3, it’s time to add it to your RSS feed.
If you happen to’re utilizing Libsyn, you’ll have to create a brand new episode. Click on “Add media file” to add your .mp3.
Then give your episode a title and an outline.
After you’ve uploaded your sound file and added your copy, just remember to price your episode appropriately. If there’s any mature language in your podcast, mark it as express.
Tread evenly! If in case you have mature language in your episode and your podcast is marked clear, your podcast will likely be rejected from iTunes.
Scheduling your episode in iTunes
As soon as your audio recordsdata are locked and loaded, you’ll need to schedule your episode for launch within the iTunes retailer.
Click on the drop down menu titled “Schedule Launch/Expiration.” You’ll then discover the scheduler below “Primary Launch/Expiration”:
Click on “set new launch date” to schedule your episodes forward of time.
Testing and validating your podcast RSS feed
When you’ve uploaded an episode, it’s time to check your RSS feed – this fashion, you possibly can catch any error earlier than you get *gasp* rejected from iTunes.
Take the RSS URL that your podcast host provides you, and check it in Feed Validator. If you happen to’re utilizing Libsyn, you’ll find your RSS URL within the “Locations” menu below Fast Hyperlinks.
Enter your feed URL and the validator will inform you in the event you’re good to go, or if in case you have any errors.
Aww yiss. We’re in enterprise.
Feed Validator tells us that we’re good to go, so let’s proceed, lets?
Podcast art work
Listed here are the specs for submitting art work to iTunes. It have to be:
- Within the JPEG or PNG file format
- Within the RGB color space
- A minimal dimension of 1400 x 1400 pixels
- A most dimension of 2048 x 2048 pixels.
Check out your podcasting app in your cellphone and pay particular consideration to font sizes. You need to ensure that your title is readable on cellular.
How one can submit a podcast to iTunes
Now that you’ve your episodes uploaded and your cowl art work created, it’s time to submit all of it to iTunes!
Earlier than submitting, it’s beneficial that you’ve a minimum of three episodes printed in order that potential listeners can get a greater really feel in your podcast.
Extra importantly, the iTunes algorithm retains monitor of all obtain exercise, so when somebody hits “Subscribe,” you’ll routinely get three downloads versus one. This helps your rating place within the iTunes retailer. (We’ll go extra into this later.)
To submit your podcast to iTunes, go to the podcast part of the iTunes retailer. On the suitable menu bar, click on “Submit a Podcast”:
That is the place you’ll submit your podcast RSS feed URL.
When you’ve submitted your data, it’s time to attend! It takes Apple 24 hours to 14 days to approve a podcast.
The Call to Action podcast took three work days to get authorised, so you must be versatile in your marketing campaign launch to permit for an unpredictable launch date. We arrange our electronic mail and social campaigns beforehand, however held off on scheduling them.
As soon as I obtained the e-mail that our podcast had been authorised, we manually fired off our campaigns and waited for the downloads to come back flowing in.
And boy, have been we delighted:
That’s us within the Prime 4 podcasts OVERALL within the iTunes Canada retailer, simply behind three Blockbuster podcasts. No biggie.
5. Rating Your Podcast in iTunes
Earlier than we dive into how one can get ranked extremely in iTunes, I’ve to say that nobody has pinned the iTunes rating algorithm down but.
The commonest story you’ll hear is that you may have eight weeks to make it within the New & Noteworthy part. That is largely true, however in the event you’re an older podcast that all of the sudden sees loads of obtain motion, you can also make it again onto the part homepage. That’s why it’s referred to as New & Noteworthy.
Nevertheless, the most typical incidence is that after eight weeks, your podcast will transfer into the What’s Scorching part to make room for brand spanking new podcasts.
So how do you guarantee a spot within the New & Noteworthy part to get your present entrance row and heart to the overall and numerous iTunes viewers? For starters, goal for as many downloads, rankings and opinions as you possibly can muster.
The iTunes rating algorithm additionally appears to take into consideration “rating velocity” (the velocity at which rankings and opinions are added to iTunes), maybe moreso than downloads. That’s why it’s extraordinarily necessary to encourage your viewers to assessment your podcast as soon as they provide it a pay attention.
If a podcast launches in iTunes and nobody is aware of about it… does anybody hear it?
Possibly one or two individuals. However you’re not going to get into the New & Noteworthy part if nobody is aware of that your podcast exists. Now’s the time to reap the benefits of your community and the advertising and marketing channels at your disposal.
Challenge temporary
A advertising and marketing marketing campaign has loads of transferring elements, and you must get all the small print sorted. One of the simplest ways to try this? A marketing strategy brief. I do know it could sound tedious, nevertheless it’s the easiest way to get your entire concepts down in a single place, and it’s the simplest method to loop in everybody in your group.
Our Director of Marketing campaign Technique Corey Dilley not too long ago wrote a submit outlining the temporary course of that Unbounce makes use of for every of their campaigns. He even included a quick template. You possibly can grab all of that here.
The temporary will make it easier to decide who’s chargeable for what, and it’ll allow you to run a easy marketing campaign the place each individual is accountable for a selected a part of the launch. It’ll make it easier to solidify necessary dates and description all of the duties and aims you must full.
When you’ve gotten down all of your concepts, it’s time to name within the troops (if in case you have troops, that’s).
Electronic mail
First, you must determine the place you’re going to ship your viewers to hearken to your podcast.
Because the podcast interviews have been primarily based off Unbounce weblog articles, we determined it might take advantage of sense to direct our viewers to our weblog. That means, we might nonetheless seize weblog subscribers and encourage readers to subscribe and price us on iTunes.
The Name to Motion podcast launch electronic mail.
After segmenting out duplicate electronic mail addresses, we despatched out a launch electronic mail to a couple of our lists:
- Leads listing
- Weblog listing
- Convention listing
- Prospects listing
Social
Many individuals use their telephones to hearken to podcasts and browse social media networks.
So hit ’em whereas they’re shopping their Twitter feed on their lunch break!
We needed to hype the Name to Motion podcast as a lot as attainable on our social platforms, however we didn’t need to beat anybody over the top with it. Our Group Supervisor Hayley got here up with quite a lot of tweets to advertise the present in between our common content material schedule, in order that it wouldn’t really feel like we have been spamming our viewers.
One of many first normal tweets concerning the podcast.
An episode-specific tweet.
One other normal tweet, two days after launch.
Giveaway
One other tactic we used to draw new listeners was holding a giveaway within the first two weeks of the podcast launch. Guests have been prompted to price and assessment the podcast to enter to win six months of Unbounce Pro99 and an superior pair of wi-fi headphones.
Reviewing a podcast takes effort and time, and folks in all probability aren’t tremendous fascinated with doing so until a) they LOVE your work or b) they’re given added incentive. And whereas I’m certain individuals do love what you place out, why not sweeten the pot?
Partnerships
If in case you have relationships with individuals in your area, partnerships are a wonderful method to enhance your viewers attain. This may be carried out in a pair methods.
- You possibly can provide to do an interview trade with a associated podcast, the place you possibly can plug your personal podcast.
- You possibly can interview an influencer in your area and ask them to share the episode with their viewers.
- You possibly can solicit sponsorships.
We determined to not go the sponsorship route as we don’t need to earn money from our podcasting and need to hold issues as pleasant as attainable, nevertheless it’s an choice to contemplate.
Let’s Hear It…
With a stable advertising and marketing marketing campaign and a pleasant audio expertise, we grew to become the #1 advertising and marketing podcast on launch, and in the event you use this submit as a information, you possibly can have comparable outcomes!
Now that you’ve the audio instruments and advertising and marketing methods, it’s time to get began in your very personal podcast. And to assist make gathering podcast subscribers tremendous straightforward, try the touchdown web page template that we created for you under!