It can seem pretty daunting to launch a podcast these days, especially when your competition is huge media companies and celebrity hosts.
But with the right strategies, any podcast can be successful. You just need to know how to launch your show the right way.
Whether you’re an individual with a passion project or a business owner expanding your reach, these guidelines can help you launch your next podcast successfully.
- First: What You Need to Know Before Launching a Podcast
- What Are the Practical Steps for Launching Your Podcast?
- The Bottom Line on How to Launch Your Next Podcast
- Frequently Asked Questions About Launching Your Next Podcast
First: What You Need to Know Before Launching a Podcast
Before you jump into the podcast launching process, take a few minutes to gather the following information:
Find Your Niche
Many new podcasters feel intimidated by big-name podcasts. But keep in mind that success doesn’t require competing directly with these giants. You can develop quite a large margin of success for your show by catering to a specific niche that most larger shows overlook.
Case in point: our guide to building B2B podcasts shows that 73% of successful business podcasts serve ultra-specific niches rather than broad topics. This focused approach leads to higher engagement rates and better business outcomes.
To do this, start by identifying a unique angle and providing value that others aren’t offering. If you’re a financial service provider, for instance, you might look for guests or topics that set you apart from the crowd. Instead of launching a generic podcast about accounting practices, find a unique perspective or a specific problem within your field that only you can address. This might be ‘tax strategies for creative freelancers,’ ‘accounting automation for small CPA firms,’ or something else along those lines.
Build a High-Quality Show Format
Your podcast should deliver unique and high-quality content consistently to stand out. This might involve exploring different formats, such as interviews, solo episodes, or narrative storytelling, and bringing a fresh voice to your topic.
The structure of your show should clearly entertain, provide companionship, and/or connect with your listeners on a personal level. Even educational content needs engaging delivery: just look at how shows like Planet Money make economics entertaining.
Consistency and dedication are essential here. Building an audience takes time, so don’t be discouraged if success isn’t immediate. Our analysis of podcast production workflows shows that successful podcasts maintain regular publishing schedules for at least six months before seeing significant growth.
Some suggestions:
- Test and iterate on your show’s structure: Try various styles and structures to find what resonates best with your audience
- Expect the long haul: Do your best to regularly publish episodes and maintain a schedule to build and retain your audience. Remember, it will take time!
- Offer some value beyond information: A touch of entertainment and a sense of companionship never hurt anyone, even in more serious financial niches.
- Acquire podcast equipment to boost show quality (if necessary): You might need to acquire some newer or high-quality podcast equipment to effectively optimize your show.
Pssst: Do you have a video podcast? Our comprehensive guide demonstrates how adding visual elements can expand your reach to YouTube’s massive audience while maintaining audio-first quality.
Test Your Idea
There’s no surefire way to predict a podcast’s success before launching it. That said, you should look for ways to market test your idea.
You should seek feedback from trusted sources to continuously improve your content. To do this, create feedback mechanisms through social media engagement strategies, listener surveys, and direct outreach to early supporters. This constructive criticism will be invaluable for refining your podcast over time.
Here are a few testing and validation strategies to consider:
- Ask for constructive feedback: Encourage honest critiques from listeners and peers.
- Make simple feedback mechanisms: This could be comments, surveys, verbal feedback, or something else.
- Give it enough time to simmer: Allow your podcast several episodes and some time to gather well-rounded feedback. We’ve found the most successful podcasts take 20 to 30 episodes to find their rhythm and build momentum.
What Are the Practical Steps for Launching Your Podcast?
Now that we’ve talked about the backend work required, let’s dive deeper into the physical launch of a podcast.
We’ve broken it down into seven actionable steps that can help you launch your podcast successfully, refined from our experience producing 10,000+ episodes:
1. Research and Planning
The research and planning phase is exactly what it sounds like: gathering the information required to successfully support your show.
We’ve covered most of the basics in the sections above. But you can always reference our podcast launch checklist below to be sure that nothing is missed.
- ☐ Conduct thorough research to understand your target audience and the competition
- ☐ Plan your content calendar, outlining episode topics and guest appearances
- ☐ Use our podcast launch checklist to ensure nothing is missed
2. Invest in Quality Equipment
As we hinted at earlier, you’ll need high-quality equipment to support a high-quality show. You likely already have some on hand, but if not, now is the time to invest.
You’ll need a dedicated microphone for each in-person participant, plus headphones if there’s more than one person speaking on your show. You may also want to consider different equipment for video podcasts, like video podcast software for editing and recording, digital cameras, and more.
- ☐ Invest in a good microphone, headphones, and editing software to ensure high-quality audio
- ☐ Our podcast equipment guide covers options for every budget
- ☐ Consider audio interfaces for professional sound quality
P.S., need more equipment? Check out our guide covering the best podcast equipment kits for every podcaster.
3. Record and Edit
So you have your audience, a content plan, and some equipment. Now it’s time to create a content backlog! We recommend beginning with three to five episodes so you can build a solid buffer for illness, travel, or holidays.
You don’t need to have a fancy studio to record a podcast. Just keep an eye out for issues like echo and reverb, which you can fix with a few easy tweaks.
If you didn’t purchase editing software in the previous step, explore a few options now. You can always try lightweight tools like Adobe Podcast Enhance and Descript, or something a bit more complex like REAPER.
- ☐ Record your episodes in a quiet environment to minimize background noise
- ☐ Edit your recordings to improve sound quality and remove any mistakes or pauses
- ☐ Adobe Podcast Enhance and Descript streamline the editing process
4. Create Engaging Artwork
With your podcast complete, let’s talk marketing collateral. This includes the over art (or thumbnail) of your episode, as well as a logo for your show.
We’ve put together an exhaustive guide that covers practically everything you should know about podcast artwork. But you can also reference our guide on designing podcast artwork if you want to learn more about the nitty-gritty details.
- ☐ Design eye-catching cover art that represents your podcast’s theme and attracts potential listeners
- ☐ Follow podcast cover art best practices for all platforms
5. Launch with Multiple Episodes
As a rule of thumb, launch your show with at least three episodes to give new listeners a sense of your content and style. This approach can help increase your first-week retention.
Case in point: research shows that 77% of US weekly podcast listeners will binge-listen to shows up to 7.7 hours per week. Releasing multiple episodes at once will encourage this behavior and help to ‘hook’ potential audience members to your show.
Don’t forget to:
- ☐ Hire a virtual assistant or manually post podcast episodes on specific dates or times.
- ☐ Record more episodes than you think you need as a buffer.
- ☐ Make sure to set your content to go live across multiple distribution platforms.
6. Promote Your Podcast
Keeping this checklist simple for clarity.
First, make sure your show gets a spotlight across your entire digital footprint, including social media, company newsletters, and other similar locations. You might also consider ads or sponsorships to drive more traffic to your newly launched episodes. Just keep in mind these cost more money, so you’ll need to be strategic to get the best bang for your buck.
An easy way to increase promotions is to repurpose your content as clips, snippets, audiograms, or blog posts. This will allow you to develop content for different purposes and more easily promote your show online.
- ☐ Use social media, email marketing, and collaborations with other podcasters to promote your podcast
- ☐ Consider running ads on podcast directories and social platforms to increase visibility
- ☐ Repurpose your content across multiple formats for maximum reach
7. Monitor and Adjust
You’ve launched your show. Congratulations! But that doesn’t mean your work is done. The more effective approach is to keep tabs on its progress and look for ways to improve its performance over time.
Some pointers:
- ☐ Regularly check your podcast’s performance metrics and adjust your strategies based on the data
- ☐ Track completion rates, subscriber growth, and engagement metrics
- ☐ Use analytics platforms to understand listener behavior
The Bottom Line on How to Launch Your Next Podcast
Launching a podcast requires persistence, creativity, and strategic planning. Thankfully, these are all things that are possible to manage. By focusing on finding your niche, delivering high-quality content, testing your idea, balancing information and entertainment, creating an effective website, and engaging with your audience, you can create a podcast that easily rivals the ‘big names’ on the market.
But it’s not always easy to launch a podcast on your own. In many situations, it makes sense to delegate some or all of the work.
If you’re interested in launching your podcast with professional support, look no further than The Podcast Consultant. Our team has produced over 10,000 episodes with 100 million downloads and boasts a 97% client satisfaction rate.
Book a discovery call to explore how we can help you create a podcast that achieves your goals.
Frequently Asked Questions About Launching Your Next Podcast
Q: How Should Business Podcasts Balance Information and Entertainment?
Even if your podcast aims to convey information, it should still engage and entertain your audience. But that’s not to say it should be entertainment only. Case in point: educational content creators, including those who run financial services podcasts, see 2.8x higher completion rates than pure entertainment alone.
Reflect your brand’s personality and voice in your content to make it relatable and interesting. Companies like Ark Invest and Franklin Templeton, for example, have built massive audiences by making complex financial topics accessible through conversational delivery and real-world examples.
Q: What Website and Marketing Strategy Drives Podcast Growth?
First, choose the right hosting platform for your specific needs. Platforms like Buzzsprout offer built-in marketing tools, while Spotify for Creators provides unique promotional opportunities within its ecosystem. Tools like Podpage can help create efficient and attractive podcast websites quickly. You could always work with podcast marketing services for comprehensive solutions.
Next, optimize your podcast website. This should be user-friendly, have easy access to episodes, subscription options, and contact information.
For corporate podcasts, integrating your show within the main company website can be beneficial for consistency. But a separate website might be advantageous if your podcast serves more as an entertainment product.
Q: How Do You Build Genuine Audience Engagement?
First, make it easy for listeners to subscribe, comment, and contact you. Then, collect feedback and adapt your content based on listener responses.
Remember: building an engaged community requires consistent interaction across multiple touchpoints. Successful podcasts create ecosystems where listeners feel heard and valued, leading to higher retention rates and word-of-mouth growth.