Research shows audiences enjoy listening to podcasts. Yes, we’re in an age of the short attention span and ultra-short videos. But we’re also in the era of long form audio only content. And often it’s the same people consuming both forms of media. They’ll binge on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube ‘shorts’ and then decide they want to switch off with something deeper. Podcasts enjoyed a surge in popularity during COVID lockdown and the latest stats show they’ve remained highly popular.
This provides a great opportunity for your business. We believe everyone has a story to tell and your audience would love to hear more about what your business does, how it operates, and what you stand for. If you’re a big enough business, with staff, perhaps working across multiple sites, a podcast for internal use only can be a very effective way to get key information across and contribute to a positive workplace culture.
How can my business get started with podcasting?
The first decision is whether you want this to be a true podcast in the purest sense of the word, or simply an audio file on your website, or an in-depth interview video on YouTube. I won’t get technical here but a true podcast requires a particular type of file and a hosting provider. We can help your business whether you want a podcast to be distributed on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google etc or simply audio files. Just let us know.
Next, is this going to be audio only? Or do you want the podcast for your business to be filmed so that it exists in video form too? If you get two senior figures from your sector together for a sit down interview, might it be worth having that on video for those who want the visuals? This adds a layer of complexity because with video podcasts you’ll also want to make sure things look good and that might mean lighting or means restrictions around where you make your recording. When we produce branded podcasts for our clients, we sometimes find certain subject matter works better when it’s audio only. Participants sometimes feel more relaxed and speak more openly when there’s no camera in their face.
Another key decision is whether you want to present the podcast yourself or would you like us to do it for you? With some business podcasts, clients have used us simply to record, edit and publish their conversations. Listeners are unaware of our involvement – it’s entirely your podcast, full of voices from your business or organisation, with us supporting you in the background. But there are other clients we’ve worked with who ask me (Colin) to present the podcast. I’ll record an introduction and outro, interview the participants, edit everything to your specification and then present you with the finished files ready to be published. An example of this would be the Froebel Trust Podcast.
How can my business publish a podcast on Spotify, Apple etc?
This is the technical bit that can seem daunting if you’ve never done it before. It’s free to distribute a podcast to Spotify, Apple, Google and all the other major podcasting apps. But you usually need to pay to have the podcast ‘hosted’. This is similar to website hosting and involves paying perhaps £15 per month to a hosting provider such as Libsyn, Podbean or any one of hundreds of other providers. You’ll see there are free hosting plans and there’s no harm in starting off on one of these. Many of the businesses we produce podcasts for quickly decide to move to a paid podcast hosting plan in order to access analytics and other advanced features.
When Comsteria produces podcasts for businesses, we’ll often suggest a ‘hand holding’ period where we set up the hosting and distribution of your podcast and manage the first few episodes before transferring control over to you once you’re feeling confident about publishing each episode and accessing analytics and other features yourself.
How long should my business podcast or branded podcast be?
This is the question clients ask us the most! The advice we give comes from James Cridland and his wonderful Podnews newsletter which contains essential news about podcasting everyday. It’s a free email newsletter we’d recommend you sign up to. James says your podcast should be ‘as long as it needs to be and not a second longer’. This is great advice and of course what he means is the success of your podcast is about the quality of the content rather than the duration. Some of the most successful podcasts are long form celebrity interviews and last around an hour. Others are deep dives into pop culture topics with passionate fanbases. When we look at business podcasts, we’d suggest aiming for around the 30 minute mark. There’s no harm in cutting things back to 20 minutes and equally, if it’s a stimulating and engaging conversation, no harm in letting things run to 40 minutes. There are no rules or limits – it’s your podcast and it can be whatever you want it to be. But from our experience producing branded podcasts for businesses, most are around the 30 minute mark.
I hope this has given you a bit more insight into the world of podcasts and how your business can have one. If you’d like to discuss this in more detail, please get in touch. As well as producing podcasts for businesses and organisations, Comsteria also offers podcast production training where we’ll teach you to make your own.
