PodCraft | How to Podcast & Craft a Fantastic Show

Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience When you’ve published a decent amount of episodes, you might consider re-writing your scripts and notes from each one into an ebook. You can give this away as an incentive to people who contribute to you through a fundraising campaign, or as a reward for signing up for your mailing list. You can even publish it and offer it for sale through Amazon’s self-publishing channels.  It’s a good way to encapsulate your information, while also rewarding your audience for their commitment. Type: Big StrategyTime Required: One month to plan, compile, re-write, and publishPodcast Level: At least ten episodesSo, you have a basic script of talking points for each episode (or, better yet, you have transcripts). You have your show notes, and you also have any blog posts or visual aids. You also have an audience that’s interested in your show’s topic. For each episode, put together any notes or talking points you used, your transcript if you have one, any visual aids that you might have posted on your website or Instagram, and your show notes and blog post for the episode. Look at this information as a whole. What’s the cohesive narrative? What did you learn about your podcast’s topic, as you went through the process of making this podcast? What have you learned about it from your audience and your guests? This is a good time for you to encapsulate what you’ve learned so far, and what you can share with others. Edit this information into one cohesive document. A reasonable ebook usually runs about 7,000 to 10,000 words. As long as you’re covering the most important points in your information, explaining them clearly, and giving your audience value, length doesn’t matter. It’s always a good idea to have someone unbiased and skilled proofread your document before sending it anywhere. You can find someone who does book editing services on Fiverr, or trade services with a friend. A good designer can make sure your ebook is pleasing to the eye and enjoyable to read. If you prefer the DIY route, you can make a pretty good book cover in Canva. You can save this as one PDF, and give it to your supporters directly. This makes a great gift for the people who have supported you, as well as a good enticement for a new audience. You can also publish it through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. This lets you set the price, earn royalties, and publish in either digital or paperback. Task List: Organize your show notes, scripts/talking points, transcripts, visual aids, and blog posts for each episode.  Take note of what you’ve learned through this process. Write a book, using the information you’ve compiled. Get an unbiased, skilled editor to proofread and edit your book. Have a designer make sure your fonts and layout look good, and design a quality cover. Share this book with your supporters. Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience Support the show

Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience Podcast-themed beer mats or coasters! This is a “helpful” way of distributing your podcast logo or branding around pubs and bars in your area. A little cardboard coaster is a useful thing in these places. They help keep the table dry, and some folks even collect them. If your design is intriguing enough, a person resting their glass on one may pull out their phone and subscribe to your podcast there and then. Type: Ongoing taskTime Required: One month from design through to creation and delivery. Ongoing strategy to distribute. Podcast Level: At any timeThe starting point is your coaster design. What are you going to put on there to catch people’s eye? Your podcast logo can be a good choice here, just like with stickers or magnets. But, unlike those, you have a bit more time with the person looking at your coaster. They’re also up close to it, so it doesn’t need to work in an at-a-glance sort of way.  I actually recommend getting yourself 2-4 different designs. A typical bar or pub table sits 4 people, so you can leave 4 different coasters which could even spark some discussion amongst the folks who sit there next. Could you create one using a quote from a podcast review? Or, from yourself or an interview guest on the show? You can use humour or intrigue to make the person looking at it want to find out more. As always, it comes down to your own brand and tone, as well as your target audience. You should always have your podcast’s name on each coaster. Get your URL on there too. Make sure the people who want to find out more, actually can. Cardboard coasters are relatively cheap to have made. Many online printing services offer this service, and you’ll generally pick up bundles of 100 to 250 with each design. Next comes the distribution. I use this guerrilla marketing tactic myself; I’ll shove a stack of them in my jacket pocket if I’m heading on a day out somewhere. Each time I’m in a pub, I’ll stick coasters under all of our glasses at the table. When we leave, other folks will sit there, and who knows? One might even go on to become the show’s biggest fan. You can also harness the power of your listeners by running a competition. Ask them to take a picture of their drinks proudly sitting on your coasters when they’re out somewhere. You can run a hashtag for this so everyone can see each other’s pictures, too. This is a fun way to market your podcast, because you never know who’s going to sit down and start studying your “ad” next. Also, it’s a great excuse to get some friends together and go for a drink one weekend! Task List: Have 2-4 different types of coaster design made. Use your logo, but also consider things like quotes from reviews or from the show itself. Remember to have the podcast name, or even a URL on them. Each time you’re going to be in a cafe, pub, or bar, take some with you. Put them under the glasses or cups on your table as you drink. When you leave, leave them for the next people who’ll sit there. Consider running listener competitions to see how many bars around the world you can get photos of your coasters “in action”. Further Reading: thepodcasthost.com/guerrillaCheck out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience Support the show (https://pod.academy)

Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience Despite the many hundreds of ways listeners can consume podcasts these days, Apple Podcasts/iTunes is still comfortably the biggest platform in the world. Over 60% of podcast listening happens there. We know from our own data that when listeners want to find new content to listen to, around 40% of them take to searching their podcast listening app first. Looking at those two stats, it isn’t hard to conclude that if you were listed by Apple as a “featured” podcast, you’d likely pick up a few new listeners.  In fact, we know this ourselves first hand. In August 2017, one of our shows – Hostile Worlds – was featured on the front page of iTunes and Apple Podcasts. We’ll link to the article where we break down our listening numbers from that period in the Further Reading section. Type: Big taskTime Required: Months of planning - 10 minutes to submit your podcastPodcast Level: 4 episodes or moreHow to Do ItIt’s important to stress that there’s no way to guarantee getting featured there. You need to show Apple you’ll be publishing content that they reckon is feature-worthy. It’s also important to stress that said episode is not yet published. Apple will consider featuring a podcast on their front page if it’s something topical or noteworthy. For example, if a show is going to have a famous guest on their show. This person must be widely famous – “someone your mum has heard of” – and not just “niche famous”. This might be an author or musician with a new book or album. Apple sells these products, so they like to help market them.A famous guest could also be a sports star ahead of a big final, or an actor around the time of a movie premier. It doesn’t need to be due to a guest though. It might be because your episode will focus on a major event or news story. That was the case with Hostile Worlds, and the Cassini Mission to Saturn.Apple Submission FormYou’ll find the Apple submission form at thepodcasthost.com/appleformThey’re looking for at least 2 weeks lead time here, prior to the publishing of your noteworthy episode. They’d also like to know how you’re going to promote and market this episode on their platform. This might include things like linking to your show in Apple on your episode post, and tagging them in social media posts around the episode. Task List: Plan an episode that Apple may be interested in featuringFill out the submission form at least 2 weeks prior to the episode going liveLet Apple know how you’ll be promoting and marketing the episode on their platformFurther Reading: Apple Submission FormPodcast Discovery StatsHow Many Downloads Did We Get on the Front Page of iTunes/Apple Podcasts?Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience Support the show

Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience Nope, it’s not a new breakfast cereal. It’s a journalism and/or marketing strategy. The name comes from vox populi, or voice of the people. It’s a way of sketching out public opinion at a particular place and time. By asking a lot of different people the same question, you can get a lot of perspective on a bit of truth. This is also often used for comic effect by Jimmy Kimmel, and parodied by A Bit of Fry and Laurie. If you watch television, you have seen vox pops. Type: Short TaskTime Required: A hour to record, an hour to editPodcast Level: 5-10 episodesHow to Do ItCome up with a good episode topic, and one or maybe two related questions.  Put together a remote recording rig which you can carry easily, such as a hand-held digital recorder and a pair of headphones. Go to a place with good foot traffic, but not so crowded that you’ll have to shout to be heard. Think about places where your podcast topic would be relevant. If your podcast is about fly fishing, try the parking lot of a fishing spot, or partner with a bait and tackle shop. If your podcast is about quilting, check out a fabric shop. Bring some of your podcast business cards with you so you can easily share details of where to find the show. Participants do have to give you permission to record them. But you don’t have to fill out a contract, just keep a recording of them saying “yes, you have my permission to record me.”If you see people who look like they might be interested, ask if they’d be up for participating in an interview for a podcast. Be aware that people might not be, and that has nothing to do with you: they might be on their way to work, headed home, or simply wanting privacy. Some people will want to participate. Keep it light, keep it quick, and give them a card so they can listen later. Task List: Come up with a good episode topic, and one or maybe two related questions.  Practice working with your remote recording rig, and saving the sound files.  Get some business cards with your show information on them. Take your recording rig to a local spot with a reasonable amount of foot traffic. Bring a friend. Ask people if they’d be interested in participating in an interview for a podcast.Tell them about your podcast and offer them a card right away. That way, even if they say no, they’ve heard of your podcast. After you record them, thank them. Remind them that they’ll be able to hear themselves on your podcast, and they should tell their friends. Also MentionedThe Best Podcast Digital Recorders on the MarketShure SM58 MicSamson Q2U MicZoom PodTrak P4 Podcast RecorderCheck out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience Support the show (https://pod.academy)

Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast Audience A montage episode is a piece of audio content, made up of clips from different contributors.A tried and tested way of creating one is to build the episode around a single topic or question. Each participant records their answer to the question, and sends over their audio to the creator.You can collect clips from anyone from the general public, to your podcast listeners. In this particular instance, we want to create one with fellow podcasters in our niche. Type: Big StrategyTime Required: Around 3 months, from planning to publishing Podcast Level: About 10 episodes, or at the end of a seasonFirstly, you need to decide on a topic for your episode. Choose something that’s going to be interesting and useful to the audiences of all involved. Some examples of montage episodes could includeAn episode of a travel podcast, where contributors talk about their favourite holiday destinationAn episode of a sound design podcast, where contributors talk about their favourite audio production softwareAn episode of a health podcast, where contributors talk about their morning routinesYou may be asking a single question, but it's a good idea to have some prompts alongside it.Imagine the hypothetical travel podcast creates a montage episode titled “The World's Best Holiday Destinations”, and one of the clips is someone simply saying “Jamaica”. That would be a pretty dull and pointless episode.When asking for contributions, you might expand on the question “what is your favourite holiday destination?” with any of the following;Why did you choose to go there?What’s your favourite memory of the place?What’s something that surprised you about it?What's your top tip for someone planning to go there in the future?This will help give yourself the best possible chance of gathering great, insightful content.Decide too, if you'd like to put an approximate time guide on answers. Between 3-5 minutes is always a good sweet spot. But don't be too strict with this, or you'll discourage folks from participating.You’ll want to set a deadline for getting the clips back, so you can begin production. Lay out specific instructions in an easy-to-skim manner. These are things likeWhen you need the clip sent over byWhere or how to send itAny file format or naming preferences Once you have the clips together, assemble them in a good running order. You can then script your own parts in the episode - the intro and outro, as well as any commentary you’d like to add in between clips. When you’ve published a montage episode, be sure to reach out to everyone involved and ask them to share it with their own listeners. Everyone’s podcast can grow with this strategy, on top of it being great content for the collective audience. Everyone wins! Task List: Identify the podcasts you’d like to collaborate withCome up with a useful and interesting episode topicReach out to them with your proposalSell the benefits to them - this can help grow their reach!Lay out your specific instructionsGather in audio clipsRecord and intro and outro, and any commentary Mix episode togetherPublish Share with all involved - ask them to share it tooCheck out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast AudienceSupport the show (https://pod.academy)

Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast AudienceThis is where your love of your podcast’s topic will take the wheel. Let’s say you have a podcast about thrift (charity) shops. So you join a group on Facebook dedicated to unusual thrift shops. People post pictures and talk about great shops they’ve found, unusual things they’ve seen or bought in thrift shops, and so on. If you come in on day one saying “Hello everyone, I have a podcast about thrift shops and you all should listen to it,” you’ll just alienate people. What you owe it to yourself to do is read, watch, and see what the content and dynamic of the group are. How compatible are their discussions with your podcast? What are the big concerns? Are they talking about Goodwill vs. Salvation Army, or the prevalence of costume jewellery? You might find shop owners to interview, or topics to discuss on your podcast. When you feel comfortable, and you’ve added some value to the group, then mention that you have a podcast. Task List: Find a few online communities related to your podcast’s topic. Join them, follow the group guidelines, read and watch the group for a few weeks. Let yourself be inspired by what’s happening in the group. If there are discussions where you can honestly add value (i.e., “I know a great way to get stains out of velvet!”), then participate. Use your knowledge and expertise with compassion. Links Creating a 'Real Life' Podcast CommunityBuilding a Community Around Your PodcastDo Podcasters Need Social Media?Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast AudienceSupport the show

Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast AudienceQuestions are great. More and more, users are typing full questions into Google, rather than single words or phrases. Google can see this, and loves it when you answer them directly. If it’s obvious what you’re answering, they’ll direct ever more users to your answers. On top of that, when you think in questions, you tend to solve a real problem. Solve someone’s problem and they’ll be a loyal listener for life! That’s what powers real audience growth. So, where do we find these questions?“Answer the Public” is a great resource for this. It’s a website which is similar, in a way, to the keyword tool discussed earlier, but it’s designed to surface every possible question around a keyword or keyphrase. Type in your keyword - eg. podcasting - and you’ll see a huge list of questions. You’ll see them grouped by type - why? what? Who? - and you can refine it along the way. Wait till you see the questions that you never even considered!Next, let’s use social media, and Twitter in particular, to see what people are asking, right now! The technique is simple: type in your keyword AND a ? or a question word. This prompts twitter to surface all tweets that ask a question related to your topic. Eg. Podcast AND ?meditation AND howNutrition AND whatAnother great resource is Quora, an entire website of questions! Type in your topic, or related keywords, and see what questions pop up.Finally, try Buzzsumo to see what type of content is really resonating with your niche right now. Type in your keywords and it’ll surface the most shared content in your niche. This should give you ideas on what people are really connecting with right now. Task List: Pick at least one of the above tools and go in deep on it.Try all your topic or keyword variations and see if you can write down at least 10 of the most common questions people are asking.Use these as your next set of podcast topics and you'll increase your search visibility by a huge amount.Bonus points: use the Google keyword tool from above to check search volume and prioritise your questionsCheck out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast AudienceSupport the show (https://pod.academy)

Check out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast AudienceAdmit it: you can always use the support of your colleagues. Whether other people who make podcasts have more experience, less experience, or different kinds of experience, there’s always inspiration and strength that comes from being involved with other podcasters. Creating a local group takes some work, and a long period of time, but in the end, you can build community, grow your show, and help others. Type: Regular techniqueTime Required: Put an hour a week into promoting it and an hour for each meeting. Podcast Level: 10 episodes, or when your workflow is established and comfortableYou probably participate in an online community of podcasters already. If you don’t, you certainly can. You can also survey your audience to find out where your listeners are, and what percentage of them are podcasters themselves.  Find a local coffee shop, pub, or community centre that will let a few people sit around and chat over a beverage for a while.  Plan a recurring meeting, brainstorm some discussion topics, and promote the meeting to your friends and followers. It can be handy to set a topic in advance for each meeting. This can encourage people to turn up. You can also create meetups online. This gives you the option to meet people anywhere in the world, but removes the impact of face to face interaction. Whichever you choose, be open to listening, use your best manners, and empower others to do the same. Task List: Decide if you want the meeting to be virtual or actual (online or in-person). Find an online platform to use, or a venue to meet up in. Arrange a time and date. Mention the meeting on your social media, and in your podcast’s call to action. You want to be able to do this for at least three episodes of your podcast. Set a topic (or topics) in advance.  Get to the meeting early, greet people when they arrive. If you meet in a physical location, make sure that you leave it clean, and in better shape than you found it. Further Reading: Building a CommunityCreating a ‘Real Life’ Podcast CommunityCheck out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast AudienceSupport the show

Your current listeners are the best PR team to increase audience growth. Get to know your current listeners. They'll tell their friends about your podcast. Find out what their interests and habits are. Get them to tell you what they want your podcast to do. This way, you can fine-tune your podcast to increase your audience and reach more listeners.I'm not suggesting you take each individual listener out for a chat over a cup of coffee (though that would be very nice of you). The best way to get the information about your audience that you need, is with a short and carefully crafted podcast survey.Podcast Survey Tools For GrowthI like a free tool as much as the next podcaster, so let's start with a couple of them. And I'll include one paid option if you want to really ramp up your data gathering.Google Forms has a gallery of templates which you can use to create a standard type of form. It's easy to use, and everyone knows the brand, so it's pretty low-barrier. The look is, for me, a bit dated, but it's totally adequate for your average survey.SurveyMonkey is a lot more flexible. It's a paid product, normally, but the freemium tier will let you make a short podcast survey with ten questions or less, for nothing. If you don't need to go long, or need any of their other premium options, it could suit well.Paperform is my final recommendation, for those who want the full power of a paid product. Full flexibility and a range of beautiful templates, you can make a survey that looks great and really draws people in.One of the best Paperform features is the ability to create what they call a ‘landing form.' In plain English, it's a page creator that includes survey elements, so you can build a great looking ‘audience welcome page' which asks them questions, gets your data, but also gives them a bunch of value through episode guides, downloads, contact info and more. You can build a place where you give as value them as they give to you in filling in their data.You really don't want your podcast survey to be longer than ten questions. Your listeners are already giving you their time and mental effort. Ask for a little, and you'll get a lot.Multiple-choice questions will get you results that are focused and specific. Open-ended questions can give you results you hadn't expected. They can also lead listeners to use them as a personal soapbox or open-mic night. Limit the amount of characters responders can use, so they have to keep their response short.Read the guide at Running an Audience SurveyCheck out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast AudienceSupport the show

We're delighted to announce our latest book. It's called Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast AudienceTo celebrate, we're making season 13 of Podcraft all about podcast promotion and growth. We'll be going through the book, chapter by chapter, and picking out a single task to focus each episode around. On this episode, we're pulling from the first chapter - Enabling Your Existing Audience - and the task in question is around Calls to Action. Calls to Action (CTAs) are low-hanging fruit that many podcasters miss a huge opportunity with. There are some key questions to ask yourself when thinking about your CTAs. Questions like how does your CTA uniquely engage your listeners? And what do you want your listener to do? A specific, memorable Call to Action engages your audience and drives them in the direction you want. You should also make it easy for them to do it. If you’re sending them to a particular web page, use a shortlink to get them there. If you want them to talk about your show on social media, invent a hashtag so you can track it.  Your CTAs will totally depend on your content and motivations. But some of the most common and effective podcast CTAs we see are;Subscribe to the show in your listening app of choiceShare this episode with someone you think will benefit from itLeave a rating and review on your listening app of choice, or in PodchaserGet in touch (solicit particular questions so this is more effective)Download a resource, sign up for something, or purchase an upgradeFinally, include your CTAs in the show notes of each episode, in the episode outro, and if possible, linked in a button on your website podcast player. Task List: For your next Call to Action, what do you want your listeners to do? Sum it up in a short sentence or less, such as “sign up for our email list.” Look at the ‘Creating Memorable Links’ task, and practice making a short link. Practice your intros and outros. How can you fit your new CTA into your outros?Related to: Creating Memorable links, Encouraging ReviewsFurther Reading: thepodcasthost.com/driveaction - How to Drive Action From a Podcastthepodcasthost.com/outros - Introducing & Ending Your EpisodeCheck out the full book - Podcast Growth: How to Grow Your Podcast AudienceSupport the show