Guide to Starting a Podcast for Business

How can corporates get into podcasting and why should they consider this in the first place. As a business owner, driver of an energetic startup why should you even think of podcasting? What are the right formats and how do you even begin. I explore this and more in this article. 

Why Should Corporates Consider Podcasting?

The era of advertising at the customer is long gone. Having well designed banners, well scripted Facebook ads or clever re-marketing tacktics are all yesterday’s way to reach new client base. Customers expect much more now – and that is community engagement and corporate responsibility to step into the topcs that move their hearts.

Community building will be the factor that makes and breaks companies going into 2020 and beyond. Strong and personal bond with the client, engagement in matters way beyond your product or service will (and in many cases already do) matter to your client much more than anything else to date.

So how does podcasting fit in all of this? The answer is simple. Podcasting gives your corporation a public, open voice, it shows that there are real human beings behind the brand and allows people to connect with the brand on a personal level. Blogging of course is good too but it is far less personal (you can’t hear the words spoken the same way you can in a podcast and it is often led by a group of writers and not one single one. Video is another great way to reach clients (YouTube is the second largest search engine). Podcasting is undergoing a massive growth at the time of writing and the competition is still relatively small. Great time to start is simply today.

Business Podcast Ideas

What format should your corporate podcast take? Here are some ideas for you to consider.

Internal Communications

Podcasting can be a great way to communicate internally in a large corporation. Keep employee engagement high, communicate your values, showcase feel good cases such as employee of the month, success stories, good client feedback. Highlight the important values in an engaging way. Larger corporations are continualy under the risk of loosing the internal identity. Nothing matters most in any company than a bunch of happy employees. People who feel valued in the company they work for will deliver better work – that is a simple fact. If you struggle with this introduce a podcast and give employees a voice, enable them to discuss matters important to them. There are many ways in which you can make podcasts entirely private.

Content Driven

By mile my most favourite usage case. Use podcast as an audio equivalent of a content marketing. Just think about it for a second – we all have different ways to consume content – audio, video, written word – all appeal to different people in different situations. Can you read a book or watch a video when you stand in a crummed train and hold on tight to a rail? Nope. How about when you drive a car to work? Again – nope! Podcast can be listened to in a situations you would not normally consume content – that’s why its popularity is on the up and you as a business should invest in content that can help people to consume it when and how they want it. If you have a business that sells environmently friendly shoes for example – how on earth can you make a podcast that will sell your footwear? You could make a podcast called “On the move” and have daily/weekly episodes that discuss the environmental issues and ways in which we can all contribute to mitigate it’s effects. Content appeals to wider audience and your shoes will be on the minds and hearts of those who care.

Product or Affiliate Training

I have worked with a medical device manufacturer who started a podcast to train the sellers in product features and usage cases. Brilliant way to provide very cheap training that can be used over and over again AND on top of that enables quick communication with all the sellers.

Ideas You Shouldn’t Consider

Whilst you may think those are good ideas – please do not. You have to remember that the wide public does not love your company as much as you love it and on a day to day basis people go about their business and care about causes close to their hearts and minds.

• “Your Company Name Podcast” – look at us, that’s what we do, we are so great, people who work with us are so happy… do you get the picture yet? Nobody cares so abandon it a minute you think that idea is worth a shot.
• Happy customer reviews – again this is another ego driven project that will not be long lived (I will eat my hat if it takes off for you!).
• Product/service review and description – remember the notion that “people buy people” – worth to remind yourself about this at this point.

All of the above are examples of ego driven, self centred one way conversations that simply do not belong to the podcast in 2019 and beyond world. So do make sure that your idea passes the “ego off” test – if it does – you are good to go!

Corporate Podcasting – Quality Matters

Internet is full of articles stating that you can start a podcast with your mobile phone, abandon quality and get ahead by ditching perfection over progress. Yes this is great for most podcasters but sadly not for corporate and business podcasts. Why? Because podcast is the audio image of your brand. If that image stinks you are potentially sacrificing the reputation of your business with bad looks. Remember that unlike other podcasters you are starting out with a listener base who are your clients (unless you don’t plan to share your podcast with them). So do pay attention to the quality, invest with a quality podcasting equipment, hire a post production company that will make each episode sound good, make sure to have a great podcast intro and outro that is a good companion and reflection of your existing brand. If you can afford it – hire a podcast consultant who can help with creating great ideas. Remember that this is an investment that will likely bring many benefits if executed correctly.