So, you want to create a podcast. Great idea! This contemporary variation on the radio show has gained momentum in recent years as a means of education and entertainment, and it doesn’t look as if it’s slowing down any time soon. The best part is that like other content available via the digital world, anyone can create and share their own.

But the fact that anyone can start their own podcast should give you a little bit of pause — as you can imagine, there are some sloppily done podcasts out there. You don’t want to do one of those.

Here are some step-by-step suggestions on what you should do to make sure creating your podcast is a successful and rewarding part of furthering your brand.

Decide on the format. 

Podcasts are not a one-size-fits-all medium. They don’t all follow the same formula. Some podcasts are only a few minutes while others are an hour or two. In some cases, the podcast will be a series of interviews on a given topic, or there will be one feature interview. In other situations, the host might invite several people to have a discussion on the topic of the day. Remember, you don’t have to stick with the same formula every single time.

Get the right equipment.

You can record a podcast with just your smartphone. Really — the voice memo app usually does a sufficient job of recording conversations and interviews. However, if you want to get a little more technical, you can invest in a few inexpensive microphones that plug into your phone. These can be helpful if you have two or more people talking at any given time and you want to ensure that both voices are recorded on equal levels. Placing your phone on a table could mean whoever is sitting closer to the phone gets picked up better than someone who is sitting slightly farther away. You are also more likely to pick up background noise if you are recording with just your phone.

While you are making investments, you might want to subscribe to a library of sound effects and royalty-free music, such as Audio Blocks, for your podcast.

Create Episode Outlines

Obviously, the interesting part of a podcast is that you’re getting a raw, organic interview much the way you would with a radio show. It’s not the type of thing that you script word for word. However, don’t fool yourself into thinking that you don’t have to do a little bit of writing ahead of time.

Once you’ve selected a topic for that episode — such as big news or a trend in your industry — you can start to create an outline. Develop any introductory speech, transition speech or concluding speech your host will deliver and decide what interview questions you want to ask some of your guests. A typical outline might look like this:

• Welcome your listeners and introduce the podcast

• Share any feedback received from the most recent episode

• Introduce the topic of the day and give the names of guests

• Conduct the interview with the first guests

• Conduct the interview with second guest (and third, etc.)

• Have a round-table discussion with others from your company reflecting on what you learned from guests that day

• Give a shout out to your sponsors of this episode

• Provide a conclusion and any relevant calls to action, which could include following your social media pages or subscribing to your podcast

Remember that in order to write this outline, you will need to get a short bio from each of your guests and briefly discuss any specific points they do or do not want to cover in the interview. There’s nothing worse than getting a guest on your podcast only to find out that they can’t answer some of the questions you’re planning to ask. Similarly, they might have a breadth of insight on areas of the subject you haven’t even considered. Your questions should also be open-ended instead of those with simple yes/no answers.

Now it’s time to mix. 

Once you’ve recorded everything, it’s time to do some sound mixing — the proper word for editing and arranging audio clips to create your finished product. Audacity is great sound-editing software you can download for free.

Leave plenty of time for sound mixing, as this will be a more time-consuming part of the process than you expect. It could take at least a few hours to create a podcast that’s only a few minutes long. You’ll need to trim recordings to exactly the right length you need them to be and put them in order, adding transition music and sound effects along the way.

Remember that if you have to cut out part of an interview — for example, it goes on for way too long, or you delve into controversial subject matter you don’t feel comfortable including in the podcast — be careful about preserving the integrity of your guest’s message. You don’t want a guest to feel as if you unethically distorted what they were saying by taking it out of context.

Take care of the professional touches. 

Your podcast needs a title and series description, along with titles and a short description for each episode. You will also need some sort of cover art, which you can create yourself or outsource to a graphic designer. Be sure you have all of this, along with at least three episodes recorded and mixed, before you launch.

Distribute your podcast. 

Find a platform through which you can distribute your podcast. Anchor is a great option that’s free with no storage limitations or strings attached, and it distributes to all the places where people listen, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.

After your podcast is live, be sure to promote it via social media, in your email blasts and on your website.

Are you ready to start promoting the podcast your company has created? ASMM Digital Marketing can help! Reach out today by calling 443-679-4916 or emailing ann@asmmdigital.com.