Uplevel University Podcast Marketing 101 – S1, E2

Uplevel University Podcast Marketing 101 Transcript

Kelly Noel Zeva: Welcome back to Uplevel University. Today we’re gonna be talking about podcast marketing 101. We’re gonna focus primarily on launching in this episode. As I mentioned in the previous episode, we will at some point do an entire episode dedicated to promoting your podcast.

If you’re just getting started with your podcast, this is a great episode to listen to because you’ll have a better idea of how to create a successful podcast right out of the gate. So you might be wondering, “Hey, Kelly Noel. Well, first of all, who are you?” Right? This is a new podcast. I’m Kelly Noel Zeva, Community Manager at Uplevel Coworking, and I’m your host of Uplevel University.

Today we’re gonna be talking about podcast marketing. We are going to discuss launching your podcast primarily in this episode, and at some point we will have a dedicated episode about promoting your podcast. What are my credentials in teaching about podcast marketing and how to start a podcast?

Well, I have started two podcasts. For example, Uplevel University, that’s not something I’ve outsourced. Some people outsource it. They just record. They share their voice and someone else does all the other things. I am a person who likes to do all the things, so I have trouble delegating sometimes, which is one of my many challenges in the workplace, but when we’re talking about podcast marketing, it is a powerful tool to engage with your target audience and to reach them. So SEO is search engine optimization. You also can optimize keywords that you use in your podcast title. So it’s a basically very big directory.

It’s a more specific directory than you have online. So having a podcast is really powerful for reaching people. And you can also create more partnerships that way too. I’m probably getting a little, a little more in depth than I need to, just kind of in this overview of what we’re gonna cover today.

Building the Foundation of Your Podcast

The first thing you wanna do when you’re thinking about starting a podcast is you gotta build your foundation, right? When we’re building a skyscraper, what do we start with? We start with the foundation, and then we build the skeleton.

What is that for a podcast? Well, it is selecting a topic and a niche that aligns with your expertise and your target audience’s interests. So if you’re a business owner, you probably have a good idea of who your target audience is. If you don’t know who your target audience is, think about your very best customers.

Now, I know this can be hard if you are new in business. You’re like, I’ve had 1, 2, 3 customers, or I’ve had zero customers, I’m just getting started. What do I do? Do something that you’re passionate about. I. But you want a podcast that is going to draw in your ideal clients if you are a business owner, if you are an entrepreneur, you know, if you are just wanting to start a podcast for your own enjoyment and personal growth and development, do it.

You don’t have to be a business owner to have a podcast. It’s just that if you are using it as a business tool, it is a very powerful tool to use within your business. So for example, with Uplevel University, you know, we’re really targeting people who would be interested in co-working: entrepreneurs, business owners, remote workers, and identifying, okay, what are the topics?

What are the podcast episode titles that would be interesting to them? What’s the content that would be valuable to them? And that was kind of the genesis behind this podcast as well. So we talked about it and if you don’t, if you’re not sure, like do some market research, like if you have an audience, ask them what would be valuable if you want to know before you start recording.

The next thing, once you know your topic and your niche and who your target audience is, you wanna go in and fill that in with finer, brush strokes. And part of that is creating the name of your podcast. I have a creative writing background. From a creative writing standpoint, some things you might consider as you’re choosing the name of your podcast is using elements of poetry.

Using Poetic Devices When Naming Your Podcast

So alliteration. I love alliteration. That’s why we are Uplevel University. It’s, well, that’s actually assonance ’cause it’s that, vowel sound, but alliteration means that the words are starting with the same consonant sound. So a lot of tongue twisters use alliteration. So Sally sells seashells by the seashore.

You’ve got that s sound. And actually there’s a special, special name for that that’s called Sibilance. So sibilance is alliteration. That’s with sss. Word play. So you might consider using word play in your, in your podcast title, name. So puns, there’s an event that has happened in Madison called Pundemonium.

So that’s actually a pun. It is word play because the word is pandemonium, right? Which means chaos. And, it’s an event where they have people come on stage and make puns so Pundemonium, right? That’s an example of word play. Assonance. I talked about this with Uplevel University. We’ve got that sound uplevel University or kind of that u sound, but assonance has really repeated vowel sounds.

When I write poetry, for example, I use a lot of big Oh, sounds, or Ooh. Sounds like, “do not coo. Hey there, boo. Right? It’s rhyme, but it’s also assonance. Consonance is similar to alliteration. But basically it’s repeated consonant sounds so vowels, you know, that’s a e i o u and sometimes y consonants are everything else.

You can also use allusion, so if there are certain texts or forms of media that are really, you know, inspiring and well-known among your audience, you might consider making a reference to that within your title or your subtitle. We don’t have this within Uplevel University, but when I think of allusion, I think of James Joyce’s Ulysses right off the bat.

I did an independent study on James Joyce, and if you know anything about Ulysses, which you may or may not, it is a very difficult read. It is 800 pages and it is considered the epitome of modernist work. And, it is very difficult to read, but he makes a series of allusions to Shakespeare, to Milton. Oh, I actually don’t know if he makes allusions to Milton. I do, I do know that he makes allusions to Shakespeare, in that play. But he makes allusions to Catholicism and Catholic doctrine. It’s basically making a reference to another well-known work. Probably a [00:07:00] more common or well-known example among people who are listening to this podcast, especially if you’re a parent, is Encanto.

In the final song, Bruno says let it in, let it out, let it rain, let us know, let it go. And that’s a reference to frozens. Let it Go. Right? So that’s an example of an illusion that most people would probably be familiar with. Oh yeah. In, in addition to like all the things, hashtag all the things I did, I was on vocal scholarship in college, so, so you’re like, oh my goodness.

Headline Analyzer and SEO Keywords for Podcast Titles

That was very surprising. I was not expecting that kind of voice. That’s why. Okay. So I’m, I’m kind of a nerd about creative writing and literary devices. So if you’re like, oh, we spent a long time on how you can use poetic devices for your title for your podcast. Yes, we did. Okay. Another really great tool when you’re coming up with titles for your podcast is to use the headline analyzer tool@aminstitute.com.

So big shout out to Lisa Simone Richards. Lisa Simone Richards is a PR professional based in Canada and has a phenomenal program about positioning yourself as an expert for podcast guesting. I hadn’t heard of the Headline Analyzer Tool until I took her program. When you’re creating a title, you want to have a score of 50 or higher, if possible.

That is definitely another tool to leverage when you’re creating your podcast title. After you’ve added your alliteration, your wordplay, you can analyze the headline. Another thing you wanna consider with your title is SEO.

So I really recommend incorporating two keywords into the title if you can. So have a primary title, have a short title. So one of the podcasts that I followed is the Healing Trauma Podcast. Okay. And that’s kind of like two short keywords in one. There’s healing, there’s trauma, there’s healing trauma.

There’s trauma healing, right? So that’s an example of they don’t have a subtitle, but they do have more than one keyword in the podcast title. But if you do have a primary title and a subtitle, think of it like an academic book title. Both of those can be keywords. So that’s an opportunity to just be searchable in podcast directories more than one way.

Other Podcast Branding Elements

So aside from your title, which is obviously very important to your foundation, you also want to consider other brand elements. If you are new to establishing a brand, you want to identify your brand colors, your brand ethos, your brand values. This is helpful with creating other kinds of content. So if you’re new to creating a brand, and this is the first time your brand will be used is for your podcast, check out our blog post on how to create a brand identity.

But like I said, you wanna focus on colors, fonts, and values, your brand ethos so that everything is consistent and really clear about who you are and why you’re different from your competitors. Okay, so now let’s talk about creating compelling podcast artwork. Again, I might do a separate episode on this, so it’s gonna be a little bit more of an overview ’cause we spoke a lot about how to choose the best podcast title.

Creating Podcast Artwork

So with creating artwork, you want to really think about what this is gonna be. If it’s very host-centric, you might wanna have an image of your host. So a really great example of this is Mai-kee Tsang‘s the Quiet Rebels Podcast. So Mai-kee is on the cover of the podcast art, and then it’s very simple design.

Other than that, it has the title of the podcast and colors that fit with Mai-kee’s branding. But it’s really just Mai-kee that’s you know, on this on this graphic. For other folks, the topic is much more important. So you’ll see this with like NPR podcasts. You’ll see this with The New York Times.

Is there logo or a graphic that indicates what the podcast is about, is central to that art instead of the host? So it really just depends on what is most important to about your podcast. You know, what, what do you want to have? Have the biggest focus for us. You know, we feature our logo and like that’s kind of in the background there because it’s Uplevel Coworking. It wouldn’t it, you know, this is not the Kelly Noel show, so even though sometimes you might feel like that with how I ramble and get off topic.

Creating Podcast Artwork with Canva

Anyhow, I recommend using Canva for your artwork. Canva is really inexpensive for what you get, so definitely consider upgrading to the pro version.

It is a thousand percent worth it. I have been using Canva since 2017. It has gotten even more high value. It is $15 per month, and it is really powerful. It is worth it. Even if you use Adobe or other [graphic design] tools, get Canva as a supplement.

Canva has templates for different media types, including podcasts [cover art]. So you can go with an existing template, tweak the colors, tweak the fonts to match your brand. And voila, there you go. You can also start from scratch, just using dimensions of a podcast, and use the templates as inspiration. So there’s a really a lot of ways to use Canva.

Ensuring Brand Consistency

You also wanna incorporate those key branding elements, so make sure your colors are consistent.The podcast branding can differ from your business brand a bit if you want it to. For example, let’s say yellow, purple, and pink are your brand colors. And purple is your primary color. Yellow is your secondary color. Pink’s your tertiary color.

Maybe you mix it up with the podcast and it’s yellow is your primary color. Pink is your secondary color. Purple’s your tertiary color, but you still have the same colors, you still use the same hex codes.

That’s what they’re called, those six digit. Alpha numeric codes that give you a very specific color output. So using the same hex codes, using the same fonts, same font styles, but it might be a little bit different and that’s okay. So some variation and some difference from your primary brand assets is totally okay because this is a podcast.

It is not like you’re being inconsistent on your website, you know, so you might think of it as like a secondary asset. But you definitely wanna have consistency and you wanna have through lines and you want people to be able to say, oh, hey, this is this brand, this is this company. Oh, this is their podcast.

I can see the link. I can see how these two make sense together. If you’re unsure where to go with creating podcast artwork, start with ChatGPT, ask ChatGPT some questions about what images should I use, and we’ll probably be creating some ChatGPT prompts at some point about podcasting.

Because we are using ChatGPT to support our script development processes and other aspects of the podcast creation efforts. So it’s definitely a great tool if you are open to using artificial intelligence in your business or in your podcast creation process.

Determine Your Episode Format

Once you have decided on your topic, your niche, your title, and you’ve created compelling podcast artwork, the next step is to create a format and a length that works for you and for your audience. And to determine which equipment you’re gonna use. Doing some research or using this as like a starting point for your research. Hopefully this gives you some clear direction. So when we’re talking about podcast format, we are talking about interviews, we’re talking about solo episodes, we’re talking about PO panel discussions.

So, you know, there’s pros and cons to each, right? Interviews and panel discussions are really enticing for a lot of people from a opportunity to create referral partnerships, or if you’re doing any partnership marketing, that’s really powerful. Solo episodes are easier to record ’cause you don’t have to coordinate multiple people and get them there at the same time.

You don’t have to get assets from other people. It’s much faster to do. Like I’m batch recording. That would be really hard if I were doing interviews because I would probably be doing interviews with three different people. So if you’re doing solo episodes, it’s much easier to to execute and to record them and to do them in batches if that works with your brain, which for me it does.

But if I were doing an interview, I could get [the other person] to promote the episode as well and then it would go out to their list and my list and, and things like that. From a reach perspective having some interviews and having, or panel discussions can be really powerful.

Because solo episodes don’t get tho that same reach. You’re basically promoting it to your list. Even if you’re promoting it to your list, they may be more excited when you’re interviewing a guest expert as well. After you determine your format, the next thing you want to decide on is the average length of your episodes.

Determining Length of Your Episodes

So this may vary. It’s okay to have episodes that are different lengths. You wanna have a, you wanna have a range that if, if you do have a range, you want it to be relatively predictable. You know, are you in that 20 to 30 mark with maybe the occasional 35, 40 minute outlier? Do you run closer to 45 minutes and some of your longer episodes are 55 or an hour?

If you have a range? Don’t make it a really variable range where someone can even guess how long the episode’s gonna be. Make sure there’s some consistency with the length of your episodes. We really try to have it between 20 to 40 minutes.

Solo episodes tend to be a little shorter, but when there’s a really good interview, we might be a little closer to an hour. We are striving for 20 to 40 minutes, and the reason is that’s enough for a meaty episode, right? You get much shorter than 20 minutes and it’s really a quick tip or a strategy, and there’s not really a lot of time for flow and personality.

You know, you have to stick pretty closely to your script. I do have like a script outline, that I’m following right now, but as you can tell, I’m veering off it and I’m sharing some personal experiences or my own perspective or going on tangents, and there’s not a whole lot of room for that if you’re below 20 minutes.

We try to cap our episodes at 40 minutes though, because you want it to be short enough for a commute. A lot of people listen to podcasts as they’re driving into work or on public transit, out for a run, or things like that. If it’s longer than 40 minutes, someone might be like, oh, I’m not gonna fit that in.

They wanna listen to it in one sitting or one activity. So those are some things to be mindful of as you’re deciding what your podcast is gonna look like.

Using a Podcast Recording Studio

The next thing is to decide what, what equipment you are gonna use. So there are a few things that you do need. One of the things that you want is a microphone.

I have recorded podcast episodes with my very shitty mic from my laptop and it doesn’t sound the most professional, right? Right now I am not recording using that mic. I am using the podcast recording studio at Uplevel Coworking. We have RODE Procaster mics and a RodeCaster Pro audio board. They’ve got the little foam coverings, so you get a better sound, and it protects the mic.

Though we have very high quality mics here, we have arms that are adjustable. So I can raise and lower the positioning of the mic. We have an audio board that has different sounds, which I might just try one here in a sec so you can see what it’s like.

But we have clapping sounds and really cool sound effects and we can have up to four different mics plugged into this board. The setup we have in the podcast studio here at Uplevel Coworking is for two people, which I think accommodates most podcast formats. You either have a solo episode like this is, or you have an interviewer and an interviewee. I would say that’s probably 90% of podcasts, at least in my experience. I don’t have a specific statistic or anything just outta the podcasts that I’m familiar with or aware of, I would say that’s about 90%.

And then sometimes you’ll have two hosts and you’ll have an interviewee, and so then you’ve got three or more people, or you’ve got like an ensemble or it’s prerecorded and it’s a, those are examples. So you want mics a mic of some sort. If you’re like super low tech, super low budget, but don’t care about audio quality, you can use your laptop mic.

Or you can go as professional as a road caster pro. And if you’re like, Ooh, I don’t wanna spend two 50 buck, 250 on a mic, plus all the other things. Our podcast studio, it’s $30 an hour if you’re not a member, or you can do like a half day of batch recording and it’s 95 bucks. So pretty doable if you get like four or five episodes in, which is totally possible in four hours.

Podcast Recording and Editing Software

I am batch recording right now. This is episode number two. I’m trying to get three episodes done in two hours, so that’s 40 minutes per episode. That’s roughly what we’re doing. Okay, so mics and audio board, if you really wanna go high quality, you do need a recording software.

So I’m using Audacity. I like Audacity for both recording and editing. It’s very straightforward and it’s free. You can use it on Mac, you can use it on pc. GarageBand is another one that’s sometimes recommended, but it’s only available for Mac users. So if you have a pc definitely look into Audacity.

Note: Since first recording this episode, I’ve started using Descript to edit my podcast episodes, which uses AI and is much faster.

Audacity unfortunately does not download to Microsoft Surfaces. I found this out the hard way because that is what I use for work. I was like, I’m trying to download Audacity so that I can hook it up to the podcast. It just, yeah, it was, it was. Not happening. So you do want an actual laptop or a desktop computer.

Mics, Speakers, and Headphones for Your Podcast Setup

Other things that might be valuable. Speakers, headphones. We have both of those in our podcast studio. You know, those are really like, I mean, it depends on how high tech you wanna get. I’ve recorded episodes without them. I’ve guested for other podcasts and have not used them. But I mean, again, when it comes to how professional do you want your podcast to sound?

I mean, people are more likely to listen to podcasts that sound professional and to take you more seriously if you sound professional. So those are some things to consider. So we talked about editing equipment. We talked about recording equipment. If you’re like, I want to get a not shitty mic that like, but I am outside of the Madison area, or, you know, always going to Uplevel Coworking just doesn’t work for me.

Blue Yeti is a good option. If you’re looking, if you’re willing to spend about a hundred, 150. There’s, there’s a few different models and sizes. There’s the, like the Yeti nano, which I think runs right around a hundred. But otherwise, I think you’re looking closer to 150. I also, because sometimes I like recording to my phone got a really cheap rinky dink set of earbuds that also had a little microphone attached, and that quality is better than like the mic on my iPhone.

So if you’re like, Ooh, I just want something really, really easy, really simple, you could do something low tech like that and get slightly better audio. It certainly doing that setup for me wasn’t anywhere near the quality that I’m, you know, getting from our professional mics in the podcast studio at Uplevel Coworking.

But, you have to evaluate how significant is this gonna be in your, in terms of your marketing efforts. And so how much money are you willing to put behind it? Whether that’s renting a podcast studio or whether that’s getting all of the equipment for it. So things to consider.

Outlining and Scripting Your Episodes

The next step, once you’ve got your equipment or you’ve rented your time here, right, it’s to record and edit your podcast. So you might batch record or you might record one at a time. It is helpful to have a script before recording, just so you stay on track. Otherwise, personally, I will just ramble all around the topic.

I find that a full out script is way more in depth than I want to spend time developing, so I’ll often just work from an outline. And also I like the conversational feel of podcasts and being able to create something that’s conversational. So when you’re recording and editing your podcast, in addition to having a high quality mic, if you want high quality audio, you want to choose a quiet environment.

Choosing Your Recording Environment

So in our podcast studio for example, we have foam things on the wall and the room is double insulated, or it has two, two layers of drywall. I think something like that, that makes this, it blocks out sound from other areas of the coworking space so that it is. There is a, you know, it’s quieter when you’re recording.

We also have an on air light, so if I’m recording for example, no one’s gonna walk in even if the door is unlocked. And you want, you wanna be close to the microphones as well. So I’m about an inch, inch and a half away from the mic that I’m using when we’re talking about adding to the quality. Some of that is adding visual interests.

So that might be segmenting your podcast so that you can insert ads or sponsorship opportunities. It might be adding intro or outro music or sound effects, so we can actually add sound effects via our board eye. This really quick here. Oh.

That’s an example of one of the sound effects that our board can produce. So if I want cheering, like, oh, I just said something brilliant. I can play that. And intro outro music.

Using Spotify for Podcasters

I really like Spotify for podcasters. It used to be Anchor.fm. It was a little sad when Spotify acquired Anchor if I’m being totally honest. But I like that platform because it’s free to host all your podcast episodes and you can edit quite easily. You upload your audio file. I’ll record the core episode and then I have separate files for the intro, outro, and sponsored by Uplevel Coworking. And then I can just put those in whatever sequence I want.

At some point, I’ll probably chunk out the main part of the episode so that we can, you know, have additional sponsorship opportunities. That’s not gonna be for a little bit though, just trying to get some content out there right now. But they have intro and outro music, so you’ll, you hear that with our episodes.

We have an intro and an outro, and it’s got music behind it. So those are some things to keep in mind when you’re recording and editing your podcast.

Distributing Your Podcast to Directories

After you have your episode developed, next thing is to publish it, and part of that is submitting it to podcast directories. Your podcast marketing efforts are going to be very short-lived if no one can find your podcasts.

So you wanna make sure that it’s available on places like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.This is an area that I am not as well versed in because Spotify for podcasters does it for me. All I do is say, Hey, publish it, and then it takes it to popular directories and tells you what you need to do.

Note: Since acquiring Anchor.fm, Spotify’s process for podcast distribution has changed. You can still Spotify for Podcasters to submit directly to Spotify, but you do have to manually submit your podcast or claim it on other platforms. Google Podcasts and Amazon seemed to be the easiest. Apple was more challenging.

Creating Your Shownotes with SEO in Mind

I talked a little bit about SEO when we were talking about a podcast title. The same thing applies when you’re talking about your podcast description.

Think of this like an area where people can search. So when people search Apple Podcasts or Spotify and they’re looking for certain topics, you know your podcast. Episode title. So not just your podcast title, your podcast episode title, and your description are things that they can essentially get, you know, like if you have keywords, you know, if we were talking about remote working, you know, having that in our podcast episode title would be helpful.

And also having it in the podcast descriptions. We want to entice people to listen to the full episode [00:28:00] and download it and subscribe. So, selecting relevant categories is, Also important because people may search by category. They may be looking for business podcasts. If you work with business coaches or you work with other business owners, putting it as a business podcast might be helpful.

If it’s you know, mental health, like that’s a podcast category, you may find that the categories are a little limiting. If you do something that’s kind of unique or unusual, and just choose the one that’s best you can always get more specific with tags. So categories are broader, tags are narrower, and that is something that can also help your ss e o.

Making Your Podcast More Visible

So to make it super visible, right, and discoverable on podcast platforms, you want to have it be available on different podcast directories, but you also want to use search terms that people are using. So we talked a bit about that. You can also make your podcast more visible by linking back to your website and having it on your website.

What some brands will do is in addition to having a blog or in lieu of a blog, they will have a link to their podcast on their website. So think of it just like a marketing asset, something that can draw people in and another reason for people to go to your website.

Instead of like searching Apple Podcasts next time, I might just go straight to their website [to see the latest podcast episode]. So it can generate more website traffic potentially as well.

Promoting Your Podcast

After you have submitted your podcast, and it’s live and people can find it, what do you do? Well, the next thing is to promote your podcast and specifically use it as a lead magnet.

That’s how I want you to think of your podcast. It is a lead magnet. It is an opportunity for you to connect with prospective clients. So that’s where you want to record episodes that are gonna be valuable to your customers, to people that you are currently in the process of having sales conversations with, or your target audience.

If you’re a high ticket coach, you’re gonna have a pretty good idea of your audience’s pain points, quick solutions they’re looking to have, and problems they’re looking to solve. And you wanna identify what content you’re willing to give away for free. This should not be your secret sauce, but it’s helpful if it’s got enough juice that people are like intrigued.

For example, when I appear on podcasts talking about my coaching practice, I will share my framework about trauma healing and the three layers of trauma healing. It’s specific enough that people walk away with value and it’s also not so proprietary that they’re gonna think, “Oh, well I don’t have to work with this person.”

I don’t need to invest in their coaching or their courses or whatever, because I know it all already, because they shared it on the podcast. If you offer a done for you service instead of coaching, then those boundaries might not be as fuzzy. But still think of your podcast as building awareness for certain issues and why it’s important.

Using Social Media to Promote Your Podcast

Then using social media platforms. This is a great way to promote podcast episodes, engage with listeners, build a community. Patreon integrates with ConvertKit, both tools that I highly recommend if you are a creator, if you are a content creator, if you’re a coach, those are great things to look at. As far as you know, building a community, Patreon also integrates with Discord.

If you’re offering benefits to your listeners, a Discord benefit is a possibility. You could create a platform on Discord instead of Facebook or somewhere else. So once you have your podcast episodes, you have unlimited content and here’s why: You can transcribe the podcast episode and you will have show notes.

If somebody wants to read the podcast transcript instead, instead of listen to it, they can do that. And that creates another SEO opportunity because now if you post it on your website, then Google is able to search the entire text of the episode. So that is a really awesome opportunity. And then from there you can tweak it.

You can modify it, and you’ve got a blog post, or two blog posts. And then from there you can repurpose it. Maybe you use that for a video script or you use that for several social media posts. And especially with ChatGPT, it’s really easy to repurpose content and you can do it pretty quickly. So definitely transcribe your episodes.

Note: When I first recorded this episode, I recommended using Otter.ai, but I’ve since used Descript and love it. It’s much faster, and it replaces multiple pieces of software since you can use it for audio recording, audio editing, and audio transcription.

Leveraging Email Marketing to Promote Your Podcast

And then email marketing. So you could actually rep, one of the ways you could repurpose your content is to create an epic email that really provides a lot of value for your listeners.

But you could also, you know, promote your podcast to your email list. Say, hey, Another episode, go and listen to it more like incentive for them to go to your website instead of just like, oh, you visited my website. You’re already on my email list. There’s no reason for you to go back to my website. It allows you to create value.

So if people are already on your email marketing list, if they’re then listening to your podcast, which is much more intimate, you get to hear that person’s voice and their inflection and their intonation that helps nurture your relationships with them and you know, build more credibility. You know, and you could also even have a private podcast.

That’s something that I’ve seen a lot of coaches start to do. I talked about Mai-kee Tsang earlier in this episode, and Mai-kee is in the process of creating a private podcast that’s actually a paid podcast. So definitely something to consider if you’re like, “Ooh, we don’t like the idea of a free podcast because we have a pretty good lead generation, but we’d really love a low dollar offer that kind of gets people deeper in our world. We wanna provide a little bit more value in our podcast episodes.”

You can decide, you know, maybe you want a paid subscription model instead of a free model. If you’re looking at a paid podcast, Spotify for Podcasters may not be the best solution for you. I think Hello Audio might be a better option. I know a lot of course creators use Hello Audio for private podcasts or podcast versions of their courses and things.

Note: Since first recording this episode, Spotify for Podcasters has integrated with Patreon and also offers the ability to create a podcast (or podcast episodes) that are part of a paid subscription. We haven’t tried this feature, but it’s worth exploring.

What We Covered in this Podcast Marketing 101 Episode

To recap, how do you launch it? How do you launch a podcast, right? We talked about building your podcast foundation.

You want to select a topic and a niche, something that’s gonna really align with your expertise and your target audience’s interests. We talked about if you’re a business owner, how do you kind of identify what that might be? I also talked extensively about choosing your title, your podcast title, and I talked about poetic devices that you can use.

Yes. You got to see my grammar nerd, my English nerd writing nerd kind of come out there. And establishing your brand identity. We have a blog post that covers the soup to nuts. And honestly, I could go in so much more depth into that if we were just talking about building a brand identity for your business.

Once you have your brand identity defined, you want to create compelling podcast artwork. So it should have a similar look and feel to your brand so that people can connect the two. You do want it to have a similar vibe and ideally some of the same colors, fonts, and image styles.

Format, length and equipment. So that’s the next thing that you wanna focus on. So decide on your podcast format. For us. It is a mix of interviews and solo episodes. We talked about pros and cons and you wanna decide on your length of episodes. It’s okay to have a range. We talked about that, but you don’t want it to be super unpredictable.

We talked about recommendations for selecting, recording and editing equipment. And, you know, depending on your budget you can always come here, rent our space. Book a tour and let us know you’re interested in learning more about our podcast studio. Just drop us a line. We would love to talk to you.

Then recording and editing your podcast. We talked about tips for recording high quality audio and editing your audio. We also covered how to submit your podcast to podcast directories. We talked a little bit about crafting an engaging episode description and tips to optimize your podcast’s visibility.

And then the last thing that we covered was how to leverage your podcast as a lead magnet and how to promote your podcast. So we talked about email marketing, we talked about, you know, repurposing the content of your episode. We talked about transcribing those episodes. We talked a little bit about social media.

So if you are a business owner, if you’re an entrepreneur, start a podcast. And you know, even if it’s not something you can commit to forever, ever and ever in eternity, it is still really valuable content that you will then have out in the world. And that’s invaluable. It’s invaluable to have created content that you can repurpose and reuse and change its function and how you use it.

We also have ongoing Podcasting 101 workshops. It covers a lot of this content, but we also teach you how to use our specific equipment. Go to our Events Page and you’ll see our upcoming workshops. And just thanks for tuning in and listening. Please subscribe, leave reviews, share this podcast. We just really want everyone to thrive, do good work and thrive.

And part of that, if you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur, is having smarter strategies for lead gen and. Having a podcast as far as your own content that you own, that you can repurpose, that you can reuse it is probably the smartest thing you can do. Alright, that’s it for this episode. See you next time on Uplevel University.