The Podcast Flywheel

2021 is going to be a crazy year.

Well 2020 already was, but right now marketers, entrepreneurs, and pretty much everyone else are figuring out how to execute all the ideas they came up with during quarantine.

And for a lot of folks out there trying to master a new media/lead gen/branding channel, starting a podcast is definitely on their radar.

But the podcast world is a blur for many.

Players and hosting services have a good amount of data, but it’s a bit far from what we’re used to with GA, Youtube, Ad Manager, and other marketing tools.

And that can be a problem.

Marketers think they’re flying blind and selling a podcast show to your boss can be challenging!

So while you are enjoying a Christmas rest — and squeezing a little reading in between — I wanted to share with you The Podcast Flywheel.

My goal here is simple: there are three main elements that make a podcast successful. Even if you don’t have all the data you wished for, you can still evaluate the impact of these 3 parts in your overall strategy.

Here they are:

• Content
• Frequency
• Promotion

Pretty straight forward, right? Now let’s dive in.

Content is king: Make it super high quality

If you want to have any chance in podcasting, you need super high quality content.

If you interview people, you need the best ones in the game — and need to ask the best questions. If you tell a story, you need to master script, tone, and storytelling. If you have a round table, you need the best topics, arguments, and guests.

And it goes without saying that high audio quality is a must. If anything, don’t sacrifice your audio just to have “some video screen recording to work with later”.

You can use a tool like Zencastr to ensure that your audio quality is high, and use Google Meet or Zoom to see each other!

To master content, keep these 3 things in mind:

1. Preparation is key

80% of all things successful are about preparation. 20% comes from the rest.

Make sure you are prepared to have the best quality podcast episode you can have.

Review and get feedback on your questions/script, send links in advance, have a backup plan for recording, plan the next steps after recording the show, get your team aligned and ready to go.

2. Avoid weak links

If you have one weak link on your show, most likely all the rest is ruined. For most podcasts is the audio quality — that makes it impossible to hear the guest properly (or even you) and the message/content suffers — but it can also be promotion, script, host, or something else.

It’s most likely that you are not going to have everything on a top-notch level from the get go, but make sure to do the best you can to avoid any weak links.

Instead of having one thing in the state-of-the-art level and the rest average, align everything to be on the same level.

3. Use the data you have to improve

Although we don’t have as much data as we wished for, there’s still plenty to work with!

Average listen time and retention come in hand to find the best episode length and structure for your show.

Plays and subscribers can be co-related with marketing campaigns and promotion efforts, and demographic info can help you tailor guests, promotion strategies, ad segmentation, and more.

Also, aim for optimization and improvement everywhere! Test titles on Spotify and see if you get more plays, change your show title/description and see if you get more subs.

Episode frequency = share of mind

Producing high quality podcast episodes is hard. It’s even harder to do it regularly and scale!

But frequency is the second part of the flywheel — and a key one.

One thing that radio, TV, and now social media algorithms have taught us is that frequency of posting/sharing/displaying is fundamental to building an audience, getting fans, and making content work.

It’s no different with podcasts.

Frequency keeps people coming back for more!

To keep your show going — up and beyond — consider these 3 things:

1. How many high quality episodes can you produce in a month?

This is going to be important to understand your ideal episode frequency. Bear in mind that the more the merrier here (you have podcasters like Nathan Latka posting EVERY DAY of the year) but I know that this is impossible to us common folks.

After understanding how many episodes you can produce in a month, create your content calendar.

Try to have at least one new episode per week. If that’s not possible, 2/month gets the job done in the beginning. But aim for more!

2. Have an episode backlog

The majority of blog posts about podcast launch will tell you to have at least 3 episodes recorded before launching your show.

The idea behind it is to have at least 2 hours of content within launch (40 min in average, hence 3 episodes). But most importantly is: how many episodes will you have left after you launch?

The idea here is to aim for those 2 hours, but also having at least 4 weeks of content ready to go.

So if you plan to post 1 new episode per week, with 30 min avg. length, you’ll need 8 episodes to start with.

I know it looks hard to have 8 episodes before even launching your show. But trust me, you’ll thank me later!

3. Create a system (and hire external help if needed)

I mentioned Nathan Latka earlier, and that reminded me of this spreadsheet that I really like:

Source: https://nathanlatka.com/podcast-launch-strategies-marketing-sponsor/

It’s a simple system that you can copy (or either recreate on Trello) to manage your show production effectively.

The message here is that you need a system. Whatever that system is, tailor it so you can make high quality episodes easier.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach here, but you can copy systems from article or video content production and adapt.

If needed (and you probably will need) hire external help. Audio editors are really valuable here!

Promotion is Queen: And she runs the show

If you have no time at all and need to focus on one thing to make your show successful, focus here: promotion.

Content marketing makes that clear. If you want your channel to grow you need to promote it like a pro. People need to see it, no matter the content type (video, article, podcast, whatever).

That’s especially important for top of the funnel content (like podcasts). Fill up that funnel and filter down your listeners to get more leads and customers.

So if you want to publish less shows so you can promote them better, go for it! Shorter episodes to have more time to promote them? Heck yeah!

Tailor your process and show structure so you can promote the hell out of it!

Let’s get in to that 3 step-thing again:

1. Test and find the best channels

You don’t need to be in and use all the channels available out there. Especially if you are flying solo.

So the most important thing is to test different channels. Run ads for a couple of weeks and see the results. Send email blasts and do the same thing. Write articles for each episode and see if you can gain some organic traffic.

The message is: test and measure before ruling out/choosing channels. When you find them, double down!

2. Use your network and guests

Asking things out of the blue can be annoying. But that’s why we have friends, right?

To give that first push to your show use your network of friends and colleagues to boost the first episodes. That is specially important if you’re creating a podcast for your brand/company.

Get those employees to share the show ASAP!

Other valuable sources of plays are your guests. Make sure to have in place a follow-up email with social media content and all the links necessary to make it easier for them to share the episode they’re in.

Hit the nail on the head one time and we are not forgetting about this again. 😛

3. Make your process scalable

Scalability is important.

After you learn the day to day routine of your show, find ways to make it scalable. Hire a few tools to help you automate email blasts and social media sharing. Find external help for editing and reaching out to guests.

Execution is important here. The results will appear as you mature the process, find gaps, apply learnings, and make your show BIGGER!

Final notes

So there you have it, The Podcast Flywheel.

Great content, published frequently, with state-of-the-art promotion is the key to success when it comes to podcasts!

I’d love to know your thoughts here and learn more about how you are growing your show! Let me know in the comments. ;)