It’s Not As Difficult As You Think To Produce a Professional Podcast
Creating useful content for your audience is your number one job when it comes to creating your content marketing strategy. A simple way to create more content is to start a podcast.
A podcast allows you to connect with your audience differently than if you have only a text-driven blog. You can speak to them more directly and show your personality better, and you can connect with them longer and wherever they are. Your audience can listen to your podcast from anywhere at any time. They could listen whilst traveling to or from work, while exercising, driving in the car, or any number of other locations. You can be with them on a regular basis as they live their lives.
When you produce a professional podcast it’s a great way to create more effective content for your audience, create a new income stream, and sell more of your own products and services.
FREE Checklist: Podcasting For Beginners
6 Key Elements To Produce a Professional Podcast
1. A Good Mic
The best mic for professional podcast production will be one connected via USB and not cordless, as the latter will mess with the quality of sound. You’ll want to get a good quality USB directional mic. This type of mic captures sound in front of it and not around it and will help cancel out some of the sounds that can mess up the recording.
Purchase a mic that has noise canceling features, and that is the best quality you can afford. You can pay a lot of money for a good mic, but you don’t have to. Listen to some podcasts that you enjoy the sound of and find out what they use. A lot of podcasters often share their set-up too.
2. A Decent Laptop or Personal Computer
You don’t need a gaming computer to record or edit a podcast. At a basic level, you can use a smartphone to record it on. Applications like Google Play Music, Pocket Casts, Ipadio and AudioBoom record audio directly from your smartphone. You can then upload it to the internet. However, a faster computer will make it easier. Just get a good laptop or personal computer that works with the editing software that you’ve chosen. You don’t have to break the bank these days on computers that are perfect for podcasting.
3. A Quiet Place
Even with a noise-canceling directional USB mic, you still need a room that has good sound quality and is quiet. There are people who record their podcast from a closet to avoid street sounds and family sounds. It’s important that you find the right location. Try different locations and record a few minutes of tests to find out the best space.
4. Good Editing Software
To produce a professional podcast you’ll also need some editing software. This is as easy as using a service like Audacity or Audio Acrobat. This software is easy to use and allows you to record your podcast and you can remove certain parts of the podcast or play around with it a little until you’re happy with the end result. You’ll want to take out mistakes, add in sponsorships, breaks, marketing, and a professional intro and outro. This is going to make a huge difference in how professional your podcast comes across to your audience.
5. Choose an Effective Topic
It’s important to understand your motivations for wanting a podcast. You also need to know what subject your audience will like that is also relevant and helpful to them, as well as be passionate enough about it to come up with a show a week year after year. The fact is, reading blogs can sometimes get boring. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still have a blog, but adding another format for the content is important. When you produce a professional podcast, customers and audience can take you with them wherever they go, simply by downloading your show or connecting with it on iTunes.
6. Get Accepted to iTunes
The best way to ensure success today is to get your show on iTunes. This means that you need to produce it yourself using the right format and software. There are many helpful articles on iTunes that can teach you how to ensure that your podcast will be accepted to iTunes. Once you get on iTunes, you’ll be able to build a strong audience.
Remember that you don’t have to buy the highest end products possible. You can produce a professional podcast without doing that. Look at the ratings on the products and editing software, and then decide. Ask other podcasters what they use. Consider hiring a podcast production workshop to create your intro and outro as well as the artwork to market your show with. These will all help towards success.
Free Checklist: How To Produce a Professional Podcast
The number of your competitor businesses that use podcasts is most likely very low and they probably have no idea how to create one. When you take the time to produce a professional podcast, you can expand your brand, build connections to your audience, and have a new way to present content to your audience that will stick with them for the long term. You’ll build fans for life that want what you offer and trust you too.
But to accomplish this, your podcast needs to be as professional as possible and sound as amazing as possible, with a topic that your audience relates to and causes them to act. Download my free checklist, Podcasting Tips for Beginners for more information on how to make a professional podcast, become an authority in your niche and build your business and profits.