How to make your podcast stand out in 2021

Even if there are 800,000 podcasts it’s not too late to start one. But how do you stand out and find your superfan listeners?

Many podcasters simply hit record and start talking. Leaving them to work things out as they go. This is one approach but we want to take the guesswork out of starting your podcast, right?

To stand out there are two typical approaches:

A) Make more of the same podcast episodes
B) Make a podcast brand

Option A can work, but it takes longer to build that listenership and find your superfans. More importantly, for this approach to pay off, your either have to:

• Record and publish a heap of podcast episodes over time and hope listeners find you and talk about you.
• Have an existing branded presence that you (and/or your co-host) have to promote your show to an existing audience from launch day.

On the other hand, by taking the Option B approach, you’re developing a podcast brand. What this means is that, with or without an existing audience, you’re establishing a new or an extension of your existing brand specifically for your podcast.

Going with Option B, if you put out the same number of episodes as Option A, the differentiator here is that you’re creating a brand your listeners can connect with. This creates more opportunities for listeners to discover your podcast, but also to become superfans in a shorter period of time.

But how do make a podcast brand that stands out?

Creating your podcast brand is no different to developing a brand identity for your business. So we essentially want to follow many of the same steps and requirements for developing a brand that is made for your listeners AND is reflective of who you are and the topic of discussion in your podcast.

As a handy checklist, does your podcast have:

1. A clear understanding of why your podcast exists, who it’s for and a plan for how each episode is going to help, entertain, enlighten, educate or inspire your listeners.
   Listen to my podcast episode that talks about establishing your podcast purpose here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3XcDSRFboQlkg5XOD3uM54?si=6W0WXlnJQxmU2ShTUCTSZA
2. A tone of voice that matches your personality and is appropriate to the area of interest that you are talking about eg. if it’s a powerful and motivational podcast, your voice should match that intensity. Most of all you want your voice (the energy you deliver, not how you sound as I know we all hate the sound of our own voice) to be a presence your listeners can relate to and be happy to listen to.
3. A social media presence your listeners to connect with you from and share your podcast. This gives listeners the opportunity to thank you, give you feedback and ask questions. All of which builds trust and gives you a greater chance of listeners becoming superfans. But most importantly a social presence allows listeners to share your podcast with their audience, in addition to giving you a platform(s) that allows you to create content that is not only appropriate to the platform. But the content you make will typically be more easily consumable highlights taken from your episodes — or original content based on your individual episodes or podcast as a whole. Giving you multiple ways to market your podcast and have your listeners become a more engaged audience.
4. Cover art that is legible (people can read the title of your show and identify your imagery) and eye-catching, but also easy to recognise by your existing audience.
5. A visual identity to create consistency in your branded presence. Plain and simple, you want to have your social media, website and podcast cover art to all have the same look for listeners to recognise you visually. (eg, colours, fonts, logos, imagery).
6. An audible presence. Which includes verbal, music and sound cues to be easily recognised by your listeners in that manner. The most common use of audio for your podcast will be your opening titles that can be additionally carried through to your social media content.
7. A video presence which connects you with your listeners more personally. Seeing your face and having it communicate with them directly can immediately boost trust in the eyes of your audience. This can be done by recording your podcast with video as well as audio, to publish that on a platform like YouTube or cut downs of the video on social media. Additionally, showing up on video in your social media, like Instagram Stories, can also achieve the same result.
8. Reviews from superfan listeners who have found value in what you have given them as a result of listening to your show. Either shown on your website, on Apple Podcasts or on your social platforms.
9. Have guests feature in your podcast episodes OR be a guest on other people’s podcasts. This is an opportunity for others to talk about you and your podcast, by sharing who you are, what you know and your show, with their audience.

The result of this effort:

• A positive gut feeling your audience have when they see your new episode in their feed — meaning each episode is a podcast episode they look forward to listening to (or watching).
• Credibility and that audiences perceive for you to be seen as the trusted and go-to authority of your topic of conversation.
• Superfans who talk about and advocate for your podcast to others.
• Listeners who trust you enough to then buy from you, request your services or at minimum, follow you on other social platforms or sign up to your newsletter.
• Connections that build relationships over time to connect with your audience and meet new people. Be it for business, those like you (eg. if you’re a personal trainer and you meet fellow personal trainers) or friends over time. You may even invite them on your podcast or be a guest on theirs!

So in 2021, standing out online, especially with a podcast, can be a challenge. That is if you’re comparing yourself to all 800,000+ podcasts. Instead, let’s focus more on our listeners, rather than on being the highest-ranked podcast in our country or niche.

Frank is a brand identity designer, podcaster and host of Brand My Podcast, a podcast show AND service to help podcasters start their podcast and build their podcast brand.

For info about how to start and brand your podcast with confidence, to make podcasting as easy as pressing record, visit: brandmypodcast.com

Or follow Frank on:
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