So You Want to Start a Podcast? Part 4
A four-part series to guide you through the basics of podcasting in 2021, with some tips you may not have read elsewhere.
Part 4 — Podcast Structure:
In Part 3 of this series, I talked about the episode structure of your podcast. One example I gave was to think of your episode structure in terms of a TV news show — they are always organized in easily identifiable chunks.
Now, in keeping with the television analogy, there is an additional layer of structure you need to plan for your podcast, at a macro level: the overall podcast structure. In other words, you can think of your podcast as if it is a type of television program, picking the type (or types) that works for you.
This analogy and subsequent tips evolved from a conversation I had with James Bishop from One Fine Play during our chat on my Brand My Podcast show (episodes 15 & 16). James and I both come from a television production background, so his view on how to look at podcasting in this way made a lot of sense.
I think it will be a game-changer for your expectations of starting and producing your podcast.
Looking at the well-known names in podcasting (like Joe Rogan) can be daunting because those creators have episode counts in the hundreds, even thousands. It can cause you to doubt your ability to do “what it takes” to create a successful podcast.
What can really help is to think of those podcasters like news programs — evergreen shows that are there all the time, for years.
Think of your podcast as a television series.
YOUR podcast can be an episodic, seasonal show with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Most television shows don’t operate like the news!
The vast majority of TV shows have a finite run of planned content, and then a break. And most TV shows run for a few seasons and then either morph into spin-offs or have a well-planned series finale.
This great analogy by James helps deal with the “podcast overwhelm” pain point and also sheds light on the reality check many of us need when starting a podcast.
TIP ONE: Create daily or weekly episodes, otherwise don’t bother.
Think of your favourite show on TV or streaming service. It could even be the radio show you listen to on the way to work or your favourite content creator on YouTube. You don’t wait weeks or months for their latest bit of content. You check-in for their consistent daily or weekly (or a few times a week) content.
Podcasts are a type of media that run at the same length as lots of other media. Those other media formats out there are distributed consistently (TV, radio, video, etc…) and us podcast creators also need to be consistent with our offering. Otherwise, our audience will most likely tune out and forget about our show.
TIP TWO: Create seasons to maintain consistency and to refresh your motivation.
The thought of creating a weekly (or daily) podcast infinitely is daunting for anyone, especially for a beginner podcaster. Especially if you’ve just completed your first 5–10 episodes and the honeymoon period is coming to a close.
But “consistency” doesn’t mean “forever, without end.”
So going with the television analogy again, think about creating seasons for your podcast. Every show we love is produced in seasons: Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, David Attenborough documentaries, even soap operas. The seasons don’t even have to be predictable! (Look at how long Netflix waits between some of their seasons.)
The seasonal structure of your podcast is also really easy to implement. As every distribution platform lets you indicate a season, as well as episode numbers, for your podcast.
Here’s why…
There are some great reasons for thinking of your podcast as a seasonal show with consistent episode releases, aside from budget.
Your audience will stick around.
Your audience is more likely to stay invested when they know how long they’ll be paying attention, regardless of whether it’s a 22 episode season or eight.
For example, Game of Thrones ran with mostly 10-episode seasons (the last two seasons were even shorter). But viewers were happy to watch the whole season and then wait with bated breath to enjoy the next season. A “season” doesn’t need to have 100 episodes to be effective or successful! Even if you’re looking to monetise via sponsorships.
Seasonal arcs (or themes) become possible.
Seasons let you produce a clear story arc or seasonal theme that leads to an intentional outcome/climax. This not only benefits the overall quality of the podcast, but can also contribute to the planning of individual episodes because it suggests specific content you might need to support the seasonal arc.
Seasonal arcs allow you to:
- Promote a product or service you’re launching
- Educate your audience on a key subject matter
- Develop a series of conversations with people in a shared industry
Your podcast will benefit from pre-production and promotion.
Finally, a seasonal schedule will produce a much better podcast. Plain and simple, you have a finite end goal that allows you to:
- Plan out your (limited) run of episodes
- Develop valuable content ahead of time
- Record and edit each of your episodes with great attention to detail
- Have it all (or mostly) produced before you launch
A seasonal production schedule also means you get to do an epic re-launch of your podcast every season, complete with a lengthy lead up including promotions and teasers — just like you see on TV with ad after ad for a new show coming soon…in like 8 weeks.
Finally, a seasonal production schedule gives you the ability to easily create supplemental content for your podcast as each episode airs. Because you have already done a lot of the “heavy lifting” of content creation and distribution before an episode ever airs. Thus, you’ll have more resources to direct toward watching your numbers and media channels, seeing what slaps, and adding more fuel to that fire, baby!
Final Thoughts
Starting a podcast is a great way to connect with a specific group of people, make connections in a field you love, or pick the brains of industry experts. Whatever your reasons for starting a podcast, I hope this series has convinced you that you can (and should!) give it a go.
Further, I hope this series has given you some confidence and helpful tips so the process of producing a podcast seems less overwhelming and more like something YOU could do.
There are plenty of things to think about after you’ve got your podcast up and running and most of them are for another article series. But I do want to mention one final thing that every podcaster should be thinking about from day one: measuring success.
One of the best ways to strategically improve your podcast is to pay attention to what’s working and use that to inform decisions. Rather than “going with your gut” or blindly casting about for ways to improve, use actual data to guide your development as a podcast producer.
There are tons of ways to measure your podcast:
- Number of downloads
- Return listeners
- Listener demographics
- Asking for feedback
- Creating interactive feedback
- Variations in feedback or download data
Each of these metrics can be helpful to guide your podcast’s growth. Paying attention to them can help you make well-informed decisions that will save you time, money, and provide you with a ton of good info for continuing to improve your podcast.
And you don’t have to pay attention to all of it, either, especially not at first. If all that looks overwhelming, just focus on one or two data points that make the most sense. For beginning podcasters, that’s usually listener feedback and the number of downloads.
Hopefully this series is useful to all you potential podcasters out there. Shoot me a message if you have questions or if there’s a part of this article you’d like me to go deeper on. I want your feedback!
-Frank
PS: I wrote this article with a wonderful content writer named Rachel H. If you’re in the market for long-form writing (like articles or newsletters or whatnot), she’s the gal to talk to and you can find Rachel here.
PPS: This article is part of a series. Here are links to the rest of them:
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
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