How to Launch a Business Podcast That Builds Your Brand and Bottom Line
Executive Summary:
A business podcast isn’t just a marketing tool—it’s a platform for storytelling, authority-building, and customer connection. This guide walks you through launching a podcast that aligns with your brand and drives real business results.
This learning zone guide looks at:
- Defining Your Purpose and Audience
- Choosing a Format That Fits Your Brand
- Developing a Content Strategy
- Deciding how you’re going to record and distribute your podcast
- Launching the podcast with Impact
- Concluding remarks
Okay, let’s get started !
Step 1: Define Your Purpose and Audience
Clarify your podcast’s mission
Let’s start with two questions:
1 – What do you want to get out of your podcast?
If it’s a business podcast presumably you want to do something that might conceivably lead to increased sales.
But beware that just making a puff-piece that doesn’t give the person consuming the podcast anything of use to them is not necessarily going to make for a successful venture.
This leads us to question two…
2 – What value do you want the podcast to give the person listening / watching it?
Here are some ideas
- Education
- Inspiration
- Entertainment
Or maybe a mix of all three!
Identify your ideal listener—what do they care about, and how can you help?
To do this we could create what are called “personas”. These are just what we imagine our target audience to be.
The aim is to understand what our listeners care about, and then focus on how can you help them with your podcast.
Maybe for a family car-related podcast we might have three personas-
- Bill – retired – buyer of car – needs economy and reliability
- Susan – young professional – wants something with a bit of pizazz to cut a dash on a lease programme
- Adam – company fleet manager – cares about maintenance costs, and depreciation
So if we wanted to do a podcast about our range of cars, and we wanted to appeal to each persona above we’d be well advised to make sure our content made reference to points of interest to all of them.
Step 2: Choose a Format That Fits Your Brand
The great thing about podcasts is that they can take a multitude of different forms. All have their place. Let’s have a look at a few:
Interview-based
This is a great way to get insight from an expert on a subject. For instance, you could have a series of one to one interviews with industry experts or patients.
Solo Episodes
This is great for opinion pieces or giving your or a member of your team’s personal perspective on a subject that they are an expert on.
Panel Discussions
These are great when you have a burning issue to examine and want to get a lively exchange of ideas going! Also great if you want an event to take on another life as a podcast as you can easily repurpose content.
Narrative Storytelling
Radio, and by extension podcasting, is a wonderful medium for telling stories. If you want to get a casebook example on this, look no further than the BBC’s smash-hit podcast called “uncanny”. This has proven so successful that it’s become a hit TV show in its own right.
Keep it consistent and aligned with your brand tone.
Whatever you do, you need to keep in mind that it needs to ring true regarding your brand. If your brand’s prevailing tone of voice is cuddly and cosy, perhaps a hard-hitting investigation into heavy societal problems is a bit off-brand.
Step 3: Develop a Content Strategy
Plan episode themes that reflect your expertise and audience interests.
Once you’ve done the above you’ll be in a position to plan your series of podcasts. At this stage it might be a good idea to do some reverse engineering on successful podcasts.
Have a look, and see how the winners structure stuff. Then rip it off. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Create a content calendar with seasonal or campaign-based topics.
Creating a calendar based on company, industry or seasonal themes can be a winner.
DOWNLOAD – Here is a link to a Google Sheets Content Plan Template->
Step 4: Decide how you’re going to record and distribute your podcast
Choose Recording tools
You can really DIY a lot of podcast production as long as you’re prepared to put some time and effort into it.
Do a multi location interview using zoom or a tool called riverside and edit it together using an off the peg system like audacity or descript. For simple projects this may well be sufficient.
But if you haven’t got the time or inclination to do it yourself why not get a quality third party to record and edit the podcast for you.
Firms like ACrew4U have globally based local audio and video podcast production crew that use all the off the peg software where it’s most appropriate but also have professional training and equipment to give it a bit of sparkle and deliver a truly polished broadcast-quality product. Read more about ACrew4U’s podcast services here
Host your podcast on platforms like Buzzsprout, Libsyn, or YouTube.
There is no point in recording the podcast-of-the-decade if no one very gets to listen to or see it. That’s where platforms like Buzzsprout, Libsyn, or even good ole’ YouTube come in.
The former two allow you to upload your material and make it available to people on platforms like Spotify so it gets a good chance of people being able to find it.
YouTube might not spring to mind, but everyone can access it, it’s free and has great reach.
Step 5: Launch With Impact
Phew, we’ve recorded a cracking series of content and worked out where we sent to host it. Now we need to make sure it launches with a bang, not a whimper.
Release 3–5 episodes at once to hook listeners.
We’ve all seen the video streaming platforms do this. Tease the audience with enough material to binge on if they want.
Promote across email, social media, and your website.
Now you’ve made that podcast, it’s now time to make a fuss about it! Get your email newsletters, linked in, instagram and blog humming with the news of your great new series.
And make sure any mentions are shareable and have an easy to access direct link to your podcasts.
Ask for reviews and shares to build momentum.
Make a point of proactively asking people to review on and share links to your podcast, and thank them for it! People love getting involved, and it’s a great way to ensure your podcast gets the traction that it deserves!
Conclusion
So what are you waiting for ?! Get brainstorming, think about what you want your podcast to do for you and your audience. Understand your audience and what makes them tick.
Nail a format that makes the most sense for you, but make sure it’s on-brand and make sure to record it professionally.
Don’t overlook the importance of promoting and distributing it so people can find it and engage with your audience to spread the word.
With some hard work and clever planning, you can turn your podcast into a veritable brand asset.
Want to know more about podcasting or ACrew4U?
Want to learn more about Podcasting?
- How to Launch a Business Podcast That Builds Your Brand
- How to Script, Record, and Edit a Professional Business Podcast
- How to Grow Your Business Podcast Audience
- How to Monetize Your Business Podcast
- How to use your Business Podcast for Thought Leadership
Find even more resources at our Podcast Learning Zone
