Podcasting has become firmly established as a marketing channel.

There are millions of podcasts out there, businesses are using them to demonstrate expertise, build relationships and raise their profile, and video platforms such as YouTube have opened up the format to an even wider audience.

So, should your business start a podcast?

Not necessarily.

And that was one of the most useful messages to come out of a recent CIM member webinar, The Power of Podcasting – What Every Marketer Needs to Know, delivered by James Burtt, founder of podcast content agency Phonic Content.

Because, just like any other marketing activity, the question shouldn't be “Should we start a podcast?”.  It should be

“What do we want it to achieve?”

Don't create content for the sake of creating content

This is something I talk about regularly at Marketing Doris.

There is a tendency in marketing to jump straight to the activity.

“We need to be on LinkedIn.”

“We should start a newsletter.”

“Everyone's doing video.”

“Maybe we need a podcast?”

But the channel should come after the objective, audience and strategy.

Burtt's advice was very similar; before you record a single episode, establish what success actually looks like for the business.

Is the podcast there to:

• Build brand awareness?
• Demonstrate expertise?
• Generate leads?
• Develop relationships with potential clients?
• Create a point of difference?
• Support business development?
• Build a community?
• Give your people a platform to share their knowledge?

Those objectives will influence everything else, from the format and content to the guests you invite and the way you promote it.

You don't need millions of listeners

One of the things I particularly liked about the webinar was the challenge to the obsession with big numbers.

A podcast doesn't necessarily need a huge audience to be successful.

Imagine you sell a highly specialist B2B service and there are only 100 businesses in the UK that could realistically become your customers.

Would you rather have 50,000 listeners who have absolutely no interest in your service, or 500 listeners who include decision-makers from those 100 target businesses?

I'll take the 500.

A niche, engaged audience can be far more commercially valuable than a large but irrelevant one.

Podcasting can be particularly powerful for specialist businesses because it gives you the opportunity to have longer, more meaningful conversations around subjects your audience actually cares about.

And unlike a social media post that disappears down the feed within hours, a good podcast episode can continue to be discovered and listened to long after publication.

Your podcast doesn't have to be two people talking for an hour

If the thought of sitting opposite someone for 60 minutes and having a “deep and meaningful conversation” fills you with dread, don't panic.

There isn't one prescribed podcast format.

You could use:

• Interviews – bringing in customers, industry experts, partners or people with an interesting perspective.
• Solo episodes – ideal for sharing your own expertise and building personal or organisational authority.
• Round tables – useful for exploring different viewpoints and showcasing several people within your business.
• Q&A episodes – answering the questions your customers are already asking.
• Live recordings – turning events, discussions or presentations into additional content.
• Internal podcasts – an interesting option for larger or remote teams wanting to share information and engage employees.

The format should support the objective.

Not the other way around.

Choose your guests for the right reasons

There's another podcast trap, believing you need a big-name guest.

You don't.

In fact, a well-known person with a huge following isn't automatically going to help your podcast.

What matters is relevance and engagement.

Someone with 2,000 highly engaged LinkedIn followers in exactly the sector you want to reach could potentially deliver much more value than someone with a million followers who has no connection with your target audience.

Think about who your audience would genuinely want to hear from.

And think strategically about what relationships the podcast could help you build.

A podcast can be much more than a content channel. It can become a networking and business development tool.

Consistency is more important than enthusiasm

Here's the slightly less exciting bit.

You need to be consistent.

Burtt recommends publishing weekly where possible, with fortnightly being the minimum frequency he would suggest for most organisations.

If that sounds like a lot, there's a practical solution - batch recording.

Instead of recording, editing and publishing one episode at a time, record several episodes in advance.

You could create a six or eight episode season, release one episode every week and then take a planned break before starting the next season.

Much easier to manage.

And much better than launching enthusiastically with three episodes before life gets in the way and your audience never hears from you again.

Don't forget the launch

Another mistake is assuming that launching a podcast simply means uploading episode one.

It doesn't.

You need to market the podcast.

The webinar recommended around two weeks of promotion before launch, building anticipation and gradually moving people from “I've heard about this” to “I want to listen to this”.

Then, rather than launching with one episode and hoping people find it, the suggested approach is to launch with three:

• A short introductory episode explaining who you are, what the podcast is about and who it's for.
• A full-length episode.
• Another full-length episode.

The thinking is simple.

If someone discovers your podcast, you've immediately given them more than one piece of content to explore.

So, should your business start a podcast?

Maybe.

But don't start one because someone told you podcasts are “the next big thing”.

Start one if you can clearly explain:

• Who is it for?
• Why would they listen?
• What will it give them?
• What will it achieve for your business?
• Can you commit to producing it consistently?

And perhaps most importantly - Is a podcast actually the best marketing channel for what you're trying to achieve?

Because podcasting isn't a magic marketing wand.

It's a tool.

And, as with every marketing tool, it's only effective when you use it for the right job.

At Marketing Doris, that's one of the first things we look at when helping businesses with their marketing; what are you actually trying to achieve, who are you trying to reach, and which marketing activities are most likely to get you there?

Sometimes the answer will be a podcast.

Sometimes it will be something much simpler.

And sometimes the best marketing decision you can make is deciding not to do something just because everyone else is.

That's marketing strategy.

Not just marketing activity.