Six essentials for successful podcasting

Last year, around 18.5 million people in the U.S. listened to a podcast. This figure is predicted to rise significantly over the next few years as the iPod and various other portable devices continue to infiltrate daily routines. What can you do to ensure a top-class podcast production?

by Helen Leggatt

By 2012 the U.S. podcasting audience will have ballooned to 65 million, according to eMarketer. The ever increasing range and affordability of portable devices is driving podcast audience growth and creating loyal audiences.

Those loyal audiences are open to relevant advertising. A study earlier this year by Podtrac found unaided ad recall among podcast listeners far higher (68%) than among streaming video (21%), mobile (20%) and TV (10%).

“As the U.S. podcasting industry matures it is unquestionably creating a listening audience,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of “Podcast Audience: Seeking Riches in Niches”. “And along with a larger audience comes increases in advertising spending tied to podcasts.”

To keep audiences listening make sure the following essential elements are considered before your next podcast:

1. Be professional.

Producing a podcast isn’t an expensive activity and can often be done in-house. However, it is essential to find the right voice, equipment and environment. No-one wants to listen to a presenter mumbling into a microphone that sounds like it’s been set up in an under-stairs cupboard.

2. Keep conversational.

Without imagery to give your podcasts color, conversations need to be lively and entertaining. Most podcast listeners are multi-tasking and boring rambles can easily become background noise.

3. Introduce structure.

Like a story, podcasts work best when they have structure. By using notes and an outline timing of the production you can give the podcast a beginning, middle and an end and keep listeners engaged from start to finish.

4. Edit, edit, edit.

No matter how natural you want a podcast to sound, the audience doesn’t want to hear every single ‘umm’ and ‘err’. In line with professionalism, edit out any unnecessary pauses, sounds and mutterings.

5. Be consistent.

Plan a podcasting schedule, and stick to it. Individual podcasts should be planned in advance to ensure a continual flow of content and to ensure they can be delivered on time.

6. Further reading.

Provide a link to a transcript of the podcast. Many listeners may not be in a position, at the time of listening, to take notes or record valuable snippets of information. Make it easy for them by providing an audio file or text transcript they can refer to at a later date.