Guide to Start Podcasting for Your Small Business

Assess your business needs. Is podcasting right for you?

Just because it is the trend and anybody can start it on a shoestring doesn't mean it is for every business. Although podcasting could fit into many business and marketing applications, you still want to be careful to assess your resources and needs so you don't end up wasting your time. A podcast can help your business to: 1. Build relationship and trust with the audience. 2. Establish yourself as an authority in your niche. 3. Build your brand by keeping your name in front of the listeners. 4. Capture sales leads by having listeners respond to your offer. 5. Generate revenue from advertising or product sales.

I recommend: Read blogs, books, and any resource you can about podcasting. Brainstorm different ways a podcast can do for your business. Listen to podcasts in your niche and grab more ideas. Podcasting Scout has information about using podcasting as a marketing and publishing tool. Podcasting News features updated news on different podcast launch.

Do a competitive analysis.

Understand what your competitors are doing. If they are podcasting, listen to some, if not all of their podcast shows.

I recommend: Learn how to use a podcatching software. Try iTunes. If you have been using iTunes to manage and play multimedia files, you are ready to go. Since version 4.9, iTunes has built-in support for podcasting. Alternatively, use Google to find podcasts of your interest, or start in podcast directories like Odeo. Jot down how you found the podcast, how frequently each podcast aired, what you liked and how you could do better. Also notice the personality, duration, advertising or promotion during each podcast.

Define your objectives and goals.

Podcast is not the right medium to hard sell your listeners. They expect to listen to something interesting or valuable. For this reason, although you can absolutely make money podcasting, it is usually not through pitching products directly. You can do it but not all over the podcast. On the other hand, a podcast is considered a safe ground for listeners to get information. You can establish yourself as an authority. You can also educate them about common problems they are facing and how your product or service could be the perfect solution for them. To launch a podcast, you need to define specific goals you want it to do for your business.

I recommend: Although podcasting is useful for many marketing purposes, focusing on at most two goals at the time help achieve them faster. Get ideas on what you want podcasting do to help your business. Read on to get ideas on practical podcasting applications. If you are serious, buy and read some business podcasting books.

Still think it is for you? Start getting some content ideas.

Create strategy for your podcast content, a few shows ahead. The best way to start is by brainstorming about topics that are of interest to your audience. If you know your market well -- which is very likely, define their problems, one at a time, and talk about the solutions. Problems and solutions make great podcast because people are always interested to listen to something that could set them free or improve their life. Alternative content ideas include interviewing other experts, opinion around current events or news, informational pieces -- perhaps repurposed from an article, actionable tips, etc.

I recommend: You are the one who know your market best. Just take some time to come up with some ideas for content. Now is also a great time to create an outline of how your podcast format should be.

For example, you could have 2 minutes quick overview of what is currently happening in your business or around the industry, 5 minutes of information, another 5 minutes of question and answer session and finally 2-5 minutes of anything else. That would be 12-18 minutes of compact and content-laden podcast. Optionally, add an 15-second intro and outro.

Again, fire up your favorite podcatcher and listen to some podcasts to get you going.

Recording and readying your podcast.

Follow the outline while recording your podcast so you can be sure you cover all the topics you intend to and stay on track. Optionally, edit and mix your podcast, add intro and outro as appropriate. Finally, encode the recording into MP3 file or any other intended format. Pay attention to file size versus quality. The bigger the size, usually the better the quality.

I recommend: Start with an inexpensive microphone and equipment. You can upgrade as you progress and feel comfortable with the process. You can also begin with a portable recorder but do pay attention to the quality.

Scripted podcast is acceptable but not recommended, especially if the duration of your podcast is long. People get boring too soon.

Audacity is a free, multi-platform audio editor and recorder. Adobe Audition is an advanced audio editor and recorder for Windows. If you are on an Apple platform, use Garageband. Basically, any audio recorder software will do.

Publish your podcast.

Publishing a podcast involves making the files available for download publicly. Uploading it to the web server you use for your business website is fine. Next is to create a podcast feed that refer to the podcast above in an enclosure.

I recommend: Upload the podcast to your web host. Find web host provider which provides ample of bandwidth transfer and disk space. Many hosting services now start providing podcast hosting package.

The best way to publish podcast feed is by using blog software. Not only does it generates the podcast RSS feed automatically for you, but it also allows you to publish your podcast show notes instantly on the Web.

The benefits are two-fold. You can publish your podcast as easy as using email software, while at the same time take advantage of the benefits of blog platform. For example, pinging blog search engines lets your podcast be found in many different ways. The podcast pages are also immediately archived and accessible through the web and for search engines to crawl and index.

Promote your podcast.

Remember that referring people to a podcast is better than pitching them directly. You are preparing them to be your customer by establishing a perfect environment for selling.

I recommend: Like a product, podcast also needs promotion. Mention it at another networking event. Put an easy-to-find link on your website. Submit to podcast directories. Edit your email signature to include your podcast.