How to Create Your Own Business Podcasts

What are business podcasts?

A business podcast is the act of putting your voice out there. You host business podcasts if you want to promote products and services and improve marketing customer relationship management (marketing CRM).

Podcasts are not hard selling though. Think Ted Talks or Kim Komando, for instance. They always have interesting topics that draw in a large audience. You sell by inspiration rather than force-feeding your target audience a commercial announcement. It's more fun too.

Business podcasts to inspire you

For a large or small business podcast to inspire you, it doesn’t have to be just about the topic of “business.” Specific podcasts about a product or service niche can also spark ingenuity within you.

The right podcast for business also can give you a self-esteem boost and provide you productivity tips. Moreover, they will give you examples of using creativity to improve marketing CRM.

1. All In a Day’s Work

Think of the All in a Day’s Work podcast as the good, bad and painful of operating a business. This content will help you on those days when you feel like throwing in the towel.

Topics covered include how to help and inspire your employees and how to make it past the startup days. Dealing with financial issues and having to share coworker office space are additional topics covered in this example podcast.

2. Ted Talks (the “motivation” category)

Since we mentioned Ted Talks, it seems fitting to include them as one of a list of inspiring podcasts. They cover a vast assortment of topics, including the ones in the “motivation" category.

The “motivation” category will help you achieve a work-life balance that can prevent burnout. For instance, you might want to give the “Why Having Fun is the Secret to a Healthier Life” a listen. It speaks of having fun as more than just “enjoyable.” Fun is a necessity, according to Catherine Price.

How to Be Your Own Advocate would also motivate you. It’s probably an excellent one for when you feel down and like no one is on your side. If you don’t believe in yourself, what does it matter if anyone else believes in you?

3. Kim Komando (example of branding and for productivity)

One of the best examples of branding for a podcast is the Kim Komando Show. Most of the episodes depict casual conversations between callers about tech issues.

She provides recommendations based on her experience of the best technology. Some of it’s for personal use, but it's also for small businesses.

Some of Kim’s recommendations also inspire businesses of any size to improve their productivity with the right technology gadgets. Kim also speaks of cyber security quite a bit, which you could also incorporate into your podcasts.

4. James Altucher Show

It’s not just his podcasts. James' email messages can sometimes provoke you to feel feelings you didn’t expect to feel – good or bad – about entrepreneurship. He covers a broad range of topics but admits his failures of financial loss and relates to people who want to reinvent themselves.

It’s not just personal business topics either. He sometimes covers global news, such as Wall Street and whether or not the U.S. will win the war against China. When he does get personal though, he really gets personal.

For instance, he has an “Adulting 101” episode. It covers subtopics such as setting boundaries and ranting about what life skills high school teachers should teach.

5. Shark Tank-Inspired Podcasts

If you’re of the inventor persuasion in the business world, you may enjoy one of many shark tank-inspired podcasts out there. For instance, Inc.com mentions The Pitch, Startup and the Twenty Minute VC.

You, of course, can just watch episodes of Shark Tank if you want too. These shows will take you from talking about your craft into action. In addition, they can help you decide if your idea is feasible and if it will make a profit or not.

Find your own inspiration

You’re not limited to the above shows by any means for inspiring examples of creating podcasts. There’s more online shows out there than you could ever listen to in a lifetime, and rarely are they so awful that you can’t learn from them.

Perhaps exploring other podcasts will inspire you in ways that we haven’t thought of. You don't want to copy them. However, you can use ideas from them to trigger the messages you want to send to your own podcast audience.

Why should your business have a podcast?

1. To establish your brand identity without “hard selling”

When you have fun with your brand or offer your audience interesting news, your products and services sell themselves. You don’t have to hound them with long winded speeches about why they should buy your product or service.

Instead, you'd insert yours or another company's brands naturally into your audio and/or video content. It’s much less work this way – easier than “hard selling”, which pushes people away.

2. To help your Target Audience remember you

Nothing improves brand retention like repetition. Think of all the shows you’ve listened to or watched in the past. Was there a catch phrase that still comes to mind? If so, creating your own catch phrase, slogan or tagline that you repeat in each episode will cause your audience to remember you.

3. For improving SEO and driving website visitors to you

When you create a show that reaches your audience, you don’t have to try that hard. You will become more popular without coming across as “cheesy” or irrelevant. Perhaps go to YouTube, Soundcloud, Mailchimp or another podcast host and listen to a few in your niche.

You’ll get an idea of what will attract your listeners and viewers to your website pages. Hint: If you feel like you’re forcing it, that’s a sign that you’re producing your podcast for you and not them. They will see right through you.

However, if you know what kind of content will draw them to you, that’s when you’ll make a difference. That’s when the hits will increase on your social media pages too, by the way, not just your web pages.

4. For boost potential sales audience reach

When your podcast becomes more popular, that improves the possibility of increased call-to-action clicks. Of course, quality is better than quantity. Make sure you set up a way to track the incoming clicks to make sure you’re reaching the right people.

5. To announce new products or services

There’s few ways of announcing new products or services other than having your own podcast. It doesn’t have to be the primary focus of the show. However, you can’t help but foster enthusiasm in your episodes when you feel excited about what you have to offer to your audience.

6. To establish your unique voice

This pertains to any business person to establish your unique voice and tone, but it perhaps most relates to creative types. Authors, painters, musicians, singers and other performing and visual artists can create uniqueness. In the way they set themselves apart from everyone else, that in and of itself is branding. Producing a series of podcasts can help you develop your unique voice.

How to start your own business podcast

Think of what you’re most passionate about. Then, research ideas and incorporate some of your own. You will also choose a platform and decide on a length of time for each episode.

As soon as you have some idea of the direction your podcast should take, create a calendar. On it, you can post the episodes you plan to air. Your public calendar will also alert people of a specific day and time every week when and where they can expect to enjoy the next episode.

You’ll also want to create an editorial calendar. This is not the same as offering a public calendar to your listeners or viewers, by the way. An editorial calendar is one that contains a tentative schedule of when each podcast will occur in the sequence you want to host it.

On your editorial calendar, you can make note of trending topics that match up with your brand’s image. Along with that, you can mark down topic ideas to talk about on your show that you personally feel compelled to support.

It will take time to solidify your editorial calendar. However, when you do, you’ll start to develop a routine. At some point, your listeners and viewers will begin to count on you for information they need at different times of the year, such as during holiday seasons.

Promote your podcast across all platforms

Are you ready to promote your podcast for business? If so, you should promote it all across as many platforms as possible. If you’re not sure where to post it first, try Mailchimp’s Content Studio.