If you’re not yet sold on the idea of incorporating podcasts into your content mix, consider the latest stats from Convince and Convert:

• 116 million Americans listen to podcasts monthly, up 14 percent in a year.
• 80 million Americans listen to podcasts weekly.
• Weekly podcast listeners consume an average of 8 podcasts a week.

Can you hear me now?

If you’ve heard the podcast calling, consider these five tips to ensure success.

 

• Get the Most Bang for Your Podcast Buck

 

A podcast is valuable content all in itself. But you can maximize your investment by squeezing even more out of each podcast:

• Offer show notes or a transcript as an upgrade in exchange for an email address.
• Create infographics from data provided in your podcasts to share via social media.

Conversely think of ways to repurpose content to create a podcast. If you’ve written an e-book that generated a lot of interest, interview the people you quoted.

 

• Be Relevant

 

It’s true that people increasingly are yearning for podcast content — but they’re only yearning for good, quality podcast content that is relevant to them.

Make sure your podcasts are relevant by:

• Monitoring discussions on social media and blogs to discover what your audience is interested in.
• Checking out out the competition and differentiating yourself from comparable podcasts.
• Providing real value in every episode you publish.
• Including links to other resources that help your listeners research the topic further.

 

• Focus on Personality, Not Perfection

 

Podcasts provide a prime opportunity to humanize and personalize your brand. Take full advantage of that opportunity by having fun and relaxing. Don’t worry about a perfect delivery.

Plan your content to keep it dynamic and focused, but don’t plan it so tightly that the podcast sounds unnatural. Write a broad outline, not a script.

And remember, if you aren’t passionate about the podcast or genuinely excited about it, it’s hard to fake it in audio.

 

• Don’t Forget to Promote

 

Don’t simply expect your podcasts to take off all on their own. You have to push traffic to your podcast series.

Consider how you’ll market the podcast series: on your website, iTunes, Google Play, or an on-demand radio station like Stitcher or SoundCloud.

You can also encourage email subscriptions for your podcast series.

 

• Plan for the Long Run

 

When it comes to creating podcasts, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Consistent publishing over time creates a sense of stability and sets audience expectations.

Make sure you create a repeatable process for creating podcasts and plan for how you will sustain the podcast series in the long run.

Subscribe to the GLC podcast, The Content Studio, for more content marketing tips and best practices.