Implementing Your First Podcast

Marketing

Financial Podcasting Part 2

Podcasting can offer great benefits to financial professionals — when planned correctly. If you have just started thinking about podcasting, consider reading Podcasting Part 1 to learn more about strategizing for your podcast. If you already have your audience, theme, goals and equipment established, it’s time to start your first podcast.

Decide who you are. You need to determine your podcast and host identities. This includes defining your podcast name, description, tags and profanity rating. You will also want to keep meta-tags and keywords in the back of your mind as you are deciding on show ideas. Along with your podcast identity, you also need to decide your on-air personality. First, you need to decide how you want to be addressed; you can use your whole name, first name, be Mr. or Ms. Expert, or create a different identity all together. Second, you need to determine your tagline, are you the master in your field, a pioneer at your craft, a thought leader in your industry, published author or something completely unique to you? No matter the determination, you will want to establish one sentence to explain to new listeners who you are and what to expect from your podcast. Third, you need to determine your voice. You need to know how you want to deliver your content. You can be all business, add some puny humor, embrace sarcasm or find your best way to connect with and entertain your audience. Once you have determined ‘who you are’ on your podcast, practice using your terms and reading aloud to help the transition from reading to conversation flow naturally.

Write out your show script. Even if you are a master of improvisation, you should still script out or create a detailed outline for your initial podcasts. Although you may have been planning your first podcast in your head for months, putting it in writing will help you stay on topic and on time, consistency is key. If you have not done a lot of professional speaking, we suggest writing out a full script to help you with topic transitions, timing and flow. If you have more experience with public speaking feel free to start with an outline, but consider scripting out a few portions of the podcast to ensure you are using your taglines, keywords and catch phrases fluidly. Having a full script will also be helpful to send through your compliance for pre-approval to avoid heavy editing, hot topics or having to rerecord.

Practice your show. Once your script or outline is finalized, put it into action. Whether it is in the car on the way home from work, in your office with the door closed or at home in front of the mirror it is important to get the words out. Practicing can expose areas of your podcast where you are less confident and may need to script, can help make sure you have the right words to express your thoughts to novice listeners and help you realize how skilled you are and are ready to start. No matter how many practice shows you decide to do, none of them will be flawless. Do not let tripping over a few words or losing your place discourage you from continuing to podcast. Take this opportunity to think out new ways around your problems. Recording portions of your practices can also help you practice your audio editing if you are unfamiliar with the process or software.

Determine your additional media. Along with the voice aspect of your podcast, you will need images, and we suggest adding some background and transitional music as well. iTunes is one of the biggest distributers of podcasts, and they require an image to accompany your audio. Consider creating a unique logo for your podcast, use your company logo or a recent headshot. Music is a great way to keep your podcast interesting and upbeat. Music will be used as background music to help transition between topics, start the show and end the program. Try to find something upbeat without being too distracting, and instrumental tends to be more effective than vocals.

Recording and post-production. It’s time to record. Find a quiet space with carpet if possible to help sound from echoing as much as possible. Keep your microphone close to your face, but don’t over modulate your audio by talking too loudly. Record a few sentences and listen back to make sure it isn’t distorted and is easy to understand. When recording your podcast, don’t be afraid to stop and restart if you find yourself lost. Go back to your last completed point, and start fresh from there. You can either stop recording and start a new file or keep it running. If you record a single file, try clapping or making a loud sound so you can see it spike on the audio file to know that you need to make an edit at that point. When you are editing your podcast, you should maintain a natural flow, have an even level of volume and hit the time mark for the length of your podcast. The tricks to achieve these goals vary slightly with the audio editing software available. Search YouTube for how-to videos to help solve any audio editing problems or questions as they arise. In order get the most distribution for your podcast, you will need to export your podcast as a mp3.

Repeat the process. Regardless of the frequency of your podcasts, you need to have more than one finalized podcast before you start to distribute them. Best practices for podcasting suggest uploading three podcasts to start your series on the right foot. We encourage creating at least four initial podcasts to leave yourself a little time before your next podcast and to help you establish a good flow.

Podcasting is an exciting and unique way to tell your brand story while delivering valuable information to future and current clients. After you get through the initial stages of planning your podcasts, you will find a great system and workflow for you. If you struggled to build your initial podcasts, consider reading “Podcasting Strategy”. If you have your podcast established and are ready to take your podcast to the next level, come back to the AdvisorPR blog soon to learn about leveraging your Podcast to expand your audience. If you would like further assistance in adding a podcast into your marketing mix today, contact AdvisorPR at (866)888-5333 or email us at Info@advisorpr.com.

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