So your business has noticed that podcasts are not increasingly popular, but also present creative opportunities for corporations to increase brand awareness, connect with consumers, and establish industry leadership, among other positive impacts.
Now that you’re aware of the value of podcasting in business and are ready to start reaping the benefits of a corporate podcast, only one question remains: what should your podcast talk about?
Selecting your episode topics is a daunting task, because the quality of your content is paramount to the success of your business goals. Below are some tips to get your creative juices flowing and help you hone in on the best topics for your podcast.
Get to Know Your Audience
Podcasting is a form of connection and communication, so the first big question to ask yourself is… Who will be listening to my podcast? Determining your audience is the foundation of selecting episode topics.
As we’ve mentioned before, corporate podcasts can cater to an internal or external audience. Once you’ve decided which route you want to take, become extremely curious about your listenership. What other podcasts do they listen to? What are they curious about? What do they seek advice about? Getting acquainted with your audience and their very specific interests, preferences, needs, and questions is going to help you determine the general direction that your podcast content should go, and will help you locate specific topics that each episode of your podcast can address.
Some ways to gain this understanding of your audience include researching trends about their demographics, analyzing their social behaviors unrelated to content consumption, and exploring your competitors and how your audience engages with that content.
Learn From Your Competition
“Competition” can be such a negative word, but really there are a lot of positive things to learn from competitors.
In addition to giving you more information about your audience, exploring the social media pages and engagement, reading press about your competitors, and listening to their podcasts will help you see what kinds of topics are being discussed in your industry, and will help you understand how you content can fill the gaps. This strategy can also get your creative juices flowing as you start thinking about how to differentiate your podcast and create original content while staying relevant to the established market.
Talk to Your Team
Once you’ve looked outside your company, turn around and utilize internal resources. Engage your teammates and pick their brains, asking what kinds of topics they think your audience – whether it’s internal or external to the organization – would like to know. You can see what marketing initiatives are already taking place in your corporation and formulate podcast topics that will augment those efforts. Take a look back at previous content your company has produced and determine which topics might need a second pass or a deeper dive.
You can also solicit similar information directly from your consumers, if they’re the intended audience for your podcast. Submit a poll on social media or via email that asks what your customers would like to hear. You can also use research tools such as forums and social media platforms to get a sense of what topics are trending in your industry, and connect those relevant issues to your company’s work and story.
How to Ignite a Creative Spark
Creativity isn’t consistent, and some days we are just not feeling imaginative. One way to smash a creative block is to make a list of ALL your ideas – even the ones that you think are “bad” or ridiculous. A similar option is to make a list of guests you’d like to have – even if some of them seem unattainable at the present moment. Science shows that letting yourself think “bad” ideas will lead to great ideas much more quickly. Removing self-censorship and being persistent about generating ideas gives your brain permission to run wild, and you’ll likely stumble across a great podcast topic in the process.
Another way to cultivate your creativity is by staying inspired yourself. Deepen your knowledge of your industry’s events and stay current with exciting updates so that you are interested and intrigued by the same things that are going to captivate your audience.
Professional Podcast Development and Production
Corporate podcasts are the future of internal and external marketing and brand development, but that doesn’t mean that you have to create a compelling podcast series on your own. If you need help determining what your podcast should talk about, reach out to founding_media by emailing [email protected]. We are a production suite that helps with every stage of the process, from development to recording to editing and distribution. We can help you figure out how to reach your audience and how to fit each topic into a larger narrative arc – before you know it, we’ll be planning your podcast’s second season!
