Say you’re not quite ready to launch your podcast yet, but it’s on your list of things to do—today’s episode will help you understand how you can prepare your backend, workflows, and assets to help you set your podcast up for success. We’re covering the five things you should have in place before launching your podcast!
Clocking In with Haylee Gaffin is produced and brought to you by Gaffin Creative, a podcast production company for creative entrepreneurs. Learn more about our services at Gaffincreative.com, plus you’ll also find resources, show notes, and more for the Clocking In Podcast.
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If you’re thinking about launching a podcast or growing your existing podcast, make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter! Inside this newsletter, we share weekly content about podcasting, resources, and more—plus you’ll be the first to know about exciting new offerings and opportunities!
5 Things You Should Have in Place Before Launching Your Podcast
1. Engaging Your Social Media Audience
One of the simplest things you can do is work on building an engaged audience on your social media platforms. This could include Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter, etc. While it’s nice to have a large social media following, it’s even more valuable to have an engaged one.
Don’t let the fear and insecurity of not having 10, 20, or 50k followers on social media impact your desire to launch a podcast. You can build a successful podcast without a large following. As a podcast host whose social media totals less than 2k, I can tell you that my podcast fulfills its purpose and would be considered successful.
So if you want to work on building an audience, focus on building the know, like, and trust factor with your audience over growing a large following. If you can do both, that’s even better, but if you’re starting from nothing, quality is better than quantity.
If you’re looking for tools to help you with posting and engaging, I highly recommend Canva for graphic design and content creation, and a tool like Planoly for scheduling.
As a little bonus, one thing you can do if you want to create a separate Instagram account for your podcast, but need to grow it fast at launch, you can post collaborator posts with your existing account so it gets more eyes on it!
2. Website that Acts as a Resource Hub
The next thing that I think you should have in place is a website to house your podcast content and episodes on. This is so important, especially for business owners. Your website acts as a hub for your podcast, and this can even be on your own business’s website. Mine is!
While you’ll have a podcast hosting platform that distributes your podcast, you’ll likely want to drive your listeners to your website for full-show notes, links, resources, and transcripts. Once they’re on your website for those details and content, they’re more likely to explore and convert into clients.
So what should you do if you don’t have a website yet? Start with building something simple either under your name or your potential podcast’s name. You can host on a company like Namecheap, use a CMS like WordPress, select a theme, and get started with setting up your website.
Then make sure you have a resource page all about your podcast and a blog feature, like on WordPress, so you can seamlessly add your episodes to your website.
If you’re curious about all of the ways you can use your website to work for your podcast check out the episodes linked below.
3. Building a Newsletter
The next thing I want you to consider is creating a newsletter and building your own audience. While email marketing hasn’t always been my favorite task, I’ve grown to enjoy it more and more—as I have been more personalized with it and created somewhat of a community behind it!
If you want to join that community, you can head over to gaffincreative.com/newsletter where I send out a weekly newsletter!
I’ve also found my emails to be a lot more fun since switching to Flodesk, because I’m able to create beautifully designed emails without any code. If you use my affiliate code, you’ll get 50% off your Flodesk subscription!
Now the reason you want to build out your newsletter is that you’re able to reach your audience in a more personalized manner, but it’s also known to have higher conversion rates. I love seeing the data behind my content, and I believe that I’m able to build more trust with my readers in my newsletters than I do on my social media channels.
So you can get started building out that newsletter list by offering freebies, encouraging exclusive content to the newsletter list, or by offering some sort of value to the subscriber.
4. Systems & Workflows for Your Business
Another consideration for what to have set up for your podcast launch is systems and workflows to help you with organizing and scheduling episodes, interviews, and promotions.
Over in episode 46 of the podcast, I share all about the importance of workflows and systems for both your business and podcasts!
I highly encourage you to listen to that episode!
5. Build Valued Relationships
Now the last thing you should consider working on before you build out your podcast plan is the relationships in your life and business.
When you launch a podcast, the support of others is so valuable. Now, in the coming weeks, we’ll actually talk about how these relationships come into play!
Your relationships will also help you with guests on your show!
As a reminder, If you’re thinking about launching a podcast or growing your existing podcast, make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter! Inside this newsletter, we share weekly content about podcasting, resources, and more—plus you’ll be the first to know about exciting new offerings and opportunities!
Catch the Show Notes:
5 Things You Should Have in Place When You Launch Your Podcast (1:36)
Build an Engaged Audience (1:55)
Website that Acts as a Resource Hub (3:45)
Building a Newsletter (5:07)
Systems & Workflows for Your Business (6:15)
Build Valued Relationships (6:37)
Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Flodesk | Get 50% off with my affiliate link!
The links included in this blog post may contain affiliate links, which means when you sign up or purchase through them, I will make a small commission. I only share products that I love and trust!
Review the Transcript:
Friends, I’m excited about this episode—because we’re kicking off a summer series all about podcast launching! Say you’re not quite ready to launch your podcast yet, but it’s on your list of things to do—today’s episode will help you understand how you can prepare your backend, workflows, and assets to help you set your podcast up for success.
Hey y’all welcome to the clocking in podcast the podcast for entrepreneurs and professionals making their way in the working world i’m your host Haylee Gaffin this podcast is produced and brought to you by Gaffin Creative a podcast production company for creative entrepreneurs learn more about our services at Gaffincreative.com plus you’ll also find resources show notes and more for the clocking in podcast so let’s clock in and get to work.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be talking about launching, marketing, and the logistics behind your podcast launch! So many of you have reached out over the last few weeks wanting to make your podcast launch part of your summer plans, which makes me so excited for you! As you join me each week on this podcast, I also wanted to invite you to sign up for my newsletter! In a few weeks, I’ll be dropping a really cool opportunity for those of you who are looking for more guidance in your podcast launch! You can sign up for the newsletter at gaffincreative.com/newsletter.
There are so many things that go into podcast launching, but what about all of the other things in your brand and business that add even more value to your podcast? If you’re not quite ready to make the leap into launching your podcast episode today or this week, there are a variety of other things you can work on and get in order to prepare for a more successful and valuable launch.
One of the simplest things you can do is work on building an engaged audience on your social media platforms. This could include Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter, etc. While sure it’s nice to have a large social media following, it’s even more valuable to have an engaged one. Don’t let the fear and insecurity of not having 10, 20, 50k followers on social media impact your desire to launch a podcast. You can build a successful podcast without a large following. As a podcast host who’s social media totals less than 2k, I can tell you that my podcast fulfills it’s purpose and would be considered successful.
So if you’re wanting to work on building an audience, focus on building the know, like, and trust factor with your audience over growing a large following.. If you can do both, that’s even better, but if you’re starting from nothing, quality is better than quantity.
If you’re looking for tools to help you with posting and engaging, I highligh recommend Canva for design and content creation, and a tool like Planoly for scheduling. I’ll link to both of these in the show notes so you can check them out!
As a little bonus, one thing you can do if you’re wanting to create a separate Instagram account for your podcast, but need to grow it fast at launch, you can post collaborator posts with your existing account so it gets more eyes on it!
The next thing I’d like to cover is that I think having a website to house your podcast content and episodes on is so important, especially for business owners. Your website acts as a hub for your podcast, and this can even be on your own business’s website. Mine is!
While you’ll have a podcast hosting platform that distributes your podcast, you’ll likely want to drive your listeners to your website for full show notes, links, resources, and transcript. Once they’re on your website for those details and content, they’re more likely to explore and convert into clients.
So what should you do? If you don’t have a website yet, start with building something simple either under your name or your potential podcast’s name. You can host on a company like Namecheap, use a CMS like WordPress, select a theme, and get started with setting up your website. I’ll link to each of these in the show notes. Then make sure you have a resource page all about your podcast and a blog feature, like on wordpress, so you can seamlessly add your episodes onto your website.
If you’re curious about all of the ways you can use your website to work for your podcast, I’ll make sure to link a few episodes in the show notes of today’s episode at gaffincreative.com/060.
The next thing I want you to consider is creating a newsletter and building your own audience. While email marketing hasn’t always been my favorite task, I’ve grown to enjoy it more and more—as I have been more personalized with it and created somewhat of a community behind it! If you want to join that community, you can head over to gaffincreative.com/newsletter where I send out a weekly newsletter!
I’ve also found my emails to be a lot more fun since switching to Flodesk, because I’m able to create beautifully designed emails without any code. If you use my affiliate code, which I’ll link in the show notes, you’ll get 50% off your flodesk subscription!
Now the reason you want to build out your newsletter is because you’re able to reach your audience on a more personalized manner, but it’s also known to have higher conversion rates. I love seeing the data behind my content, and I believe that I’m able to build more trust with my readers in my newsletters than I do on my social media channels.
So you can get started building out that newsletter list by offering freebies, encouraging exclusive content to the newsletter list, or by offering some sort of value to the subscriber.
Another consideration for what to have set up for your podcast launch is systems and workflows to help you with organizing and scheduling for episodes, interviews, and promotions.
Over in episode 46 of the podcast, I share all about the importance of workflows and systems for both your business and podcasts!
I highly encourage you to take a listen to that episode!
Now the last thing you should consider working on before you build out your podcast plan is the relationships in your life and business. When you launch a podcast, the support of others is so valuable. Now, in the coming weeks, we’ll actually talk about how these relationships come into play!
Your relationships will also help you with guests on your show!
To recap, before you launch your podcast, the five considerations you should have in place are:
- Social Media Audience – Yours or New (Posts TOgether)
- Website
- Newsletter
- Systems
- Relationships
As a reminder, in a few weeks, I’ll be dropping a really cool opportunity for those of you who are looking for more guidance in your podcast launch! To be the first to know, you can sign up for the newsletter at gaffincreative.com/newsletter.
I’ll see you all next week for another episodes all about podcast launching and your marketing plan!
This has been another episode of The clocking in podcast. You can find the show notes for this episode and more at Gaffincreative.com. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. If you love this episode, I’d be so honored if you leave me a review in Apple podcast app. Until next time, I’m your host Haylee Gaffin, clocking out.
