Planning your podcast content in advance gives you the opportunity to ensure your content is engaging as well as effective in accomplishing the goals you have for your podcast.
Create a Goal for Your Podcast
Whether you’re wanting to start a new podcast or maybe even refresh your already established podcast, the perfect place to start is with a list of goals. Creating goals you want to accomplish through your podcast is crucial to making sure you are utilizing this amazing resource. Your podcast can be an extremely effective marketing tool within your business and you don’t want to waste this opportunity.
Want to go more in-depth about how you can use your podcast as a marketing tool? Haylee Gaffin covers this extensively in episode 042 of the Clocking In podcast. Listen to episode 042 here.
Each episode of your podcast can serve one or more of these goals, that’s where content planning comes in. Revisit your list of goals each time you begin to brainstorm ideas for your episodes. Introduce topics that creatively engage your audience to complete actions that relate to your podcast goals. Your episode does not have to revolve around this specific goal, but there are ways to reference or allude to these actions.
If you’re stuck on content planning, no worries. Episode 029 of Clocking In is all about how to effectively brainstorm content. Check that episode out here!
Examples of Goals for Your Podcast
What does this look like realistically in a podcast? Let’s dive into a few examples you might use for your business.
One realistic goal is to grow your email list. Email lists are a necessary tool when staying in touch with your audience and clients. Growing this list can be a very helpful marketing strategy in both reaching new clients as well as maintaining established relationships. Haylee discusses the perks of your email list and also how to utilize opt-ins and downloadables in episode 037. By offering a free download related to the content of your podcast episode, you are providing helpful resources as well as accomplishing one of your podcast goals! You can also use your existing freebies to plan your content—consider all of the different conversations you could have around a single freebie and promote that one freebie in every episode for one month.
Another common goal is to grow your overall listenership. This can be accomplished in a number of ways-one simple method is to feature a guest on an episode. By incorporating a guest you are reaching beyond your listenership and into another demographic. Your guest has a different audience than you, their audience will tune into your episode and will likely stick around.
The last example is the goal of selling your products or services. To accomplish this, you simply have to show your audience their need for your product or service. Plan an episode around the very problem that you can solve with this product or service. When Gaffin Creative introduced VIP Launch Days, Haylee discussed how to have a successful one-day launch. The content of this episode illustrated the benefit a VIP Launch Day with Gaffin Creative could have on their business. Highlighting the need for this service throughout the episode led to many listeners booking said service.
Let’s Plan Your Content
Once you’ve mapped out your goals and set a solid strategy for your content, now it’s time to brainstorm all of the content you could potentially create. For the sake of simplicity in planning, let’s look at your content for one month at a time.
What’s your goal for this month on the podcast? List growth, audience growth, sales, etc? Now determine what from the samples above will help you get to that goal.
Brainstorm 6-8 topics you really want to cover that will benefit your audience, solve their problems, and also get them to take the action you want them to take. Of those 6-8 topics, which four or five resonate most with you or will create the biggest impact on your audience? Use those for your content for the month we’re planning for, then save the others in an idea bank you can go back to later!
If you’re looking for someone to help you with your content or even the production of your podcast, connect with our team at Gaffin Creative. Each of our clients gets a quarterly planning call!
