How to make a corporate podcast and upload it to Spotify or Apple Podcast

1 | Plan a strategy to help you to get your podcast on the right track

Some corporate podcasts have died in their first episodes for a very simple reason: The ROI hasn’t been designed in a way that shows how the corporate podcast helps to improve the company’s sales metrics.

We recommend the following tips to efficiently plan your podcast investment:

• Describe what the conversion path will look like: Create a strategy that drives the podcast toward conversion. Is it the first phase of a sales funnel? Is it focused on post-sales customer service? Is it a persuasion tool? You should define this before starting your podcast.
• Understand how to provide value to your audience: If you design a podcast for your company that only serves to advertise your product without any real contribution to your customer’s life, it won’t help you build something interesting. The script you develop should be oriented to generate benefits, for your audience and your company.
• Talk to the sales team: Sales personnel are usually aware of the needs of the buyers. They have valuable information about your target audience and you can use it to route your podcast before you begin.

2 | Define the structure of your corporate podcast. This is a very important initial step

To offer coherent and valuable content to your audience, you have to define a good structure for your podcast. The first thing you should consider when creating a corporate podcast are the different objectives that are part of your business strategy. Depending on what they are, you will need one structure or another.

3 types of structure that you can apply to your corporate podcast

• The sandwich: Bread, filling and bread. In this type of format we place the information related to the promotion of the company’s products at the beginning and at the end of the podcast. Between, we offer all the content that we want to direct to the audience. The pieces of bread, with direct references to your company, represent between 30% and 40% of the content and, 70% or 60%, symbolise the value that you offer to the people who listen to you.
• The roller coaster: This format is used especially when you have to make a podcast of more than 20 minutes long. Why? It is about interspersing some of the most dynamic content at the beginning, in the middle and towards the end of the podcast. Between these parts, you can offer content with a little less intense. It’s important that you know how to keep your audience’s attention and this structure can make it easier for you to do so.
• The mountain of the highest peak: From the lowest to the highest. From the basic to the intense. With this structure, as the content of your podcast progresses, it becomes more elaborate or interesting. What does this imply? That you are generating a lot of expectations towards the end of your recording. You should not slack off. This format is perfect for telling stories, narratives or interviews that excite your audience. Of course, with an intense ending.

You need to understand what the interaction with your audience will be like. If you want to encourage interaction, define and communicate the channels through which they can contact you to collaborate in your podcast.

3 | Write a professional script. Make sure you offer value content

As you already know, the podcast allows you to launch a positive brand message, reach a huge audience and have an infinite repercussion. Therefore, you must take care of the content you offer, work on it conscientiously to get the most out of it and communicate the message you want. The content of the podcast and the way you communicate it are the most important thing.

Before you start you need to be sure about what you want to convey or share, know how you are going to do it and don’t forget that the podcast episodes must be coherent with each other and provide value to the audience.

In the script you have to write what you want to tell, how are you going to do it, what kind of language are you going to use and the tools that are necessary. Only a well-structured strategy and a script with clear concepts will make you connect with a large number of listeners interested in your company. If your goal is to offer value to your customers, you are definitely on the right track.

4 | Choose or design your melodies. Differentiate yourself through sound identity

The sound identity of a podcast is its auditory structure, that is, the sounds that characterize and identify it. You must make your podcast recognizable by its sound from the first moment. You also need to make sure that your audience likes it.

Start by assigning to each section of your script or podcast structure a certain sound pattern. You can choose, for example, a melody to present the interviews with experts, another to announce news and another to prepare the way for the participation of guests in the podcast, among many other options. If every time you play a particular melody you give a great tip to your audience, when it plays in subsequent episodes, you will attract their attention. It is all about the audience identifying when you are giving them valuable information through sound.

Once you have achieved this, you will have accomplished two things: to be recognized and differentiated by the listeners, and to get their attention at the moment when they perceive that you are going to give them valuable information. Take advantage of this moment of active listening and use it to include some information or promotion of your products or services. But beware. This strategy, used in excess, can generate rejection and lose effectiveness.

At this point we show you an example of a podcast we made for Skills Managers. You can see reflected some of the most tangible points that we have seen so far, such as the structure, the script that supports the content or the sound identity.

5 | Integrate your corporate podcast into your content marketing plan

Create a podcast specialized in your company that allows you to link all branded content in a large map, regardless of your sector.

Let’s consider an hypothetical example in which the podcast would be part of your business strategy. Let’s say you sell paint cans and you have 3 types: exterior, interior and high-end satin paints. They would be very difficult products to transmit through a podcast as they are very visual. A podcast linking strategy could be very effective. Why? Because you could talk about related topics like color psychology, feng shui or other decoration trends that would help you to link the podcast narrative to your Instagram feed, Pinterest or your website.

That is, if in all your digital channels you adapt the content applying the «transmedia» concept and give complementary value «pills», the podcast can group all that content. Each episode will be responsible for indicating to the audience where to find each information and how to connect it.

6 | Take care of the podcast production. A quality corporate podcast goes toghether with a professional production

Have you ever had the feeling that a video or podcast published by a company wasn’t professional, had sound glitches or technical failures? Surely it was for one reason, not trusting the technical part to professionals. This is a big mistake. When we talk about making a good podcast it is necessary to have an expert production team that achieve three requirements:

• Qualified personnel: People who have a certain knowledge and know exactly what and how to do it.
• Specific equipment and software: Technical material that will allow the quality of your podcast to be adequate.
• Experience: A team that has experience in podcasting will give you the guarantee that the result of your corporate podcast will be exceptional.

7 | Build audience loyalty. Become part of the listeners routine

We know that your listeners, like you and all of us, have things to do, appointments to attend, schedules, hobbies and routines. It’s hard to demand some of their time and attention, but it’s not impossible. To get your business podcast to fit into their schedule, we recommend the following tips:

• Always publish on the same day and at the same time: This will make your audience get used to waiting for your content and plan ahead. Even so, in the start-up period, try different days, times, and even platforms, identifying which ones have greater reach. Likewise, make the content available to anyone once it has been published. Listeners should be free to listen to it whenever they want or can.
• Make the podcast no longer than 15 minutes: Especially at the beginning while your audience adapts to your content and begins to generate feedback. It will be your community of listeners who will tell you when to move on.
• Identify areas of improvement: Identify details that can be improved within your podcast and improve them. Maybe it’s a section, a presenter or a certain tune. Ask listeners and listen suggestions. After all, the podcast is for them. It doesn’t mean you have to change the whole structure but keep some feedback in mind for future episodes.

Besides, the podcast is a communicative product easy to consume and this also favors the adherence of your audience. Keep this in mind. You have almost everything done. Now, you just need to start creating your podcast.

8 | Platforms to publish and distribute your podcast

Even if you are not going to broadcast your corporate podcast until the production phase is finished, you should evaluate the different distribution options from the beginning, as part of your corporate strategy. You have several options for publishing.

Create a podcast channel on your own website

This is one of the favorite choices of many brands. On the one hand, you can work on a page that encompasses all the episodes of your corporate podcast as if it were a video channel, only with audio. On the other hand, you can use each episode as part of a post for your blog. This means, an article related to the topic of the chapter in which you can embed the podcast. In this way, users will learn more information and will get to know know your company better.

Use specific podcast distribution platforms

Another alternative for podcast dissemination are specific podcast platforms or social networks. Here you can see a selection of our favorites:

• Anchor: It is one of the most complete podcast distribution platforms and belongs to Spotify. Once you upload your podcast it allows you to broadcast it automatically on other platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Breaker, Castbox, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic or Stitcher. All this without the need for you to register or create an account on each of them. You publish on Anchor and with just one click you broadcast the same content on the other platforms. We think it is one of the best platforms, it is one of our favorites. In addition, its analytics panel allows you to measure the number of plays of users around the published podcasts. It’s a marvel!
• Buzzsprout: Like the previous one, it also improve the distribution of your podcast on other platforms and allows to measure the results of user actions. You can create links with Amazon Music, IHeart Radio or Podcast Addict, in addition to the most well-known ones. Unlike Anchor, in Buzzsprout you have to manually link with some of them (not all) but don’t worry, it won’t take you long. This is also a good option if your intention is to broadcast your podcast on a large scale.
• Ivoox: This is one of the most popular podcast platforms. Unlike the previous ones, it works autonomously. It has different payment plans, internal weekly podcast rankings, content download options and other actions that could be interesting for you. It also offers metrics and statistics based on your content and user interaction.
• Soundcloud: One of the podcast social networks for excellence that, like Ivoox, works independently. All you have to do is publish your podcast chapters on your company profile and follow the strategy you have previously outlined. In addition, Soundcloud offers different rankings in which you can try to position yourself to increase your reach.

Disseminate your content on social networks and use audiograms

If you also use LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or other social networks in your communication strategy, you have two options when it comes to distributing your podcast:

• Create links: It is simply linking your podcast through a link in the publication or post you are going to share. This link will take the user to the site where the podcast is located, generally, the web page itself or one of the platforms we have mentioned.
• Create audiograms: When we talk about audiograms we are talking about the visual representation of the audio waves, the appearance of the sound. You just have to convert that sound into visible waves and share it as a video with a photo or visual element in the background. In this way you don´t direct users to another platform but they enjoy the content directly on the social network where you publish it. You can see an example of an audiogram on the aforementioned Skills Managers website.

Podcasts in companies are very versatile and planning their publication and distribution they can offer you a great return. So far, which options do you choose? They are complementary so the reach could be incredibly high if you manage to design a good dissemination strategy for your corporate podcast.

If you finally decide to make a corporate podcast, here is our professional advice

There is no perfect structure, the ideal presenter or the key content for your corporate podcast to be successful. Pay attention to your clients and their needs without forgetting your objectives, evaluate your strategy and make a decision based on these factors.

You will do right if you plan the production well and you are consistent with the publication.  From Natinnova we can help you with the podcast production process if you need help with the recording and execution part. You just have to contact us.

If you want to go deeper into the creation of a corporate podcast, you can watch the keynote «Corporate Podcast, do I need it?«, from our Media Content Day event. You will learn some important points about the corporate podcast or branded podcast and the possibilities it offers you as a company. We hope this post has helped you to understand the first steps you should take before starting your corporate podcast.