🔍If you’re reading this, you’re probably excited to start a podcast🎤. You have an idea for a show, and you’ve been thinking🤓 about it a lot. But before you hit that record button, it’s important to ask yourself:
🤔Who is my audience and what do they look like?
👉Always remember, a podcast is, first, last, and always, a communicative medium. It’s sole aim is to convey something—information, entertainment, a sense of community—to someone else.
🤝It is a conversation with your listeners. It’s not just about what you want to say, it’s about anticipating and delivering what your audience wants to hear.
🤔Here are some questions to consider
✨What are their interests?
✨What problems do they have?
✨What information or entertainment are they looking for?
✨What kind of tone and style will appeal to them?
Once you have a good understanding of your audience, you can start to develop your concept and purpose.
🤔Here are some more questions to ask yourself:
💖What is my topic about?
💖What unique perspective or value do I offer to my listeners?
💖Why should people listen to my podcast instead of someone else’s?
Once you have answered these questions, you’re ready to start creating your podcast.
🎤Podcasts are precious time
🤸♀️We only have 14 waking hours a day, and most of that time is spent working and doing other things we have to do—taking care of kids, running errands, office work. The little free time we have is precious.
🏃♂️If you’re asking someone to give you one of those precious hours, you better give them something that is worth their time.
🕺That’s why a creator should always ask themselves the following question when I’m thinking about starting a new podcast:
- Is the person listening to my podcast gonna walk away from it having learned something and having been enriched in some way?
- If I’m gonna ask a lot of my listener, I’ve got to give them a lot.
That should be your approach to podcasting. It’s about serving the people who are listening.
In the following section we will help you figure out your podcast’s core concept and purpose by first helping you define your audience, and then we will be asking some important questions before you invest serious time and resources in creating the podcast episodes.
How can I describe my podcast audience?
Your podcast needs a reason for being, and that’s usually to be heard by someone else. That starts with identifying your audience.
Know Your Listener
Ask yourself these questions:
👉Who are your ideal listeners?
👉Where are they located?
👉Where is your audience, and what are they doing while listening to your podcast?
🚴♀️People usually listen to podcasts
- While driving,
- Exercising
- Walking the dog
- Washing dishes or fondling laundry.
🤷♀️What is your audience feeling?
- Stressed and looking for a break?
- Unsure about something and need help making a decision?
- Struggling with a difficult problem?
- Looking for book recommendations?
- Feeling alone and need support?
Or they may be just simply bored with their usual cooking routine and wanting fabulous new ways to cook Fish Molly on a Sunday?
Based on your answers, start a list of every possible type of person who might be interested in your podcast.
Who is my target audience of my podcast ?
Now, arrange these possible audiences into some kind of order to identify your “target market.” You want to define a primary audience (one you can name, aim for, and learn about) along with two more (secondary and tertiary) audiences so your podcast has room to grow in subject scope and market appeal.
Review your list of potential audiences
Select the type of listener who’s most likely to want to hear your podcast. This is your core target audience. Write them down in the center of a target.
Based on your answers, start a list of every possible type of person who might be interested in your podcast. Don’t be afraid to get creative!
Lets begin with an example …Gardening
For example, if you’re starting a podcast about gardening, just look up “Google Maps” and type in the words “Gardening (your area name)” or simply go to Facebook or Quora or Reddit and run a similar search
Your gardening audience might include:
Let’s begin with …
Home gardeners: This is probably your largest potential audience. Your target audience. Home gardeners are people who enjoy gardening as a hobby, and they may be interested in learning about new plants, gardening techniques, and pest control methods.
Horticulture students: Horticulture students are studying about plants and gardening, so they would likely be interested in learning more about gardening in Kerala.
Landscapers: Landscapers are responsible for designing and maintaining gardens, so they would likely be interested in learning about new plants, gardening trends, and best practices.
Garden nursery owners and employees: Garden nursery owners and employees are knowledgeable about plants and gardening, so they may be interested in learning more about gardening in Kerala and sharing their knowledge with your listeners.
Gardening enthusiasts: Gardening enthusiasts are people who are passionate about gardening and enjoy learning about new plants, gardening techniques, and gardening culture.
Farmers: Farmers in Kerala may also be interested in your podcast. They may be looking for information on how to improve their crop yields, reduce costs, or market their products more effectively.
Or you may also want to consider targeting your podcast to a specific type of gardening,
- Vegetable gardening
- Flower gardening
- Container gardening
This will help you to narrow down your audience and create content that is more relevant to your listeners.
Once you know your target audience,
😎Now make three rings
The first ring should consist of all your primary listeners and you can start to create content that is tailored to their interests.
👉Next
Now choose another audience (secondary) set that is likely to be interested in most of what your podcast will cover.
Then choose another audience (tertiary) that might be interested in some of your podcast. Make them the next two rings of your target.
👀Now, assess:
(a) Do you have information or ideas that will be of value, to all these people, and
(b) do you feel like you can’t wait to communicate with them? Yes? Then you’re on the right track for a potential match between your podcast idea and an audience.
🌈Bingo!
You’ve identified your primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences.
You can add more circles/audiences, but like any relationship, you and your podcast can’t be all things to all people. Without a clear target, you won’t reach an audience.
😥Can’t come up with audience rings?…
Your podcast topic may be too general or too niche
If you’re having trouble coming up with rings for your podcast target audience, it might mean your idea is too general. Ask yourself
- What specific aspects of your topic you’ll cover,
- What you’ll say that hasn’t already been said, and
- How you can deliver the information in a counterntuitive way.
😊For example, instead of doing a podcast about history, you could do a podcast about the history of women’s struggles in India, the history of India’s space race, or the history of various dance forms in India.
This will help you to create a podcast that is informative, engaging, and different from anything else that’s out there.😲
😉Here are some more tips for answering each of these questions:
What specific aspects of this topic will I cover?
When choosing a topic for your podcast, it’s important to narrow it down to something specific.
This will help you to focus your research and create episodes that are in-depth and informative. Take note of
- What will I say about this topic that hasn’t already been said?
- Once you have a specific topic in mind, it’s important to think about what you can say about it that is new and interesting.
- Have you done any original research?
- Do you have a unique perspective on the topic?
If you’re still not sure what to say, try to think about the questions that you have about the topic.
- What would you like to know more about your topic ?
- What are the unanswered questions?
Once you have a good understanding of your topic and what you want to say about it, it’s important to think about how you can deliver the information in a unique and engaging way. Also, look for other ways like … can you use humor, storytelling, or other creative techniques to make your podcast more interesting?
By asking yourself these questions, you can develop a podcast topic that is informative, engaging, and unique.
Keep your target audience handy when brainstorming episode ideas. Can you now point to the rings each story will appeal to?
✌Now we come to the second question…
😒Why should people care about your podcast?
From the listener’s point of view, this question is “What’s in it for me?”
A good podcast delivers the goods on something people care about. We could divide the options into two categories: pain and pleasure (bad and good; yuck and yum).
😨Pain points
Problems: What keeps us up at night, stresses us out, limits our lives, keeps us from achieving our goals?
Needs: Many needs, if unmet, can become very painful. Being healthy, managing money, succeeding at work, improving or fixing stuff (ourselves, our relationships, our kitchen sinks), to name a few.
Flashpoints: Clarifying controversial issues, teasing apart topical discussions, shedding calm light on a charged subject.
😁Pleasure points
Aspirations: Helping us hope for, shape, and attain a dream, be it starting our own business, traveling to far-off lands, feeling good in our bodies, or looking good in our clothes.
Passions and diversions: What do people love? Pop culture, stranger-than-fiction true stories, food (from grub to gourmet), elegance on a budget, vintage style, fly-fishing. True crime, one of the biggest podcast genres, slots in here, as does the arguably even bigger genre of Two or More Nerds Sitting Around Nerding Out Over a Nerd Thing.
Curiosity, inspiration, surprise, delight, awe: This includes answers to burning questions. Questions we never thought to ask. Contrarian or counterintuitive ideas. Insights about something we thought we understood. Against-all-odds successes. Behind-the-scenes stories. Towering achievements, amazing discoveries, vivid world-building (real or imagined).
🤔“What’s In It for Me?”
Which of the pain and pleasure points in the list above does your podcast idea satisfy? (Could be more than one.) How will it do that?
Imagine you are sharing about your podcast idea with a good friend at a coffee shop, and your bold-and-honest friend shoots back point-blank: “So, what’s in it for me?”
What’s your answer?
How do you want your listeners to feel while listening to your podcast?
When fans recommend or review your podcast, what would you imagine them saying? What do they love most about it?
Write your responses to these questions
🤓How to find your podcast audience?
Now that you’ve named your target audience and considered how your podcast will benefit them, it’s time to learn about their interests and priorities by looking at where they spend their time.
Focus on your primary audience, the one in the center of the bull’s-eye.
🧐Where does your audience hang out?
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Where do they live? (Cities, farms, states, countries?)
- What conventions or events do they attend?
- What magazines, newspapers, and books do they read?
- What websites do they visit?
- Which social media do they use the most?
- What platforms do they use to stream or download content?
Once you have a good understanding of where your audience spends their time, you can start to learn more about their interests and priorities.
🤖What tone and length does your audience prefer?
Spend some time looking at the publications and websites that your audience frequents. Then ask yourself the following questions:
- What tone does this audience find appealing? Smart? Measured and deliberate? etc
- What length does this audience find appealing? Short? Long? Something in between?
- What engages them most?
- Based on most-read or “liked” posts, greatest number of downloads, longest comments threads, most popular events, favorite blog topics, types of articles?
In the meantime, answering these questions can help you build out your podcast’s ideal tone, length, and content.
By understanding where your audience spends their time and what they prefer, you can create a podcast that is more likely to appeal to them.
Now this brings us to the next question
🤷♀️What podcast formats should I choose ?
Now that you have a good understanding of your audience, it’s time to think about the type of podcast that is right for you.
Podcasts can be segmented by format (solo, roundtable), subject area (magazine show, advice show, news), or a combination of the two.
Here are four podcast formats that are most likely to be accessible and scalable for start-up podcasters:
Solo podcast: This is the simplest podcast format, where you are the only host. This can be a great option if you are an expert in a particular field or if you have a unique perspective to share.
Roundtable podcast: This format features two or more hosts who discuss a variety of topics. This can be a great option if you want to have a more conversational tone or if you want to collaborate with other people who share your interests.
Magazine show: This format is similar to a traditional magazine, with a variety of segments on different topics. This can be a great option if you want to cover a wide range of topics or if you want to have a more polished production.
Advice show: This format features you giving advice to listeners on a variety of topics. This can be a great option if you are an expert in a particular field or if you have a lot of life experience to share.
Which format you choose will depend on your interests, your expertise, and your resources.
🕺Resources
Creating a podcast requires three crucial resources:
Time: Podcasts can take a lot of time to produce, so it’s important to be realistic about how much time you can commit to your show.
Money: While you don’t need a lot of money to start a podcast, there are some costs associated with it, such as hosting fees and equipment costs.
Passion: It’s important to be passionate about your podcast topic, because there will be times when it’s challenging to keep going.
If you have the time, money, and passion, you can create a podcast in any format you want. But if you’re just starting out, it’s a good idea to choose a format that is relatively simple and doesn’t require a lot of resources.
Once you’ve chosen a format, you can start to develop your podcast’s content and production plan.
🤞A word of encouragement:
This initial planning of a podcast may seem like a lot of work, but it’s important to put in the effort upfront.
You know very few podcasts start with a built-in audience, like a stand-up comedy podcast like ‘Cyrus’ or ‘Kenny Sebastian’, ‘Zakir Khan’, ‘Smartless’.
This is why, to grow your own listenership, you must first imagine what others would find fascinating, intriguing, puzzling, motivating, or enlightening—and then provide that, so they want to stay in conversation with you.
Having a clear understanding of your audience and podcast concept will help you create a show that is engaging and successful.
Also an added plus of putting these question first is that when the time comes to pitch or market your podcast idea, you’ll be ahead of the game.
Because having a clear answer to this question is what you need to get other people interested in funding, reviewing, recommending, and otherwise spreading word about your podcast.