If you're a website designer who's been thinking about starting a podcast
as a way to advance your credibility and your
marketing, then you have come to the right place. This is not
enough just to think I'm going to do it as part of my
marketing plan. I will just rattle off whatever occurs to me
at the time. As a website designer who has done
exactly that audio is not Created
Equal and been podcasting for nearly two years
now, I have everything in this episode that I am going to walk
you through how to do it and what to expect from it.
Don't just use zoom and think, oh, I'll crib from this.
Hi, I'm Holly Christie. I'm from Websites Made Simple. I
am a website designer and a website designer's mentor.
I also mentor developers and I am here to help you
have an absolute, absolutely amazing career in
website design. So let's get started.
The very first thing when setting up a podcast, actually, before you
even set up, is thinking about the strategy.
And trust me, it is not enough just to think
I'm going to do it as part of my marketing plan. I will just
rattle off whatever occurs to me at the time, put it out in the world
and everyone's going to love it. Trust me, as someone who tried that, it
doesn't work. So before you get started,
before you think about it, get working with
a podcast producer. Whether you decide to go for
the whole shebang, or whether you decide just to get some strategy and
advice, I really advise it as money well spent.
And when looking at the strategy you want to look at, who is
it for? What do your listeners want to
hear, and what are the long or short term goals of your
podcast. So starting with who it's
for. If you're working in the web design space, it could be
that you're looking to share website knowledge. It could be
design knowledge, it could be technical knowledge, it could
be that you want people to work on the strategy
of their websites. I know a few website designers who have moved into that recently.
Whatever it is, get really clear on what it is
you're going to be putting out there because that's going to shape what you name
the podcast and the episodes. It's going to shape the content that's there as well.
And it's ultimately going to inform you of who your
ideal listener is and how best you can work with them.
And I think this stage, as I say, I would absolutely
recommend you work with a podcast consultant producer on this
because a lot of the time we are too close to our own
businesses. And it can be really hard
between knowing what we think our listeners
want or our audience want and actually knowing
what listeners do want. Because podcasting is a really
different medium to chucking up a post on
LinkedIn or Instagram or TikTok or Facebook or wherever you are. And
it's very different to blogging on your own website as well. So really do
get clear, make that the number one thing you do.
And then the second thing you need to look at is production and who
is going to produce it. And I think that we can
often think, well, because we're techies who work in a techie space.
We've got this, you know, we know how to use the software. We could be
using the recording software anyway. And off we
go with it. Record the podcast and off we go. Audio
is not created equal. And something that you really need to bear
in mind with this as well is that lots of your listeners are going to
be listening with no visuals. You can do video podcasts as well. This one
goes out as a video as well as audio, but we still focus
wholly on the audio because a lot of listeners are listening
when they don't have visuals, so they don't have a frame of
reference. All they know is how good the
quality of the recording sounds. So
you really need to think what's going to make your audio stand out.
And here is where I would really recommend that you get a
podcast producer. And if you don't know any podcast
producers, I am more than happy to introduce you to mine, who is Neil
Valeo from Podnose Podcasting. He took my
podcast from a homemade not doing very well affairs
to something that I'm really proud to put out in the world and something that
sounds great. And you're listening to this, so you probably think he's doing a great
job as well. And I will ask him who writes my show notes
to put his contact information in the show notes.
So the next thing is tech. Just like with websites
where we have our websites have to be hosted. The podcasts
need to be hosted as well. And there are a few different podcast
hosting platforms out there. I'm not going to tell
you which ones to use and which ones I use.
If you particularly want to know, you can get in touch@hello,
websitesmadesimple.co.uk but I don't really want to influence you. Use the
tech that works for you. But just bear in mind that you will have to
have it hosted. There will be a hosting fee. Please do not just go
with the Spotify creators hosting thing. I have heard all
sorts of people have all sorts of issues with it. Do use a proper host
and with recording as well, you'll also need the recording
software. And again, I'm not going to tell you which ones to use, but what
I will tell you is don't just use Zoom and think, oh, I'll
crib from this, particularly if you are releasing it
yourself. And you can go out there and find some
podcasts where people have recorded over Zoom and you can really, really hear the
difference. And it's not good, especially when it's an
audio only one as well. So when it comes to
recording the main thing, the main advice that Neil always gives me
is get to the point. Your recording should
have a beginning, a middle and an end. And you also
want to encourage your listeners to engage with it in some
way. And that could be asking them to write in and
asking their opinion on something. It could be that you're looking
at giving them a download and say you want to share the address through for
the download. But make sure your podcast is concise.
This is not a place where you just want to have a long
ramble of thoughts or tell stories that are happening to
you. By all means, tell the story, but make sure that they have a real
relevance to what it is you're putting out there because
listeners will drop off as well. So you can have the
this many listeners downloaded the episode, but what you're really looking
for is for people to spend stay all the way through the episode
in the same way that with websites, we're looking to have a really
low bounce rate on a website and we put a lot of work into making
sure that that's the case. Well, you need to do that with your
podcast as well. You need to make sure that listeners are not bouncing.
So make it really easy for them to stay engaged and
do that by being concise.
Advertising. Now this isn't strictly
in the production side of it, but I think it's a really important part because
as a web designer I often get people saying to me, I'm going to
start a podcast. I'd like you to do the podcast page or a podcast website
or something like that. And then they will say that essentially
they want the podcast to be a medium
where they can get a lot of downloads and they can then advertise
and make money off the back of the podcast. That
strategy, it kind of feels old fashioned these days.
I mean, people still do it, but when I first started listening
to podcasts, I don't know, 10, 12 years ago, something like that,
there were a lot of big names who went out and did their
podcasts. And the main kind of strategy around it was to get,
you know, in the same way we have advertising blocks on websites to have these
blocks of advertisers on their podcasts. And it worked for a while.
And I've checked out some of those podcasts these days, and they are getting really
low ratings now because people are saying there's just too much advertising in them and
the adverts aren't necessarily always relevant. And again, listeners
drop off. If you've got a really loyal listener, they will just forward the
adverts, but don't put them in that situation
in the first place. It is your podcast. It is your
opportunity to share what you are doing and your
work. And you don't want to dilute that by having, like,
random adverts that you have absolutely no control over
advertised on your podcast, saying that
you can advertise your own stuff on your podcast. And I believe that you
absolutely should as well. If you listen to my episodes, you will
hear ad rolls within the episodes for what I'm launching or
what I'm doing, or sign up to my newsletter or whatever else. And
again, it's looking at having that engaged listener who wants
to work with me, who wants to become part of this plan where I'm using
podcast marketing as well. So when you are doing
your podcast, do bear in mind what would you like people to
engage with? And it's not really like a like and follow, leave
a review sort of thing. And then once your podcast
has built up, you can look at getting sponsorship for it. And
that's where you'll be talking to people who pay you this amount of money.
And the sponsorship will be much more relevant to your
audience and it'll be much more effective. But let's get your podcast off the
ground first.
I want to talk to you about the marketing and timescales and
what looks realistic with this as well. Because as
web designers, we are used to things usually taking
a little while to get traction. For example, when you submit a
website to Google Search Control and you need to
wait for it to index everything, and then it's got to make sure that
everything's doing what it's meant to, that the images are the right sizes, that
your clickable elements aren't too close together, that every. That your page is loading
quickly, that everything's doing what it's meant to do.
And this is the same with a podcast. And don't be surprised
if in the early days you don't get a huge amount of
downloads. That's just normal. You might not know this. I certainly didn't know
this, but podcast SEO is a thing. And in the
same way that you would take professional SEO advice for your
website, again I really recommend that you have SEO
advice for your podcast as well. Because there is nothing
more soul destroying than putting all the work into the
podcast and then looking at your 29 downloads a week
stats as well. It is possible to get your podcast some really,
really, really good results. But in the same way that homemade
websites don't make money, homemade podcasts don't get your clients
either. So really do get advice. And if you've already got a
podcast up and running, maybe look at having a podcast audit. And if you
haven't, that is the absolute best time to do it because you get to
start off on the right foot with it as well and
finally just get started. I know it seems
a lot, but then so is building websites when you think about it.
We send people off daily and we say to them, you just need to
send me your images, your branding, your website copy,
your keyword data, your info, whatever it is you ask
for with the website build. And you know, sometimes clients stall
and they're like I can't get all that. And they just need
that hand holding with it. But ultimately they
do get started and it's for you to get started with this as
well because podcasting is just getting bigger and bigger. It's not going
away anytime soon. And the sooner you get started,
the sooner you can have it as a really reliable part of your
marketing kit as well. So that's all for me this week.
If you are thinking of starting a podcast for your web design business,
I would love to hear it. So, so do get in touch. You can
find me at hello@websitesmadesimple.co.uk
you can find me on LinkedIn @hollycchristie.
And yeah, let me know how you're doing until next time. Happy web
designing.