Engaging podcasts keep an audience entertained. An entertained audience brings results that you may have set in mind when you started producing the podcasts. It may be that you wish to market a service product, increase social media following, or make a stamp for branding. Whatever your goal is by producing your podcast, you must make sure that it’s engaging so that you attract the large audience that you need to reach your goals. Here are a few tips on how to produce an engaging podcast:
#1. Research
Research is crucial to an engaging podcast. Without researching your material, your content will be thin and you may run out of topics and themes to discuss, thereby losing your audience. Research is one way to avoid being redundant and monotoned. Depending on the subject or topic of your podcast, here are some areas to research;
- Your target audience’s preferences and dislikes
- What others have discussed about your topic
- Different angles to approach the topic which will make your content unique from others
- The popularity of the topic and how you can make yours interesting if it’s not popular
- Competing ideas to your topic
#2. Provide New Information
One of the benefits of podcasts is that you can make it engaging by marketing a product service. An audience might zone out if it seems as if they are listening to information that they already know about. If an audience wasn’t aware of a particular product service and is presented in a manner where they get to know about it and become curious, the audience will be interested in learning more about it.
#3. Be Relatable
Being relatable means being vulnerable to have your audience appreciate that you are just the same as them and experience life the way they do. You can give certain examples to your life when discussing a topic. For example, if you are discussing the topic of how to efficiently work from home, you can give an example of your routine, how you got to that routine and what didn’t work for you in the beginning of the process. Such inferences make you relatable to the audience, therefore engaging.
#4. Pay Attention to Your Tone
Your tone of voice also adds to whether your podcasts are engaging. You may have researched all the information and efficiently marketed a product service, however, if your tone is flat and monotonous, an audience may just tune out. You should practice to sound engaging, lively, and interested in your content. If you don’t sound as if you are passionate about what you are discussing, the audience will pick up on it and your podcast might not be a crowd’s favorite.
#5. Provide Multiple Angles
An engaging podcast analyses a topic from different angles, regardless of your standpoint. You can play devil’s advocate as this will encourage the audience to think outside of their comfort zone. Once an audience is thinking outside of the comfort zone, you would have created a platform for interaction and engagement. If you decide to play devil’s advocate, you also need to provide a neutral point of view on the topic instead of trying to sway the audience to view matters the same way as you do. However, you must be mindful that there is a thin line between giving multiple angles to a subject and being insensitive. Make sure that you don’t offend your audience as this may turn listeners away.
#6. Make It Interactive
Your audience needs to feel as if you are discussing with them, not talking at them. You need to provide a platform where the audience can also give their points of view and feedback. You can do so by encouraging them to comment on your website below the podcast or to write into the show. You will have to research your audience to find the channel that they would enjoy interacting with.
#7. Invite Your Audience
You can also have certain podcasts where you invite different audience members to participate. This will encourage the audience to listen in and realize that they too can take part in the podcast when the opportunity arises. You must strategize your podcast in such a way that the audience will share it with friends and colleagues. Audience members taking part in your podcast is a sure way of having the podcasts share so that others listen in and engage in your podcast.
Conclusion
Producing an engaging podcast entails efficiently researching the topic that you will discuss. You should also provide new information that will keep your listeners engaged by wanting to learn more. Your tone needs to be engaging and you should provide multiple angles to your subject for the audience to analyze. You should be relatable and provide space for the audience to interact. You can also set aside topics that you can invite members of the audience to participate in.
