Podcast strategy is the roadmap that will determine the success of your podcast. Before you buy a microphone or start researching hosting platforms, you need to establish what the goal of your podcast is and build a strategy that will put you on the path to achieving that goal.

There are probably a million things you feel like you should do when starting a podcast and it can be overwhelming. When the overwhelm strikes, your strategy will direct you to exactly what task you need to do next. 

Here are 5 questions that you need to answer to have a solid podcast strategy and ultimately, monetize your podcast to boost your business’ bottom line. Let’s go!

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1. Why do you want a podcast?

Why have you decided to start a podcast? Why not blog? Or a YouTube channel? Podcasting is a great marketing tool for your business. It’s unlike any other out there, actually (check out last week’s blog for my breakdown of just how powerful podcasting can be for your business). 

It is super important to keep in mind your answer to this question because podcasting is hard. It’s a lot of work. But it is also a lot of fun. It has its ups and downs, like anything in business, and remembering why you created your podcast will help you through the downturns. 

2. Who do you want to listen to your podcast?

Most podcasters have a person in mind that they want to impact or reach with their podcast. For businesses, that is typically their ideal client. So who’s your ideal client? More than likely, if you are creating a podcast as part of the marketing strategy for your business, this question is a no-brainer and you can quickly move on to question #3 below. But if you haven’t identified your business’ ideal client yet, stop what you are doing and figure out the answer to this question asap. Your overall business strategy is worthless if you don’t know who you are trying to reach.

3. What is the goal of your podcast?

Now that you know why you’re podcasting for who you’re doing it for, you need to identify the goal of your podcast. Do you want to make money? Do you want to grow a community? Do you want an outlet to tell your story? There’s no right or wrong answer to this question, but it will make life way easier if you pick one goal to focus on.

Your goal can change with time. Maybe initially you want to start with building your community and then after you’ve built that community, you’re ready to start monetizing your podcast. This is a great shift, but it’s important to focus on only one goal at a time. If you are trying to build community and monetize simultaneously, you are going to have to make decisions that benefit one goal while hurting the other. So start with one goal and when you have achieved that one, transition to the next.

4. How will you reach your goal?

There are a million different paths you can take to reach your goal. You need to figure out what map you’re following to get there. Identify 3-5 priorities that will move the needle towards the goal. Focus only on those 3-5 things when making decisions. 

When you get overwhelmed (and you will at some point), look back to these priorities and take action. Messy action. This is key, because you need to start moving.

5. How well is your strategy doing?

After you have answered the four questions above, you should have a decent strategy outlined for your podcast. But strategy development doesn’t end there. Every month, or at least every quarter, you need to review your strategy and make sure that you are actually making decisions that are in line with your strategy. The review will also help you see if it may be time to adjust or pivot your goal. 

A good way to evaluate your strategy is by looking at your statistics. How many downloads do you have? What episodes are doing very well? What episodes are not doing well? And why are certain episodes performing better than others?

Strategy isn’t set in stone. It is there to give you direction and you’ll only know if the strategy is actually moving you towards your goal if you regularly evaluate it. I’ll have another blog with tips on how to evaluate and adjust your strategy, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, don’t change your strategy too often. It takes time to see results and if you are constantly changing the target each month, you’ll never know if your efforts are working or not.

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Are you struggling to answer the questions from today’s episode? Would you like some tips to implement into your podcast strategy right away? Check out thepodcastbabes.com how I can help you!