Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Developing your strategy

So, you’ve decided that you want to create an internal podcast. Before you even pick up a microphone, spend time planning and getting prepared. It will save you a lot of time, and headache, further down the line.

If you’re still not sure, take a look at The benefits of internal podcasts and How internal podcasts can help solve your communication challenges.

Define your objectives

You need to have clear objectives for developing your podcast. How will it support the business strategy and this year’s priorities? What will good look like? What will you measure to know if you’re succeeding? How does it fit into your broader communications strategy.

Who is your audience?

Who do you want to listen to your podcast? Understanding who you are targeting will help you to define the tone and content you deliver.

Are you targeting a specific team, territory or the entire business? Do you have one, or several, audiences?

Private podcasts allow you to control who accesses your podcast so you can restrict the audience…..particularly useful to communicate with your teams. It’s also possible to set up channels to allow you to target certain audiences with different messages.

Once you have an audience in mind, think about when they might listen to the podcast. What is the ideal episode length for this audience and how frequently will you publish new episodes.

Planning for Success

So, you want to take advantage of all these benefits that podcasts have to offer?

When you first start thinking about creating an internal podcast, it may seem overwhelming at the beginning. Deciding on the format, working out how to record and edit and figuring out how to distribute it are decisions that you need to make to get it off the ground.

Sometimes just starting with a basic plan to allow you to pilot the show and learn as you go can be a really simple way to get started. Remember you can start simple and grow later.

The opportunities are huge, but the key to making great, engaging internal podcasts is in the planning. Follow the simple tips below and you will be well on your way to success.

1. Content strategy

How does it fit into your existing content and communications strategy? Podcasts, like newsletters and webinars, can be an ingredient of your internal communications. What’s the editorial plan? And consider the show’s cadence. Is this a short-term series or a longer series? Are you replacing existing mediums (like email), or adding a new channel?

2. Great content needs a concept

Be clear about the idea and the problem it solves. How can your internal podcast’s premise be compelling and must-listen to?

The best podcasts are authentic and intimate

You may have a clear message you want to convey, but this needs to be wrapped in a narrative that is both compelling and genuine. For example, you want to create a more connected workforce. A podcast series interviewing employees and understanding their personal stories is a great vehicle for this. But don’t make their stories work-related. Work is not who they are. The interviews should find out what ‘makes them tick’ – how they came to work at the company, what they do outside of work, their hopes for the future, etc.

Make it entertaining

Don’t make listening to the podcast feel like work. There are enough emails, newsletters, webinars, slack messages, and meetings to go through the hard stuff. The podcast experience gives you the time to pad out the key messages with more entertaining soundbites.

Be relevant

Think of the value exchange – what does the listener get from the podcast in exchange for giving it 15-20 minutes of their time? Consider the needs of the target audience. If they are more junior members of staff, then it may be about providing tips and tricks for progressing in the workplace, ways of improving their profile, or ways that they can get the most out of the benefits on offer at the company. If they are more senior members of staff, it may be about helping them manage teams, improving morale, understanding new cultural trends, and so on.

What format should you choose and who will you cast as contributors?

Why is this important for businesses?

Think about how you feel if you are ‘told’ to do something? Unless you can see value in doing whatever it is, you will probably feel unmotivated to do so; ultimately diminishing the best attributes of podcasting. However, if the content being delivered is something that your audience ‘wants’ to listen to; whether to help them do their job better, to build a company culture or feel inspired, it will reap rewards for your business.

3. Put someone in charge

As with any project, there are a few different things that need to be done to make sure that it’s as straightforward as possible. Nominate a project leader to coordinate and keep track of the various tasks needed to make it happen.

4. Platforms

How will you host, upload, distribute and measure. Will you manage it internally or outsource it? Consider what’s important to you.

Ensure that you can deliver your podcast to your audience and track the results. For private audiences, you need a platform which enables you to restrict access so that only the people you want to can hear it. If privacy and confidentiality are top of mind, Auddy uses a private podcast platform which has enterprise-level security, helping you manage and distribute your content to a private audience by team, role, location or any other criteria contained in a company’s framework.

The platform should have an analytics dashboard to allow you to track your objectives and be simple for you, or your administrator, to use. Counting registered users, active listeners and usage trends should be done on a continual basis. Identifying listener engagement or drop off points with certain episodes will help you make tweaks to the structure or even content. Don’t be afraid to make changes based on listener feedback.

We have a private podcast solution which can do this for you with different prices and packages. You can get started with no upfront fees and simply pay for the registered user base allowing you to grow your audience over time. Ask our team what the best package is for your needs?

5. Planning your production

Depending on the size of your organisation, you may already have the skillset internally (such as sound recording and editing) to get started. However, don’t be discouraged if this isn’t the case as it’s fine to start small and develop the production over time. You can start with a basic recording set-up and simple editing software. And if you’re lacking capacity internally, or looking for award-winning levels of production, Auddy has specialist audio producers and sound editors who can help. Just speak to our team to find out the details.

6. Marketing planning

Now that you have created your internal podcast, you need to think about how you are going to ensure that your team listen to it. If you already have a robust internal comms platform; intranet, emails, townhall etc, then this is a good place to start. Take a look at our Marketing Tips for internal podcasts blog to find out more.

Need help starting an internal podcast?

Like everything else at Auddy, we are pushing the boundaries of audio……

Helping companies communicate like never before in an age of constant distractions.

We make it easy for you to communicate with your teams through podcasts.

Transforming the way you:

Communicate with teams
Share success stories
Inspire and motivate colleagues wherever they are in the world

This is because…podcasts are uniquely capable of cutting through and bringing teams closer.

Beating screen fatigue…
Building company culture…
And helping employees feel more connected…

By engaging in their own time, on their own terms.

Whether you are thinking about building an audio strategy from scratch, or you want to make an existing one work harder, our fresh approach to audio will ensure that the content you create will deliver.

You can get started with no upfront costs and simply pay for the users that you register. Or, you can opt for a set monthly fee allowing you to manage your costs as you build your community. With both solutions, Auddy offers onboarding on our secure partner platform, analytics, customer support and distribution of your show.

Just pick up a mic and off you go.

Add-ons such as marketing, production, editing and strategy can also help you deliver successful communications.

Or, you can opt for a fully bespoke package where we can help create your audio strategy and then manage everything for you. It couldn’t be easier.

Speak to our team to work out the best solution for your business.