Creating great content is hard. Any kind, really. Whether it’s a blog, a YouTube channel, or a podcast. In a sea of information it’s tough to know what advice to follow and what to dismiss as noise.

In this episode, we lay out an easy-to-follow set of podcast best practices that will help you grow your show.

This playbook is full of things we’ve learned from working with hundreds of successful shows and interviewing some of the best minds in podcasting. They are the proven steps that many other successful podcasters before us have taken to build great podcast brands.

The 8 Podcast Best Practices Every Host Should Know

1. Create the content your audience is looking for

It’s easier to create the content an existing audience is looking for rather than finding an audience for the content you want to create.

This may seem simple on the surface but is pretty nuanced when you get into it. And not doing this will set your podcast for failure no matter what your promotional activities include.

A great way to find out what people in your community or target market are looking for is through online communities. We’re big fans of Facebook groups, Slack channels, and other virtual meeting places for doing this.

Hang out there, ask interesting questions, and see what topics keep bubbling to the surface. This is a surefire way to find out the interests and pain points that people in your prospective audience are having.

2. Have guests on your show

Interviewing guests is a way to change the pace, tone, and perspective of your podcast. But it’s also a great strategy to share your podcast’s message with new audiences.

If you did a good job as an interviewer, the episode will be one of the shining lights of your guest’s podcast repertoire. By giving your guest a platform where they can explain their ideas and perspective, and they’ll be more excited to share the content.

But before the interview, set clear expectations about promoting the final episode to your respective audiences. Mention early on that you plan to send a ready-to-go email of exactly what you want them to share.

For example, here’s an email I got recently to share a webinar we co-sponsored. All I had to do is copy the email text and tweet then post them.

3. Create shareworthy social media assets

You’ve done all the hard work to create great content that your audience is looking for. Don’t fall one step short by not creating interesting assets to share on social media.

Hands down the best tool to create audiograms is Castos’ Headliner integration. Here’s an example of an audiogram from our previous episode:

Additionally, pull quotes from the episode’s most interesting soundbites to promote it on Twitter.

Crafting a custom feature