Everyone wants their podcast to be unique. Podcasts, after all, are a reflection of the people that create them and no two people are exactly the same. If your podcast is tied to your business, no doubt your intention will be for your show to represent something distinct and unreplicatable, just as your business has a unique brand identity that separates it from your competitors. And certainly, there is tremendous value in crafting a podcast that is distinct. You might tackle a subject matter that is so rarefied that there are little to no other shows on the same subject, or your subject might be familiar but you approach it in a manner and style unlike anyone else. All this is to be encouraged. Podcasting is an unparalleled resource for communicating your brand and your expertise, but no matter how secure you are in your brand or your expertise, there is always value in taking a moment to see what your competitors are doing in the same field.
What’s Working?
Podcasts are not a new innovation, so no matter what industry or genre your podcast will belong to, it is a near certainty that there will already be numerous other shows already in that same space. While you no doubt hope to create something that is distinct from what has come before, it can still be educational to examine what shows have found and nourished an audience within the space you will be playing in. What is the best podcast, and what makes it the best?
Let’s say you represent a flower distributor or seller, and you are hoping to start a podcast on gardening, providing advice on everything from when to plant to what sort of soil goes best with what sort of growths to keeping rabbits and other wildlife away.
Before you consider going shopping for a microphone for podcasting, let alone hitting “Record” and start chatting away, it would be highly advisable to do a little research. What are the big gardening/farming/agricultural podcasts already out there? What is the largest possible listenership for a podcast on this subject, and what is the demographical makeup of that audience?
Look at the people who are already succeeding in the field you plan on participating in and ask yourself what are they doing correctly?
What Isn’t Working?
But also ask yourself: What could they be doing better?
What are they doing that is, perhaps, flat out wrong?
An obvious example is simple sound quality. You will not believe the number of podcasts, long-running with esteemed hosts, part of major organizations and institutions, that nonetheless have seemingly no idea how to properly mix or record audio. Podcasts from world-class experts that apparently never took a few minutes to simply test the microphone and now have the audio quality worse than the average video recorded on a cellphone. Sometimes expertise is enough to overcome shoddy craft, but not often.
Keeping an eye on the competitors in your field also enables you to see those areas where attention is not being paid and the audience is not being served. There may be subject matter that is actually oversaturated, with too many people chiming in on the same topic for any one voice to stand out and make an impression.
There may in turn be topics and subjects that go under-discussed, and you can build your show off of a focus that otherwise is not represented even in the sprawling field of podcasting, attacking a niche to such an effect that you reinforce the perception of expertise.
Spread Your Message, As Only You Can
Podcasting is an unparalleled resource for direct communication to a worldwide audience. There may not exist a better resource to help create and underline your brand, and to project your expertise for the whole world to see.
In this crowded field, it is important to find ways to stand out. But that doesn’t mean you can’t, or shouldn’t, take lessons from podcasts that already exist. Your competitors and rivals can also be the most instructive teachers, their successes and their failures serving as guideposts for your own experiments into these new and exciting opportunities.
At ModPod, we’re ready to help you seize those opportunities. If you’d like to know how to start a podcast, contact us today, and together we’ll build a podcast that takes the best from what came before but also stands as something completely new, and completely you.
And if you’d like us to give you a head start on checking out other podcasts in your field and industry, fill out a request for free analysis on our website. We’ll identify the major podcasts that already exist in your space, and work with you to determine the approach that will make you stand out that much more.
