Podcast marketing is a great channel for businesses of all sizes, in every industry, and for both B2B and B2C market segments. Starting a podcast should be on everyone’s marketing plan if you’re not already running a podcast.
There is one question that we get asked a lot from marketers that are just starting to get their plans in place and that is “what should our podcast be about”.
So, I thought I’d take a minute to review the most common podcast formats. Choosing your show’s format could be the single most important decision that you make.
Building an audience requires consistency, so the format that you choose now is going to be with you for quite some time. Be sure to choose the format that is going to resonate best with your audience.
There are a lot of different ways that you can format your podcast so we’ve listed out the most popular formats below:
- Interviews: Quickly becoming one of the most common formats, the interview format will generally feature a host that is running the podcast, the vast majority of the time, with a new guest for each episode. To make this format work, the guests must have a common theme that will resonate with the audience. As an example, if you’re going to do a podcast on your industry, your podcast guests must have some type of a tie into your industry.
- Conversational: A conversational format, or sometimes referred to as a “roundtable”, will generally have at least 2 consistent people (hosts) on the podcast for the vast majority of the episodes, with a guest or two sprinkled in during different episodes. Or they may not have a guest and the 2 hosts will simply have a conversation about the topic.
- Educational: The educational format shows are going to be much more structured with each episode covering a topic or a series of topics that the listener will tune in to gain a better understanding of. Each episode should have a topic that is consistent with the overall focus of the podcast show.
- Solo-casts: This format of show is often used during the start-up of a new podcast, or in the event that a guest is not available, or your co-host didn’t make it.
A solo-cast is a monologue by the host on a topic of interest to the audience. These episodes tend to be a story or lesson based on the host’s personal experiences or insights on a topic.
During a solo-cast, the host has the best opportunity to build the relationship with the audience as there are no other “detractors” from the host. - Non-fiction Storytelling: Just as the name implies, non-fiction storytelling is a podcast that tells a true story. The most common of this format is a news podcast or a podcast that focuses on documentaries.
A non-fiction storytelling podcast could tell a different story during each episode or a story could cover every episode during a full season of the podcast. - Fiction Storytelling: Much like the non-fiction storytelling podcast, the fiction storytelling podcast tells a story either in an episode or spanning a number of episodes.