7 Ways To Make Perfect Podcasts That Keep an Audience Engaged

Ramon Ray, the founder of Smart Hustle Media, wears multiple hats. He started four companies (sold two of them), wrote best-selling books, and interviewed the past United States president. Ramon is an authority on small business growth. Through his speeches, he inspires audiences around the globe.

In addition to the above things, Ramon Ray is also known for conducting stellar podcast interviews. He has interviewed founders and growth-hackers from leading companies for Smart Hustle Podcast. Keap, eBay, Bill.com, Clover are just a few companies to name.

If you’re wondering how Ramon produces podcasts that keep the audience hooked, then you’re at the right place. As someone who has been a part of the process in some interviews, I know how Ramon produces these podcasts.

Following are the seven steps Ramon follows to produce podcasts that bring success:

1- Schedule the Interview

They say – well begun is half-done. To produce successful interviews for Smart Hustle Podcast, Ramon Ray implements a step-by-step process. And the first step is to schedule the interview.

Ramon leverages Calendly to fix interviews with guests. And he asks about guests’ expectations and instructions beforehand to keep the interviews on track.

Most of these podcast interviews are planned to help small business owners. So Ramon informs guests in advance that they are expected to share tips and tricks they’ve been following to grow their businesses.

Letting the guests know about what you’re expecting from the interviews helps guests better prepare for the interviews.

2- Record the Interview

Ramon always records video interviews. Now, you must be wondering why there is a need for video interviews to produce podcasts.

Well, Ramon is a small business growth expert. And like any other growth expert, he understands the value of content. So he has a plan in place to repurpose content.

Interview videos are converted into sound files to be uploaded to podcasting platforms. And video files are uploaded to Smart Hustle’s YouTube channel.

Usually, Ramon records videos via Zoom. But the platform doesn’t matter. You can choose any platform that you’re comfortable with.

3- Create Asana Project

When it comes to creating content that the audience happily consumes, success comes through a team effort.

Once the video interview is conducted, Ramon creates an Asana project, and the team takes it from there. Yes, you read it right. Ramon uses Asana to stay top of the game.

When Ramon creates the Asana project, the writer, sound editor, designer, and content editor get to know about the project.

Concerned team members ensure that deadlines are met to produce podcasts timely.

4- Get the Image Created

Be it a blog post or a video interview, visuals play a critical role in grabbing the audience’s attention. There is no surprise that people say – a picture is worth a thousand words.

To catch the audience’s attention, Ramon ads a featured image to each and every podcast. What should you in the feature image of your podcast?

Here are the elements Ramon often has in the featured images:

• Headshot of Ramon and guests
• Name of the podcasts
• The value proposition of the podcasts

You must use specific fonts and colors in the featured images of your podcasts. Doing so will help you create a brand image in your audience’s minds.

5- Upload to SoundCloud & Other Platforms

After the featured image is ready, the next comes the uploading of the audio file to SoundCloud.

In addition to SoundCloud, Ramon also uploads podcasts to Stitcher, iTunes, and Amazon music.

When you’re uploading your podcasts, you should make sure that you have normalized the sound. This means increasing the audio file volume to the point where it is as loud as it can be without distorting the sound.

6- Get the Article Written Based on Interview

Ramon believes in leveraging the power of content to the fullest. Once the podcast is live, Ramon gets an article written, highlighting the key learnings of the interview. Doing so helps Ramon to reach a large audience for his podcast interviews.

Also, articles have the potentials to rank on search results, which improves the chances of getting traffic from search engines.

Here are some tips on writing articles based on podcast interviews:

• Write engaging articles with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion
• Use quotes from the interview in your article
• Include the link to the podcast at the end of the article
• Make your article interesting enough to encourage the audience to check the podcast

Also, ensure that your article doesn’t look like the boring summary of your interview.

7- Get Social Copy Scheduled

Creating content without having a plan to promote it is a marketing sin. No matter how good content is, it will not move the needle if you don’t promote it.

To amplify his podcasts’ reach, Ramon promotes them multiple times on social media with different snippets.

With each podcast article, the writer creates 4-5 posts for key social media platforms and schedules them at regular intervals. As a result, more people see the podcast articles.

Ramon uses CoSchedule to schedule social media posts.

In conclusion,

Creating podcasts that drive engagement requires time and effort. Ramon has a wonderful team that works in sync to create magic.

However, it doesn’t mean that you cannot create podcasts in the absence of a team. If you have the time and expertise to handle multiple tasks yourself, you can undoubtedly produce perfect podcasts following these steps.

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