What’s the deal with podcasts? Why are we hearing more and more about them? Well, it’s because of how they’ve grown over the past decade. In 2024, about 47% of the U.S. population aged 12+ listened to at least one podcast every month.
Many smart business owners are following suit and creating their very own corporate podcast. And today, we’re giving you all the tips and tricks to become a podcasting expert. Keep reading to find out how!
Contents
What is a Corporate Podcast?
Benefits of Corporate Podcasts
Tips That Will Help you Create a Successful Corporate Podcast
1. Strategic Planning
2. Content Planning
3. Finding a Host and Suitable Guests
4. Branding your Podcast
5. Choosing the Right Equipment6. Recording and Editing
7. Decide on the Length of Each Episode
8. Publish and Promote your Podcast
9. Operate on a Schedule
10. Consider Audience Feedback
11. Collaborate with a Corporate Podcast Production Agency
As you're reading through the list, remember: you don’t have to figure this all out yourself. Partnering with a Podcast Agency means you get a team that handles everything, from planning to publishing, all guided by a strategy built for corporate results.
What is a Corporate Podcast?
A corporate podcast is a podcast created by a company, to either serve the purpose of communicating important messages internally (to its employees), building culture, or to strengthen its brand identity/awareness (externally, to the general public).
A lot of work goes into producing a corporate podcast, it involves content planning, scriptwriting, recording, editing, and publishing. After reading these tips, you’ll be prepared to face these challenges and you’ll know just what type of equipment/software you’ll need to support you.
As a rule of thumb, make sure that you always strive for high-quality audio and visuals. You want your audience to be completely engaged with your discussions, not distracted by flaws.
Benefits of Corporate Podcasts
As a business leader, you know how important it is to have knowledgeable employees. And unfortunately, traditional communication methods (like email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams) are often left unread or can be misunderstood. Internal podcasting is quite different though.
Here are a few reasons why you may want to give it a shot:
Engaging: Take a minute to try and recall a time when you read a passionate and captivating email. Chances are you haven’t, or very rarely have. Alternatively, high-quality podcasts that are led by passion and genuine interest are actually entertaining. So, don’t underestimate their effectiveness, it’s likely that your employees will better recall and understand the messages from your podcast in comparison to emails.
Convenience: Your audience can tune in wherever and whenever they choose. This flexibility will increase the chances that your employees will actually listen to and be attentive to your messages.
Beats Screen Fatigue: Looking at a screen for hours on-end becomes very tiring. Podcasts give your employees a chance to rest their eyes for an hour or two.
Builds Company Culture: Use podcasting as a way for your employees to get to know each other better. After all, hearing directly from someone is so different from reading an email they wrote. This will undoubtedly lead to increased sense of trust and group cohesion amongst employees and higher-ups.
Corporate podcasts can also be targeted towards your customers. It’s an excellent way to reach more diverse audiences, driving more sales and brand recognition.
The experience of listening to podcasts is also more personable. By having authentic and transparent discussions, you will increase your trustworthiness and foster deeper connections with your target audience. On top of this, you will come off as having more credibility and expertise in your industry.
Tips That Will Help you Create a Successful
Corporate Podcast Whether you already have a podcast up and running, or if you’re just getting started–these tips will take your podcast to the next level.
1. Strategic Planning
With podcasting there’s a lot of work that takes place behind-the-scenes. This pre-production planning is key—it establishes the purpose, tone, and overall vibe of your show.
So before you sit down to record, you’ll want to consider the following:
Set your Objective
What is the purpose of your podcast? What do you wish to accomplish? What goals do you have? This is the best place to start, answering the why questions will help set the tone for the rest of your planning.
Here are some common goals that companies wish to achieve with their podcast:
Generating leads or sales
Education
Engagement
Brand awareness
Relationship building
Identify your Target Audience
Now you’ll need to distinguish who your audience is and how you’ll reach them. You can narrow down your group of ideal listeners by using previous engagement reports or purchasing data.
Looking at trends, you should be able to establish patterns with demographics. For example, their age range, gender, location, profession/income, social media habits, and lifestyle preferences.
Ask yourself the following questions:
What groups of listeners do you wish to target?
What are their pain points? And, how can your podcast solve these problems or add value to their lives?
Why would they listen to your podcast? How can you tailor your content to attract them?
How can you market your podcast to this audience? What types of social media do they use?
What content do they typically engage with?
Determining a Budget
Just like other forms of marketing, a corporate podcast is an investment. It is wise to decide on a firm budget and track all your expenses along the way. This way, you’ll have a good idea of what resources are within your reach and which fall outside of your budget.
2. Content Planning
Now that you have covered the basics, it’s time to plan out your content. Remember, planning should not be rushed, so be patient and enjoy the process.
Here are the remaining elements of planning that you should conduct before filming:
Choose the structure of your podcast. You don’t have to stick to one, many creators merge several formats.
Here are a few popular examples to help you envision your future show:
Interview style
Solo Discussions
Conversational
Co-hosting
Storytelling/documentary
Panel podcasts
Decide on topics for future episodes (it’s best to plan a few weeks ahead)
Establish clear schedule for posting content—and stick to it
Create a rough outline and script for each episode
3. Finding a Host and Suitable Guests
When you are choosing who will be the face (or voice) of the show, it’s important that you consider someone who is an effective and engaging speaker, who can connect with your audience.
It’s entirely up to you—whether you choose someone from within the organization or if you’d prefer to outsource the role. Regardless, your host needs to be willing and interested in taking on this role.
If you’re planning to have other speakers or guests on the podcast, you’ll want to secure them in advance, too. You should try to find people who have expertise in the industry or topic that you’ll be discussing. Ideally, these guests would have an interesting story or perspective to share.
4. Branding your Podcast
If you want your podcast to stand out, then you need to create a catchy title and captivating cover art. Unfortunately, people are judging your podcast by its cover, so make sure that you choose something unique and memorable.
Your title and cover art must speak to the overall theme of your podcast. In some cases, large-scale companies let their brand and reputation do all the talking. For example, the WeAreNetflix podcast by Netflix uses their logo and company name as the focus of their podcast’s branding.
You can also choose to have a title and cover art that reflects the content of your podcast, rather than your brand name. In The Loop Podcast by Cognism, the cover art and title focuses on the theme and purpose of their podcast—keeping listeners in the loop with current B2B trends and strategies.
5. Choosing the Right Equipment
To record high-quality episodes, you’ll need to have access to the right tools. You’ll want to consider renting/purchasing microphones, headphones, cameras, a recording/editing software, and a soundproof recording studio.
If you want your audience to take you seriously and view you as an industry leader then your podcast needs to be top tier. Of course, the obvious way to achieve this is by having engaging and meaningful discussions. However, the audio/sound quality of your show is equally as important. If your quality of discussions or audio is lacking, then you may as well say farewell to your viewers.
Here’s a few things to consider when you’re making decisions about your equipment:
Microphones
You’ll want to choose a microphone based on your recording space. In rooms that are not entirely soundproof, you should opt for a dynamic microphone, which does a great job of picking up sound from the front of the microphone (so, your voice) and less on the back (any background noises).
Alternatively, condenser microphones are more sensitive and will pick up small and nuanced sounds. These microphones could be used in a sound-proof recording studio and are suitable forvocal work. Condenser mics need an external power source to work, whereas dynamic mics don’t.
Tip: when you’re recording, the microphone should be placed about 1-2 feet away from your mouth (to avoid muffles). But, as a general rule of thumb, you should make sure you know exactly how to use your microphone—read the manual or instructions!
Another decision point for your microphones: USB or XLR?
USB is a simple option that will do the trick, especially when you’re just starting out. It is of course, just a matter of plugging it into your computer and opening your recording software.
XLR microphones are more durable (yet, also more costly). Generally, they produce a better sound since they send a more balanced signal that isolates the noise. You can’t plug this directly into your computer, instead you need XLR cables and may need another recording device. If you wish to podcast in the long-term, this would be a wise investment that will further enhance your audio.
Headphones
You’ll need a solid pair of headphones that are noise-cancelling. You may be able to get away with using a pair of headphones you already have, like Airpods or Beats. Regardless of which brand or model you choose, the noise-cancelling feature will ensure that you can clearly hear yourself and your guest (which removes any external distractions), and will ensure that your microphone won’t pick up on the output from speakers (which would cause an echo or feedback loop).
Every time before you record, you should charge-up and test all your equipment. After all, you don’t want to experience any last-minute technical difficulties.
6. Recording and Editing
Recording goes hand-in-hand with editing. It is always crucial that you go back and review what you just captured. If you want to streamline the recording and editing process, you should consider investing in a remote recording software.
These softwares allow you to bypass the expenses of recording-studios, allowing you to record and host sessions from home. You can also revise and edit your completed recordings.
Make sure you check out our remote recording software guide where we go over the advantages and cost of each platform.
When you start editing, it’s best to go through your recording bit-by-bit. Make notes of the things you are tweaking, so that when you rewatch later, it’ll be clear what you have done and what you might have missed. Here are a few must-do’s when it comes to editing:
Increasing the sound and visual quality
Removing unnecessary pauses or breaks in the dialogue
Trimming out unnecessary bits of the conversation
Keep in mind how long you want your final result to be!
Adding transcription
Adding a captivating intro and outro
Something else you’ll want to consider while editing: adding memorable music
Music helps bring your podcast to life and adds some dimension to your stories. It will enhance your podcast by setting the tone, emphasizing key moments, and making your content more engaging and memorable for your listeners. You can have background music, snippets of songs, sound effects, or you can create your very own theme song.
Here are resources that are completely free and legal to use for your podcast:
If you can’t quite find what you’re looking for on these free sites, here are some paid music platforms that you can also check out:
These resources are great for scene transitions or background music. If you wish to take your branded podcast to the next level, you may want to secure an opening theme song. You’ll want your listeners to associate this jingle with your podcast (and your podcast only), so it has to be entirely unique.
Here’s how it can be done:
Secure exclusive rights: if you come across a song that fits your brand, then you can reach out to the artist and inquire about purchasing exclusive rights to their song.
Commission the same artist: you can also find an artist that you deeply admire and commission them to create a unique song for your show. By using something brand new, you can guarantee that it won’t be associated with other companies.
Depending on the remote recording software you choose, some of these steps (like transcription or removing pauses and silences) will be done automatically. Plus, if you decide to partner with a Podcast Agency (which we’ll discuss more in step #11), they’ll likely take care of the whole editing process for you!
Tip: Use this time to find short clips from your podcast that you can use for social media marketing!
7. Decide on the Length of Each Episode
You should set a goal for how long your podcast episodes will roughly be. The length will depend on several factors:
The format of your show: For example, your guests’ stories will impact the length of each episode
The goal of your podcast: If you wish to educate your audience, how long will it take to present all the information? Are you giving quick tips or deep diving into the topic?
Your target audience: Consider whether your listeners prefer daily short-episodes or weekly episodes that are longer
What resources do you have access to: Do you have time to plan, record, and edit longer episodes?
The majority of podcast listeners prefer to consume episodes that range from 15-60 minutes. Chances are, anything shorter or longer will be overlooked or not finished. Data collected from several podcast-hosting sites suggest the most popular length of podcasts are in-and-around 20-40 minutes.
The bottom line is that you shouldn’t try and reduce or stretch the length of your episodes, unless deemed necessary. For example, if your 15 minute-long episode contains good content that relates to your title and will appeal to your audience, then don’t bother changing it!
Keep in mind—raw footage will be longer than your final result; so be prepared to lose a few minutes in the editing process.
8. Publish and Promote your Podcast
After you finish recording and editing, it’s time to post your podcast. Uploading is only one piece of the puzzle. Now, you need to find ways to reach your audience.
If your podcast is only being posted internally, you promote it through corporate-emails or other communication channels (like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Skype).
Alternatively, if your goal is to have your employees and the general public view your podcast, you’ll need to expand your reach through marketing. In most cases you should create awareness on social media, though consider which mediums your target audience uses most often.
9. Operate on a Schedule
With podcasting, consistency is key. Do yourself a favour—create a clear schedule where you plan recording times, editing deadlines, and uploading dates. This way, your team understands its priorities and your listeners develop an expectation for new posts.
As mentioned earlier, it is always a good idea to secure your guests in advance. But if you wish to take this a step further, then you can also create an extensive list of potential candidates.
Here’s another way to save time: creating templates for outgoing emails, Q&A’s, podcast scripts and artwork, and blog posts. After you design a clear outline and set of expectations, the related processes become a whole lot easier, and quicker.
Tip: to avoid last minute rushes to meet posting deadlines, work a few weeks in advance. This way, you’ll always stay ahead of the game!
10. Consider Audience Feedback
There is (almost) always room for improvement. So, listen to your audience and learn from them. After all, you want them to keep coming back week-after-week to listen to your content.
At the same time, take everything with a grain of salt—what some audience members love, others will hate (well, hate is a strong word, but you get the point). Rather, pay attention to what the majority of commenters say, not the outliers.
11. Collaborate with a Corporate Podcast Production Agency
It’s no secret that podcasting takes time, skill, and consistency. You don’t have to do it all yourself. Partnering with a Podcast Agency lets you stay focused on your bigger priorities while everything behind the scenes is taken care of.
This kind of support doesn’t just save you time and money. Instead of hiring and managing a team or juggling multiple vendors, you get a full production workflow in one place. It raises the bar for what your podcast can achieve. With experience launching countless shows, they know how to handle it all: from strategy and content planning to production and promotion.
Another major benefit is real data. You'll get valuable insights into listener behavior and audience trends so you can make smarter business decisions.
And let’s not forget the credibility factor. With established industry relationships, your production team can help you find the right hosts, book high-quality guests, and present your brand like a pro, starting from the very first episode.
Want to learn more? Make sure you check out our ultimate guide to internal podcasts that walks you through internal podcasting from start-to-finish!
We’d love to hear your thoughts, let us know which tips you’ll use for your future episodes!
Written by Emily Nyikos
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Jony Studios is a content marketing agency specializing in B2B podcasting and audiobook services. They have worked with many clients, from startups to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio, and many others.
