How to Choose a Podcast Topic

There are currently over 2 million active podcasts in the world, according to Podcast Insights. With so many podcasts in circulation, choosing a unique topic for your own podcast is crucial. People want something new and something that has never been done before. Choosing a topic, then, is much harder than it sounds. We have tips on how to choose the right topic for your podcast.

1. Start with your passions.

Our first tip is to brainstorm a list of topics you already discuss or work with every single day. Write down things you could talk about tirelessly. Maybe you're passionate about gardening or oil painting or crafting. Think about your hobbies, interests, and what you enjoy doing, either at work or in your free time.

At the end of the day, your podcast topic doesn't necessarily need to cover the most popular or trendy material. It needs to be something you are passionate about. If you're bored with what you're talking about, the audience will undoubtedly be bored, too.

2. Narrow it down.

Before going any further, decide what broad genre your podcast will fall under: Comedy? News? Education? Narrative fiction? This will help you determine what general direction and tone the podcast will take before you decide on your specific topic. Browse the categories of podcasts in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or another podcast listening app to spark some ideas.

Next, think about what overall niche your podcast will live in. Do you want your show to cover marketing? Sports? Technology? Narrow your topic down a bit to fit in a general category.

Check out this list of podcast topic ideas: https://www.buzzsprout.com/blog/untapped-podcasting-ideas

3. Relate it to your industry.

If you're creating a podcast for your business, you can relate your topic to your industry. You could choose a topic that is at least somewhat related to the industry in which your business exists. For example, if your company is in the food or food service industries, your show could explore international cuisine or the history of your favorite dishes.

Of course, this is not a hard-and-fast rule. You can always build a podcast around a niche that is totally unrelated to your industry, but if you're stumped on ideas, it could be a good starting point to think about topics related to your business.

Looking for a podcast about building podcasts? Check out Podcraft: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcraft-how-to-podcast-craft-a-fantastic-show/id821720737

4. Narrow it down again.

Now that you've narrowed down your idea once to a broad category, it's time to narrow it down even more. This is where you want your topic to get really unique and specific. Instead of creating just another marketing podcast, you could create a podcast centered on marketing for moms who own small businesses or social media for businesses in the healthcare industry.

Your topic should be as special as you want your listeners to be. People want to learn new things specific to their lifestyles and identities, and they are searching for solutions to their unique problems. Your show should be the one that makes them think, This podcast was made just for me!

Making your topic more specific will narrow down your potential audience, but it will make the listeners you do attract more invested in and loyal to your podcast.

5. Choose your episode topics.

Once you have your specific podcast topic, brainstorm a list of ultra-specific subjects you could cover in your episodes. Think about your potential listeners and what their interests, curiosities, and problems might be, and address those in your episode topics.

This is the step where you make sure that your podcast's topic is unique enough to stand out to the audience but not so specialized that there isn't enough to talk about for multiple episodes and even seasons on end. If you find yourself struggling to find topics under your subject matter to discuss in episodes, you may have to return to step 4.

If you're ready to start building a podcast for your business, contact us today to see how our team can help you create the best podcast for expanding your brand.

Why Your Business Needs Pinterest in 2021

Marketing strategies and advertising campaigns often forget about Pinterest, but it has the potential to be a more powerful tool for leveraging brand awareness and sales than the more popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Here's why you need Pinterest in 2021.

Pinterest is a visual-first platform.

Like Instagram, Pinterest is built for sharing photos and videos. But Pinterest is perhaps the most visual of all the social media platforms. The posts, called pins, are displayed on the home and search tabs to show the photo or video as the primary content. Pins can be given titles, descriptions and links to websites, but even those are not fully visible until the individual pin is selected.

Pinterest users are on the platform for this very reason; they are searching for visual inspiration, whether it be for a home DIY project or new recipes to try. This creates a perfect opportunity for businesses to promote their own products or services. There's much less pressure on writing captions and copy and instead letting the products speak for themselves.

Another aspect of Pinterest's visual-first platform is their visual search tool. This allows users to see other pins similar to the selected one not based on keywords or hashtags but its visual components.

Users can search for and save pins they like on their boards and even purchase products from the pins right on the platform.

Pinterest is shoppable.

Similar to Instagram's shopping capabilities, Pinterest now allows users to purchase products straight from the pins. The Pinterest storefront is a great place to increase product sales. While users are searching for visual inspiration for their wardrobe, arts and crafts projects, or any other imaginable needs, they can also shop.

The shopping is made easy, with the price and brand of the product displayed with the pin. Users can click the "Visit" button to access the browser where they can make the purchase.

The shopping capability of Pinterest is a prime way to make sales for businesses that offer consumer products, but businesses that offer services can also be successful on the platform. Tips, how-to's and recipes, for example, are valuable resources for users that can be created on your company's Pinterest page.

Pinterest ads go further.

Pinterest allows you to create ads and track analytics on your company's page, and their study found that ads on Pinterest created 2x higher return on ad spend compared to other social media platforms.

Organic posts can be easily discovered through the search tab and the visual search tool, but paid posts could increase brand awareness and sales even more. Another appealing aspect of promoting your pins is that they blend in to the other pins. This might sound counterintuitive to the purpose of paid ads, but if the promoted pins stood out from the rest of the page too much, users might intentionally ignore them.

Whether businesses decide to utilize organic or paid content on Pinterest, it's time they realize the unique social platform is not a waste of time or money. Pinterest is a powerful tool for growing your business and exposing your brand to new audiences.