By: Oneil Aujla
This blog is designed to be a quick recap of discussed subject matters within podcasting, as well a resource to find books, magazines, podcasts, and notable people that were mentioned during the event. (Thank you Darian from Jelly Marketing for taking the time to host this virtual event!)
Who is Darian & What is Jelly Marketing?
Darian Kovacs is an expert communicator and businessman with over 15 years of experience in marketing, communications, and public relations. Through his award-winning company, Jelly Marketing & PR, Darian has worked with various local, national, and global brands. He has helped to build and execute Jelly Marketing’s digital & PR strategies, while also having co-founded the Canadian Internet Marketing Conference. Darian has been featured in BC Business magazine, Business in Vancouver magazine, and on the Canada Post training circuit. He is a contributor to Small Business BC, Entrepreneur Magazine, and to both Rogers and Shaw’s Business Resource Centre for topics including social media and PR.1
Q&A with Darian:
Q: How long should a podcast be?
A: As long as you feel your audience will listen to you! There is no standard time that works for every podcast. If you feel that people will stop listening after a certain point, then that is when you should end the podcast.
Q: How do I market my podcast?
A: Reddit and Quora are two overlooked marketing channels that are great tools to spread the news about one’s podcast. They allow you to target your niche demographic directly with different “sub-reddits” [or discussion topics within Quora] that users already subscribe to. You can also market your podcast via other people’s podcasts by becoming a paid sponsor (inserting your own audio reel or having the other host mention your podcast) if you feel their audiences would be interested in your podcast.
Q: What software should I use to edit my podcast?
A: One of the easiest softwares to use is GarageBand. It comes with all Apple computers and is very simple to use. If you don’t have a Mac, there are tons of other editing softwares online, such as Pro Tools and Adobe Audition.
Q: What kind of equipment will I need and where can I get it? (microphones, cameras, software, etc..)
A: Amazon is a great place to look for microphones, noise cancelling foam plates, and other equipment, however you do not need fancy equipment to make a great podcast! There is equipment available within everyone’s budget. My personal favourite microphone is the Blue Snowball brand.
Q: How much time goes into preparing a podcast?
A: It all depends on the topic for the podcast and if you have a guest. Sometimes a sponsored guest may have an agenda of what they would like to talk about. In that scenario, we have been given a list of what to talk about and what not to talk about. Other times, we have some guided talking points and we let the conversion flow naturally. However, sometimes we do spend a lot of time researching the guest or a topic and have a plan on what we want to talk about. Every episode has a different strategy and requires different amounts of time and prep work.
Q: How do I decide on a theme for my podcast?
A: Find a niche that you have a passion for. You can make a podcast about anything nowadays! If you have an existing audience already, then please ask them! They may have suggestions on what they’d like to learn about next.
Q: How do I publish a podcast (on Spotify, website, etc….)?
A: Anchor.fm is my personal favourite. This is a great place to post your podcast to instantly upload it to 11 podcasting channels! Great for saving time. Works similar to Hootsuite, but for Podcasts.
Bonus Content:
Template for Messaging Guests
Darian was kind enough to share a version of the template he uses to contact people to be a guest on his show, as follows:
It’d be an honour to host you on our show Marketing Jam – www.jellymarketing.ca
We’ve interviewed Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and many others from LEGO, Starbucks, and Disney. We also have our show on Amazon Prime Video!
Here are some stat pages for your team – Jelly Marketing Stats and more info here: Jelly Marketing Sponsorship Deck
(Note* Please ignore all the sponsorship stuff – these are just the docs we have with all the stats. This is a pure editorial.)
Could we set up a time and date to look at this year to do an interview over Skype?
Links:
Below is a list of books, magazines, people, and podcasts that Darian recommends for anyone interested in being a better podcaster or marketer.
Books:
Explains how small differences over time can leave to big results later on.
An entertaining and informative guide to a wide variety of important business topics such as social media, customer service, and viral content.
Magazines:
Learn what it takes to Stand Out & Build Market Share in this Complex Environment.
Strategy Magazine is dedicated to helping executives, strategists, managers, and other professionals better formulate, implement, execute, engage, and govern strategies.
People:
Godin is known as ‘the ultimate entrepreneur for the information age’. He is an American writer and has written 17 books addressing various aspects of marketing, advertising, business venturing and leadership.
Guy Kawasaki is a marketing specialist, author, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing their Macintosh computer line.
Podcasts:
Canada’s #1 show on all things marketing. The hosts interview some of the top people from Google, Twitter, and beyond to get their inputs on everything marketing.
Provides historical context to how marketing was created and the transformation of it over the years.
Goes back in-time to reinterpret an event, person, or idea that was misunderstood by looping in new insights.
A publication about everything marketing-related in Canada.