Let’s talk about show structure!

In one of the more surprising changes in this year’s research, we saw fewer hooks, or clips of content before the intro, 38% compared to 48%. This seems to be in direct opposition to a change that Apple Podcasts made this year, allowing people to hear the beginning of the previous episode at the click of a button! We still recommend using hooks – but you’re the boss of your podcast!

The great majority of podcasts have a produced intro and outro, and 83% have guests all the time, sometimes, or in segments.

Guests are generally an important aspect of B2B podcasts. They are a great chance for networking. A common misconception is that having guests on your podcast will help grow it – but what guests really help with is professional relationship building and generating interesting content for your blog. There is some debate in podcast world about the appropriateness of requiring your guests to share their episodes.

Always remember that while your content may be excellent, and the conversation you had with your guest unique and valuable, there are lots of very good reasons for guests not to share their interview. Maybe what they spoke with you about is super fresh for your audience, but the topic of every other blog post for theirs. Maybe their promotional calendar is full. Maybe the angle you approached the topic from isn’t a great fit for their people. Maybe they had half a dozen interviews coming out that week and they can’t overwhelm their feed. None of those are personal reasons, and they’re all perfectly good ones not to share an episode that they gave you, for free, for your audience.

It’s smart and courteous to make it easy for a guest to share if they choose to by providing swipe materials and communicating about when the episode is going to release, but it shouldn’t be an expectation.

At the end of the day, guests create content and relationships, and both of those things are exceptionally valuable. If you want traffic, go be a guest on someone else’s show.

Requiring your guests to share is still tacky. I’ll die on that hill.

Stepping off the soap box and moving on! This year we paid a little more attention to the final host CTA – what are people using podcasts to ask their listeners to do?

Some kind of engagement request (like: “find us on social,” “share this episode,” “tell us what you think,)” etc. was the most popular, followed closely by a thank you and goodbye – together representing 31% of the shows. Oddly, just ending the show or going to a produced outro was next with 14% choosing the minimalist approach. This tells us that sharing and public engagement are high priorities for these podcasters.

The next big “group” were to free or paid CTA’s – list building and product/service sales OR a tagline which is what we’re calling any “signoff” that is repeated. The list building and sales are obvious, but what the tagline does is create a feeling of community among listeners – it’s a way of rewarding people who listen all the time.

Finally, some shows ended with credits to who produced – always a nice touch in my completely biased opinion, or a very specific request to call in to a segment on a particular topic. This last one is fantastic for getting your listeners engaged, and we separated it from engagement request because it’s so specifically targeted and geared towards future content production. If you have the audience for it – I strongly recommend this strategy.

Next, we took a quick peek at the style of editing. There are many different ways to edit a podcast, so seeing what choices the best performing business shows use was valuable.

13% of the shows seemed to use very minimal editing, if any! If you’ve got the fame already, or repurposing a livestream is more important or more possible (due to time constraints) than creating a new audio product, then this is an option. It can sound unprofessional, and sometimes the translation in energy between a livestream and a podcast can be a little alienating because of the audience interaction that future listeners can’t take part it, but the tradeoffs can be worth it in some instances!

The vast majority (73%) used what we call normal or hygiene editing – where they conversation is made a bit better – fewer stumbles no big mistakes, tidied background – than a normal conversation would be. This is the most common form of editing because, value for money, it’s an accessible way to sound like you’re taking your show seriously. It’s important to remember that there is often more going on with the editing than can be easily heard! What can sound like a normal hygiene edit may well be the result of a talented editor choosing and stitching together the best parts of a conversation! When you’re looking to hire a third-party producer, as them what kinds of editing they do, and what they recommend based on your speaking and interviewing style.

The final group was editorial editing (14%) – this is a narrative, musically enhanced, news or documentary style of editing. For some shows, this is a requirement, and it’s a great chance for everyone involved to show their creativity and really tell a story with audio. It’s not financially on the table for many shows, but when it’s possible, it can be a fantastic option to create a very high-end sounding show, and really flex your creative muscles. Check out Podcast Architect to learn more about narrative or editorial style editing!

Now, let’s discuss show formats – interviews, vs panel discussions, vs cohost conversations etc.

Interview style shows led the pack with 52% of the top 100 using this format where the host or co-hosts have a conversation with an outside guest. A handful (10%) of shows each used pure solo episodes (a good option if engaging your audience, and/or keeping production workflows simple are priorities!), with the same number being conversations between co-hosts. These show formats are roughly equivalent to what we say last year, although fewer had a consistent pattern of alternating show formats. This is still a good strategy for many company shows, however, as we spoke about in other episodes!

When you’re designing your own show, you want to think about your needs for podcasting. If you’re looking to build professional relationships, you need guests! If what you need is to engage your audience, then involving them and having lots of one-on-one host-to-audience time is the way to go. If you’re podcasting specifically to deliver information of some kind, then solos can be the fastest and easiest to produce. If you hate the feeling of talking alone into a microphone, co-hosting can be a great way to keep things interesting and comfortable. There are no wrong answers, and the choice should always be made based on your own business needs… but remember: more people, more problems.

If you’ve made it to the end – thank you! In the next installment, we’ll be talking about the ever-controversial show notes and websites!

If you’ve been finding this content valuable, it would be wonderful if you could share the report download page: https://onestonecreative.net/report2021/

Mick Smith, Consultant M: (619) 227.3118

E: mick.smith@wsiworld.com

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