I was about to set out on a six day, 2500 mile journey from Sayville, New York to Phoenix, Arizona. I’d be spending six or seven hours a day in the car, on my own. What was I to do with all that time?

Learn, of course! I could just tune in to my favorite podcasts and expand my knowledge, one mile at a time.

According to Jay Baer, “32 percent of Americans listen to podcasts monthly.” This represents approximately 105 million people!

And that is why it makes a LOT of sense to have podcasts as part of your digital marketing strategy. It’s a great way to build authority, credibility, and likeability in your coaching business. It’s one of the fastest ways to establish yourself as a thought leader.

However, creating a good quality podcast is not easy. There are many podcast production tasks to complete and trying to do them alone can be overwhelming. Having a podcast production A team can help save you a lot of time and overwhelm.

8 Podcast Production Tasks that You Should Stop Doing Now

You've spent a considerable amount of time planning and recording your podcast. It's covering a topic that you are truly passionate about and you are excited to share it with the world. However, you are a busy entrepreneur. The time that you spend in podcast production could be time you use to follow-up with customers and get more sales.

Outsourcing podcast production tasks to experienced freelancers is your best bet. Here are 8 podcast production tasks that you should outsource so that you can make the best use of your time.

Doing guest follow up

It's tempting to focus on communicating with your podcast guest before the show and neglect further communication with him or her afterwards. Bad idea! You should always follow up with your podcast guests. Here’s why:

• Your guest can help you promote the episode with his or her network.
• He or she may have suggested possible collaboration opportunities that you should accept.
• There may be a possibility of a future collaboration between you and your guest. This gives your brand further exposure.

Following up on podcast guest invitations can also take up a lot of your time.  Often emails end up in spam folders or are forgotten. Remind your prospective podcast guests of your invitation. Remember to follow up with prospective guests 3 days after you've sent the initial invitation. 

Download our Ultimate Guide to Delegating for More Tips & Tools on How to Delegate as a Solopreneur

Creating graphics

YouTube has thumbnail images. Podcasts have something similar called cover art. This is the first thing that listeners see when they view the podcast. Well designed podcast cover art can attract listeners. Having none or minimal cover art can turn listeners away.

Podcast cover art isn’t something that you should mess around with if you aren’t a skilled graphic designer. Sure, there are online design programs like Canva that can make it seem like an average person has strong design skills. That is not enough if you want to create stunning graphics.

Here are some key elements that a talented graphic designer will include in good podcast cover art:

• Vibrant and contrasting colors
• Appropriate use of white space and text
• Strong representation of your brand
• A design that visually communicates the podcast’s subject
• A design that can adjust to any screen size
•  The right fonts that don’t detract from the design

Writing show notes

Podcast show notes are the real deal! They do a lot to enhance your podcast’s appeal and visibility. Rachel Corbett defines podcast show notes as, “a written post on your website that relates to the content you cover in your podcast.” You’re probably groaning right now. After all, the reason you created a podcast in the first place was to avoid writing.

The reality is that you can’t avoid written content even if you’re using a podcast. Podcast show notes are valuable because they:

• Are great for search engine optimization (SEO) and hence make your content discoverable
• Enable you to build internal links on your website and share other resources
• Offer a good way to add content to your website without needing to come up with new ideas
• Can be viewed on any device. An iTunes podcast is not accessible on an Android device and vice versa. However, website visitors can read your show notes to get a sense of what the podcast is about without necessarily listening to it.
• Allow you to include links to references you made throughout the podcast
• Make your podcast shareable on social media

A skilled writer can help you create engaging show notes. Why waste time struggling to get the show notes together yourself?

Editing Audio

Good audio is a crucial component of any podcast. It is a podcasting faux pau to produce audio:

• Using low quality audio equipment
• That is not levelled
• Has background noise

Audio editing is necessary even if you use the best audio equipment. A sound engineer who gets a fairly good raw audio file can make your podcast sound magical. Podcast production is not as simple as recording a conversation, but Virtual A Team can help you find the right sound engineer.

Posting on a Listing Service

Podcast promotion is often a stickler for coaches. Wouldn’t be great if you could just upload your podcast and have new listeners appear in droves? There would be more podcast stars and podcast listeners if it were that simple. Here are some of the best podcast directories that can help your podcast reach a wider audience:

• Apple Podcasts
• Google Podcasts
• Spotify
• Stitcher
• TuneIn Radio

Listing on these podcast directories requires more than simply uploading the podcast, crossing your fingers, and waiting for the best to happen. You need someone who understands SEO best practices to help you use the right keywords, podcast description and tags to increase visibility.

Posting on your website

If you haven’t been posting your podcasts on your website, you need to start posting them now. Here are some reasons why posting your podcast on your website is important:

• Remember show notes? Show notes on your website make it more visible and add valuable content that positions you as an industry expert.
•  Your podcast needs a home on the internet that it can call its own.
• Your podcast archive is easily accessible on your website.
• A sales funnel can be created with the podcast being used as a lead generating magnet. Potential customers can be guided along the sales funnel on your website.

Posting on social media

Social media marketing (SMM) will be around for a long time to come. The Pew Research Center states that approximately 70 percent of “American use social media to connect with each other.” It would be remiss of you to avoid using social media in your podcast promotion plan. The thing is though that SMM takes great skill and experience to produce the best results. It will bleed your pocket dry if you don’t know what you’re doing.

A social media marketing expert can help you:

• Create and execute a social media marketing plan
• Prepare attractive content for your social media pages
• Post consistently on your social media pages so that followers don’t lose interest
• Reduce your ad spend
• Create targeted ads to meet the needs of your customer segments

Sending out email announcements to guests and to audience

Email marketing is one of the most important podcast production tasks. Your email subscriber list is filled with people who are already interested in your podcast. They are the people who will tune in and share. Here are some strong reasons to incorporate email marketing in your podcast production tasks:

• Your email subscribers will be the first people to know about new podcast episodes. They will feel like VIPs.
• Email provides a good way to inform your podcasts listeners when new episodes are released and also provide a direct link to the episode.
• Other content and promotions can be included in the email

Email marketing may seem simple on the surface. However, it requires skilled copywriting and attention-to-detail. It is often best to hire an email marketing expert.

Keeping Track of It All

Now that you’ve decided to outsource a lot of the podcasting tasks, how do you keep track of who’s doing what?

First of all, hire a great online business manager who can do this for you. An online business manager can help manage the workflow process and the people assigned to the different tasks. He or she will be able to follow up and make sure projects are moving forward. Your online business manager will ensure nothing is falling through the cracks.

Next, make sure you have a great project management system. We talk about some of our favorites in our Project Management Program Comparison. Once you’ve chosen a system, make sure it’s set up to follow a clear workflow and all of your team members have access to the system.

Putting It Altogether

You are passionate about the difference you make as a coach. In fact, you probably started your podcast to share this passion with the world, not really realizing the amount of time and effort it would take.

Podcast production tasks you can outsource include:

• Guest follow up
• Creating graphics
• Editing audio
• Writing show notes
• Posting on listing services
• Posting to social media
• Sending email announcements to guests and your list

When you can stop doing these tasks and start outsourcing them, you’ll have more time to do what only you can do. Let Virtual A Team help you build your podcasting A team. Contact us today for a free consultation.