In February we published an article on why you should consider podcasting to engage your audience in a way other mediums can’t.
Below we explore what it takes to make a successful podcast as well as address probably the first question on your lips – how much does it cost?
Whether you’re looking for a one-off podcast or a full series, there will never be a one size fits all, but by using our tried and tested approach we can deliver a best-in-class podcast series of six podcasts for as little as £20,000 or a one-off episode for £4,000.
Given that a recent study commissioned by the BBC found that organisations with branded podcasts enjoy an uplift of 89% in awareness, 57% in brand consideration and an incredible 14% in purchase intent, you shouldn’t have much trouble selling this in.
The below framework gives you an idea of the stages we would go through for a series of 6 podcasts, but we will tailor this to your brief and budget.
Strategy and project management: c.£8K
- Full project scoping
- Taking your brief, internal discussions and agreement on plan.
- Developing full project plan and quoting for everything up front.
- Full project management
- Managing everything from start to end, continual liaison, briefings and WIP sessions with content strategy as well as the production studio.
- Weekly status meetings including check ins on performance.
- Organising the podcast recordings and working with you to take feedback and acting on it with the production house.
- Competitor review
- A full review of all similar podcasts and their purpose including any learnings that can be taken from them.
- Briefing and commissioning of journalist
- Our content strategist will recommend appropriate journalists and fully brief the selected journalist, including background on your business, the suite of podcasts, the angle we’re taking and anything else relevant.
- Name and identity creation
- Crafting of a succinct elevator pitch for the podcast.
- Developing a name that’s simple, on brand and unique as well as an associated suite of icons for your podcast and the individual episodes.
- Customer Journey development
- Full customer journey seamlessly incorporating your paid / owned and earned channels.
- Content strategy and deployment framework
- Developing the approach to your podcasts including how the suite and each individual episode ladders up to your wider business strategy.
- Planning of and creation of a full content calendar for your content and PR team to utilise across the campaign.
- This will also include brainstorming any fun engagement ideas for the end of each episode e.g. What 3 learnings from lockdown will you take forward post pandemic?
Production: c.£12K
- Recording of 6 x 15 minute Podcasts
- Recording in a professional studio across 2 days. The podcasts will vary in length depending on the quality of the interview, but the length should be consistent across the series and based on audience listening habits.
- Journalist research, preparation and presenting
- Time to talk to the interviewees, craft the angle, practice, research the subject and record the podcasts. Costs are subject to the individual journalist, however, must allow for a day’s prep for each episode as well as recording for 2 days across all episodes.
- Post-production including consultation and edits
- All post-production of the 6 podcasts. The production studio will be on hand to answer any questions before (pre-prod), during (at the recording) and after (when reviewing edits) recording.
- Editing and summaries
- Full editing of each episode, cutting it down to the desired length and sense checking content.
- One page summary of the episode including short sentence long summary for use on iTunes and on the website.
- Music and Intro Voice Over
- Royalty free music, selected in advance and one voice over artist who will introduce each podcast.
- Mastering, Distribution and Data analysis through Omny Studio
- Finalising each podcast for playout, uploading to iTunes and other podcast channels and then reviewing performance and engagement stats including listens (day and day part analysis) and subscribes – this will potentially inform timings for any subsequent series.
- Audio and Visual Trailers (to run on social media)
- Trailers will be produced to showcase the theme of the series. This will likely be a 30”- 1 minute short. We’ll also provide a visual trailer – recorded on one of the days. Both of these can be used as part of the wider content calendar to build momentum.
- Audiograms of each episode for use in email on web and on social media.
- Promotion on Podcast Radio
- This is an added extra and will give the series extra exposure to podcast listeners.
- All travel, refreshments and studio decoration
- Expenses for journalist’s travel as well as light studio decoration e.g. coffee mugs, posters and microphone covers.
To find out how Hunterlodge can create a successful podcast for your brand, contact kim.mclellan@hunterlodge.co.uk
To read the success story of ‘Leading Edge’, our podcast series from Henley Business School, click here.
