Content marketing has become a vital component of online marketing. Any marketer who wants his/her podcasts to be successful has to rely to a certain extent on content creation. But what if you are missing inspiration to optimize your podcast potential? There are many places to get inspiration for your podcasts. In the same way that you will often find inspiration for your blog posts, so too can you find inspiration for the content of your podcasts to get the desired results.
The following 15 tips can be of use:
1. Brainstorm
When you are first starting your podcasting, it is probably because you feel inspired to do so and have at least a couple of topics on your mind that you would like to speak about. Don’t lose those ideas and that momentum. Do a brain dump in which you write down every idea you have. Then start tackling them one by one.
2. Look at discussion boards and forums
See what the people in your niche are talking about.
3. Check out social media
What are people talking about on the networks you use? Or in the groups, such as Facebook Groups?
4. The news
What’s going on in the world that you can relate to in your podcast? It is vital to your success that you choose a topic that people are interested in.
5. Ask your audience
Get them to email you or tweet you what they want to hear. Use social media networks to interact with your audience.
6. Bring on guests
Bring on guests who have certain niche-related expertise and things they want to talk about. You can get audience members and experts to all join in to present great value.
7. Read frequently asked questions about your niche
FAQ’s can offer a wealth of content to help your audience get the most out of your niche and solve their problems and to answer most of their concerns.
8. Pay attention to your competition
What kinds of things are they talking about on their podcasts? Subscribe to at least two or three, or search their teaser copy to get ideas that you can also use to your own podcast. Use your own creativity to not become a copycat but to be original.
9. Go hand-in-hand with your competition
If you subscribe to different podcasts and hear something you disagree with, or want to cover in more detail, go for it. Don’t be harsh in your comments and stay correct though, as it is alright to “agree to disagree“. In fact, you might even suggest that you partner up and do a podcast together so that both your audiences can benefit from it or seeing matters in a different angle for the topic.
10. Use customer support issues
If you get the same questions coming up over and over again in your customer support email, chances are it is something worth discussing in detail or just write another FAQ page.
11. Check trends online
Most of the social media sites, and the search engines, show what is trending. You can join in on the conversation. Be up-to-date.
12. Follow thought leaders
Follow thought leaders on Twitter, Facebook and so on. See what kinds of things they are talking about that inspire you and suits your audience. Learn from the experts so you can avoid mistakes (but you’ll make them anyhow in your own learning process).
13. Your own blog posts
You don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel all the time. Leverage the content you already have to create your podcasts by using your (old) blog posts.
13. Private Label Rights (PLR) niche content
Private Label Rights content is pre-written content that you can buy a license to. Massage it into your own blog content and also use it for your podcasts. It is usually pretty cheap, about $1 per article, which is less expensive than hiring an article writer to do the work for you from scratch. Search for NICHE PLR, with NICHE the topic you are working on, and see what comes up. Edit it for grammar as needed, and to give it your own voice and style. Then use as needed.
14. Top Ten Listicles
Listicles are articles in a list format, with Top 10 tips, Top 10 items and so on all listed, and then discussed briefly. We could title this article also as “Top 15 ways to find inspirational ideas for your podcasts”, for example. People love lists, hints and tips.
15. Article directories
Article directories were really popular a couple of years ago when Google gave higher rank to pages that had a lot of back links. This is no longer quite true, but there is still a lot of interesting content that was created by pretty talented business owners and writers to try to drive traffic back to their own sites. Search for your niche and see what inspires you and suits your audience. When it comes to online article directories, you can choose between free and paid websites. Ezine Articles is a great platform for marketers to post their content, see www.Ezinearticles.com, and the best thing about using Ezine Articles is that it’s completely free.
Now that you know the best places to find inspiration for your podcasts, you should be ready to start your own, or perk up your existing podcast to give it a whole new energy. Your audience is waiting for you.
