If you’re trying to decide whether to DIY your podcast or hire a podcast producer, this is for you. I know it’s not an easy decision to make and there are a lot of factors to consider, so in this blog post I’m going to lay it all out for you. This is also for you if you’re currently DIYing your podcast and not getting the results you want.
To DIY, or Not to DIY
Everyone’s pros and cons for DIYing their podcast will look a little different, but some of the biggest factors to consider are time, resources, and knowledge. If you don’t have a lot of time available to dedicate to your podcast, it’s a sign that you might need to hire someone who does. When it comes to resources, a professional podcast producer likely has paid access to various software and programs for editing, scheduling, writing, and more. And of course, any good podcast producer is going to have a knowledge bank and skill set that would take years for you to master on your own.
DIYing your podcast is not impossible. For some people, it might be exactly the creative challenge they are looking for! But for many busy business coaches, consultants, and course creators, it’s hard to find the time to do it well.
Ways DIYing Your Podcast Could Be Harming Your Results
1. You’re Missing Out on Strategy
If you’re working without a strategy, it means you’re spending a lot of time creating content with no way of knowing if it’s working. A podcast manager knows how to read your stats to see what’s working and what’s not, and can work with you to plan upcoming content. Recording your podcast may be a fun hobby, but even so, I’m guessing you have some goals you’d like to achieve. Hitting those goals is going to be gruelling work without a strategy in place.
2. You Have Poor Audio Quality
Podcast listeners of today are pickier than ever, and rightly so; they have lots of choices when it comes to what they want to tune into! That means you need to give them good reasons to choose your show. Audio quality is make-or-break; listeners will switch off if the audio doesn’t sound good. When you’re DIYing your podcast, it can be hard to know whether your audio is up to a professional standard, and even harder to know how to achieve that standard. Podcast producers not only have teams of experienced editors, but they also likely have paid access to the best editing software on the market.
3. You Struggle with Consistency
You’re a successful entrepreneur. A working mom. A woman holding many titles. When you’re trying to run a podcast on your own, it’s inevitable that things fall through the cracks when you get busy. It’s not that you’re not committed to your podcast, it’s just that it’s usually the first thing to go when you simply don’t have time for everything. If that sounds like you, could it be worth hiring someone to keep things on track? A podcast producer will keep you accountable, get you ahead of schedule, and make sure that your next episode is always queued up and ready to go. If you struggle with consistency, this would be something super helpful!
4. You Don’t Have Time
This is probably the most common problem. DIYing your podcast is a big time commitment! There’s planning, recording, editing, scheduling, writing show notes, creating graphics, promoting your show… the list goes on. There’s a reason podcast-lovers like me can make whole careers out of podcast production and management; it’s a full-time job! Don’t forget that we usually have access to software, programs, and whole teams that work behind the scenes to keep podcasts running smoothly. We can take all the extra stuff off your plate so that you can focus on actually writing and recording your episodes.
5. You’re Not Showing Up in Search Results
You could be spending hours crafting the perfect podcast episodes, but still not be showing up in your target audience’s search results. This comes down to your show’s SEO (search engine optimization). SEO encompasses all the things that help you show up in results, and it’s just as important for a podcast search bar as it is for a web browser. A podcast producer knows how to use SEO and other strategies to get your show in search results and boost your downloads. You could be wasting precious time if you’re uploading episodes, but you don’t know how to get them seen.
Wrapping It All Up
DIYing your podcast could be for you if you have some extra time on your hands that you want to fill with a project, you enjoy researching and learning new skills, and you consider yourself pretty tech savvy. However, if you relate to a lot of the points we’ve covered in this blog post and you know that doing it yourself is going to impede your results, it might be time to call in some help. Schedule a call if you’d like to connect to see if we might be able to help.
Was this helpful? Check out some of these posts to keep the ball rolling:
Top 5 Mistakes Coaches and Consultants Make When Starting a Podcast
The Importance of Consistency in Podcasting: Tips for Staying on Track
