Launching a company podcast consists of much more than talking into a microphone for a half hour each week. With show segment creation, back-and-forth emailing with guests, and general coordination every week, preparation for each show can eat up hours quite fast. Whether you're in the process of launching a podcast, or are several episodes deep, you're probably spending more time than you'd like to on weekly prep. fjorge ran into this issue when we launched fjorgecast, and our solution turned out to be a simple one we wish we had thought of sooner. We were able to expedite our weekly prep process while making life easier for us and our guests with a single landing page and form. It might surprise you that a landing page can save you 3-5 hours every week on podcast prep, but it did for us and it can for you. Just remember to include these three things:
1) Everything the guest needs to know about the show
Include things like show length, a breakdown of segments, how-to guides, information about the host, and anything else your guest might need to know about the show. Your guest is likely curious about all of these things and will appreciate having a place to refer back to. Including all this information on the landing page will reduce back-and-forth email chains (saving everybody time), as well as ensure everyone is on the same page come show time.
2) Questions you want your guest to answer
Your guest wants to know the types of questions they will be asked during the show, and you probably want an idea of how they'll respond. Make this easy on both of you by putting a form on your landing page for guests to fill out ahead of the show. In the form, include questions you'll be asking them during the show as fields that require a brief response. This gives both sides peace of mind knowing no curveballs will be thrown at them during the podcast. This also gives you the opportunity to plan some probing follow-up questions before the show, instead of on the spot.
3) What does your guest want to talk about?
The last thing you want is for all your podcast shows to sound the same. Fix this by getting input from guests so you can tailor the show to what they want to talk about. Having guests tell you (in the form) what questions they want to be asked during the podcast will keep your guest engaged and make for great conversation. Be sure to also have form fields available for the guest to provide links to articles they have written or been featured on.
Creating a planning landing page for fjorgecast has been the biggest time-saver we've found since launching in October of 2016. In saving us hours by virtually eliminating back-and-forth email chains, it's given us more time to plan out engaging talking points each week, and has improved our content on every show. Listen to fjorgecast for yourself here.
