Podcasting continues to be a topic of conversation at all the major marketing conferences I have attended in the past few years, it seems like everyone has one! Well, they should and so should YOU since it is an easy marketing tool and powerful at building social credit. Physicians need a podcast to help develop their brand and grow their business. Best of all with a little preparation and leveraging online tools, it can be easy, fun and Cheap!
What is a podcast?
If you don’t know what a podcast is then you have come to the right place(or you have lived under a rock for the past 5 years!) A podcast is a syndicated audio show published online through a host which then gets pushed to all the major podcasting platforms like Itunes. Think of it like a radio show which isn’t live. Itunes is the radio and you have your own personal radio station with on-demand content.
Steps for Starting your first Podcast?
1: Choose a very clear topic and name for your title
- The topic must be consistent and helpful to the audience
- Finding a proper title is an art form and requires careful consideration
- Choose a name that is unique and also clearly makes the audience understand what your show is all about
- Consider performing a domain search to see if the website URL exists to purchase at the same time(it only costs ~$20, I recommend siteground)
2: Create your Podcast Brand with a nice thumbnail
- Modern online tools make this task very easy and mostly free
- Use Canva.com for fast, easy and beautify designs. It usually takes me about less than 5 mins to make an amazing logo.
- In Canva Choose “create design”
- Then choose “CD Cover”
- Pick something that appeals to you… there are hundreds of ideas!
- Add a title… and Download…. DONE!
3. Get a Good microphone and headphones
- By “Good” I mean decent, don’t break the bank!
- Don’t use your computer or laptop mic. Bad audio=death sentence.
- I know many podcasters that used standard apple headphones which include a built-in microphone… This is better than nothing.
- Otherwise, head over to amazon and buy a combo headset or separate components.
- I recommend: Audio-Technica ATR-2100 with a mic stand and headphones(to prevent feedback) or Combo Headphones.
4. Record your intro and outro
- Again don’t get too caught up in this.
- Write a script for both and then practice it a few times.
- Don’t speak in “radio guy voice” just pretend what you would want to hear and do it.
- Record an mp3 intro and outro using Garage Band or Audacity.
- Make both segments very short… but I recommend adding some background sound like music or special effects. People love signature or ritualistic intros.
- Record it in a relatively good sampling rate and in stereo.
- Keep these in a handy place, I recommend DropBox
5. Signup For Zencaster.com It is free(mostly)!
- Zencaster is free for the first two hours without any post-production processing.
- This is great for less than 2 hours of podcasting a month otherwise it is only 20 bucks!
6. Zencaster Basics
- Once you log in the user interface is very simple
- Press “Create New Episode”
- Press “Create New Episode”
- Name the Episode and then press “create”
- This is the recording screen which includes Health Check and other Hud information.
- Press the Settings button on the right upper hand corner.
- Select your Audio Input and Output, leave everything else alone.
- Press the drop-down arrow on the Health Check. Ignore Warning about local storage if it exists. Everything else should be green and Passed.
- Press the Invite Button, this creates a link to share with your guests.
- Note: Your guest must use this link to record.
- Great News! It works on desktops, smartphones, and tablets! Again they must have a dedicated Microphone and Earphones.
6. Add you Intro, Outro and Sponsor
- I recommend using the exact same intro and outro to keep your fans happy.
- If you have a sponsor then you only have to record it once and then done.
- First, delete all the other prerecorded sounds by pressing the x button.
- Press the + button to add your intro and outro
- Choose each file you recorded earlier
- Bam! It looks great and you only have to do it once.
7. Start recording
- Once you guest joins the channel you need to do an audio Health Check on their stream.
- Also, make sure the sound is clear from their end. Typically poor sound quality comes from choosing the wrong device for Audio Input.
- Just walk them through everything the first 3-5 mins.
- If their sound still sounds bad, ask them to go into a closest or place pillows around the mic.
- Next press Start Recording!
- Once you press the start recording… there is no going back, no rewind, no do-overs. Make sure you are both ready.
- Also if you totally screw up just Press Stop Recording and then press New Recording.
- Don’t forget to press your intro and outro buttons
- When you are done press Stop Recording.
- It is so easy!
8. Post Production
- The best part of Zencastr is that it saves all the audio to Dropbox which can easily be transferred to other location for post-production and syndication.
- Unfortunately, there is a small snag with the “free version,” It doesn’t offer post-production which combines the guest and host audio files.
- If you want to continue to use the free version each hour of Post Production will cost 3 bucks, so not too bad.
- Press Automatic Postproduction
- Select the audio files you want to combine and audio equalized.
- It takes about 15 mins to process
- Once the file has been completed you have two choices
- Download to your computer
- Upload to Dropbox by pressing Cloud Drive
- The files will automatically be present in the post-production folder in Dropbox
- Download to your computer
- Done with Post Production, give it a listen, I bet it sounds great!
9. Optional Step: Transcribe your Podcast!
- Transcription is a tough game. Do you want a summary of the podcast or do you want a full transcription?
- Personally I like to transcribe the whole thing and make notes reflecting salient points.
- Transcribing is both expensive and frustrating. If you hire someone like Rev or Upwork it will cost ~$60/hour and you have to wait for the turn around time ~ 24 hours.
- I have tried them all and what I have finally discovered that worked the best? Sonix.ai
- When I first used s
- Sonix it was free for the first hour but now the secret is out but the pricing is still reasonable.
- They are offering a free trial with 30 mins of transcription or if you try premium you using my coupon you will get the 30 mins plus an addition 100 mins!
- First Sign Up, then press the upload button
- Upload your files from your computer or Dropbox
- Choose the language and press Yes.
- It takes 10-30 mins to transcribe and then you get a rough draft.
- Open the new transcription.
- Next Choose who is speaking and choose +New speaker
- As you listen you will see the highlighted words which need to be reviewed and can be edited on in real time.
- Best of all you can edit the transcription which also edit the audio file on the fly!.
- Press the Strike Through Button on the highlighted text which eliminates the text and audio.
- Once you are done you have some amazing choices….
- Export the file to many formats
- Or best of all Save the Embedded Code to your website for live transcription with audio!
- Download the edited podcast but make sure you select the audio file with the strikethroughs removed.
- Export the file to many formats
- It will download to your computer then move it back to Dropbox
10. Last step: Upload to your Host and Publish to iTunes.
- Sign with a host, I choose the most reputable and fairly priced Libsyn. The podcaster who publishes less than once every two weeks the Classic 50 plan for $5 bucks should work.
- Follow these guides to setup Libsyn and iTunes.
Conclusion: It sounds and looks harder than it is.
Once the system is created recording a podcast can be as easy as sending a few emails to arrange a recording time with a guest or just start recording on your cell phone when you find the muse.
Total Cost for a very powerful marketing tool?
| Item | Cost |
| Zencaster | $20 |
| Libsyn | $5 |
| Sonix.ai | $10 |
| Dropbox | $10 |
| Total | $45 |
If you want to enhance your brand, your website or your business, Podcasting is an inexpensive and very powerful solution for physicians and other media professionals.