Leading food & drink PR & Communications agency, Sharp Relations, has opened a podcasting and voice recording studio at its office location at Evegate Business and Retail Park, near Ashford, Kent.
Sharp Relations founder, AJ Sharp explains why podcasting is good for business and shares her top tips on how to ensure your podcast is a success.
The Era of Audio
“Communications is changing fast both globally and, in the UK, the spoken word is fast catching up with written.
“Podcasting has become one of the fastest growing media platforms and is estimated that 19% of UK adults (10.5m) are listening to podcasts every week[i] for an average of 6.5hours a week. Globally, there are 464.7million[ii] people regularly listening to podcasts, which is set to continue rising.
Says Sharp Relations Founder AJ Sharp, “The future of communications is changing fast, and businesses need to be at the head of the curve. It’s the era of audio and the spoken word is becoming a primary communications platform, and this is only set to grow.
“From corporate podcasting to broadcasting, audio book editions to self-help guides, audio content creation can help businesses realise many different business goals.”
“We all consume information in different ways with many of us filling in the gaps in our daily lives while we’re in the car, on a dog walk, at the gym, or maybe even baking a cake by listening to podcasts. Why do we do this? Because they fill in the gaps with intimacy.”
If you’re thinking about starting a podcast, here’s why it’s a good idea:
- Build an audience – it allows you to reach a wide audience and build arguably the most intimate and personal relationships with a community of listeners.
- Build your brand – it’s a great way to increase visibility and create content for your socials.
- Monetization – podcasting can be a source of income via sponsorships and advertising and the creation of premium content. A CNBC study revealed that 78% of listeners said they approve of podcast advertising, 63% of podcast listeners said they bought something after hearing a podcast ad and around 67% of listeners said they remembered products or brands from a podcast ad.
And here are a few top tips:
- Have your target audience firmly in mind when you are planning content – what are they interested in? What is going to make them tune in and engage with your content? How are you going to emotionally connect with them and keep them coming back for more?
- Have an end goal or outcome in mind – is it to reach new social media followers? Drive your new business pipeline? Or build your profile as an authority on your specialist subject?
- Use a professional set up to ensure best sound quality – podcast consumers have high expectations of the standard of the content so audio quality is really important. Get help with editing post recording to ensure you end up with a professional podcast that makes for great listening.
- Batch record content – a bit like batch cooking this makes the best use of your studio time.
- Keep it short and snappy – no more than 10 minutes for ‘top tips’ type content and no more than 30 minutes for interview / guest-led podcasts. Your audience wants bitesize content that they can consume easily and fit in with their busy lifestyle.
- Create SEO-focused content – According to Google, “27% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile” instead of typing. This is one of the reasons Google introduced a podcast search feature that enables people to listen to podcasts through the search results and allows users to search for suitable podcasts based on any keywords in the episode. This means that, as with websites, podcasters should be creating SEO-focused content to ensure their show appears when searched.
The Studio
Businesses can book out the Sharp Relations studio space for a whole day, half day or by the hour. If requested, the Sharp Relations team will be on hand to support with messaging strategy, media training or production editing.
Situated in accessible office space at Evegate Business and Retail Park, 3 miles from junction 10A of M20. The office is on the ground floor and benefits from ample parking and a fully equipped show kitchen, with oven and hob. The recording equipment has been designed to be accessible with a height adjustable desk for comfort.
The Equipment
The new recording studio has been acoustically treated and users can pre-record or live stream audio content such as podcasts, radio shows, voice overs, video content, interviews, and digital audio content.
The equipment and software is all industry-leading and includes: Zoom PodTrak P8, Shure MV7 Podcast Microphones (x2), Rode PodMic Dynamic Microphone (x3), Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (x5), Apple Mac Mini M1 (G8 – 2020), Adobe Audition, 60 inch LCD Monitor, Zoom Video Conferencing (Recording-enabled), Bluetooth Connectivity (Phone/VoIP guests), HD Logitech Conferencing Webcam and height-adjustable desk.
@sharprelations
[i] The Midas Survey: https://www.rajar.co.uk/docs/news/MIDAS_Summer_2022_.pdf?utm_source=podnews.net&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=podnews.net:2022-10-18
[ii] https://www.demandsage.com/podcast-statistics/#:~:text=The%20addition%20of%20podcasters%2C%20listeners,of%20the%20podcast%20industry’s%20progress.
