How to Write Your Own Podcast Business Plan and All the Reasons You Should

Planning is not the most exciting business activity you could take on, but it’s one of the most vital ones when starting a new journey. When it comes to creating a podcast, in order to set yourself up for success, you need to put some thought into what you will be talking about, how you will market it, and where you want to go with it in the future.

Many small businesses start their podcast without having any plan at all, and soon they find themselves stuck in a rut, with no ideas on how to continue. It’s better to prepare first and then adjust with the flow later.

If you’re still not convinced that planning is needed, or you simply want to learn how to write your own podcast business plan, then keep on reading.

Why You Need a Podcast Business Plan

You’ve probably heard that many businesses just start their podcast without any plan or preparation, so why can’t you do the same? Podcasting isn’t all that different from any other business venture. It takes time, money, and resources to be done. Even if your end goal isn’t to become Joe Rogan and you’re simply doing it for fun or as another useful promotion tool, starting something with no destination or goal in mind is never a good idea.
A podcast business plan is what can help you avoid feeling uncertain and confused. At the very least, it can make your journey more meaningful by adding milestones, targets, and goals. With that said, let’s see how you can write a plan.

How to Write a Podcast Business Plan

Writing a podcast business plan sounds complicated, but in reality, it’s not. It just takes some effort, time, and research. The more work you put into it at the start, the easier it will be to create, manage and maintain your podcast as time goes on.

Before we start, one thing to note is that you need to consider who will be looking at your podcast business plan: if it’s you and possibly those helping you, then there’s one way to do it. However, if you’re making it so that it can be used by people who don’t know you and need to start from scratch, then you shouldn’t skip the “extras” and the detailed descriptions of the tasks that should be done.

Podcast Overview

An overview is exactly what it sounds like. It should cover your podcast’s who, what, where, when, and why. It’s a good idea to do the following:

• Write a quick overview of what the podcast is about and how it’s presented
• Outline the producers, hosts, and all other personnel involved
• Create the values, goals, and mission of the podcast

The overview shouldn’t be too detailed. You just want to give the reader a sense of what the podcast is all about before it’s time for him to dig into the plan.

Overview of the Podcasting Space

In any other business space, this section could be called “competitors,” but perhaps that’s not the right word when it comes to podcasts. You should be aware that there will be shows similar to yours, and so you need to differentiate yourself from them, but you don’t necessarily have to battle with them for audiences. Here, you will want to research what podcasts are in your niche; the main goal will be to find answers to these questions:

• What are the most popular podcasts in your niche? What’s their target audience?
• Who’s your podcasting inspiration?
• Where will your podcast fit into the mix?

Target Audience

There’s a notion that if you just put out high-quality content, people will find it – well, it’s a lie. There are a ton of options out there, and it’s a bad idea to not consider what your target audience may look like.

You want to have a target audience that your podcast will be aimed towards. You should strive to be a lot more specific than simply “men and women over 30, who don’t have kids”. Instead, dig deep into what your audience will look like and try to find out what might attract them to your podcast.

This is the podcast section where your growth starts, and you can’t grow something you know nothing about.

Budget

There’s a way to create a podcast without investing any money at all, but just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Eventually, high-quality content will cost you money, and you need to have an idea of just how much.

Some of the line items included in a podcast budget should be the following:

• Equipment
• Hosting platforms
• Editing and production
• Marketing activities
• Website design

Having a written budget will help put the costs of podcasting into perspective and will enable you to decide whether monetizing it should be on your “to-do” list.

Personnel

This section of the plan outlines who’s responsible for what when it comes to creating the podcast. You will want to identify the following roles and responsibilities:

• Host
• Producer
• Audio engineer
• Operations manager
• Marketing department
• Anyone else you believe your podcast will need

In the beginning, it’s possible that only one or two people are responsible for everything, but as you expand, it’s a good idea to have the needed roles pre-defined.

Growth and Marketing Plan

Whether you’re doing it for fun or for the money, it’s inevitable that you will want your podcast to grow. This is where your marketing plan has to kick in and help out. You will want to have an idea of the type of advertising activities you will run and how regularly you will do them. Make sure to outline all the channels you will be using (social media, blog, etc.) and how often you plan to use each one. Here, you will also have to determine whether you will opt for paid ads or simply rely on organic marketing strategies.

Monetization

With your budget set, it might help you see whether you need to monetize the podcast or not. If you determine that the cost is too high and you need to get something in return, some popular monetization channels include

• Affiliate marketing
• Sponsorships
• Merchandise
• Product sales

It’s a good idea to know which monetization ideas you want to implement with your podcast, as that will enable you to prepare correctly and plan on how you can make it happen.

You’re Ready to Get Started With Your Podcast

Creating a business plan for your podcast is not only a great way to ensure your venture is successful, but it’s also fun. Remember, this is only the first step of a long process that you need to go through, but it’s a must-do one if you want your podcast to grow and become popular.