Content Calendars: Plan Your Podcast As If Writing a Book
Turning your podcast into a book is one way to monetize your show while growing your influence, so why not plan for that from the beginning? On Podcasting Step by Step, I share how you can map out an entire year’s worth of podcast content in an hour, which can then be repurposed into blogs, social media posts, books, and more.
Most podcasters quit after less than 10 episodes. Why? Because podcasting has a lot of moving parts. We’re recording, interviewing, editing, publishing, promoting one episode and all of a sudden it’s time for the next one, and the hamster wheel feeling creeps up.
But, we can overcome this overwhelm and maintain control of our shows by planning ahead.
Step 1 Make time for editorial planning
Block off an hour on your calendar for content/editorial planning. We all know that planning for success makes sense, but if we don’t book specific time to get ourselves organized, we push it off. This upfront work will save your sanity later.
Step 2 Brainstorm episode ideas
Spend 15 minutes writing episode ideas for your podcast. At least enough for four months worth of content, try for the year.
Imagine you’re writing a book related to your podcast. On a piece of paper, write your podcast title and category in the center. Next, draw lines radiating out from the center, and write down the chapters that need to be included in the book. These are your podcast themes.
Then, for each theme, create offshoots that are episode ideas. Don’t censor yourself or over think things -- write down whatever comes into your mind; you can make changes later.
Think about your ideal listener. Where are they right now in life and how can you take them to the next level? Write whatever comes to mind without overthinking.
Also consider important dates. Do you have any product launches planned that you need special content for? Are there any holidays or seasonal themes you want to cover?
Step 3 Validate your content ideas
Once you have your list of episodes, validate your ideas and come up with even more by finding out what your ideal listener is searching for online.
Take your episode idea titles and search for them on Google. You’ll see the most popular content and Google will reference related questions people have asked and related searches. These make great episode titles because they are what people are searching for. Also, study the titles of the page 1 Google posts. What makes them attractive? What do they have in common? What sets them apart?
Answerthepublic.com is a tool you can use to discover what people are looking up online. Another great free tool is Ubersuggest, which lets you research keywords, content ideas, and tells you what’s working best for your competitors on their websites. You can also check how competitive it would be to rank in Google for the keyword phrases you found on Answer the Public.
You’ll also want to check out online forums like Facebook Groups, LinkedIn, Quora, and Reddit, and write down your ideal listener’s burning questions. Also, participate in these groups, answering questions and, when appropriate, sharing your own content if it will help people (be careful about linking to anything on Reddit. Those users are famous for hating on anything that even hints at self promotion, even if it’s sharing content that addresses the question being asked).
Step 4 Organize your episodes in a spreadsheet
After you spend 30-45 minutes on your research, flesh out your ideas for podcast episodes. What order should they be in? Keep track of these episode ideas in a spreadsheet, along with a column for your themes, and the dates you want to publish them. If you plan on interviewing people, you can add columns for guest information, but the episode idea comes first, then you go and find the people who can best speak to that topic and provide your listeners with the most value.
As new ideas pop into your head, write them down and then add them to your spreadsheet later.
You can always make adjustments to your content calendar, also known as an editorial calendar. Do a weekly or monthly check in to see if your content and the order you’re putting it out still makes sense.
Finally, you are podcasting for your audience but also for you. You’re creating content they want and need but that you’re also interested in. What conversations do you want to have? Who do you want to talk to and build relationships with? Remember this as you’re putting together your content calendar, which can also double as the outline for your book.