how to podcast with Christian Robillard

The Small Nonprofit

Podcasting is exploding. More and more nonprofits have a podcast, or are considering getting into it. Should your organization also have a podcast? Is it a lot of work to manage a podcast? What should you talk about on the podcast? On today’s episode, Christian Robillard, founder of Purpose Podcasting, joins our host Cindy Wagman, and the two of them are going to answer all your burning questions about why and how to podcast.

Thinking of setting up a podcast for your organization and your cause? Christian shared with us some benefits and opportunities:

1. Building an audience (especially age 18-35) in an intimate way. Especially during the pandemic, as we all suffer from screen fatigue, podcasts are a great medium to connect with an audience in a different way and make them feel that they get to know you and your organization intimately.
2. Onboarding staff and volunteers and sharing resources internally. Especially for bigger organizations that have a large number of staff and volunteers, a podcast is a very great way to do internal resources and knowledge sharing.
3. Raising awareness on how your organization is helping your audience overcoming a specific problem. Whether your target audience is your donors, your program beneficiaries, or your partners, understanding what problem your podcast is helping them to overcome is the first thing to do before setting up your podcast.

Christian’s tips on podcasting

1. Hook your audience in the first 60 seconds. In the first 60 seconds of each episode, have a clear structure that introduces who you and your organization are and what the audience can expect from the podcast and this episode.
2. Include a clear call to action in the podcast. Be very clear what you want people to do as a result of listening to your podcast and communicating that.
3. Infuse personal touches. Let your audience know what is the host and the hosting organization’s stance and philosophies on issues that matter to them.
4. Be strategic about the production of the podcast. Decide how much you want to do in house and how much you want to outsource. Set up a good workflow and rinse and repeat.
5. Repurpose your podcast content. Take bits and pieces from the podcast and repurpose them widely to your blog, social media, e-news and even annual report. Christian’s take is if you are only doing less than 5 pieces of content from your podcast, you’re missing out.

Favourite Quotes from Today’s Episode
Post your favourite quote on social media to share with us!

“With any type of podcasting, the why is definitely important. But ultimately you have to think about who your audience is and what's the problem. Or what are the challenges that this particular piece of content is going to help them overcome?”

“If you're getting any less than five pieces of content out there, including the podcast from your recording, I think you're missing out. I would argue if you have an hour-long podcast that you've recorded and produced, you could probably get up to 20 pieces of solid 30 to 60 second content, plus a blog post, plus the transcription, plus any other parts that you want to use to compliment other communications that you're doing.”

Resources from this Episode

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