Hello, This is Dilip, your host and welcome to episode 3 of the Podcasting university.
To recap what we discussed in the last couple of episodes –
- We spoke about “podcasting as a medium” and why it is something you should explore (At some point, I will do an episode elaborating more on this because there is a lot of information to be shared on this topic).
- Then we discussed about the 3 critical questions you need to answer before you start a podcast and basic expectations to keep in mind.
Today we will look at the first steps in starting your podcasting journey, which is finding a niche for your podcast.
If you are not aware of what a niche is, then let me first define it for you –
A Niche is a subset of a market and is a specialized section of the market based on interest, requirements, needs etc.”
To put that in simpler perspective, an example would be whatever is the job you are doing today. You have a specific skillset that entails you to do a specific type of job. That specific type of job is a “Niche”.
From a podcasting angle, A Niche will be a specific topic that you will be producing your content on.
Now, the obvious question is “Why do you need a Niche?”.
“Why can’t I just broadcast about anything and everything?”
And a single sentence answer to that will be “To stay relevant and be heard“.
Imagine that you create a podcast on “Television Shows”.
Your episode range from sports, fashion related shows, cookery shows to daily soaps of all genre.
The topic “Television shows” is a market and the audience you are trying reach out to in the market is a wide audience. You are covering pretty much everybody who watches television shows.
But somebody who is interested in cookery might not be particularly interested in listening to a show on daily soaps and might quickly be turned off.
Same is the case with somebody who is interested in sports. They might necessarily not be interested in cookery shows.
Now instead of targeting this wide audience, imagine if your show was specifically about daily soaps. Your audience has been narrowed down. Your target audience is a much smaller group but is a very hyper targeted and super interested audience.
You can further narrow it down to specific genres like family soaps, comedy, investigative thrillers etc.
By narrowing yourself down, you will have an audience who is super interested in the content your generate and this will also ensure that your audience retention rate is good.
On similar lines, you can plan a show on sports on a slightly broader audience level. You can then narrow it down to specific sports like Cricket, Football etc.
Shows like…. “The Edges and Sledges” on Cricket and “On the ball” Soccer podcast about Soccer etc. are shows like this.
You can see how they are focusing on a specific niche.
So, now the obvious question is how to select a niche for your show?
Finding a Niche – The Simple Methods
Let us look at some simple methods for finding a niche and we will start with what we have already discussed earlier.
The purpose of your podcast that we decided in the last episode can serve as a good guideline for your niche.
Let us revisit them and evaluate them in a little more detail.
Firstly, If your podcast is going to be business project, then there could be 2 things –
- You already have a business and consequently a market you are catering to. Since your podcast is going to be an extension of your business, your niche is the market you are catering to.
- If you are planning on starting a business – and you have already identified your market then again your niche is the market you are planning to cater to..
Secondly, in the case of a hobby podcast, your show could either be about showcasing your hobby or, it could be about helping people to start and pursue a hobby.
If it is the former, then you have already identified the topic of your podcast and your audience and consequently your niche.
In case of the latter, again the specific hobby that you are going to produce your content on, is your niche.
Now let us come to a situation, where you are somebody like me and you want to start a podcast but don’t know what topic to go with.
It is here that you will need to spend some time to research and identify your niche.
The easiest answer to how to research a niche is, by looking at your expertise. Ask yourselves a couple of questions like –
- What are your areas of interests?
- What do you think you are an expert in?
Answers to these questions can help you on how to select a niche for your podcast show.
An Alternative Way in Finding a Niche
There is another way of finding a niche, which is something I recommend to all my blogging students. This can very well be applied to Podcasting as well.
There are some very simple steps to do, which will help you decide on the niche. You will need a sheet of paper to do this exercise.
- Write down all the topics that you like conversing about – I mean talking about, listening to or, participating in a discussion. Then sort them in order of the most passionate to the least.
- If you were to produce content on these topics, which is the topic on which you can talk the most about. Let’s say, if you were to produce a show, will you be able to generate content for at least 25 episodes. Mark each of those topics on the paper
- Go and search to see which of these topics already have podcasts and how many such shows are out there. At this point, researching a little bit on the popularity of these shows is also good to understand if there really is an audience and if these shows are able to cater to their interests, which can be seen in how popular they are.
Once you have this exercise done, the recommended niche would be the one that doesn’t have a lot of shows but has a decent amount of interest. This will ensure that you don’t have a lot of competitors (Big competitors) to compete with, for survival.
But if you still feel that your niche has a lot of competition, then there is still a way to stand out from the crowd.
This is by offering a unique perspective to the same topic.
You might want to look at what is missing in the shows that are already popular, and make that your pitch. If you are able to plug this gap in information by offering that to your audience, then your show is sure to do well.
You can read more about how to find a niche, in a blog post I had written some time back on my blog at dkspeaks.com.
You can follow any method you want. But just ensure that you have a niche identified.
If you have a topic in mind and are not sure if it is a good topic, just get in touch with me and we can do a quick brainstorming session.
The one important thing to keep in mind while identifying your niche, is that it has got to have an audience. It shouldn’t be so narrow that there is little to no audience for it, which will never be the case.
I remember one of my mentor telling me once, “Everything that is manufactured gets sold. Everything has a buyer. But how well you are able to position it will decide how well it sells. And that’s the difference between a successful product and a failed product”.
The Unique Indian Advantage in Podcasting
In my last episode you would remember me telling you about a strategic reason behind using “Hindi” in between.
It was about positioning.
You know what is the biggest advantage that we Indians have, when it comes to podcasting.
It is the varied languages that are spoken across the country. Audio content has the ability to cater to this audience much easily than any other form of content.
In fact, each of these languages are a niche in itself.
Imagine producing a cricket related show for the hindi speaking audience or, a football related show in Malayalam or, Bengali to cater to that audience.
Shows on technology, internet, motivation, inspirational talks etc. all in local languages has a huge audience waiting.
Languages can help you get a better connect with your audience.
When you talk in a local language, there is a sudden feel of belongingness, an attachment that the audience feels with you and your show which is why a lot of those vernacular shows out there have done pretty well.
So, if the niche you are planning to go after already has a lot of competition, then see if you can provide a vernacular twist to it. Then you have your niche.
Now, That’s a lot of theory that we spoke about in the last couple of episodes.
Don’t get bogged down by the theory here. We are doing this just so that your podcast doesn’t fail.
But we have a lot more interesting tips and information coming up in the next few weeks.
That’s it for this week.
In the next couple of posts we will discuss about deciding on the format of your show and and then talk about the preparations to launch your show. So, stay tuned.
Before I leave, a quick to do for you all.
In the comment box, tell me about 2 podcasts that you listen to and the niche you decided on, for your podcast. Also let me know if the tips in this episode helped you in finding a niche.
If you want my help to brainstorm on your idea or, you want help in starting a podcast, just reach out to me and we can get on a call to discuss. I am not charging any fees nor, selling you anything.
So please feel free to reach out to me and we can setup some time to discuss.
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