A clearly defined set of goals for your podcast is essential to its success. This is an exciting time to join the world of podcasting, but before you rush straight into podcasting, plan carefully before you get your exciting new show off the ground!
Having a clear set of goals is the basis of much of your planning and will be instrumental to defining the success of your show.
If you are an established podcast host, you might find it helpful to sit down and review your podcast goals. Can you even remember what your goals are? It’s common to forget your initial goals, but you can start with a fresh perspective.
Where Do I Start With Podcast Goals?
First of all, take a look at the basics of your podcast. What’s your role? Include details such as business partners. What are their roles?
Then ask yourself, why do you podcast? There might be many reasons why you podcast, so include them all. Your initial thought might be to share your knowledge or demonstrate your expertise. You might have been on a journey you wish to share. These are your aspirations, what drives you to produce the podcast show in the first place.
Then you’re going to have some additional goals, like generating revenue from your podcast. How do you expect to do this? Will you seek sponsorship? Are you promoting your products on your show? Are you looking to generate an uptick in leads for your business?
You can then go into these specifics in greater detail to help you remain focused when planning your podcast goals. Where are your listeners based? Are you reaching people worldwide, or do you plan to attract a local audience?
How Do I Write Podcast Goals?
Have one overall goal, and then you can produce some sub-goals that support this.
When writing goals, you might have heard of the SMART acronym. SMART goals stand for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time bound
Let’s see how the SMART goals can help you.
Specific
First of all, when it comes to goal writing, you need to be specific. ‘I want to produce a podcast’ is very vague. You could just start a podcast, but not achieve anything. So your goal should be going somewhere and having a definable achievement.
For example, I want to produce a podcast to showcase my interior design skills and raise awareness of my interior design company, specifically identifying why you want to produce a podcast.
Measurable
How do you measure whether you’ve raised awareness of your interior design company? To answer this, you need to consider what parameters would count as success to you. Perhaps you would like to increase inbound calls by 20% or sign listeners up to your mailing list.
So your goal would now look like this: I want to produce a podcast to showcase my interior design skills and raise awareness of my interior design company. I plan to increase my mailing list of potential clients by 10%.
Achievable
You next need to ask yourself if this podcast goal is achievable. Can you commit to a regular show? Do you have enough experience and the right qualifications? How are you going to attract email subscribers?
If you’re unsure you can fit in all the work to produce regular shows, contact a podcast production agency like Produce Your Podcast to make our goals achievable.
You can discuss your qualifications and experience in your intro and show notes. Your expertise will shine through if you provide listeners with a wide range of engaging show material suitable for your niche.
Relevant
Is this goal currently relevant to you and your career? Does a podcast fit in with your current aspirations? Do you have time for a podcast? Hopefully, the answer to these questions is yes, but you need to make sure you can commit to regular shows, even if you have a team behind you, so ensure you are fully onboard with your goal.
With the example above, sharing your expertise might not be relevant with only a year’s experience in the industry. It would be better to have a goal that fits your current situation. In this case, you could share your experiences starting in the interior design industry.
So your goal might look like this: I want to produce a podcast to share my journey as a start-up interior designer. I plan to raise awareness of my fledgling interior design company and increase my mailing list of potential clients by 10%.
Time Bound
The final aspect of your smart goal is to give yourself time to achieve your goal. Be realistic, and consider what you would be happy with. So, if you currently have a reasonable client level but need additional clients to expand your business, you might look to achieve your goal in a year.
In the case of our example goal, if you want to expand to another staff member in a year, you might want to double your sales inquiries in nine months to establish the uptick in plenty of time to support potential additional staff.
So your goal might now look like this: My goal is to produce a podcast to share my journey as a start-up interior designer. I plan to raise awareness of my fledgling interior design company and increase my mailing list of potential clients by 50% in 9 months.
Remember to include the actual date for reference.
Podcast Milestones – What Are They?
These steps are on your way to achieving your goals. It’s really important to give yourself milestones to celebrate all those little achievements that happen along the way. If you’re an established show looking to reset your goals, look back at your podcasting journey and see how much you’ve achieved.
Key performance Indicators, or KPIs, might play an important role in selecting your milestones. What would success look like to you? It might be to reach a certain number of subscribers, downloads, or listeners per episode, etc. Be realistic about what you can achieve.
As a small interior design company with one store, it might not be realistic to reach millions of downloads. You never know, but you should certainly be realistic. Perhaps you want to start with 100 downloads, then 1000, 5000, and so on.
So let’s consider the above example goal: I want to produce a podcast to share my journey as a start-up interior designer. I plan to raise awareness of my fledgling interior design company and increase my mailing list of potential clients by 50% in 9 months.
So you might have the following milestones:
- Receive feedback from a listener inspired to start their interior design store from listening to your show.
- Connect with someone from an experienced interior design brand.
- Receive an inquiry from someone who has listened to the show.
- Increase the mailing list by 2%, then 5%, 20%, then 50%.
- Keep your unsubscribe rate below 2%.
Some of these milestones might look small, but they should all be celebrated! Each step helps your business grow and propels your show towards great things!
FAQ: How to Set Podcast Goals in 2024
How do I Write My Podcast Goals?
To begin with, think about why you want to start a podcast, what skills and experience you have, and consider what you want to get out of it.
How Do I Achieve My Podcast Goals
If you break your podcast goals down into smaller milestones then you can celebrate these to keep you motivated.
Final Word: How to Set Podcast Goals in 2024
Podcast goals are essential for helping you produce a great podcast or to improve your current show. Without a clear direction, you could miss out on reaching your full potential.
Here, we have a step-by-step method for writing your podcast goals to help you achieve growth with your podcast.
Produce Your Podcast is a premier podcast consulting, production & marketing agency. Our team of experts provides comprehensive, full-service quality solutions for B2B clients to incorporate podcasting into their overall marketing strategy. If you’re looking for a reliable partner to help launch or grow your business-branded podcast and boost your sales and marketing goals, we’re here to help.
Click here to schedule a conversation with our team today. Let’s work together to create a high-quality podcast that takes your business to new heights!
