How We Built the Strategy for Our New Flagship Podcast

You didn’t think we’d start a podcast network without a new HubSpot show, did you?

We are excited to announce our new flagship podcast, The shock, with comedian Alex is gay and venture capitalists Brianne Kimmel. It is produced by Senior Producer Matthew Brown and made available to you on the HubSpot Podcast Network.

The shock offers business leaders unfiltered insights into companies that have dared to be different. Alexis and Brianne speak to executives at disruptive companies like Square, Daily Harvest, and Nerdwallet about their investments and go-to-market strategies.

Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? Well now we’re going to tell you how we did it including:

1. Our planning process
2. Structure of the format of the show
3. The structure of a successful podcast team

Let’s dive in.

How can we be better and different?

Once we know our business goal, audience, and budget, we set out to put together a show concept that will resonate with our audience and help us achieve our goals.

To do this, we had to know what our audience is hearing today.

There are over 8,334 branded podcasts on Apple Podcasts, according to Chartable.

While we couldn’t check all of them (we’re just human), we wanted to understand the tactics of the top podcasts in the business category. So we did an audit.

We evaluated 20 high performing business podcasts and gained five insights.

• Male voices: 87% of the hosts were male.
• News & Comment: 18 of 20 podcasts commented on industry news.
• Broadcast communication: Very few shows used audience engagement tactics to connect the audience with the hosts.
• Economy & Science: The tone of the shows was lackluster and many used jargon.

This audit gave us the context to define our strategy.

How would our show be better and different?

• Diverse voices: A commitment to diverse voices from hosts and guests.
• Research & Stories: Editorial focus on relevant stories with added depth.
• Audience loyalty: With our hosts and implementing tactics to engage audiences on social media.
• Business & Entertainment: We don’t have to be boring and out of fashion to talk about business.

These became our editorial guidelines for the rest of the show.

Decision about the show format

Next we set our show format.

There are a few popular podcast formats that have the ability to grow an audience.

• Interview: A show type who brings in a knowledgeable guest for a Q&A.
• Chat cast: A co-hosted format where hosts provide comments and criticism on a variety of topics.
• Debate: A co-hosted format in which hosts take one side of the argument. Discussing facts, figures and opinions on a specific topic.
• Narrative: A journalistic style podcast that includes research, scripts, and a strong storyline.

After examining different formats, we decided on a hybrid format – Chat Cast + Interview.

Bringing the energy of a chatcast together with the expertise of an interview.

Subject of the sample episode: Why is every company suddenly a media company?
Segment 1: The context	In the opening segment, our co-moderators will provide context and discuss some fun facts and statistics on the topic of the episode Ex.) HubSpot acquired The Hustle
Segment 2: The Debate / Discuss	In this segment, we ask our hosts a series of questions on the topic and questions we ask for some spontaneous opinions on both. Ex.) Should other SaaS companies follow suit? What happens to media companies when all companies are media companies?
Segment 3: The interview	In this segment we will bring in the executive director of the company / issue we are discussing to learn the real story behind the decision and the other decisions that made it successful. Ex.) Kipp Bodnar on the Hustle acquisition

Finally, we had to figure out how we were going to do this thing.

Your podcast team

To make a quality podcast, you need to invest in a team.

There are tons of things that have to happen in order to put on a show. We’ve broken these responsibilities down into eight core roles, but there are often teams with a lot more and there are also teams with a lot less, each doing 3-4 jobs:

1. executive producer – The showrunner. Head of Operations, creates a vision for the overall show, leads pre-production to post-production and manages the staff and logistics.
2. Senior Producer – Defines the content and narrative arc for each episode, writes and edits the scripts, coaches the moderator, manages the production calendar, researches, prepares; as well as interviews, tapes and preliminary sound design.
3. producer – Booking, research, interview preparation, transcription, editing of tapes, creation of outlines and work on scripts.
4. editor – Oversees the development of story ideas and provides critical feedback on story frameworks and scripts.
5. host – Storytellers who shape the show through their editorial choices and personality. You prepare for interviews and write / edit scripts.
6. Managing Producer —New podcast development and management processes / pathways required for a successful program.
7. technician —The first and last station in the production process. Creates the soundscape for the show by editing and mastering audio to create a seamless listening experience.
8. Editor in Chief – Creates the vision and leads the entire planning and execution of podcasts. Promotes the creative conception from the idea to the execution. Collaboration with business leaders on sales.

This list doesn’t include the people outside of the podcast creation, including the creative team involved in creating promotional materials, the person in charge of the show’s communication plan, and more.

Another level of difficulty here is deciding whether to build your own team or look for a podcast production agency to fill these roles for you.

Obtaining resources was one of the biggest challenges in creating The Shake Up. We’ll leave you behind the scenes in some of our decisions:

1. Internal or external talent for hosts: A presenter creates or pauses a podcast. It’s that simple. You can either attract or crowd an audience. We had a very specific vision for the presenters of our show and for this reason we decided to lead an external talent search. We chose Alexis and Brianne because of their combination of dynamism and experience.
2. Hire a sound engineer or hire an agency: Engineers perfect the sound of your show. Given the quality of the sound we wanted for this show, we chose an agency based on the extensive expertise of their team and the resources they have for the job.

We were also fortunate to have a senior producer, Matthew Brown, on the team who has won awards on previous shows like The Growth Show.

So, if you’re looking to invest in a team to create podcasts, use this list as a starting point to understand the different moving parts and carefully consider whether to hire these roles or seek outside help.

But the list is just a starting point, and if there is anything we can recommend for making podcasts, it is Lao Tzu’s quote: “There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.” And your opponent, in this case, is him Workload associated with creating a show.

Invest in the resources to get it right and understand that it takes a village.

What are you waiting for?

Podcasts are not a new medium, but they have a moment.

• Spotify has invested heavily in the podcast portion of its platform, closing exclusive deals with podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience, and developing a complete overhaul of the podcast user interface.
• Statista predicts the industry will have a 17% CAGR by 2023 and reach 164 million listeners in the US.
• Apple, not to be outdone, relies on podcast subscriptions.

Is podcast marketing becoming the standard like content marketing? Is a podcast becoming as ubiquitous as a blog?

Time will tell, but it is clear that this is the “wave” that many podcasters have predicted.

At HubSpot, we’ve made the decision to invest heavily in media going forward, and podcasts are a big part of that strategy. The HubSpot Podcast Network and The Shake Up are the first parts of it.

If, after reading this article, you are looking to invest in building one, you should follow the checklist below:

1. Define your target group and their problem.
2. Decide whether a podcast is a good medium for solving this problem.
3. Check out the podcasts in your target area and find out how you can be better and different.
4. Suggest the theme and format of your show.
5. Build a podcast team: presenter, producer, sound engineer.
6. You go to the races.

We are incredibly proud of the hard work that went into introducing The Shake Up. Hear it here on your favorite podcast platform.