A Guest Post by Ariane Fisher of Storymix Media
Don’t know a rotoscope from stethoscope? No problem. You don’t need to be a techie to build great podcasts. All it takes is a little patience and some preparation.
In this second post of the series, we’ll explore how to brainstorm ideas for your podcast. This is a vital piece of your podcast since it frames your message and allows you to craft your story.
There are a series of questions you need to answer prior to shooting:
The Message
It’s important to grab your viewers attention immediately. Nothing is worse than stumbling around to get to the point for the first minute of a two minute podcast. Here are some questions to ask yourself when brainstorming your message:
- Who is your target viewer?
- Is this podcast to be part of a series or a one time deal?
- Will this be educational, sales or biographical?
- What are you trying to convey?
- What action to you want the viewer to take?
- Who is the podcast for (a client or a potential customer)?
Know who your target audience is and zero in on creating content particularly appealing to them. This will help you both brainstorm your story and know which SEO terms to utilize.
If your podcast is a series, then they will need to build on each other. You need to craft them so that each one tells a coherent story individually, but weaves a broader story when taken together.
In creating an educational podcast, you need to determine your target viewer and their experience level. For a sales podcast, clarity is key. It’s not like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. For biographical, are you showcasing the subject in one locale, or showing the breadth of their experience in various circumstances?
The Storyteller
Key to a successful podcast is a person or character that anchors the story. The storyteller breaths life into the story and needs to have both creditability and presence. Make sure you determine:
- Who will tell the story?
- What is their experience with the subject matter?
- Have they been in front of the camera before?
Even someone with little in front of camera experience can do a great job if they are authentic. Viewers resonant with people they see as authorities and not trying to cheat or steal from them.
Sample Brainstorm
As an example, for our new blog, StorymixWeddings, we are planning a series of podcasts. We are trying to teach our readers how to shoot their own DIY wedding video. This will be a series of videos, educational in nature that my co-founder Mike will narrate (thus, he’s the storyteller).
To begin, he drew out an actual storyboard. It’s a flowchart showing how he wants the video to begin, and what he wants to cover in the first installment. It may help to step back and plan out your entire series, and then break that into manageable movie topics. For some examples of storyboard, check out this site.
We know that 70% of our target market, brides, never purchase a wedding video. So, our first video will educate them as to the emotional reasons to purchase or create a wedding video.
We also know that our target market tends to have a short attention span, so we will keep these videos under 2 minutes; slightly longer if they include sample video.
Mike storyboarded the animated titles and captions he wants me to create for each segment of the podcast, as well as the placement of sample videos. If you are creating your own podcast for the first time, it’s safe to assume that you won’t be including any 3D animated motion graphics. But, even if your first video is a simple 2 minute talking head, it still makes sense to brainstorm ideas and storyboard your speaking points.
