Corporate Podcasting: 11 Essential Tools for Producing and Promoting Your Podcast

Corporate Podcasting: 11 Essential Tools for Producing and Promoting Your Podcast

The podcasting space has become renowned for its low barrier to entry. There are myriad tools in the marketplace that can help you record, launch, and distribute your show anytime, anywhere, and with little to no production experience. However, we don’t recommend using just any tools for your corporate podcast — especially not the one-stop shops. Your podcast must meet the brand standards you’ve set for the rest of your marketing strategy, and that means being meticulous in your production. You need to develop a high-quality show from start to finish. When a podcast has been thrown together quickly, it shows. 

Whether you are working with a podcast strategy and development partner, or producing in-house, knowing which tools to use will help you facilitate an efficient production process. We’ve put together the following list of free and low-cost platforms that we use for Strategic Momentum and our clients to create top-quality corporate podcasts. 

Recording

Zoom - We prefer Zoom for its recording and storage capabilities. As both our own and our clients’ podcasts are interview-based, Zoom allows us to schedule interviews and record from anywhere. On Zoom, you can record high-quality video and audio, easily manage your recording settings, and save separate files for each person’s output in addition to the overall recording. That makes it easy to pull from different audio parts as you edit the episode and choose from whichever audio/video output had the greatest clarity. You can save to your computer or to the cloud (the former allows you to store separate files), and your files are available for transcription in minutes. Just be mindful that each person has headphones on and a reliable mic (here’s a list of recommended equipment from Podcast Insights). 

Hosting

Libsyn - Libsyn is a legacy hosting platform with an expert team that has been doing it for years. That comes with pros and cons. On the plus side, they have an incredibly sophisticated system that allows you to upload your podcast audio/video file and then immediately syndicate it across 20+ podcast directories (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify iHeartRadio, etc.), blogs (WordPress, Blogger, etc.), and social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). They also have one of the best analytics reporting tools out there; their podcast metrics dashboard allows you to understand exactly who is listening to your episodes, from where, and with what devices — and then some. The only downside is that, as a legacy company, Libsyn is sometimes slower to innovate as new demands from podcast producers arise compared to its newer competitors.

Captivate - Captivate is a newer hosting platform that’s come on the scene in the last few years with the can-do attitude of a younger tech company. Captivate constantly adds new features and is intent on listening to customer feedback as it builds its platform.  While having a slightly less sophisticated system and less detailed analytics than Libsyn, Captivate still offers an all-in-one platform for podcast syndication across major directories and, as a huge bonus, offers a great user experience for those new to the industry. Over the past few years, Captivate has grown to be our preferred hosting platform.

Transcription

Descript - Descript is a fabulous transcription tool that constantly surprises us with its new features and integration that make producing a podcast incredibly seamless. In Descript, you can upload your video or audio recording and the software will automatically transcribe the interview, noting the different speakers. All of this happens within minutes and is typically about 90% accurate. In the last few years, Descript has also added new integrations that allow you to immediately clip your episode into audiograms and video clips and publish them directly to social media. Descript also makes removing filler words like “ums” and “you knows” easy, and allows you to remove, rearrange, add music to, and even record new audio directly into the existing file so that when you hit export, your masterpiece is ready to publish. 

Google Docs - Most people are familiar with GDocs but not as many people take advantage of the real-time collaborative editing tools to craft their podcast episodes. After our recordings are transcribed, we use Google Docs to mark our edits and cuts in the transcripts as well as add in the copy for our intros and outros. Though we also do so in Descript, we prefer to have another hard copy for reference. Google Docs make it easy to make annotations in the transcripts such as highlighting specific words or phrases in the script for audio editing and identifying quotes to use for audiograms and marketing graphics. We also use Google Docs for other episode materials including discussion guides, show notes, blog posts, and LinkedIn articles. 

Project Management

Asana - We use Asana for our overall project management within our company, and we’ve found it especially useful for managing the podcast production process. In Asana you can easily create to-do lists and attach files and links to each item so that team members have access to everything they need to get tasks done. You can assign team members, mark deadlines, and organize tasks into projects and calendars. We use Asana to monitor the entire podcast production cycle from start to finish for each episode, including guest planning and outreach, interview recording, episode development, episode launch, promotion, and social media, blogging, and any other follow-up. It’s a great system for all-in-one project tracking. 

Trello - Trello is a great collaboration tool for detailed process monitoring. We use Trello with our partners to track the status of individual episodes when they enter the audio editing stage. The Trello board setup allows you to simply move tasks laterally from one column to the next, marking which stage in the production process each episode presently resides. On the task module, you can attach files and links, make comments and tag other team members, mark key dates and deadlines, and notate task priority level.

Basecamp - We also use Basecamp with other partners and clients to communicate project status, track progress, and have a resting house for all shared files. Basecamp makes file organization easy and allows you to communicate across teams on project message boards as well as within specific tasks. When you have dozens of episode files over multiple seasons, having a “basecamp” to archive the production process is vital.

Marketing

Headliner - While there are a lot of tools out there for creating audiograms these days, Headliner was one of the first on the market and remains our favorite. In Headliner, you don’t even have to upload your audio file to the system as Headliner already integrates with Apple Podcasts. From there you can pull your published episode from the directory and then use the audio editing tool to crop the short clip you want to use. Then you can upload images to go with the audiogram, or simply use one of Headliner’s free images or templates to add your backdrop. In Headliner, you can easily add text to your audiograms, upload your logo, add music, and create transitions between elements. Headliner integrates with Descript as well, so you can seamlessly go from transcribing to ‘gramming. We are still using the free version now which allows you to export eight audiograms per month, which is plenty for our bi-monthly show. 

Canva - We could praise Canva for days for the ways its unmatched, easy-to-use, everyone-is-a-designer graphic design system has helped us grow our brand — but we’ll keep this description short and focus on its applicability to podcasting. Canva makes it simple to design fabulous-looking graphics for social media and websites to promote your show. We use Canva to create quote tiles, episode cover art, templates for audiograms, and even bumpers for video clips. You can also use it for your overall podcast cover art, logo, and even graphics for your website. While you can use Canva for free, we definitely recommend upgrading to the Pro account for access to all of its features (trust us, it’s worth it!).

Hootsuite - Finally, we use Hootsuite to schedule, publish, and monitor social media posts before, during, and after an episode launch. On Hootsuite, you can simultaneously publish across multiple accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and more, and let the world know your new episode is out. Then, you can easily track responses, click rates and shares, and engage with your audience. There are myriad social media management tools out there, and we’ve tried quite a few, but Hootsuite has been our favorite to manage multiple social media accounts at once and get the analytics we’re looking for.

So, that’s our list. We’re constantly on the lookout for new tools to try to make podcast production more efficient, but we’re pleased with our roundup for the time being. If you have suggestions for new tools, let us know! And if you’re looking to start or grow your corporate podcast, get in touch with us here and we can help get you on the right track.