Choosing the right episode format for your show can make or break it.
When it comes to your podcast format, you’ve got a lot of options.
Listen Now:
There are interviews, solos, short form, long form, panel discussions – but what are the different episode types and how do you know which one to choose for your show?
The right format for your podcast is a really important decision to make, not just in terms of how your audience is going to experience it, but what kind of an experience is going to be for you as you’re recording it.
Choosing the wrong one can feel awkward or be so miserable that you never want to do it.
So, understanding what the different types are, and making a decision about what’s going to be the most effective at helping you achieve your goals, is a pretty important thing to do at the beginning of the process.
So we always start with the business goals.
If one of your reasons for podcasting is to connect with other people, and build relationships with them, you’re going to have to have guests in one format or another.
And that can be through a traditional interview podcast, which is the most popular form of podcasting still.
It can be through panel discussions where you have multiple guests discussing a single topic, or it can be a segment in a longer episode – which is other kinds of content – maybe a solo found or repurposed from elsewhere.
And then you get into the solo types of content.
So if you need to engage your audience, sometimes you’ll do that with interviews, but sometimes it’s just got to be you and them, and you spend a little time doing solo content for them.
And if you want to get your thought leadership out there, then you’re really going to want to have some elements of just you talking and taking all of the spotlight onto yourself, to get your own IP out into the world.
So you do have lots of options for the format that you’re choosing – interviews, solos, or combinations thereof.
You’re going to make the right decision when you start with your business goals.
And if you’re not sure which is going to be the best format for you, test out a few different ones at the beginning of your podcasting process and see which ones feel the best and are the easiest to work with, with your team or with your producer, and which your audience responds to the most.