Steve Austins:
Hi, my name is Steve Austins, and I'm co founder and
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creative director of Bengo Media.
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And today, I'm going to give
you a tip on how to change
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the way you end your podcast.
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So I'm a director of Bengo Media,
an audio production company
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based in Cardiff, in Wales.
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We make radio programs, we make
audiobooks, and of course podcasts.
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And we tend to make podcasts for
brands, so we've worked with ITV,
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the Open University, the World
Health Organization, amongst others.
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And we also offer training and consultancy
to companies, large and small, to
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help them get their podcasts started.
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How did I get into podcasting?
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Well, I've spent nearly 32 years working
in audio in one form or another, tracing
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back to the first time that I actually
read a sports bulletin on my local
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commercial radio station at the age of 16.
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They were in the middle of
a rota crisis, I should say.
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I grew up listening to radio
and I was just obsessed by it.
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Passionate about it.
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And by the time I left university in
my early 20s and I joined the BBC, I'd
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already worked for three commercial
radio stations as a news journalist
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and also as a presenter as well.
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I spent 19 years at BBC Wales and between
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Now back then, podcasts that were made
by radio stations were mostly best of
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compilations that had gone out on the
radio either that day or that week, so my
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podcast listening was pretty functional.
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Then along came Serial in 2014, and
for the first time I was gripped.
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Not only by how a single story
could unfold by just using the
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power of audio, but also gripped
by the potential of the medium too.
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Because even in those early days,
it was obvious that the way that
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people were listening to podcasts was
different, more intense than the way
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that people were listening to radio.
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So when I left the BBC in 2017, it felt
right that, with my wife Marina, we set
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up Wales first podcast production company.
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Branded podcasts were definitely not very
common seven years ago, so we had to do
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an awful lot of educating people on what
podcasts were and why people needed them.
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Nowadays, most companies that I speak
to have already considered podcasting
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as part of their marketing mix, so
it's really, really lovely to see this
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medium become much more commonplace.
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The thing I love most about podcasting
is the ability to lean into a niche.
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Now, I'm a big consumer of politics.
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I'm a big fan of football.
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So over the summer, I spent most walks
to and from places, most times waiting
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endlessly for the little one to drop
off to sleep, catching up on any
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podcast that would tell me about the
eneral election or about Euro:
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I'm currently feeding my
obsession about the U.
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S.
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election race through The Daily,
AmeriCast, and The Rest Is Politics U.
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S.
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Now you can look at the top of those
podcast charts and think that podcast
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is a mass entertainment game nowadays,
and pretty much it is, but there really
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is something for everyone in podcasting.
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Plus it's still easy to
enter the market as either an
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individual or a small company.
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And if you truly understand who's
going to be interested in that subject,
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know what else is out there for them,
offer something that is different or
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unique, plus you have the time and the
patience, because that's important too...
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then you really can build up from an
audience of zero to a loyal following
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of people who will listen to multiple
episodes and for long stretches of time.
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And if you're a business, that
sort of in depth and ongoing
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relationship with potential
customers is unique and compelling.
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And compared to YouTube, there's still
relatively few podcasts out there.
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So you really, really can become a
big fish in a relatively small pond.
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So my big tip is to really consider
what to put at the end of your podcast.
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And I want you to think back to the
last time you went to the cinema.
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When did you get up and leave?
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Now, if you're saying to yourself 'at
the end of the film, Steve, obviously',
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I want you to think a little bit harder.
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What bit of the end?
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Was it the end of the final scene?
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Or did you stay until the
credits had finished rolling?
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Now, most of us have our coats
on and we're out of our seats by
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the time the names of the main
actors have rolled up the screen.
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And podcasting is really no different.
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The minute that you thank your guests
or you fade up that lovely theme
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tune, most of your listeners are
taking that as their cue to leave.
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So why keep your most important
calls to actions for the very end?
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If you really, really want your
listener to rate and review that
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episode, or visit your website for a
juicy offer, you need to find a way of
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telling them earlier in the episode.
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Can you weave it into your questions?
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Can you make it part of that brilliant
script that you're kind of creating?
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Don't leave the important
stuff to the end.
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Or else it won't get heard.
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You can find me at bengomedia.com
and on LinkedIn, and you can see
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all of my links in the show notes.
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Thanks for listening to Podcasting People.
