How To Channel Your Inner Podcaster

It’s the medium du jour, but how - and why - should your business start a podcast?

- Stephanie Schomer

WHEN THE FOUNDERS of the St. Louis–based design firm Need/Want decided to start a podcast two years ago, they turned on the mic and began yapping. “We talked a lot about stuff on the internet, things we were reading,” explains co-founder Jon Wheatley. But the three partners quickly realized that if they wanted to get Need/Want’s “superfans”—the design nerds who read blogs like Product Hunt—to actually tune into its Hatching podcast, they’d have to provide more than just cocktail-party banter.

So they changed conversational gears to bring listeners behind the scenes of their design journey. In one episode, they chronicled a recent trip to China to visit the factory that produces the firm’s Smart Bedding. They dished on how they survived the endless flight (hint: Nintendo 3DS and multiplayer Zelda) and navigated the language barrier (Google Translate). This kind of fodder isn’t going to make Hatching the next Serial, but it is a way to strengthen the company’s relationship with its customers. “The next time we come out with a product, they’ll be more likely to buy it, share it,” says co-founder David Myers.

The podcast—a radio show that lives online rather than in the airwaves—is a thriving medium that can be either a potent marketing vehicle for your company or a massive waste of time. The barriers to entry are low, but finding people to tune in to your show is another story, considering you’ll be competing with the more than 320,000 podcasts that already exist on iTunes. If you’re willing to put in the sweat, yours might not just cultivate a following, but also attract future customers, or even an investor, to your business. Take it from a few companies whose podcasts are more than just vanity projects. —STEPHANIE SCHOMER