A niche and a genre – are they the same thing where podcasts are concerned? Not exactly – but they are certainly related. Plurawl, a clothing company who also produce inspirational podcasts, say that it is all about the audience.
The audience – in Plurawl’s case the American Latino community – makes up the podcast niche and determines what the genre will be. In terms of Plurawl, it is Latino issues the podcast normally covers. We see here clearly how the podcasts need to be geared towards intended listeners – the niche and the genre are actually downstream from this.
Of course, unless you are starting a podcast for a company (which primarily offers something else) or you’re hosting it on a site which has visitors coming for other reasons, then you don’t really have an audience at the outset. How then do you find your niche and your podcast’s genre? In reality,it is all about visualizing the audience before you even have it; it’s about asking yourself the question “Who would want to listen to this and why?”
As mentioned, it could simply be that your audience is just your company’s usualcustomers, in which case it is all about analyzing that demographic and ascertaining its needs and interests. For those starting a podcast entirely from scratch, you need to think more about who those people could be.
The Importance of a Niche
So, a niche needs to be determined (by considering the target audience) right at the start. However, this is advicethat is not so commonly followed. It is often thought thatwhen starting a podcast, you can simply pick a general topic and then specialize lateronce the episodes naturally guide you towards your specialty.
This is the wrong way of going about the thing, but it is important to note that it is not a worthless strategy. Indeed, as you produce more podcasts episodes, a clearer idea of your niche and your specialty will emerge, prompting you to change things accordingly. However, one of the reasons this will happen is that you will interact with listeners – and this is hard to do when you have none.
Accordingly, something of a balancing act needs to be struck. You should have a pretty clear idea of your niche and audience before you even begin. However, you can also keep it adaptable enough so that you can change things when it becomes clearer what your listeners are really tuning in for.
So yes, adapt. But don’t go into it blind.
How to Choose a Niche
The way to choose a good niche for your podcast involves two major steps. The first is to choose a topic which you are both passionate and knowledgeable about. This will allow you to make the episodes and present with a certain degree of confidence.
The second step is to then consider the audience and whether your chosen topic has a broad appeal. This is not just a matter of intuition and belief in your niche, it involves considering who the audience are than researching that demographic.
What you are trying to figure out here is a niche or genre this demographic is interested in, but which hasn’t been saturated with other podcasts. You need to appeal – and to stand out. That is the definition of a niche.
After that, it is all about realizing your ambitions and making the podcast. You can see how well your chosen niche fairs in the first few weeks, allowing for some last-minute changes if things don’t go as expected. But, once you have a regular listenership, things get much easier.