Budgeting for podcasting with no surprises!

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How to get a return on investment from podcasting

Essentially, creating a budget for corporate podcasting can be split into the following 4 main items of expenditure. We can help you establish clear budgets and a sustainable output of programmes:

Equipment: either a one-off purchase, or rental as part of an overall agreement.
Production: this includes creative (obtaining guests, and presenters if necessary), recording, editing, and any additional qualitative extras- background music for example.
Hosting: the technical infrastructure which allows you to store your music files publicly, and make them available at sufficient bandwidth for listeners not to be inconvenienced by delays.
Promotion: marketing your podcast, for example on your own website, through search engines, or on podcast directories.

Any or all of these items may be purchased together or separately; indeed many companies prefer to produce two or three programmes privately before either buying their own equipment or spending money on public promotion to ensure that the quality is right beforehand. Looking at these expenses in more detail, we can start to establish some guideline budgets.

As noted above and elsewhere, podcasting does not require the expense of formal broadcast studios. An above-average quality podcast studio can be set up in a quiet room for around £2000.00. This is a one-off purchase for regular podcasters, or can be subsumed into a full-service agreement for more occasional producers.

Production is the least predictable expense; the key factors being presentation staff and music. If you wish to conduct your own interviews (marketing staff are particularly good at this!), you won't need a professional presenter. But rather like the professional moderators brought in to handle conferences, you may prefer to budget for a professional to improve the quality of the finished broadcast. Many CEO's respond better to being interviewed than making a one-man statement. The cost of presenters depends on the level of expertise required in your field, and such niceties as travel.

Turning to music, this is almost an essential for giving your podcast a professional enough sheen. A theme can be purchased for as little as £200.00: but unfortunately licensing means that you'll pay almost that amount every time you create a new programme. For anyone considering long-term podcasting, we recommend a custom commission, which weighs in at around £1750.00. That is, of course, a one-off cost.

Hosting is the smallest expense- even very successful podcasts cost no more than £100.00 per month in online storage fees, and, just like a website, this of course compares very favourably to print or print distribution costs.

The other essential expense is promotion- there's no point podcasting if nobody finds you. Some of this can be free of charge (e.g. on your own website) and some can be expensive (Search Engine promotion). We recommend a mixture of free and paid-for promotion, with an emphasis on getting best value, for example through good PR. The best podcasts create a real buzz of excitement in listeners which encourages aficionados to tell their friends. This is the ideal PR outcome.

Back to Podcasting Home Page
More podcasting basics
How to get a return on investment from podcasting