Veteran and new podcasters would all agree producing a show is time consuming so many have looked podcast outsourcing options to help manage their workloads. The reasons hosts decide to delegate tasks are varied. Things like wanting a polished sound but lacking audio editing experience, wanting to focus energy on the content creation, and trying to keep up with a consistent publishing schedule are all popular reasons to consider your podcast outsourcing professionals.
While their services will cost a little extra, gaining time back to put towards the parts of podcasting you love will help you avoid burnout.
If you’re thinking about turning to professionals to help manage your work load, this piece will help you decide which tasks are perfect for outsourcing.
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6 Podcast Outsourcing Options To Save You Time
Podcast outsourcing has become an industry in its own right with professionals helping hosts edit and produce, write scripts, manage guests, and craft promotional strategies. In addition to saving time, working with a freelancer or agency provides reassurance of having professional support. No one is a master at everything that goes into podcasting so bringing in experts can boost the production value of your show.
Ahead choose from our list of six tasks you can delegate and the podcast outsourcing options we recommend for the best work.
1. Graphic design
This first task may come out of left field considering podcasting is an audio-first medium that doesn’t typically rely on visuals. But there are a few key touch points where putting professional imagery in front of listeners can take your show to the next level.
Think about your podcast’s cover art, or promoting an episode on Instagram. In each situation, using powerful visuals can help attract new listeners and engage current ones just by catching their eye.
Many podcasters are talented speakers but lack design expertise making graphic design an easy podcast outsourcing option. For one off tasks or ongoing support, here are our favorite recommendations:
2. Script writing
Writing a script for every episode can be tedious but works wonders in producing more engaging content. Having an outline of what you’ll talk about is a great place to start but it can be difficult to put all your thoughts down on paper. Luckily there are dedicated services that provide script writing services to craft quality content for your show. Work with expert copywriters to create original scripts and generate ideas for future episodes.
Finding a freelance writer who understands your podcast’s tone and voice is a great place to start. Here are a few more recommendations on where to find your perfect script writing partner:
3. Transcriptions
If you have the script writing down but shudder at the thought of transcribing each episode word-for-word, consider a professional transcription service. Typically paid per minute and often with quick turnaround times, delegating transcriptions is a popular podcast outsourcing option.
Services range from machine generated transcripts to transcribed by human professionals. Depending on how much time you’re looking to save and your budget, both are great options to get your transcriptions started. Given just about every podcast publishes complete transcriptions for every episode, there are a lot of professionals to choose from.
If you host your podcast with Castos, you have access to automatic podcast transcriptions right within your dashboard. It’s a pay-as-you-go feature so you can choose which episodes you need help with. At only $0.10/minute, it’s a steal for the amount of time it helps you save.
If you’re not using Castos (yet), here are some of our other favorites:
Castos includes transcription services right within your dashboard. Powered by Rev, you’ll pay just $0.10/minute and receive a downloadable PDF for every episode. The feature is pay-as-you-go so you’ll only pay for what you transcribe. Start your 14-day free trial now to test it out!
3. Show notes
When you poll podcasters about the most unexpected time consuming task of producing each episode, show notes is the top of the list. Podcast show notes are an important piece to the discoverability and accessibility of your show so they deserve a bit of attention. But the process of writing engaging, SEO friendly show notes is a timely task.
Since you want to produce them for every new episode, creating custom show notes is the perfect task to outsource. Many full production services offer detailed show notes as part of their packages but if you’re tight on budget, here are a few recommendations that specialize in this service:
4. Guest management
Many podcasts are interview based which requires a lengthy list of new guests to appear on every new episode. Finding, reaching out, and scheduling every person who comes on your show can be a full time job! The time involved to keep up with demand makes guest management the perfect podcast outsourcing option.
Finding the perfect interviewee is only one part of the process. Bringing a guest onto your show generates more engaging content and can help with audience growth so it’s important to keep your communications prompt and professional. Use a virtual assistant service to research, pitch, confirm, and follow up with every potential guest so you can focus on producing an amazing interview.
Try these podcast outsourcing options for full-service booking agents or virtual assistants land the perfect guests for you show:
5. Audio editing
Many podcasters start their first show without much audio editing experience. They can record the perfect episode but end up spending countless hours perfecting the final sound. Generally we recommend a 2:1 editing ratio where you spend 2x the time editing as you do recording. Without a background in post-production, sticking to this rules can be difficult.
We’ve detailed a few tips to reduce editing time but sometimes that’s not enough. You want to publish high-quality episodes so using a professional service can be the reassurance you need that your podcast sounds polished. Given the amount of hosts who lack a deeper understanding of editing tools, there are many full-service podcast outsourcing options to take the heavy lifting off of your hands. Ensure your episodes sound perfect by checking out these recommendations:
Castos users can access professional editing services right from their dashboards! With Castos Productions, submit raw files and editing notes to our audio engineers and we’ll take care of the entire post-production process. Put your podcast on autopilot with Castos Productions!
6. Social media management
Promoting a podcast across social media is an important pillar of audience growth and creating a loyal fan base. But if you’re new to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, putting together an effective strategy is a lot of work. From crafting enticing copy and imagery, finalizing a posting schedule, and regularly optimizing your posts are important pieces to having engaged social media followings.
Each platform has its own nuances and best practices so bringing on a social media manager is a popular podcast outsourcing option. Use a professional who specializes in all things social and leverage their knowledge to help create top of the line content. Working with a freelance social media manager or bringing on a specialize agency are both quality options depending on your budget. We searched the Podcast Movement community for a few our of favorite recommendations:
7. Website management
You got into podcasting to deliver a killer show to your audience but didn’t realize keeping up a website can be hard work. Wouldn’t it be magical if whenever your new podcast episodes went live, your show notes, transcripts and design files all just showed up correctly on your website? Of course! That’s why outsourcing WordPress website support can be a real life saver.
Typically for a monthly subscription, they’ll handle ongoing security and speed optimization, backups, plugin, theme & core file updates, uptime monitoring and access to a 24/7 team that handles all things WordPress for you. Whether you’re just starting a WordPress site for your podcast to build an audience, having a professional oversee everything will guarantee you’re not missing any growth opportunities. Here are a few solid recommendations that specialize in website management:
Summary
Freeing up time in your podcasting process can offer loads of benefits and make you more likely to stick with consistently producing your show. Gain back valuable time by thinking about which podcasting tasks you dread doing. Then hire a professional to take over, allowing your to focus on what you got into podcasting to do, sharing awesome content with the world.
