Now we need to know our target market to fully explore this topic. To understand that in this context we need to know how local is local? Where I live 400 people covers the locals. Do I need to start a podcast for them or would a letterbox drop make more sense? Now if I lived 15 minutes up the road in a town of 20,000 then a local podcast might make sense.
The nature of podcasting means we may be aiming at locals but we can be picked up by anyone with an interwebs connection anywhere in the world. That may be fine, locals who now live elsewhere, people who might want to visit your area because of your content. The point though is to focus on the locals.
Think of it this way. You are an archer. The target you are aiming at has locals on the bull’s eye. The next ring out it has people who live near your locale, the next ring is people who used to live where you are servicing and so on until the outermost ring has people with little or no connection with the area you’re focusing on.
Knowing this allows you to focus your content to the inner ring. Say an episode on a local sports team will appeal to the locals who follow that team. It may also appeal to the local rival team who is interested in what’s going on with their arch rivals. It may also appeal to locals who have moved to other parts of the world but your show reconnects them with their childhood and so on.
By adding episodes on local school events and interviews with students and so on the kids will drive their parents to listen, at least once. By capturing these, “at least once” visitors through great content you can build quite a following. Unlike local community radio, a local podcast can be consumed when the listener wants to. The problem with all radio stations and TV channels for that matter is the need to listen/view when they want you to hence Netflix and podcasting.
So a local podcast is quite possible, indeed almost desirable. You are then in a position to approach local businesses, council and so on for funding/advertising support. Your listeners are local, mostly, our advertisers/council is local so a marriage made in heaven.
Takeaways:
- Define your audience.
- Focus on the most appropriate section of your audience.
- Realise local can grab visitors from around the world.
- Build a tribe and celebrate the local.