How to Localise Your Podcast
The podcast industry saw its boom alongside the emergence of smartphones, as the hunger for on-demand content steadily grew, and businesses’ digital presence became essential. As of 2022, there are over 2 million podcasts available to listen to worldwide, with the average person clocking in seven hours a week listening to their favourite pod. Experts have projected that podcasting will become a £75.79 billion industry by 2028.
With so much content to choose from on such a wide range of platforms, elevating your accessibility will do wonders for your presence and popularity when it comes to your listeners. As the number of hosts and listeners from different regions is snowballing, with around 1 million active podcasts currently available in 100 different languages, ensuring your podcast can be enjoyed by all is crucial to stay ahead of the game. Many businesses are now growing their brand simply by localising their podcasts.
Why Should I Localise My Podcast?
Extending your reach to global users is key to exploiting your podcast’s potential. Localising your podcast allows you to take your business one step further – by elevating your accessibility. You’re also generating more interest, building a following, and ultimately offering a better customer experience. In addition, catering for all audiences, no matter the location or language will set you apart from the thousands of other companies attempting to make their voice heard.
Greater accessibility equals greater reach – if your business goals include international growth, localising your podcasts will see your expansion boom. If you can attract a broader range of listeners and build your fan base across many areas, your customers will start to trickle in from those regions. Not only that, but your SEO will also see a boost, as adding a transcript of your podcast in multiple different languages will allow Google crawlers to recognise and index your web page, ranking you higher in the search results and drawing more traffic to your website.
Building on the foreign market is essential to long-term business growth, and the quick turnaround of podcast production and consumption is a great way to capitalise on maximising that visibility. Whether you’re presenting fresh pieces of information, discussing your product or service, or providing an in-depth analysis of a related subject, there’s a whole host of companies that could benefit from going global with their podcasts.
How Do I Localise My Podcast?
Localising your podcast might take some investment, but it doesn’t have to break the bank. There are ways to tackle the process on a budget, and it will pay back dividends in the long run. We’ve broken down the eight main steps to making sure you get the most out of your internationalisation strategy.
1. Know Your Target Customer
Approaching this process with an awareness of your audience in mind is crucial to avoiding unnecessary mistakes along the way. Think of your ideal customer – who are you trying to sell your product or service to? Who is your current target, both with your podcast and your business? Who are your most frequent users and listeners? Take the time to pinpoint exactly who you’re trying to reach, and go from there.
2. Plan Your Budget
Podcast localisation can often be more expensive than text localisation, so you need to determine how much you’re willing to invest and over what period of time. Depending on how the dub or voice-over is incorporated into the episode, the cost will vary. Plan your budget based on the user experience of your target audience and what they are most likely to respond to.
3. Source the Right Expertise
Choose a reputable company that can guide you along the way. When you localise your podcast, make sure you have the right tools and know-how to produce something you’re proud of and that represents your brand image. Incorrect translations or cultural nuances will do more harm than good, and podcasting is a long-term commitment, so you’ll want to make sure it’s done right. At Brightlines we have a team of experts with extensive knowledge in translation services and a range of experience fit for any podcast.
4. Determine the Technology
The process of localizing multimedia podcasts can be streamlined with a number of tools that will help you manage your budget and streamline the process. Consider remote recording, automatic transcription services (which may also help you promote your podcast with marketing campaign content down the road), or synthetic voices to promote your podcast.
5. Start Small
Pace yourself – start with one or two podcasts and go from there. Ideally, you should choose the most popular, most listened, most interacted, and most shared episodes that you currently have.
6. Promote Your Podcast
Once you’ve done the groundwork, it’s time to tell people about it – the beauty of international reach is that it comes with social media marketing, a cost-effective way to promote your podcast. Make sure the message gets out by featuring sneak peeks and snippets from localised episodes (or both!). You can also reach out to other podcasters to find out if you can be a guest on their show, or vice versa, if you’re interested in leveraging the platforms of relevant influencers. Don’t forget your current followers – try email marketing with your existing fan base to spread the word.
7. Monitor Engagement
After you’ve produced a few localised podcasts, you can assess how well they perform and gather feedback. Check your user engagement and analyse the results – are they achieving what you intended? Do they appear to the right users in the right regions? Are you using the best strategy for your business goals? The performance figures for your podcast will allow you to focus on what’s working and dismiss what’s not, so you can adapt accordingly.
8. Create New Content
Once you’ve localised your existing episodes, you can create new content for your international listeners. Learn what’s most popular in each region and brainstorm what you could record next to appeal to them.
The potential for podcast internationalisation is limitless. We can help you reach new levels of growth and take the pressure off achieving quality localisation with our professional translation services.
