4 Smart Steps to Launch a Podcast That Grows Your Small Business in 2025

Are you a creative entrepreneur ready to amplify your voice in 2025?

Starting a podcast is one of the smartest ways to grow your small business and connect with your audience.

Podcast listeners are 4x more engaged than social media scrollers, making podcasting a great way to connect, build trust, and showcase your unique value proposition away from the noisy social streets —but where do you even begin?

I don't want this to be another shiny object that distracts small business owners from making real progress in their business.

So before we press record, these 4 steps focused on simple strategies will shorten your learning curve and get you to success ahead of schedule.

To ensure your podcast becomes a game-changing marketing asset for your business.

Let's slow down to speed up!

🎯 Analyze What's Working: Learn from the Best

Time to take notes 📝. This is the hard work (which on a scale of hard work jobs, isn't hard at all.)

Go to Apple Podcasts and look at these 3 categories: Top shows, Top subscribers, and Top episodes.

Use the perspective that you've never heard of any of these shows and are looking for something to listen to: What would you pick and why?

Put on your critical thinking hat and be that picky listener that nitpicks things before trying them.

Podcast Artwork

The first step in this process is to focus on the podcast artwork and note what you love from these 3 categories and what you don't like. Be descriptive in your notes; for example, the black and white photo with a yellow background pops. The photo is too large etc.

⚠️ The things we don't like may be precisely what's working.

As they say, do you want to be right or do you want to be successful?!

📌Podcast artwork is your first impression to potential listeners. Be descriptive with your designer so your cover pops! It's easy to find a Fiverr freelance designer for any budget to make this happen.

Ready to start your podcast the right way? Get my step-by-step guide, Let Your Voice Lead, to make podcasting simple, strategic, and profitable in 2025. Enjoy an exclusive Black Friday discount for a limited time—use coupon code STARTINGAPODCAST at checkout.

Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your small business through podcasting!

Podcast Shows

Our 2nd step is to take notes on the most popular show titles and descriptions. This provides insights into what people are generally interested in. Not to say you shouldn't at times be completely counter to this, but there's no need to reinvent the wheel.

This is what we're after in this step:

• the focus of the show for example: true crime about mysteries that went unsolved.

• read the descriptions for the promise the show makes to listeners

• notice how and where they are driving the traffic from their show to, for example: another social platform, a website, an affiliate link, a lead magnet etc.

• listen to a few top shows from different categories

  • what formats are being used, for example: guest interview, co-hosts panel etc.

  • what's the best things about the show, and what isn't working for you, for example: great interview style that allows the guest to answer without interruptions and feels very conversational, feels chaotic with too many random ads etc.

Study top-performing shows in your niche

The final step is to search the niche shows that serve your target client and notice their focus from the podcast description and episode titles.

We're looking for the gaps in the conversations. What immediately sticks out as being left uncovered in your niches?

This is my opinion: Don't listen to the show in your niche until you've created some of your episodes. Why? You don't want to mimic what they are doing and become a copy of them.

By creating your episodes first, you don't confine your creativity and style to what others are doing.

Be unique!

Create something with a difference.

If you've done all 3 steps I recommend, there is enough market research and data from those exercises to bring your own twist while being consciously competitive.

The brain is lazy; if you expose it to something, it will mimic the data you input. That's why you have to be consciously creative.

Use your gut and the data to create magical marketing for your small business.

Okay, phew! Market research done = notebook filled with ideas! #GoodbyePodcastersBlock

It's time to get started!

If you grabbed a copy, follow the steps in the Let You Voice Lead Guide To Starting A Podcast

BONUS

I don't usually share all this in a blog post, but I'd like to help some small business owners who are serious about creating a podcast that becomes a marketing asset and profit centre for their business in 2025.

Create Your Own Podcast Algorithm

Leaky funnels with low conversion rates seem to be the norm, reducing the effectiveness of small business marketing.

Identifying where in your current funnel you're losing potential clients is critical.

• Are you attracting your ideal client? This is easy to see on platforms where you can see who is following you.

  
  

  This is why it's good to have at least two strategic online marketing channels. One is for testing ideas with speed, and the other is for going all in.

  
  

  For example, On LinkedIn, you can see the job titles of the people interested in your content. If you're targeting coaches, are the majority of your followers coaches?

  
  

  If the answer is yes, then we can assume that when you repurpose your LinkedIn blog concept into a podcast you have an idea of who would be interested in this.

  
  

• Are you nurturing your ideal client? Are the people who follow coming back for more?

  
  

  Check the analytics of your social media platforms. Most have a term that distinguishes 'new' from 'existing' audiences.

Get a sense of the attracting vs nurturing ratios.

Is there enought to nurture your existing audience in your content?

• What is your rate of conversion? The people who buy your products and services.

If there are changes in the conversion rate, analyse why this is the case.

Perhaps there was a real marketing push a few weeks prior? Perhaps the content over those weeks caused an increase in attracting and/or nurturing.

What were these content topics?

Make more content like that.

Here's the great news:

There's a shift on all social media platforms from being driven by likes and subscribers to serving the audience what they are interested in, whether that means push-placing an account with 100 subs or 1.2 million followers -- it's of no difference.

Isn't equal opportunity exciting?!

These billion-dollar companies, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, have done all the research and determined that creating a sustainable platform has to be driven by delivering on the audience's interests.

How to apply this to your podcast?

Consider your ideal client's interests (outside of what your business offers) and bring those social conversations packed with value for their entertainment.

Being niche-focused in your content is $$$ for your business, and being interest-focused is ears (and eyeballs) = ATTENTION

In 2025, let's commit to sales-driven content that positions us as the obvious choice for our ideal client and interest-driven content that creates opportunities to advertise what we do.

We don't want to be a 24/7 commercial.

We should also have some episodes that are just for the fun of it. Create some spaces for people to unwind with you.

Traditional marketing gold principle: All companies from Adidas and Yeezy to CocaCola advertise their offers during the Super Bowl even though there's no direct link.

It's about ATTENTION.

This small change makes podcasting FUN for you as well.

It's one thing to talk about the same thing repeatedly (100% niche focus) and another to talk to a guest who knows something you don't occasionally (Sprinkle a little bit of interest-based fairy dust to your show).

Have fun while serving your audience! #EdutainmentRocks

When we make marketing fun, we do more of it.

Value-Based Marketing

For Christian coaches and consultants, your podcast isn’t just a marketing tool—it’s a way to share your God-given talents and connect with your audience on a deeper level.

Let your podcast become a ministry that serves your clients while glorifying God through excellence and creativity.

Share your values and principles. Let your tribe know who you are and what you stand for.

Stay blessed,

P.S. We specialise in making DIY marketing simple, strategic, and ROI focused .. & dare I say, Fun!!! Shop our store for tools to make marketing your small business almost effortless.

P.S.S. If you love what we're serving here at the Faith & Biz Blog, please share with your biz bestie and have more conversations around these principles and ideas to bring more inspiration to your entrepreneurship journeys.