Blue is still the most popular color for podcast art – but just like last year, the most important thing is that it matches your overall branding and the feeling you want to convey with the show. Keep your fonts, image treatments and colors aligned and your whole body of work will look consistent.

Something people often wonder when they’re beginning their show is if they should use their own name in the title. This year 30% of the top 100 shows did – which is a fall of 14% from last year. This could indicate that there are more branded shows, and that generally, popular shows are more content than personality focused. This is speculation, but I consider It a good sign for company branded, topic-based shows.

If your main goal with podcasting is to establish or enhance your personal brand, or you area already very well known personally in your industry – use your name! If that isn’t a priority, however, then consider something that is more topic-based.

67% of the shows have a single host, with 26% having a co-host setup and the rest having multiple or rotating hosts. From a creation standpoint, this is great, because a show with a single host as the “talent” is a lot easier to manage.

The types of cover art are, interestingly, the same as last year with half using an image of the host – either photo or graphic, 31% using other kinds of graphic art, and 19% relying on typography. Even if host names aren’t in the titles of shows as much, people still like people, and like seeing who they are going to be listening to.

Now, things get interesting when we get to high level topics – this year there was much more diversity in the types of shows, and everyone seems to be interested in finance, personal or otherwise, with personal finance, finance/economics and investing making up close to half of all shows. We also saw many more personal development or lifestyle branding shows – many of which did not fear to address political issues. Cryptocurrency is another new category, taking up 3 of the top 200 spots, with the same happening for technology themed shows.

As a podcaster, you can take this to mean that there is room for your particular niche or area of interest!

This year we also looked at show types. Generally, we divide shows into 3 high level categories – Business Development, where the main objective is networking and relationship building, Audience Engagement, where the main focus is engaging an audience you already have who wants more content from you, and Thought Leadership which is all about being a thinker and innovator in your space.

Most shows in the top (64%) fell under the category of Thought leadership, with another 15% really focusing on Audience Engagement. We counted 21 of the shows separately however and classed them “Education.” Broadly, though not exclusively, they are part of networks or publishing organizations, and their main aim is to teach skills and theory. Normally, I would nest those under thought leadership shows, but there were enough that were really teaching focused that I thought they deserved a special mention.

It's important to decide early what kind of show you want to have. If you have an overarching podcasting goal, it’s going to be a lot easier to make strategic decisions about the kind of content you produce and how you promote and repurpose it. No matter which you pick, you’re going to get some of the benefits from all three high-level categories, but with one main objective, you’ll have a much easier time selecting guests, repurposing your content, and tracking your success metrics! Cf. One Stone Creative

Mick Smith, Consultant M: (619) 227.3118

E: mick.smith@wsiworld.com

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