5 Ways AI and Automation Can Assist With Every Podcast Episode
Whether you're a seasoned podcaster or a newbie dipping your toes into audio storytelling, you know that producing a quality podcast takes time and effort. As a solo entrepreneur or small podcast team, juggling multiple tasks - from brainstorming ideas to editing audio, managing guest communication, and publishing episodes are typical. Then once an episode is live, somebody must promote them to current and prospective listeners!
But what if you could leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to streamline these processes?
Since launching the Brand to Fan Show at the beginning of the year, I've been creating and experimenting with the processes my team uses at each stage of podcast production. Thankfully I've discovered and implemented beneficial tools that make shortcuts without cutting corners. Now I'm sharing how AI and automation can significantly enhance the production and delivery of podcast content while still maintaining the human touch.
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1. Streamlining Guest Outreach and Communication: Automated Email Sequences and Templates
A good communication flow is essential for podcasts built around interviews and multiple hosts or guests. Identifying and inviting guests to the podcast is the cornerstone for consistency and even releasing a show. A great podcast producer knows effective communication is vital when coordinating with potential and confirmed guests, but managing emails can be time-consuming and often feel like a chore. That's where automation steps in.
Automated email sequences and templates can significantly streamline guest outreach and post-show communication. With this system, you can keep all communication consistent and timely without crafting every single email from scratch. Templates save time and ensure a professional approach that doesn't get lost in the shuffle of day-to-day tasks.
For the Brand to Fan Show, we use a simple and effective set of emails to communicate with podcast guests from the initial invitation until the episode is published. Our series includes these five emails I've built as templates in my Spark Mail:
Invitation to Join the Show with Scheduling Link
Recording Confirmation & Ask to Share Additional Info
"Few Days Out" Recording Reminder with Form Link
Post-Recording Immediate Thank You
The Episode is Live with Links and Social Sharing Assets
I customize the email for the recipient at every stage, but the templates allow me to start at 90% complete. Having them available to me on my laptop and email and shared with my Operations Manager allows us to keep communication flowing seamlessly and efficiently with every guest.
2. Maximizing Your Video Outcomes Using Zoom's Highlights
An often under-utilized aspect of podcasting is repurposing content to maximize outreach. Podcasts are typically audio-first formats, but many podcasts are recorded on Zoom or Riverside.fm, making video distribution a possible but usually forgotten media type.
We record Brand to Fan Show with Zoom. Not long after we began recording, I found Zoom's auto-highlight feature amongst the recorded files. Zoom can automatically generate highlights from your podcast interviews into a separate recording. The auto-highlight feature is powered by AI using the audio transcript. But I can also override or add to the AI selections to ensure the best parts of the conversation, key takeaways, and my TL; DL minute is always part of the Highlights clip.
By identifying can't-miss moments from a podcast episode, I use Zoom to cut a 45-minute conversation to less than 15 minutes in a summary of the best content. Using this clip on YouTube as an abbreviated episode helps you to drive more traffic to your full episodes.
3. Every Video Clip You Need for Pod Promotion: Pictory.AI's Short Snippet Videos
Having a 15-minute clip to promote my 45-minute podcast is great. Still, we all know that social media channels amplify native videos in their algorithm rather than YouTube links. When you need to transform a video to make it more usable, turn to Pictory. Pictory.AI can boost your podcast promotion to the next level by creating engaging short snippet videos. When shared on social media or via email, these videos can generate interest and encourage more listeners to tune in.
Pictory.AI handles video files and YouTube links to create snackable, shorter video clips, which you can customize further with brand and style templates, background music, and voiceovers. It makes an AI-generated transcript to generate instant highlights and package them into an attention-grabbing video, helping your podcast gain more visibility and traction.
Our team uses the Zoom Highlights cutdown as the input file for Pictory.ai. From that project file, we can clip individual moments from the interview and determine the video size (square, 16:9 Landscape, and 9:16 Stories) for different social media channels. By applying a stylized captions template, our custom background music, and a custom exit frame with call-to-action, each video we create is unmistakeably an extension of the Brand to Fan Show.
The TL; DL (too-long; didn't listen) moment I use to wrap up each interview is on my "cut list" for every Brand to Fan Show episode. Highlighting the takeaways in a minute (or so) is a fabulous way to entice social media followers to find and listen to the full interview.
4. Engineering Podcast Notes and Promotion with ChatGPT
You likely have an opinion about ChatGPT, the generative AI tool developed by OpenAI that has revolutionized how marketers create content. Here's mine: It's the most useful assistant and intern with the highest ceiling I've ever deployed. From generating detailed show descriptions to creating multiple social media posts in CSV formats and writing long-form articles based on quotes and transcripts, ChatGPT quickly became a production assistant for our team.
My list of prompts quickly grew and became more nuanced the more I used ChatGPT for the podcast. The machine learning in the chat file allowed me to continue building within a single file, adding context from each episode to the last.
Rather than try to input entire 30,000-character transcripts into the chat, I looked for how to share enough context to get the outputs I sought for my show notes, social posts, and corresponding articles.
By sharing my intro text, list of questions for the guest, the guest's bio, and the conversation notes that anchor my TL; DL, the AI program can follow detailed prompts to create outputs we could build upon.
I also can use ChatGPT at the very beginning of an episode by asking about prospective guests that might be a good fit for the podcast and sample questions or themes for the conversation based on their known bodies of work (books, expertise).
The more I used ChatGPT, the more I wanted to use it, but I had to balance that with the time it took to supply the context and prompts for useful outputs, repeating for each episode.
5. Efficient Podcast Content Extraction: CastMagic
As mentioned above, putting transcripts into ChatGPT was time-consuming, and the ROI didn't pay off every Sunday night. So when CastMagic hit the market, I was intrigued. CastMagic extracts meaning and generates outputs from audio and video files by generating AI transcripts to create entirely useful things.
The ability of AI to extract valuable content from transcripts is particularly noteworthy for CastMagic. It allows you to use the same material in numerous ways, amplifying the reach of each podcast episode.
Sometimes, the raw material from a podcast episode can be overwhelming. How do you find the gold nuggets to highlight? CastMagic, with its automated and customized prompts, takes the guessing out of this process.
The top selling point for podcast producers like me is that CastMagic has built and optimized prompts that run simultaneously to pull out the most valuable content from each episode. The result is a more efficient use of each podcast, saving hours each week that are otherwise spent sifting through transcripts and a list of prompts in ChatGPT. I get several hours back each week now that we rely on CastMagic, between my own hours and the time I pay my producer team.
The product continues to improve in the few weeks we've been using CastMagic. Initially, we used the transcript for production and spent most of our time with MagicChat to run our existing prompts. Today CastMagic allows you to save your own prompts and add them to the AI Content queue that runs automatically once a transcript is generated. Now my entire Show Notes and Promotions SOP is executed in one fail swoop!
Adding AI and Automation to Your Podcast Workflow
Now that you've seen how AI and automation can optimize podcast production, you might wonder how to implement these technologies into your workflow. Here are a few recommendations:
Start small: Incorporating AI and automation doesn't have to happen simultaneously. Start by automating one process, like email communication, and gradually add more as you become comfortable.
Be patient: A learning curve might occur when using these tools. Be patient and give yourself time to understand how each tool works.
Experiment: Try different features and see what works best for your podcast. Remember, every podcast is unique. What works for one might not work for another.
AI Assistance Is the Future of Podcasting
AI and automation are revolutionizing the podcasting industry as quickly as any other industry. Incorporating these technologies into your workflow saves time and money, increases your podcast's reach, and enhances the promotional content that attracts and builds an audience.
If you're ready to elevate your podcast game, I encourage you to start with Pictory.AI for its video snippet creation features and CastMagic to streamline your post-production process. The future of podcasting is here. Embrace it, and let these advanced tools assist you in your journey toward a successful and optimized podcast production.
Don't forget, though -- while technology aids us in streamlining the process, your unique voice and perspective remain the heart of your podcast. Let AI and automation handle the technical side and get you 80-90% complete outputs. That frees you up to do what you do best – create engaging content that resonates with your audience.
Note: I am a proud affiliate for some of these tools, meaning if you click a link for a tool and make a purchase, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. My recommendations are based on personal experience and knowledge of these companies, and I recommend them because they are genuinely helpful and useful.