With podcasting on the rise and more people listening to podcasts than ever before, businesses are eager to jump in. However, if you have decided to launch a podcast for your company, you face an important choice: what format should you choose?
The easiest solution would be to do what everyone else does—launch a simple interview podcast and call it a day. But the easiest choice is not always the best choice for a business. Creating a podcast without proper planning will only take you down a crowded path where boring podcasts go to be forgotten. It won’t help you reach your goals, nor will it lead to success.
If you, on the other hand, want a podcast that stands out and attracts the right attention, then being intentional is a surefire way to make the most out of this unique medium. If you are strategic about it, you can build trust, create intimacy with your audience, and position your business as a leader in its field.
In this guide, I will cover:
- Why selecting the right format is crucial to podcast success.
- The four main types of podcasts and how to choose the right one for your company.
- Examples of each podcast type to inspire your own show.
How choosing the right format can help you reach your goals.
Think back to the moment when you started thinking about launching a podcast for your business, you probably had a specific goal in mind. Most of the CEOs and CMOs I talk to start out with a broad goal—they want to reach more people. But as I help them dig deeper, they realize their true goal is not necessarily becoming famous or reaching more people.
In fact, when it comes to podcasting for B2B businesses, the majority of companies are looking to build their networks, establish authority, strengthen relationships with customers and partners, fill gaps in the sales process, and even train new hires.
Whatever your company’s goal is, you’re more likely to achieve it if you are intentional about your podcast.
For example, when we set out to work with MCode, they wanted to launch a podcast that would help them reach coaches that might be interested in their personality assessment tools. They could have done the most obvious, interviewing psychologists and personality experts, but it would have been an uphill battle to attract the attention of the already busy audience. Instead, we helped them launch Coach Factory, a podcast meant to built direct relationships with their target audience and direct traffic to their assessment tools.
What does intentionality look like in podcasting?
Success starts with knowing where you want to go. And every decision you make about your company’s show should be a step in the direction of your goal—from the title and format to where and how you share your podcast.
I like framing intentionality within these areas:
- Having a main goal: This seems obvious, but it’s often overlooked, and some people try to set multiple goals, diluting effort.
- Understanding the medium and the audience: A goal alone won’t get you anywhere. You need to understand the different types of podcasts available to you, and you need to understand your audience’s needs.
- Achieving consistency: Maintaining a high-performing podcast over time requires consistency in length, format, hosts, cadence, and topics.
- Being cognizant of your resources: A lot of people tell me they want to be the Joe Rogan of their industry. But you need to ask yourself if you have the network, connections, money, and time to match your expectations.
With this understanding of why intentionality and planning is so important, let’s dig into the types of podcasts you can use for your own show.
The 4 main types of podcasts (with examples).
In researching this article, I realized there is a lot of confusing information out there. If you run a quick Google search on “types of podcasts” you get articles that mention everything from genres to formats. A lot of the information is confusing, repetitive, and it doesn’t help you understand how each format can help or hinder your business needs.
In this section I will help you understand the four main types of podcast formats—interview, narrative, solo or monologue, and dynamic or hybrid—to help you decide which is the best fit for your company and goals.
1. The interview podcast.
This is generally the type of podcast that comes to mind when you think of a podcast. It features a consistent host who interviews a different guest in each episode. This format is popular and well-known, allowing hosts to leverage the credibility and expertise of their guests to add value to their listeners.
Pros:
- Strengthens your reputation and trust through your guest’s credibility.
- Adds value to listeners when you bring on the right guests.
- Strengthens existing relationships or builds new ones.
- Can help you reach a wider audience if your guest shares the episode on their own channels.
Cons:
- The market is saturated with interview podcasts, making it harder to stand out (though not impossible, in fact we have one client who runs a successful interview podcasts and the results blow my mind).
- Researching, planning, and scheduling interviews consistently requires significant effort, as I wrote about here.
Best suited for: Interview podcasts are a great option for companies looking to connect with potential clients, strengthen relationships with partners and existing clients, and build connections within a particular industry.
Examples of interview podcasts:
- Leadership 480 by DDI: This podcast uses a standard interview format. Throughout different episodes, they feature team members as well as external guests, offering what are probably great takeaways for its audience. It’s a safe play.
- Hello Monday by Jessi Hempel: This podcast is sponsored by LinkedIn, showing how a brand can be part of a conversation without having to host a podcast themselves. While it is an interview-style podcast, it leads with an artsy intro with a narrative vibe to grab attention before kicking over to a standard interview format. It’s a great example of how you can make an interview podcast feel more personal to stand out.
- The EOS Leader™ by EOS® Worldwide: Hosted by Mike Paton of EOS Worldwide—one of our clients—this podcast is a perfect example of how to use interviews to strengthen relationships with current clients, providing more value for them, while attracting the attention of prospects.
“Without Jeff and his world-class team, The EOS Leader™ podcast would not be anywhere near as successful—or fun—as it is. Come Alive has helped us plan, record, and produce world-class content that’s highly ranked in all the important categories. As a result, I’m able to focus on finding great guests, helping them prepare, and having a great conversation with them. The guests love the experience, the listeners love the show, and I love doing it—which is no small feat!”
Mike Paton
Speaker, Author, EOS Implementer & former Visionary, EOS Worldwide
2. The narrative podcast.
Narrative podcasts use a storytelling format that combines scripted narration, interviews, sound effects, and music to create an immersive audio experience. These podcasts often follow a structured plot or theme over one or multiple episodes, making them compelling and emotionally engaging.
Pros:
- Brings stories to life.
- Compelling and full of emotion.
- Have a timeless quality, continuing to attract new listeners long after the initial release.
Cons:
- One of the most resource-intensive formats to produce.
- Require extensive planning.
Best suited for: Narrative podcasts are a great option for companies that want to share part of their history or story. They are the ultimate form of storytelling, and if you have a true story to tell, and you have the resources—money and time—then it might be a good format for you.
Examples of narrative podcasts:
- Life After/The Message by General Electric: This is a sci-fi series that explores the limits of technology. Their CMO at the time, Linda Boff stated, in an interview with The New York Times, that they created this podcast series to establish themselves as a relevant brand. Their goal was to “get on the radar of future employees, young people who are making a choice as to where they want to work.” Launching a project like this is a great way to create brand content that is different to what everyone else is going, and it automatically gives them a cool factor.
- Teamistry by Atlassian: This podcast shares stories of how teams have come together at different moments of history to accomplish what seemed impossible.It’s a smart move given that Atlassian software is team oriented. By creating this type of podcast, they are investing in branding and creating something high-quality that represents them well.
- At the Brink by The William J. Perry Project: My team had the privilege of helping the former Secretary of Defense, William J. Perry, and his organization to produce a podcast to educate the public on the dangers of nuclear weapons and eventually end their threat. Their goal was to reach a broad audience and a younger demographic, and they had the budget and connections to make a narrative podcast happen.
3. The solo or monologue podcast.
In a solo or monologue podcast, a single host speaks directly to the audience without any co-hosts, guests, or interviews. The host shares their insights, experiences, opinions, or expertise on a specific topic, making this format straightforward and easy to manage.
Pros:
- Easy to set up and manage.
- Requires less production effort.
- Can be planned or spontaneous.
- Positions the host as a thought leader.
Cons:
- Can be monotonous and boring if not well-planned.
- Will not help you build your network.
Best suited for: Solo shows are a good option for individuals that don’t have the time to produce other types of podcasts. For example, if your business is still small and what you care about is really just getting your ideas out there for others to understand what you do. This type of show gives you flexibility to plan things out or not. All you need is a topic, to show up, do your thing, and then do minimal production.
Examples of solo and monologue podcasts:
- Burnout Recovery by Dex Randall: This podcast feels a bit on the scripted side—it felt like the host was reading points he had prepared previously—which is fine. On the positive side, listeners get to hear what Dex believes. He likely points prospects and clients to relevant episodes when questions arise, and it’s a way of staying top of mind for his audience.
- The Rich Webster Show by Rich Webster: This podcast is an example of a much more fluid and natural sounding show. Just like Burnout Recovery, it is a great way for Rich to showcase his thinking process, helping him build authority while he stays stop of mind.
4. Dynamic or hybrid podcast.
Dynamic or hybrid podcasts combine elements of the other formats I mentioned on this list. They primarily feature interviews, but they also include scripted narration to create a cohesive story, offering an engaging listening experience.
Pros:
- Less intensive than a full narrative show.
- Provides more control over the takeaways highlighted.
- Combines the benefits of interview and narrative formats.
Cons:
- Requires more preparation and post-interview work to define the storyline.
Best suited for: Hybrid and dynamic podcasts combine the best of all worlds, and are a great option for companies who want to create engaging shows that feature guests, but that aren’t your plain-old interview podcast—they’re basically interview plus. They’re also a great way to condense what would have been a 45-minute show, and distill it down to its best 20 minutes. And if the host or person creating it has limited time, they can outsource all the interviews. In fact, they can outsource basically everything, and just show up for tracking, which is a smaller lift for leaders with a lot of other responsibilities on their hands.
For example, we had one of our clients delay their show for almost a year because they wanted to conduct interviews, but they didn’t have time to do it themselves. We finally asked them to let us run the interviews for them, turning their original interview show idea into a dynamic show. Their reply, “That’s the most genius idea I’ve heard. Let’s do it.”
Examples of dynamic and hybrid podcasts:
- 99% Invisible: This podcast, created by Roman Mars, began as a collaboration between a San Francisco public radio station and the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco. It uses a mix of storytelling and interviews to tell compelling stories about the world of design. All the episodes could easily be longer stories, but instead they are told in a quick and succinct way.
- Masters of Scale: This podcast was launched by the co-founder of LinkedIn and VC investor, Reid Hoffman. Each episode is around 30 minutes long and condenses the conversations Reid Hoffman has with some of the most recognized business leaders from around the world.
- Rocket Fuel™ by EOS® Worldwide: This show, from one of our clients, leans a bit more into the interview-format. However, there’s a monologue section at the end where the host, Mark, is able to talk about one of the EOS tools that’s relevant to the conversation he had in the episode.
A quick note on other “formats”.
If you’ve been researching podcast formats online, you probably came across mentions of other “formats” that I didn’t include in this list—like podcast theater, bite-sized, conversational, educational, and roundtable. These are really just variations of the main types mentioned above.
For instance, a roundtable podcast includes more than one guest but is essentially an interview podcast. Similarly, bite-sized and educational podcasts can fit into the solo or narrative formats, depending on how the content is delivered. While being aware of these other styles of shows can help you brainstorm ideas for your own show, understanding the main four types of podcasts I mentioned above will help you make a decision that makes sense for your company.
Wrapping up.
Ultimately, there are no hard and fast rules in podcasting—or in any other content medium. While I recommended each type of podcast for different scenarios, this is just based on my experience producing podcasts for myself and for clients. At the end of the day, you have to choose the format that best aligns with your goals, resources, and audience.
Be intentional, strategic, and flexible—and allow your podcast to evolve as you gain insights and feedback from your listeners.
And if you need help planning, producing, and promoting a high-quality show for your company, feel free to schedule a discovery call with me and my team.
