Featured client
Introducing...
Care + Conversations.
The No 1 hit podcast
for first-time mums.
Introducing
Care + Conversations.
The No 1 hit podcast
for first-time mums.
CarePlus is Ireland’s
fastest-growing independent retail pharmacy group operating
58 pharmacies across Ireland.
Presented by mum and CarePlus Brand Director LeeAnn Hyland (pictured above with daughter Belle), Care + Conversations is a No 1 hit podcast series for first-time mothers.
BQ Podcast is a team of experienced national radio producers and award-winning podcasting experts.
We connect companies, brands, and more with ‘hard-to-reach’ audiences via engaging podcasts & other audio assets.
A HIT podcast series is born...
LeeAnn Hyland, Brand Director for CarePlus, became pregnant for the first time during the Covid 19 Pandemic.
She read endless online articles and listened to many podcasts during this time.
While many offered practical and factual advice, they didn’t offer what she was looking for, real people talking openly about becoming a first-time mum.
Due to her role at CarePlus, LeeAnn was aware of our work with high-profile brands and contacted us. She wanted to create a podcast series that would provide what she had struggled to find during her pregnancy.
Several months later, in October 2022, six completed episodes of Care + Conversations were ready for release.
Audio trailer & Preview audio
Ticking all the right boxes
Listening to the the trailer and preview audio above, it is immediately clear Care + Conversations is…
1. Targeted at a specific audience and is on-brand for CarePlus...
2. Offers good and relevant content for the intended listener...
3. Sounds "as good as anything you would hear on the radio" (in terms of audio branding, editorial content and overall audio quality).
From experience, we know these are three out of four essential objectives that any successful branded podcast must achieve. The fourth is the promotion of the finished product, which we will come to in a moment.
For now, please keep in mind that podcasts for brands work by attracting and then engaging occasional or future customers (or, as we like to call them, ‘acquaintances’) and converting these listeners into ‘friends,’ meaning they become regular and loyal customers or even ambassadors for your brand.
Marketing
& PUBLICITY
Click any picture to see articles online
(links open in new tabs or windows).
Client
Feedback
“A super talented team.
I can’t thank you enough for making this one of the most enjoyable work projects I have worked on.
Delighted with hitting No.1 on the Apple Podcast chart and all the positive feedback we have received so far.”
LeeAnn Hyland – Brand Director – CarePlus Pharmacy
a masterclass
in branded Podcasting
Earlier, we noted four key boxes that any successful podcast needs to tick.
Here, we expand on that and explore eight reasons why Care + Conversations is, in our professional opinion, a masterclass in branded podcasting.
An excellent idea for a targeted audience
The project started with a great idea (which crucially wasn’t just a podcast to talk about CarePlus). In addition, the subject matter is of genuine interest to the carefully targeted sub-section of the brand’s current and future customers.
On-brand
Care + Conversations is 100% on-brand.
It complements the existing ‘CarePlus Baby Club’ and aligns with the brand’s commitment to “deliver expert advice.”
Talkability
The podcast creates a talking point and conversation starter for staff, customers & suppliers.
It also creates a real point of difference for the CarePlus brand.
It's "recommendable"
“You should listen to that podcast from CarePlus.”
The podcast is recommendable to first-time mothers by family and friends.
Also, due to great SEO, anyone can find Care + Conversations on Google just by searching CarePlus podcast.
Perfect promotion
As you will see below, the CarePlus team was and remains committed to heavily promoting this podcast to the target audience in-store, online, and via press releases.
Promotional activity ranges from personal recommendations from staff to first-time mothers, posters, and leaflets in-store to online promotion on the front page of the CarePlus website, within their social media feeds, and via their email lists.
Publicity
This podcast series generated considerable publicity for CarePlus (more details below).
Journalists have taken a keen interest, thanks mainly to the quality of the preview audio (issued with all press releases).
Busy and often sceptical journalists quickly understood from the preview audio that Care + Conversations was more than just a marketing tool for CarePlus and, crucially, that it would be of interest to their readers.
The podcast series is really good!
Getting someone to click play on a branded podcast takes a lot of time and effort.
Often, that time and effort is wasted when the listener is presented with a shoddy, poorly thought through, bad-quality podcast.
That is not the case for Care + Conversations.
By working with BQ Podcast, CarePlus ensured their branded podcast was produced, recorded, edited, and mixed by award-winning national radio and podcast producers.
That’s why Care + Conversations sounds as good as anything you would hear on the radio!
Longevity
Care + Conversations has longevity for two reasons.
1. The series will remain relevant to first-time mums for at least the next 12 months, which means CarePlus will enjoy a ‘long-tail’ benefit from the investment.
2. Care + Conversations is now an established ‘sub-brand’ of CarePlus, making it perfect for future development (on this or any other ‘on-brand’ topic). In addition, Care + Conversations can expand to become, for example, a regular webinar or even a tourable live show!
GETTING to the top of the Charts...
We always stress that having a ‘hit’ podcast shouldn’t be the number one aim for any branded podcast. That’s because the real power of podcasting is spending time in the ears of the right people, not the most, and then converting them from being ‘acquaintances” into reliable friends and ambassadors one listener at a time. That said, with the right topic and target audience, a ‘hit’ podcast is achievable.
Here’s how we did it…
1) As noted above, we spent time developing the idea and product before taking anything to market. We made sure it ticked all the right boxes!
2) We completed all six episodes of this mini-series before publication. We also prepared all associated assets, including audio clips, show notes, transcriptions, etc. Finally, we produced an engaging audio trailer and a longer preview trailer (as featured earlier). The latter was published on all major podcast directories – Apple, Spotify, Google, etc., on the 5th of October, 2022.
It’s worth noting that many listeners subscribed to Care + Conversations having only heard the audio preview, meaning they were automatically notified as soon as each episode was released.
3) Concurrently, Care + Conversations was heavily promoted in-store and online and to the media via press releases with audio samples attached.
4) After ten days of pre-promotion, episode 1 was released (15th of October 2022) and debuted as the No 1 ‘kids and family’ podcast in Ireland.
The BQ PODCAST
Production Team
SERVICES
Provided
- Concept Development
- Training/Coaching for host
- Audio Branding Package
- Recording, Editing, Mixing & Mastering
- File Hosting
- Publishing
- Show Notes
- Transcripts
- Audio Trailers
*If you are unfamiliar with terms such as ‘Audio Branding,’ ‘Mastering,’ Show Notes, etc…please see our glossary here (opens new tab/window)
Production
notes
1. Pre-production
Listening to Care+Conversations, you can hear that LeeAnn sounds entirely at home hosting the podcast.
LeeAnn is a natural communicator; however, before any recording session, she benefitted from coaching from our award-winning producers (for example, how to use a professional microphone and structure her interview questions). We also scripted all the introductions and end sections of each episode.
2. Recording Sessions
The assigned producer arranged and then carefully supervised all recording sessions.
The producer also ensured each guest felt relaxed and comfortable before recording.
The guests for this podcast series were all recorded from their homes or offices using our state-of-the-art online recording software and audio enhancements of the quality in post-production.
3. Post Production
Following each recording session, every episode was meticulously edited, removing ums, ers, unnatural pauses, etc., without losing any natural flow or essential information.
For each episode, we recorded approximately 1 hour of audio and then spent between 4 and 6 hours editing.
Each episode contains around 200-300 edits; however, thanks to our world-class producers, you won’t hear any of them!
After editing, the average running time for each finished episode is around 30 to 45 minutes.
Following the editing process, the BQ post-production team went to work.
Each episode was carefully mixed and mastered (think photoshop for audio). During this process, tasteful, custom-made ‘audio branding’ was added to give each episode a professional opening and closing sequence.
4. Final tasks
The final tasks for the BQ team were to create transcripts, show notes, and audio trailers (featured above).
Services like Apple, Spotify, Google, etc., do not host any podcast audio. Instead, they ‘grab’ the audio files from external servers. As such, every podcast needs to be hosted somewhere.
As part of our service, we host the audio for podcasts we create/produce. We also take care of all the technical procedures to ensure our podcasts are published and discoverable on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and all major podcast directories.
CARE + CONVERSATIONS
everywhere!
Our “everything you need” podcast production service (see link below) ensures every podcast episode we create is available everywhere (inc. Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, etc.).
Introducing 'smart-links'
We provide ‘smart links’ which work out which podcast player you usually use, and if you don’t have one, the link directs you to a webpage where you can listen straight away.
You can also embed these links into your company logo or artwork for your podcast.
Try it out and see what Care + Conversations looks like in the real world.
Click the purple podcast button or the Care + Conversations artwork below.
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