Should your business have a podcast?

By James Jones, founder of Granary Digital · Updated 5 November 2026

A business should have a podcast when it has a specific listener in mind, enough to say every fortnight for a year, and a plan for what the show is meant to do. It should not have one because competitors do, or because someone saw a figure about listening. A podcast is a long commitment, and the businesses that gain from one are mainly the ones that keep going.

What a business podcast is good for

A show does a few jobs well:

• Building trust with people who are not ready to buy. Twenty-five minutes of your voice answering a customer's question tells them more than a brochure.
• Starting conversations with people you would like to know. Inviting a client, supplier or industry figure on the show is a reason to contact them and a reason for them to say yes.
• Making a library of content. One recording gives you the episode, clips, quotes and a written version. See our piece on turning one episode into a month of clips.
• Giving your team a voice. It lets people who are good at explaining the work do so.

It is a poor tool for fast sales, for reaching huge numbers, or for filling a gap when you have nothing to say.

Five questions to ask first

1. Who is the one listener? Name the type of person, what they do and what they want to know. If the answer is "anyone interested in our industry", narrow it.
2. What will you say in episode twenty? Write 15 to 20 episode titles. It shows quickly whether there is a show or just an idea.
3. Who will do it, and when? Name the host, the person who handles the guests and the person who publishes. Put the recording days in the diary for the next quarter.
4. What is it for? Pick one main aim, such as sales conversations, recruitment, partnerships or authority in a niche. A podcast with three aims has none.
5. How will you know it is working? Downloads tell you little in a niche. Better measures are replies, introductions, and people mentioning an episode in a sales call.

If you can answer all five in a sentence each, you are ready. If not, you have learned something useful without buying a microphone.

What the numbers say

The audience exists. Ofcom's research, published in September 2024, put about 20% of UK adults, or 11.7 million people, as weekly podcast listeners. That is a lot of people, but the number tells you little about whether your show will find its few hundred.

Surveys of working podcasters are more useful for planning. They come from podcast companies surveying their own audiences, so read them as a guide, not a forecast, and note that the cost figures are in dollars.

• In the Independent Podcaster Report 2025 from Alitu (558 podcasters), 72% of active podcasters said growing an audience was their biggest challenge.
• Half had fewer than 50 downloads per episode in the first week.
• 85% said their podcast did not make money. The survey covers every kind of show, hobby ones included, and a business show earns its return indirectly, so treat that figure with care.
• Among reasons for considering quitting, 30% gave struggling to grow an audience, 25% lack of time and 22% burnout.
• The Podcast Host asked where podcasters get stuck, and 47% said promotion.

None of this is a reason not to start. It does suggest a small business should aim for a small, well-chosen audience, and should plan promotion as part of the show.

What it costs in time

Time is the real cost. In the Alitu survey, 28% of podcasters spent four to five hours per episode, 27% spent one to three, and 13% spent more than ten. Half did everything themselves.

For a fortnightly show, a realistic month looks like this:

These are working estimates from what we see, not survey data. Editing is where most of the saving can be made, by paying someone else.

What it costs in money

At the low end, a microphone, headphones, software and hosting. In the Alitu survey, 40% paid $10 to $49 a month for running costs. The kit is cheap. The time is not.

At the other end, you can pay for production. In our experience agency quotes sit between £350 and £1,000 per episode. At our Podcast Studio the Classic package is £395 plus VAT per recorded episode: up to 90 minutes of recording, three-camera video, an audio and video edit and thirty short-form cuts. A solo session is from £108 an hour plus VAT. Our article on what a video podcast costs compares the options, and why business podcasts stop at episode seven explains the usual reason shows fade.

Whichever route you take, budget for the first twelve episodes, in hours as well as pounds. Write down who is paying for each, and who is signing off the first quarter.

A show that stops at six has cost the same in preparation as one that runs for a year.

An invented example

Take a small firm of accountants with eight staff. Their one listener is a sole trader in their first three years, worried about tax and unsure what to ask. The aim is introductions: the partners want more first conversations with that sort of client.

Twenty episode titles come easily, because each is a question the firm hears every week. They plan a fortnightly show of about 25 minutes, with one partner as host and a client or supplier as guest. They set aside a half-day every six weeks to record three episodes, and one person owns publishing. After the first quarter, the measure is simple: how many new enquiries mention an episode.

That firm has a listener, a reason, a rhythm and an owner. If you can sketch the same for your business in the same detail, the answer is probably yes.

If the answer is not yet

You may want the benefits without a regular show. These are lighter:

• Be a guest. Appear on three or four shows your customers already hear. You get the audience without the weekly job.
• Make a six-episode series. Plan the whole run in advance, finish it, then decide. Our piece on the first six episodes of a business podcast shows how to set one up.
• Record customer conversations as video. A short interview series for your site and LinkedIn needs no feed or directories.
• Start with a quarterly recording day. Record several episodes in one sitting and release them over the next few months.

Common mistakes

• Starting without a listener. The show ends up talking about the company.
• Making it about you. Customers come for the answers to their questions.
• No owner. If nobody's job includes the podcast, it will not survive a busy month.
• No plan for promotion. Making the show is the easier part.
• Measuring downloads only. For a business show, relationships and replies matter more.
• Stopping at episode seven. Plan the first twelve before you start.

Sources

• Alitu, The Independent Podcaster Report 2025, read 5 November 2026
• The Podcast Host, What Problems Do Podcasters Struggle With?, read 5 November 2026
• Ofcom, Top podcast listening trends from our research, read 5 November 2026

The picture at the top of this page is an illustration, not a photograph of a client or a real job.