Purdue University’s podcast strategy shows how to reach audiences beyond your existing community.
A major TV network searching for a space expert happened to stumble on a Purdue University professor through its podcast.
“That, to me, is the show’s success,” said Kate Young, host, producer and director of “This Is Purdue,” a podcast launched to broaden the university’s brand.
Since Young joined Purdue’s central marketing and communications team in 2021, the show has produced about 150 episodes and attracted roughly 18,000 YouTube subscribers.
Purdue’s formula offers six lessons for communicators using podcasts or other interview-based formats to not only increase reach, but also expand awareness.
- Start with a question or topic your audience wants to know.
“This Is Purdue” originally focused on professors who had won awards or had an interesting campus story.
But the team later changed its starting point, Young said. Instead of thinking about who Purdue wanted to promote, it considered what people were searching for or discussing in community forums or on university-related social media.
For example, one upcoming episode will cover, “Is TikTok lying to you about how much protein you need?” Purdue plans to introduce an athletics nutrition expert who has the knowledge to answer and discuss it, Young said.
“You could still listen to that episode and find it interesting, find something valuable from it,” she said. “Even if you’re not familiar with Purdue.”
Other organizations should review search questions, news coverage, social comments and recurring audience concerns. Find the question first, then select the best person to speak on it.
- Use experts to show usefulness.
Audiences are less likely to listen to a podcast because an organization wants to highlight one of its employees. They’re going to listen because that employee can explain a subject affecting their lives.
The brand really enters the story through the quality of the answer, Young said.
This gives teams a less promotional way to highlight what they know. An expert’s usefulness becomes evidence of the organization’s value, she said.
“Then get that hook. Get that headline,” Young said. “Research SEO and GEO and integrate those tactics.”
Write episode titles in the language an audience might use in a search or AI prompt. A clear question or hot topic is better than a title built around a guest’s name or job title. The subject is the hook. The expert can explain why it matters.
- Prepare social clips ahead of time.
Before recording, the team identifies questions that could become YouTube Shorts, LinkedIn quote graphics or Instagram videos. They record short segments specifically for those channels, she said.
Someone speaking on workplace well-being, for example, could answer a separate question about three ways employees can protect their calendars.
“We’re thinking through before each interview what our social strategy is and how we can leverage that,” Young said.
Create a distribution plan before the interview, she said. Identify potential short videos, quotes and written takeaways before the guest arrives. For social, keep clips to 30 seconds or less.
One conversation can then become a full episode, quote graphics, an article and a series of searchable answers.
- Study formats outside your industry.
Comms teams should also examine creators and publishers that consistently earn attention, then adapt similar techniques without copying their voice, Young said.
Purdue looks beyond other higher education podcasts for ideas. The team studies successful shows in popular categories like true crime to see how they present guests, frame quotes and package video.
“Why can’t we do that too?” Young said. “We just have to do it in a Purdue-branded way. I’m really proud of how the team has shifted and really gotten into that culturally relevant kind of atmosphere. It’s been really cool.”
The format should feel familiar to audiences while the substance remains specific to the organization.
- Choose a publishing schedule the team can sustain.
Purdue releases an episode every other Thursday. Even with Young working on the podcast full time, a weekly schedule would leave little time for research, editing and supporting content. This is especially important to consider for smaller teams, she said.
“You don’t have to start off with this weekly show,” she said. “You can start smaller, and then you can always scale up.”
Teams could publish monthly, conduct virtual interviews or record six episodes at once and release them as a season, she said.
Consistency matters more than a rigorous schedule when you’re starting out.
- Measure the opportunities the content creates.
While Purdue monitors subscribers and listens, those numbers don’t capture every impactful result.
Each episode improves the visibility of Purdue’s research in search results, Young said. This circles back to the science professor’s experience and how he was found by a major network.
Communicators can track media inquiries, speaking invitations, expert requests, search performance and or new partnerships as important KPIs, she said.
“The big thing is brand awareness,” Young said. “It’s not about ROI or how many listens or whatever. It’s like, ‘Oh, wow, Purdue University has this really great podcast.’ We’re just getting our brand out there more and more through different vessels.”
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