I have been podcasting to promote my digital services since 2005, and it amazes me that more companies do you not embrace B2B podcasting.
It has proved an invaluable component of my broader marketing strategy, and I’m not alone. A growing number of organisations are integrating B2B podcasting into their marketing mix.
In this post, I will explain why I consider podcasting to be an effective channel for communicating with a B2B audience and how to go about getting started.
Let us begin by answering the question; why bother with B2B podcasting?
Why B2B Podcasting?
When most people think of podcasting, they imagine either entertainment shows or some form of business to consumer model. However, in reality, there is a rich array of podcasts aimed at other business professionals.
That is because B2B podcasting offers some real advantages over other forms of marketing.
Reach a Busy, Overwhelmed Audience
For a start, B2B podcasting offers the opportunity to reach an audience that is traditionally incredibly time-sensitive and who are being bombarded with more information than they can process.
Send them an email, and at least it will be briefly scanned. Post to social media, and you will be lucky if they see it at all. Publish a blog post, and only those who specifically search on a related subject will see it.
By contrast, people subscribe to podcasts, and they can consume them at times when they cannot look at other channels. You can listen to a podcast while commuting by car to work or working out at the gym. That means people are more likely to listen regularly, give episodes more attention, and your podcast will face less competition for that attention.
All of this increases the chance that they will be listening and paying attention to you at that crucial moment when they are looking for somebody who supplies your kind of services.
However, B2B podcasting provides an even more significant benefit.
Build a Deeper Relationship With Prospects
It provides you an opportunity to build a relationship with your audience in a way that most other forms of marketing do not allow.
At the heart of sales lies trust. People need to trust that you can and will deliver what you promise, and B2B is no different. To build this trust, you need to achieve two things. First, you need to demonstrate that you have the expertise to deliver and second that you are a suitable match both professionally and personally. People want to feel like they could work with you. The relationship is critical.
B2B podcasting allows the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise just like a blog post or email course. However, what it does that those others cannot is it can nurture a relationship.
The more people listen to you, the more people feel they know you, and the more they know you, the more they will want to work with you. B2B podcasting allows you to introduce the people behind the corporate facade.
I cannot count the number of pitches I have gone into as the unofficial preferred supplier because the client already knows me and feels they can work with me through my podcast. It is invaluable.
Not that a B2B podcast is some magic wand that will single-handedly win work. It has to be a part of a broader marketing strategy.
Where Podcasting Fits into Your B2B Marketing Strategy
Like any marketing channel, podcasting has its strengths and its weaknesses. Understanding these will help you better identify its role in your overall sales funnel.
I would argue that B2B podcasting is useful for two things.
Don’t Let Prospects Forget You
First, it is a great way to keep prospects engaged from initially encountering your company until they are ready to purchase. Depending on your industry and the services you provide this period could run into years and so it is essential to stay connected to ensure they do not forget you when they go to look for suppliers. Podcasting is an excellent way of doing that and ensuring they look favourably on you when they do.
Keep Your Customers Engaged
Second, B2B podcasting is good for staying engaged with customers after they have purchased, so ensuring they remain loyal and potentially upselling to them as well.
Once you understand these strengths, it is much easier to see where they fit into the customer journey, and by extension sales funnel.
You may use SEO or advertising to grab prospects attention and email to keep them informed. But you can use podcasting to nurture the relationship with both those prospects and existing customers by encouraging them to subscribe through a landing page.
Hopefully, by now, you can begin to see why podcasting is worth trialling and how it fits into the broader picture. The question now becomes; how to start?
How to Start with B2B Podcasting
First things first, podcasting is much easier than you think and even more straightforward if you focus on producing audio rather than video. All you need is:
- A decent mic,
- a tool to help you edit,
- and somewhere to host the audio file.
Fortunately, there are some excellent guides out there into everything from starting a podcast to buying the right microphone. There are even guides to editing a podcast, although to be honest, I would tend to use one of the great online editing tools like Alitu, as that will make your life a lot easier.
As for hosting, there is no shortage of options which make it easy to publish to all the major platforms like Apple, Google Music and Spotify.
Producing and publishing a podcast has become easier than ever before. The challenge is making that podcast compelling. To do that you need to answer three questions:
- Who is my target audience?
- When do I want to include my podcast in the sales funnel?
- What format am I going to use for my podcast?
Let us look at each of these in a little more depth.
Decide on Who You Will Target
If you already have a marketing strategy in place, you should have a good idea of who your audience is and specifically:
- What their objectives are.
- What pain points you can help them overcome.
- What tasks they need to complete.
- What questions they have.
If you are not confident about the above, then I recommend you start by doing some user research before you even consider podcasting.
That is because knowing the above will provide you with all the relevant content you will need for your podcast. If you address questions, provide guidance for completing tasks and help people achieve their goals, you have the foundation for a great podcast.
Of course, as you will know if you have ever done any customer journey mapping, these user characteristics can change over time, especially between being a prospect and a client. With that in mind, you will also need to consider how you want to integrate your B2B podcast into the journey.
Decide When to Include Podcasting
The answer to the question of where the podcast fits into the journey will be dependant on what other marketing activities are going on. For example, if you have built a passionate community of advocates around your brand, a podcast would be an excellent way of keeping them engaged and enthusiastic. A podcast would allow you to share ‘behind the scenes’ insights and exclusive looks at what is coming from your company.
Alternatively you might use a podcast at the very beginning of the customer journey just after you have made initial contact through something like pay-per-click advertising or guest posting. After users hit your landing page, you could encourage them to sign up to a podcast that will help them overcome one of their pain points or achieve one of their goals.
The possibilities are endless, but the point is you need to consider your podcast within the context of the customer’s journey and the other marketing channels you employ.
The way you decide to use the podcast will also influence the type of podcast format you adopt as well.
Decide on Your Format
When most think of podcasts, they think of talk shows such as you get on the radio. These are typically one or two hosts talking to one another or guests.
This format can work well in many situations. For example, it is a great way to introduce different employees to your audience or as a way of interviewing some of your previous customers. However, it is far from your only option.
Other options include, but are not limited to:
- Audio versions of emails and blog posts (such as you can find with this post).
- Townhall podcasts where you record live and invite customers to be involved.
- Roundtable discussions where you have several guests participating in a panel.
- Podcast courses where you teach on a particular subject.
- Podcasts built around answering peoples questions.
- Recordings of conferences and events.
Podcasts can be long or short. They can be ongoing or serialised. They can be recorded live or prerecorded. You can record them yourself or get a professional to do it for you. You don’t even need to commit to doing it forever and might want to try a limited run and see how it goes.
Trial It and See for Yourself
Often the best place to start is to run a trial and see if it proves successful. Instead of committing to podcasting over the long term, plan a short podcast series on a specific topic, run that and monitor the response.
Perhaps you could do a series of interviews of clients or maybe a short course helping people with a particular challenge your audience faces.
Please don’t take my word that B2B podcasting can help your business. Try it for yourself.
About Our Sponsor Alitu
Alitu is a tool on the web that takes your raw recordings & helps you turn them into an amazing, audience-growing show. It does your audio cleanup automatically, helping you sound great, and it makes editing easy through our custom-built podcast editor. When you’re all finished, you can publish from Alitu direct to your host, and get that show out into the world in minimum time!
