In this blog post, we are going to talk through how you can land more clients, boost your revenue, and drive more online sales through the power of podcasting. Whether you're a seasoned podcaster, just starting out, or have never made a podcast before, this post is going to take you through the top ways you can use podcasting to market your business to a targeted audience, build trust with your prospects and generate highly qualified leads that convert into those all-important sales without needing to have tens of thousands of downloads.
Let's get into it.
Content marketing is the strategy of putting out shareable, valuable content to an audience on a regular and consistent basis - such as blog posts, Youtube videos, and podcasts. Podcasts fall into the TOFU & MOFU segment in a marketing funnel. It is a form of content that you can use to convert a cold audience into warm.
Since its conception in 2003, podcasting has boomed in popularity and now boasts a 424.2 million worldwide listener base, (that's 20.3% of all internet users. Yikes!) And as of June 2022, there are over 2.4 million podcasts with over 66 million episodes between them with listeners increasing by 9.4% over the last year alone. This is an entire ocean of potential customers just waiting for you to tap into it.
Podcasts create more genuine connections with your listeners than any other marketing channel. It turns your listeners into avid followers and builds trust in them. As well as expanding your reach onto a new and highly diverse platform, podcasting allows you to increase website traffic generation and overall conversion rates because of the like and trust factor. A robust podcast can help move them through that sales continuum to a strong connection and business relationship.
The only way to make customers and prospects feel like they know you and therefore trust you enough to take valuable actions, is for them to invest time connecting with your brand. This is why creating a great podcast show is so powerful. Podcasts are uniquely suited to hold hours of time investment with an audience.
Podcasting allows brands and businesses to directly communicate to and captivate an audience. With our lives lived mainly on the go, the power to have your voice heard anywhere at any time gives you an unlimited amount of options to tell your story. Having a consistent presence and making yourself available at exactly the right time that customers are looking for you, can position you as a trusted authority in your industry.
Podcasting for business is also a powerful lead-generation tool. It serves as an accessible entry point for potential customers to begin engaging with your brand so that you can then guide listeners down the sales funnel, turning listeners into highly qualified leads and those leads into loyal, converted customers.
Podcasting is easy to get started and a great alternative to video, especially if you're not that confident in front of a camera! It is also ideal for repurposing over multiple platforms through many different forms of content to expand that reach even further and ignite those leads!
Now that we've established what podcasting is and the benefits of creating one, let's move on to what you can do to start generating those leads. You’ve heard the phrase “..content is king..”, right? Well, there's no expectation when it comes to podcasting. Great quality content is the backbone of any marketing plan and lays the foundation for further conversions. But before you jump straight in, you need to think about your audience. Start by doing some simple audience research, and competitor analysis, and try to figure out what gaps are in the market for a potential podcast show that your customers would like to tune in to on a regular basis.
Focus on creating content that will address your customers’ problems by offering solutions they can easily implement. Is there a specific problem that frequently comes up in conversations with customers? What topics do people in your industry want to know about? To find some ideas for this you could use a tool such as "Answer The Public" to find ideas surrounding important topics in your niche.
Always keep in mind the key component of any podcast, especially for B2B businesses, is matching the content that your audience seeks. Be it a thought leader interview, or a solution to a problem or business challenge.
There are a couple of different routes you can take when creating your podcast, but an important element you need to figure out is what format each episode will take. Will you go for a relaxed interview style like those hosted by "The Day One Podcast" ? This is a great way to create an episode that portrays a sense of community or helps to dive deeper into a problem or issue your potential customer is having, with an extra authority in the field or someone to even the scales in a debate. Or perhaps you’d like a narrative approach like on "Transforming Insight Podcast" ?
You could also go for an informal solo/monologue style, or Non-fictional storytelling podcast format - be as creative as you like, remembering to keep it relevant and concise with the messaging you are trying to convey. Maybe mix up your styles now and then to add a bit of variety for your listeners to keep them engaged for longer and returning more frequently.
Don’t stop at only publishing your podcast episode on one channel, utilise its full value and potential by repurposing that content on other platforms. You could turn one episode into potentially 10-15 pieces of additional content that you can use to target customers on every corner of the internet. You could turn it into a long-form article or blog post, and pull a couple of minutes at various points to create videos for Tiktok and Reels for Instagram. Create a Youtube video by recording the visuals as you record the audio, use specific talking points or quotes, and turn them into social media posts and Pinterest graphics. Each new piece of content can be targeted to your ideal audience on these platforms and help drive traffic and further generate those leads for your business.
If someone has listened to your podcast there’s a good chance they might be interested in your website and discover more about what your business has to offer. This is now a great opportunity to use ad retargeting on platforms like Google Ads or even social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to promote your website or sales page to these people. Building a podcast audience of people that are genuinely interested in what you’re doing is a great way to authentically increase the number of leads you generate towards your goal.
Get in the habit of creating CTAs that are related and relevant to the content of the podcast and that provide value to the listener. An effective, simple way to do this is by offering downloadable whitepapers or cheat sheets that provide more detail on the topic. Be strategic with your placement of your CTAs by analysing your statistics and metrics, and identify what the average listening time is and where the most common drop-off points occur. For best results, you should place three CTAs in every episode. The first should be placed at the start of the podcast before the episode starts, while the second should have an ideal spot in the middle of the episode, and the final one should be inserted at the very end to conclude your show.
Listeners of your podcast may not stumble upon your landing page by accident. Instead, it’s more likely that you will have to tell them to go there through your CTAs. Those in-episode calls-to-action will vary depending on your lead magnet. The important thing here is to outline the benefits on offer in a concise way.
Encourage email sign ups by offering exclusive discounts, a free download, or other pieces of high-quality content such as a comprehensive whitepaper, a chance to win an enticing prize or a free consultation.
Listeners who have converted into leads are more engaged with your brand, so it makes sense to reward that loyalty in some way by offering something of value.
Listeners who have come across your podcast or podcast content will start building a relationship with your company and when they download a high-intent content piece they instantly become more likely to convert into your customer. You can further drive traffic by retargeting those visitors with a high-intent piece of content such as a webinar signup, case study, or whitepaper download to move them down the sales funnel.
So there you have it, a list of comprehensive ways you can use the power of podcasting to elevate your business with highly-qualified leads, generate sales and supercharge your brand.
In short, here’s how podcasts drive qualified leads -
1. Create something that brings your audience value, and you create a show that builds a loyal following. Generating leads via podcasts is no different from a content marketing strategy except it’s more personal and engaging. We all learn from and consume media in different ways, but podcasts are on the rise!
2. Guide the audience during the episode with a call-to-action to a specific page of your website, or offering the listeners discount codes, to download a free guide, white paper, or even an introductory call or encouraging them to sign up for a workshop instantly drives traffic to your owned media channels.
3. More traffic fills the sales funnel, which, in turn, drives sales.
Yes, it’s just that easy with the right person helping you design your podcasts!
For more insider knowledge on why podcasting is a great way to grow your business, contact us at Zorbiant.
