We're sharing data and analyses from our annual research report, ideas from the experts we feature on our podcast and events, and case studies of how businesses are leveraging podcasts to grow.
Relationships and ROI in Podcasting
Relationships and ROI in PodcastingWhen you hear the word relationship, the next word that comes to mind probably isn’t ROI. And it probably shouldn’t be. ;-) In the podcasting industry, you hear a great deal about different types of relationships - the one you have with your audience, with your guests, and with other podcasters and service providers. In the parts of the industry that focus on building a show to monetize, or creating podcasts as passion projects, it’s easy to talk about cultivating and nurturing those relationships because the goals are really clear: create great content to build community, and possibly monetize through sponsorships. It’s easy to feel good about that. When you’re podcasting as a marketing channel for your business however, it can feel a little fuzzier, and the relationships you’re developing are often for multiple purposes - one of which is growing your business. In our personal lives, we’d likely never cultivate a relationship for some kind of material gain - at least I hope we wouldn’t! - so making the switch to more strategic relationship-building through your podcast can feel a little odd. But a relationship building podcast is one of the fastest ways to generate measurable value for your podcast, as well as form meaningful connections with other people. Keeping that balance means having one hand on your business goals, and the other on creating great experiences and working to be a connection worth having. Some of the different strategies a Relationship Building Podcast can contribute to are:
And any or all of those can feel great - or they can feel greasy. I’ve had experiences as a guest on a podcast that felt terrible - like being cattle herded into a high pressure sales funnel. And I’ve had appearances on shows that were a great conversation that led to a friendship and community in the industry. It comes down to how well you understand your goals for your podcast and how it’s working within your business, and how much consideration you give to the guests you’ll have on your podcast - what their goals are for building an audience, increasing their renown or building their own professional networks. Then you just need to make sure that you’re creating the conditions for everyone to get what they need. For example, if one of your key metrics for a relationship building podcast is growing your network of professional referral partners, invite guests in complementary businesses who YOU could refer business to as well, and make sure that your prep work or follow up includes learning about their services and ideal clients, and connecting with them on the social platforms you both use so you can start engaging with and highlighting their content. You are legitimately making a strategic play in who you’re talking to, and you can track the results from the different people you’re connecting with - but you’re giving too, at least as much as you’re going to get - and that feels good! |
What Does The Data Tell Us?Having guests is, of course, a wildly popular strategy among the top 100 podcasts. Only 18% of the shows we looked at had no guests at all - these were primarily solo podcasts or co-hosted shows with a strong educational focus, where the main goals appeared to be engaging an audience already familiar with the hosts. As we’ve talked about today, having guests is necessary for a relationship building strategy, but there are other reasons they can be a good choice for your show as well. First and foremost - solo episodes can be really hard, especially for newer podcasters. There is a dynamism in having a conversation that can be hard to make up for podcasting alone - although there are many excellent solo podcasts, of course! From an audience standpoint, being able to bring in outside expertise is also hugely valuable - there are lots of people who can share things that you can’t and your audience can benefit from it. Outside experts can also bolster the things that you say and teach, and there is always a bit of reflected authority that comes from being present with another authority in your space. There are those who invite podcast guests as a growth strategy - hoping that they will promote their episode to a wide audience, and sometimes a guest will share, but it’s not something you should expect, and certainly not something you should demand from your guests in a relationship building show. I have always thought this was bad strategy at best, and there are far, far better ways to treat a guest on your show. Whether you have guests or not - the most important thing is understanding how guests and the kind of relationship that you want to have is working, and continually optimizing the systems and processes you’ve built around that. Practice Makes PreparedI have such a great episode of The Company Show to share with you today. I had the privilege of speaking to Meridith Grundei, an expert speaker and coach with a specialty in helping leaders and experts make an impression. We talked about being a cool and confident host, making your guests feel welcome and generally using your podcast to present your business and your guests in the best possible light. One of her tips absolutely blew my mind. I have been producing podcasts for 7 years and Meridith was the first person I’ve ever heard suggest talking to your guests about what type of conversation they most enjoy. “I think you can go as far as asking your guests: ‘do you need more structure? Are you okay being off the cuff?’ That way you kind of know what kind of a person you’re going to get in the room with you. And some guests are going to take more work than others. “ - Meridith Grundei It’s brilliant. Of course, we all have our own show structures and goals for production, but one of the most important parts of being a podcast host is being a good host. Asking if someone prefers prep content, or likes to go off the cuff is such a kind and thoughtful way of engaging with people - it’s something I plan to institute! That jolt of “of COURSE this is something we should be considering” reminded me of an earlier conversation I had on the show with Jason Cercone who made the excellent point about what to do after you’ve finished a great interview with someone: “But once you sign off, what’s your first step as a host? I’m going to go to LinkedIn. If I haven’t followed them on my social media platform of choice, I’m going to send them a connection request. I’m going to keep the conversation going on social media. So now I have access to the world where I can comment on their posts, share their posts and keep the conversation going.” - Jason Cercone. What Meridith and Jason are both really emphasizing is that the people you’re talking to on your podcast are people, and building a real relationship takes a little time, consideration and effort. Meridith also shared some incredible exercises for improving your delivery, and my favorite of them was Half Life. In this exercise you start your pitch (whatever it is!) and talk about it for 90 seconds Then you do it again, but only talk to 45 seconds. Finally, cut it in half again. I did this exercise to talk about our new Business Podcast Accelerator, and recorded the results for you to listen to, along with my thoughts about the process. It was really illuminating!
If you like what you hear, it would be a huge support if you shared the show with a business owner you think could benefit from it. What's New In Podcasting?Other than a vegetable-related pun, there is little I appreciate more than an expert who backs their advice up with data. Getting that data can be a real challenge, however, but Jeremy Enns of the Podcast Marketing Academy is all over it. One of the biggest challenges in podcasting is the lack of transparent data around what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to marketing. So last year he conducted a deep dive into podcast marketing trends to find out exactly what was and wasn’t working for shows of different sizes, and the results were incredibly fascinating - and highly actionable. Jeremy is conducting the survey again, and I strongly encourage you to contribute. This is going to result in real information you can use to market your podcast, and the more people contribute to it, the more robust and accurate that information will be. Here’s what Jeremy has to say about the project: “The 2023 report uncovered a number of fascinating insights and clarified a lot of suspicions related to marketing benchmarks that many folks in podcasting had suspected for a long time but had no solid data to back up. But almost as soon as that report was published, people started coming to me with new questions that we had no data for. As a result, it was a no-brainer to conduct the report again to both update last year’s data and dig deeper into some new areas of podcast marketing we haven’t previously covered.”
Upcoming EventsFrom One Stone Creative: We’ve got another free Strategy and Networking call coming up this month - I’m excited to announce that we’ll be having a conversation with course and group program expert Kachina Gosselin of Founders Path all about the different ways that podcast content can be used to enhance your existing product and service offerings - or even to develop new ones. This is going to be an excellent talk, and it will be followed by Q and A, as well as some networking with fellow podcasters and industry professionals. It’s happening on Thursday February 15th at noon Eastern, and it’s free to attend. If you’ve got more content in your archive than you know what to do with, or a strong desire to get additional value out of what you’re creating as you create it, this is one to catch!
From the Community: One of the greatest benefits of podcasting is the opportunity to connect with other through the stories that we tell. But creating stories from our own experiences that we can strategically deploy in business doesn't come naturally to all of us - it's a skill that needs to be honed. Aleya Harris a Strategic Storytelling Consultant, is a sought-after speaker, host of the Flourishing Entrepreneur Podcast and creator of the Spark the Stage professional speaker training program. On February 20th she is hosting a free workshop called Never Let a Crisis Go To Waste. If you want to learn how to use your personal story to craft a compelling presentation, this is a workshop to make time for.
Do This NowWant to take one action to make a difference in your show and how well it’s working for you? It’ll only take 5 minutes. Open up whatever project or workflow management process you use and take a look at your guest booking workflow. What kind of touchpoints do you have with your guests? By touchpoints I mean the times you get to be in communication with them. That might include the invitation to be on your show, a prep call, the recording itself, a thank you note, letting them know the episode is scheduled or live, connecting with them on social media, engaging with their content and so on. If your guest touchpoints are not currently enshrined in your workflow add tasks for them today. If they are, review the touchpoints you have, and see if there are any opportunities to add to them, or make them better - maybe by making your booking calendar a little more conversational, or making a point to share some of their content the week their episode will be releasing. Onwards! Megan Dougherty |
Podcasting for Business
Strategy, data, insights and process improvements for when podcasting is jut *part* of the job.
We're sharing data and analyses from our annual research report, ideas from the experts we feature on our podcast and events, and case studies of how businesses are leveraging podcasts to grow.