B2B Podcasting Insights - B2B sales & audience engagement strategies for founders and brands

Free one-page post-mortem for an empty email list: https://podknows.co.uk/list

You're 40 episodes in, and your email list would fit inside a Fiat Panda.

Mine would. 19,300 downloads in 90 days. Signups from this show's freebies in the same 90 days? Two.

This was supposed to be a victory lap. Every freebie I built for the show this year, what each one was for, and which ones worked. Then I opened my Kit account, and the 'which ones worked' section got a lot shorter.

I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights, I'm reading out the receipts on a whole season of lead magnets, Top 40 countdown style, and working out why a B2B podcast with real downloads can still leave you with nobody to talk to.

We look at why a website address said out loud at the end of an episode is a message in a bottle, why a freebie built around a topic attracts other people in your trade rather than buyers (buying triggers, not topics), why an email address with no follow-up isn't a lead, and how Kit's own recommendations feature outsold my lovingly designed PDFs by more than three to one.

There's also a simple sum you can run on your own show: signups per thousand downloads. It's a horrible number the first time you see it. But it tells you whether listening is turning into people you can actually talk to, which a download never will.

Plus a Founder FAQ from Lorna in Inverness, whose podcast name has just been pinched by a competitor, and a quick tip on why every comma in your script is a suspect.

Useful links

Empty List Post-Mortem (one sum, four checks, my own numbers as the worked example) https://podknows.co.uk/list

B2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnostic

Podcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/audits

Podknows Website https://podknows.co.uk

Leave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail Or email [email protected]

00:00.000 Your email list would fit inside a Fiat Panda

01:35.000 The receipts: a whole season of freebies, Top 40 style

04:44.000 Why nobody signed up: no tap, wrong people, no follow-up

08:17.500 What I'm changing, and signups per thousand downloads

10:21.300 Founder FAQ: a competitor has pinched my podcast's name

12:55.000 Quick tip: if a sentence needs a comma, cut it in half

14:04.000 Final thoughts and the Empty List Post-Mortem

If you've got a budget review coming up and someone with a spreadsheet is about to ask what your B2B podcast actually does for the business, downloads won't answer it.

Downloads tell you people are listening. That does matter. But a download doesn't sit next to a cost. And that's the only kind of number a CFO can do anything with.

I'm Neal Veglio, and this week on B2B Podcasting Insights, I'm showing founders, CMOs and business owners exactly what to bring into that room instead: a fully loaded cost number of your own, and the three counts that show what your podcast has changed in the business, not just what it produced.

We look at why bringing your download chart turns your podcast into a media buy judged on cost per thousand, why founders either overclaim or shrug and say "brand awareness", why your own hours belong on the cost sheet, and the three counts that work as genuine buying-trigger evidence: deals where a prospect mentioned an episode unprompted, episodes your sales team sent instead of booking a call, and inbound that names the show.

There's also a simple rule for when you go looking and find nothing at all: say zero, then say how you'll measure it next quarter. Plus a Founder FAQ from Tamsin in London, who wants to re-record her cringe-worthy episode six, and a quick tip on checking your show at 1.5x speed.

Useful links

Podcast Value Scorecard (where you stand out of five, plus the three numbers on one page) https://podknows.co.uk/number

B2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnostic

Podcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/audits

Podknows Website https://podknows.co.uk

Is Your Podcast Doing Its Job? (the one this picks up from) [LINK]

Leave a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail Or email [email protected]

Timestamped summary

00:27 The question someone with a spreadsheet is about to ask

00:55 Why downloads are the one number a CFO can't use

01:43 How downloads turn your podcast into a media buy

02:12 Overclaiming, underclaiming and Janet the CMO

02:49 First: bring your own fully loaded cost number

04:30 Yes, your own hours go on the sheet

05:06 Second: a number your podcast changed, not produced

05:44 Count one: deals where a prospect mentioned an episode

06:11 Count two: episodes sales sent instead of booking a call

06:52 Count three: inbound that names the show

07:11 Why you don't need an attribution model for this

07:52 Third: if the number is zero, say zero

08:29 What to measure next quarter

09:04 Why a CFO trusts a zero with a method

09:46 Would your sales conversations get longer without it?

10:25 Founder FAQ: should Tamsin re-record episode six?

12:48 Quick tip: check your show at 1.5x speed

13:49 Final thoughts: line item or asset?

14:12 The scorecard and the Podcast Growth Diagnostic

The person you most want as a client is going to ignore your next three emails.

Ask that same person onto your podcast, and they'll give you 45 minutes of undivided attention, on the record, and thank you for it afterwards.

There's a version of that which isn't a trap.

Back in January I put out an episode called "Why Guest Interview Based B2B Podcasts Don't Work." I'm not taking a word of it back. But I did leave a door open.

Interviews should support your strategy rather than be your strategy and there is exactly one use of a guest that genuinely does that.

Almost nobody does it, because a load of people tried it in 2020 and did it so appallingly that the whole idea now smells.

I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights I take the Trojan Horse apart — the move from Stephen Woessner's Profitable Podcasting that B2B LinkedIn spent five years ruining — and show you what's left when you remove the one thing that made it rot.

We look at the three questions that decide who to ask, why most people approach the wrong stakeholder, the five rules that stop a recording turning into a sales ambush, and where the deal actually gets raised. Because it isn't where you think, and it isn't by you.

There's also a simple test you can run on any name on your guest list right now.

Plus a Founder FAQ from Yusuf in Sheffield on whether transcripts are actually worth publishing, and a quick tip about the dead logo sitting in your email signature.

Useful links

Podknows Website https://podknows.co.uk

The invitation email + the three questions, on one page https://podknows.co.uk/invite

B2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnostic

Podcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/audits

Leave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail

Or email me directly: [email protected]

Timestamped summary

00:00 The prospect who ignores your emails

01:02 The January episode — why guest interviews don't work

02:07 All of that still stands, but I left a door open

02:52 Profitable Podcasting and the Trojan Horse

03:29 The bit everybody skipped

04:20 How the Dream 25 became the Dream 2,500

05:09 A flat-pack horse from IKEA

05:31 It isn't the invitation, it's the deception

06:06 The three questions before anybody gets an invite

07:18 Don't book Janet, book Janet's head of content

08:33 Three or four a quarter, chosen deliberately

09:41 The case study I haven't got

10:03 Three hosts who invited me on, and became clients

11:28 The five rules, starting with disclosure

13:30 Publish it like it actually matters

14:35 If a deal comes, it comes from them

15:11 Open the door and tell them what's inside

15:57 Founder FAQ: is a transcript actually worth it?

17:52 Quick tip: the podcast badge in your email signature

18:40 The invitation email link.

That's Spotify's page for my podcast. And that's my company's website, sitting underneath it.

Not Spotify's page for the show, either. One episode. A single episode of mine, on somebody else's platform, ranking above the website I actually pay for.

I run a podcast agency. This is my own show. And in more than 45 episodes of telling founders to go and look at their own numbers, I had never once typed my own show name into a search bar.

It took 45 seconds.

I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights I walk down the whole results page top to bottom — what Google has already answered before anyone can click anything, who's bidding against your show's name, and why the thing representing your podcast to complete strangers is almost certainly a page you've never opened.

I'm also going to be honest about which bits of this I actually understand, and that matters more than it sounds like it does. There's a point in here where I stop, because I can feel myself about to become a man with opinions about Google — and the reason most podcast advice is useless is that nobody will say the words "I don't know that."

What I can talk about is the podcast bit. So there are five things you can go and fix today, none of which require an SEO expert, and one of which takes 45 seconds.

Plus a Founder FAQ from Struan in Glasgow whose guest wants to hear the edit before it goes out, and a quick tip about the one-click button in your editing software that's quietly turning your guests into robots.

Useful links

Podknows Website https://podknows.co.uk

B2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnostic

Podcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/audits

Nikki Pilkington — SEO (mentioned in this episode) https://seofuckingwhatpodcast.co.uk/

Leave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail

Or email me directly: [email protected]

Timestamped summary

00:00 Spotify is outranking my own website

00:37 45 episodes of "go and check your numbers" — and I never had

00:57 Conversion needs supply: episodes don't bring strangers in

01:57 Result one: Google answered before anyone can click

02:26 Credited like a photographer on a stock image

02:46 Result two: who's bidding against your show's name

03:10 Result three: the first thing a human can actually click

03:59 Results four and five: Spotify's episode above my company site

04:11 Don't get cross with Spotify — this is an ownership problem

04:45 The dates: stamped June versus published every Friday

05:04 Where I stop, and why "I don't know" matters

05:59 What producing an SEO podcast taught me

06:22 My theory: freshness is doing something

06:53 What's Nikki's department and what's mine 07:23 Five things you can actually fix

09:03 These results won't change on their own

10:00 Founder FAQ: a guest wants to hear the edit first

12:21 Quick tip: stop deleting every breath 14:44 How to send me a question

If you've been told to niche down your B2B podcast, you've probably never been told what it costs — or who exactly you'd be saying goodbye to.

Pick a lane. Speak to one audience. If you're speaking to everybody, you're speaking to nobody.

Nobody disagrees with that in the abstract. Almost nobody does it. And the reason is simple: the advice arrives without a price tag attached, which makes it a sacrifice with no stated return.

I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights, I'm putting an actual price tag on niching down — naming the four groups of listeners you genuinely lose, and then asking the only question that matters about each one: were they ever going to become a client?

We look at why a tighter focus means being closer to 10,000 listeners than 100,000 and why that's the right outcome, what happened when I compared my own two shows side by side (one gets more downloads and makes almost nothing), why the subscriber count in your dashboard has never paid an invoice, and why conversion goes up precisely because reach went down.

There's also the homework: sort your audience into two piles and work out which one you're actually protecting.

Plus a Founder FAQ from Denny in Manchester, who has been staring at his show description for three weeks wondering whether he's allowed to call himself a visionary. And a quick tip that will make you delete a line from your outro today.

Useful links

Podknows Website https://podknows.co.uk

B2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnostic

Podcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/audits

Leave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail

Or email me directly: [email protected]

Timestamped summary

00:41 "Pick a lane" — and why almost nobody does

01:32 Putting a price tag on your ignored customers

02:07 Cost one: the adjacent industry listener

02:33 Cost two: the browser

03:14 Cost three: the network you built on breadth

03:45 Cost four: the numbers, and this one stings

04:59 Say it out loud: 10,000, not 100,000

05:28 My two shows compared, honestly

06:47 Names in a CRM beat numbers in a dashboard

07:16 One question to ask about every name on the list

08:22 The loss is real. It was never a client list

08:56 What's left: people who recognise themselves

09:58 Conversion goes up because reach went down

10:25 Your homework: two piles

11:37 The only version of niching that genuinely hurts

12:29 Yes, downloads will drop. Here's why that's fine

13:00 Founder FAQ: Denny in Manchester on the "visionary" problem

14:43 Quick tip: "rate and review" needs to die

15:52 Final thoughts and next steps

For the first five minutes of this episode, it's not me.

Jase is a B2B podcast growth guru. Jase has never listened to a single episode of this show. And Jase has nine strategies for scaling yours that he's giving away free, because that's the kind of guy he is.

Useful links

Podknows Podcasting → https://podknows.co.uk

B2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic → https://podknows.co.uk/diagnostic

Podcast Audits → https://podknows.co.uk/audits

Free Guide → https://podknows.co.uk/free-guide

Email me directly → [email protected]

Chapters

00:00 Meet Jase

00:27 Volume, guests, and never niching down

01:35 Consistency at all costs

01:49 Forty clips an episode

02:06 Downloads as the north star

02:28 Up 411%, and the cash it earned

03:07 Reviews, runtime and recycled trends

03:38 The engagement game

05:30 None of it was made up

Everybody puts their energy into the open. By the time you reach the end, the interview's done, the narration's delivered, the energy's gone, and somebody has to say something to close it out. Low vibe. Not going to convert.

I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights, I'm breaking down the three mistakes that turn a perfectly good episode into a dead end — and the two tests that tell you within seconds whether your ask is real or just polite noise.

We look at why asking a 20-minute listener for a 30-minute call is the equivalent of proposing marriage in a LinkedIn comment, why "follow, rate and review" is a favour to you dressed up as help for them, and why the reason your call to action isn't landing probably isn't the offer at all — it's that you're asking for a rung four action on the end of a rung one episode.

There's also the placement point almost nobody gets right: the strongest moment for your ask is roughly two-thirds in, not in an outro most listeners never reach.

Plus a Founder FAQ from Tom in Norwich, who can hear himself rambling and wants to know how to tighten it up — and a quick tip that will turn an hour of hunting for good takes into about ten minutes of clicking.

Useful links

90 Seconds Test - https://podknows.co.uk/cta-test/

Podknows Website https://podknows.co.uk

B2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnostic

Podcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/audits

Leave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail

Or email me directly: [email protected]

Timestamped summary

00:00 Is this how your podcast episodes end? 00:12 "Wherever you get your podcasts" is not a call to action 01:10 Welcome, and what we've built over the last few episodes 01:36 Mistake one: the availability announcement 02:52 Mistake two: the size mismatch 03:25 Mistake three: the favour dressed up as an ask 04:21 Fifty episodes in? Stop asking for vanity metrics 05:18 What a call to action actually is 05:45 The 90-second test 06:10 The better off test 06:58 The ladder of loyalty: four rungs, four different asks 08:51 Why your call to action isn't landing 09:05 One ask per episode, and where to put it 10:12 Say it twice and spell it 11:18 Recap, and my own email ask 12:05 Founder FAQ: Tom in Norwich on rambling 14:54 Quick tip: the three-second pause that saves your edit 16:42 Final thoughts and your homework 17:37 Next time: how you'll know if any of it worked

If you've got a B2B podcast and you're waiting for the feed to do the work, this episode reframes the whole thing.

Publishing gets the episode into the world.

It doesn't get it into the one pair of ears that matters.

Because your podcast's most valuable listen this year won't come from someone discovering you. It'll come from one prospect, three or four weeks into a decision, who gets sent one specific episode on a Tuesday morning because of something they said on Monday afternoon.

That person doesn't follow your show. They're not on your YouTube channel. They've never seen a single one of your clips. And their one listen is worth more to your business than a thousand downloads.

I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights I'm finally explaining the secret sauce I hinted at back in episode 44 — why a branded podcast is a joint venture asset between sales and marketing, and why almost every B2B show is quietly stranded between two teams who each think it belongs to the other.

We look at the one document that fixes it (and why it has to live in the CRM, not a marketing folder), why "here's our episodes, help yourself" is a buffet nobody's hungry for, the three-part message that actually gets an episode listened to, why you should timestamp every single send, and why it has to come from sales rather than marketing to work at all.

There's also the loop this creates: sales conversations produce the episodes, the episodes go back into the sales conversations, and the replies tell you which arguments are landing. Which is a far better signal than any dashboard is ever going to give you.

Plus a Founder FAQ from Fiona in Dundee on hating the sound of your own voice, and a quick tip that fixes the flattest thirty seconds of most podcasts.

Useful links

Podknows Website https://podknows.co.uk

B2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnostic

Podcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/audits

Leave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail

Or email me directly: [email protected]

If you're planning your next few B2B podcast episodes off a content calendar, you're commissioning content that nobody asked for.

That list isn't a commissioning list. It's a list of things that exist.

Listicles. Generic advice aimed at nobody in particular. Ideas that came from a brainstorm rather than from a buyer.

I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights, I'm handing you the exact framework I use with corporate clients to generate their next four episodes — and I can guarantee not one of them is on your content calendar, even in draft.

Because they don't come from topics. They come from your ideal buyers and what they're actually trying to find out.

We cover the two questions to ask your three most recent clients, why twenty minutes of back-and-forth is worth more than a quarter of planning, and the four-episode sequence that mirrors the order a belief actually changes in — name the problem, kill the cheaper alternative, kill the objection that kills the deals, and make moving forward feel safe.

There's also a worked example using a real listener's business, three more places your next episodes are already hiding, and the reason you'll end up with six episodes rather than four.

Plus a Founder FAQ from Dawn in Stockport on batch recording twelve episodes ahead, and a quick tip that will change the order you do everything in.

Useful links

Podknows Website https://podknows.co.uk

B2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnostic

Podcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/audits

Ideal Client One-Pager (free download) https://podknows.co.uk/ideal-client

Leave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail

Or email me directly: [email protected]

Timestamped summary

00:45 Have you written your one winning sentence yet?

01:27 Why generic advice gets generic results

02:46 The framework: start with your three most recent clients

03:08 The two questions that hand you four episodes

04:10 Two spare episodes, and the most undervalued move in B2B podcasting

05:15 Your email inbox is a data goldmine

05:54 The thing you explain every single week is an episode

06:12 "Oh, I hadn't thought about it like that"

06:43 Listen for sentences, not subjects

07:11 They're not content, they're a sequence

07:36 Episode one: name the problem in their own words

08:19 Episode two: kill the cheaper alternative

09:06 Episode three: the objection nobody says out loud

10:17 Episode four: make moving forward feel safe

10:49 Worked example: Jeremy's four episodes

12:34 Publish in order, then gather the feedback

13:18 Where episodes five and six come from

14:02 Your Monday morning action

14:37 Founder FAQ: Dawn in Stockport on batch recording

17:25 Quick tip: write the description before you record

If you've got a B2B podcast and you're 30, 40, 60 episodes in without much to show for it, the problem probably isn't your microphone, your cadence or your cover art.

It's that nobody ever wrote the sentence.

Most branded podcasts get built like a content marketing task with tickable boxes. Format, length, weekly or fortnightly, video or not video. All of those are construction details, and construction details are only right or wrong in accordance with a wider plan.

I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights, I'm walking you through the one winning sentence — the single line that everything else in your podcast should be downstream of, and the reason most B2B shows quietly never get anywhere.

We cover why a mission statement is worse than useless for your buyers, the three-part test that tells you whether your sentence actually works, why "build brand awareness" is a horoscope prediction rather than a job, and why your sales team should be hearing every episode before your feed does.

There's also the bit nobody expects: you don't need to relaunch, and you don't need to bin the back catalogue.

Useful links

Podknows Website https://podknows.co.uk

Ideal Client One-Pager (free download) https://podknows.co.uk/ideal-client

B2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnostic

Podcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/audits

Leave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail

Or email me directly: [email protected]

Timestamped summary

01:04 Cadence, length and format are only construction details

02:58 The one winning sentence framework

03:29 What it sounds like in the real world

03:51 The podcast test: can your team say it back?

04:12 Could your podcast ever be proven a failure?

05:02 Name one real buyer

06:19 Where your next episodes actually come from

09:11 Why cadence stops being the issue

10:35 Your sales team should hear it before the feed does

11:27 You don't need to relaunch

12:29 How you'll know it's working

14:02 Founder FAQ: the fear of niching down

17:37 Quick tip: the worst speaker you own