Hey BTP listeners! Claudia here, Lemonpie’s Content Marketing Manager.

I hope you enjoyed season 2 of Brands that Podcast and all the incredible guests we had on the show. We are officially wrapped with this season but will be back for more in the future.

In the meantime, make sure you follow us @LemonpieFM on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. And if you’re interested in reaching your audience on podcasts they love, be sure to check out www.lemonpie.fm.

In this episode, we talk to Michael Rivo, director of Salesforce Studios, about their incredibly produced show, Blazing Trails, and how they use podcasting to grow their brand.

Tune in to learn more about Salesforce crafted its flagship show, how they built a network of shows for different audiences, how they work with their PR team to repurpose podcast content, and so much more.

Guest-at-a-Glance

Name: Michael Rivo

What he does: Director of Salesforce Studio and host of Blazing Trails

Connect with him: LinkedIn

Key Takeaways

It all comes down to creating content that brings value to the listeners.

The focus of the Blazing Trails podcast is to create content that helps people be better at work. In large organizations, it’s easy to fall into the mentality of thinking about yourself first and falling back on those company talking points. But Michael says it’s important, particularly in an intimate medium like podcasting, to have those conversations be really authentic and centered around how they’re going to help the listener.

Take a newsroom approach to planning podcast content.

One way the Salesforce team puts episodes together is by topic. They come together as a team, discuss what’s happening in the world, what’s most important, what’s top of mind for their listeners, and then figure out who would be the most interesting person they can bring to cover that topic. Then, they ask themselves, “Who at Salesforce is really tackling this issue? And how can we bring those people together?” It’s a very organic approach.

Get your leadership team involved in the podcast.

Provide your team a vehicle to have exciting conversations with thought leaders in their space. This will help you expand your network, bring value to the show, and helps foster relationships inside the organization. Salesforce connects directly with their SVPs and leaders in the company, presents them with a podcast topic, and asks who from outside the organization they would want to have a conversation with about that topic. It gives them a say in the content.

If you’re going to use your podcast for product announcements, make sure there’s a story behind it.

Don’t just think of it as an announcement. Really think about the why. Why is this coming out now? What’s important about it? What does this mean for a listener in another company? Explain the reasoning and story behind the product vs. just how they would use it. You can also bring on guests who believe in the mission of the product, use it regularly, and can talk about how it benefits them.

Podcasts are the perfect medium for brands to employ storytelling.

In most other marketing situations, you have a few seconds or minutes to grab your audience’s attention. Whether that be with a tweet, a 5-minute blog post, or a short 60-second video. The constraint of other marketing channels is they make it hard to have in-depth conversations. With podcasting, you’re able to be in someone’s ear for 45 minutes and really tell a story from start to finish.

Think about your podcast like a Thanksgiving dinner.

From one recording (i.e. Thanksgiving meal), there are so many other pieces of content (i.e. dishes) you can create to increase the number of touchpoints you have with your audience. Blog posts, embedded audio clips, audiograms, LinkedIn posts, Twitter threads. And now, with all those pieces of content, you’re better able to see and track the ROI of the podcast. Treat each episode as a content generation center point.

Podcasting is a pretty level playing field.

Nothing is stopping you from creating a top-level show. Particularly with remote interviews, you can now bring on guests from all over the world. All you need is a strong brand identity, compelling copy, a unique hook, and an interesting guest list. Anyone can do it. You just need to be willing to put in the work and be consistent with it long enough to really build an audience.

Successful podcast hosts are not afraid to show their personalities.

Your host doesn’t have to be a performer, but they do need to understand they’re creating an intimate relationship with the listener. They should approach it from a journalistic standpoint where they can be really authentic with their personality and are comfortable speaking and facilitating conversations.

Interview prep is key.

As a host, you need to take a couple of hours to prepare for each interview. You should be comfortable with the topics, the materials, and the guest’s background, and you need to come up with a strong set of questions to guide the conversation. But with the right prep, you’ll also be able to deviate from your list of questions and have a real conversation. Think about yourself as a stand-in for the audience.

Less is more when it comes to creating a podcast network.

You should only consider adding new shows to your network if the audiences you’re trying to reach really are so different that they need separate shows for each. Michael believes in the less is more approach. There are only so many shows that your ideal listener is going to have in regular rotation. So your best bet is to build up your singular feed and use series or seasons to separate out topics rather than asking them to subscribe to yet another show.

In this episode, we chat with Tim Soulo, CMO at Ahrefs, about the power of podcast sponsorships. Ahrefs is a leading SEO tool with about 75 employees and $100M in annual recurring revenue. Simply put, they’re one of the biggest brands in marketing.

Tune in to learn why Ahrefs spent $214K in podcast sponsorships over the course of a year, how they measure ROI outside of direct sales and leads, how they use qualitative attribution, and so much more.

Guest-at-a-Glance

• Name: Tim Soulo
• What he does: Chief Marketing Officer and Product Advisor at Ahrefs
• Connect with Tim: LinkedIn | Twitter

Key Takeaways

If you’re looking to sponsor podcasts, make sure you pick shows with active audiences and credible hosts.

Make sure you’re not sponsoring a show with inflated numbers or a host who is simply doing this as a hobby for themselves and their friends. This is crucial to ensuring your sponsored message actually gets in front of the right audience and is worth your investment.

Podcast ads help you build brand affinity through the “mere exposure effect”.

The “mere exposure effect” is a psychological phenomenon where the more people are exposed to your brand, the more likely they are to develop an affinity for it. When the listener is faced with making a choice between your brand versus one not on their radar, they will choose yours merely due to the fact they heard about you numerous times on a podcast.

The best host-read ads come from hosts who’ve used your product.

When a host can give a more natural read of your product because they’ve used it themselves, the audience will listen more attentively because they already know and trust the host. Your goal is to partner with hosts who will genuinely recommend your product, regardless of whether you sponsor them or not.

Always negotiate sponsorship pricing.

Podcast sponsorship pricing is all over the map. The best strategy is to reach out to at least 20 podcasts, gather pricing information, and figure out averages before you commit to anyone. This will help you determine who’s pricing is above standard and who is undercharging so you can negotiate better deals for your brand.

Treat download numbers with suspicion.

It’s commonly known in the podcast industry that download numbers aren’t the most accurate representation of the number of listens per episode. When you consider sponsoring a show, make sure the host is well known in the industry. Look at their social following to ensure they have a loyal audience versus worrying about their monthly podcast download numbers.

Partner on a giveaway with the host in exchange for engagement.

You can offer the host a free version of your product to giveaway to their listeners, and in exchange, they can ask listeners to leave reviews or subscribe to their show. Not only will this get you extra air time at no additional cost, but it will increase the attention span of the listeners because they’re getting something of value for free.

Sponsor an interview question instead of a host-read ad for a more organic insertion of your brand.

Rather than paying for the typical host-read ad at the start, middle, or end of an episode, consider sponsoring an interview question instead. This will give you the opportunity to create a natural plug for your brand within the conversation and won’t break the attention of the listeners.

Convert hosts into brand advocates by offering them your product for free.

If you’re targeting hosts who are your ideal customers, offer them your tool or product for free for a limited time, help them set it up, and help them understand what it can do for them so they give you a more genuine endorsement on their show and continue to organically talk about you outside of your sponsorship agreement.

It pays to pay creators.

When you sponsor creators, you form relationships through the process of educating them on your brand. You pay them for their time and for their work, and if your product is good, you essentially turn them into organic fans. Meaning, even after you stop sponsoring them, they will naturally continue talking about you.

Think about sponsorships as paying for the creator’s work.

In 2022, Ahrefs is investing exclusively in creators versus big advertising companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Their philosophy centers around the idea of paying talented creators for their work, not their loyalty. Rather than investing in brand advocates, think about it as investing in a piece of work that would’ve otherwise not been created.

Mentions

• Ahrefs Podcast Advertising Lessons Learned Article
• Ahrefs Podcast Advertising Lessons Learned Video

Today’s guest is Justin Jackson, Co-Founder of Transistor, our favorite podcast hosting platform. In this episode, we talk about ways companies can use podcasting to build a community of supporters.

You’ll learn more about the number one metric businesses should be measuring when it comes to their podcast ROI, how critical it is for shows and brands to be transparent, and the different use cases of internal or private podcasting.

Guest-at-a-Glance

Name: Justin Jackson

What he does: Co-founder of Transistor and co-host of Build Your SaaS

Connect with him: Twitter | LinkedIn | Website | YouTube | Instagram 

Key Takeaways

Podcasting helps you build a community of supporters for your brand.

Justin and his business partner, Jon, were able to build a community of supporters for Transistor right from the start through their podcast, Build Your SaaS. They weren’t afraid to address real problems and have hard conversations on the show. Not only did this help them build an authentic community, but it helped them grow as partners.

Your audience doesn’t want to listen to a buttoned-up podcast.

They want the hero’s journey. They want to see someone struggle and not be there yet because it’s more relatable than a typical corporate podcast where everything is cleaned up and they have it all together. Your audience wants transparency from you. They want to follow along as the hero faces different obstacles and overcomes them.

Response rate should be the most important KPI you measure for your podcast.

Does anyone actually respond to your show? Are you compelling your audience to take an action? Did anyone care enough to reach out and give you feedback or a review? Did anyone write you an email to tell you how much your podcast helped them? Did anyone tweet about an episode and recommend it to their followers? That’s the best way to measure success, not downloads.

Transparency in podcasting isn’t black or white.

There’s a spectrum of how transparent you can be about certain situations. You need to be judicious about what you choose to share in a way that serves your audience. For Justin, sharing Transistor’s revenue from the inception of the company worked until they reached about $30K in monthly revenue. After that, the arc of the story passed. They made it from $0 to $30K, and it was no longer advantageous to them or their audience to see their revenue numbers.

Most attribution is “dirty”.

The reality behind marketing and podcast ROI is most attribution is dirty, meaning it’s incredibly difficult to get right. There’s usually a lot of noise surrounding the tools that track people and their activity, particularly in podcasting where metrics and attribution have challenging history. That’s why Justin prefers measuring success through a simple metric, like response rate. There’s no need to put it in a spreadsheet or track every comment. It’s a simple feeling of the general momentum of your show.

Prompt your audience to engage with your podcast.

During an episode, use prompts and questions to get your audience to engage with you. You can ask them what they think about a certain portion of the episode and have them email you their thoughts or even tweet them. You can’t expect the audience to act without giving them a reason or asking them to.

Have conversations with your audience to gather qualitative data.

The only way to turn qualitative data into quantitative is to actually have conversations with your listeners. If you talk to 100 listeners and 85 of them say, “I loved the episode you did on X,” now you have a quantitative metric to show that that particular episode was important. You can then take it a step further and figure out why they thought it was important so you can replicate the success in future episodes.

Use internal podcasting for training and onboarding.

Justin suggests companies take advantage of internal podcasting by using the platform for training and onboarding. Create a compelling 6-episode series that explains your company, how you got here, what to expect, etc., and share that with every new hire. You can even drip feed the episodes where the employee only gets one episode at a time to really help maintain the storyline.

Private podcasts aren’t just for employees.

You can use them for customers too. If you could give your best, most important customers an inside look into things you’re working on, what you’re thinking about, what you’re wrestling with, etc., you’re making them feel like they’re an exclusive part of your brand. 

You can use Transistor for dynamic ad insertions.

Rather than having to manually download your episodes, edit them to add a special announcement (e.g. you’re hosting a conference and want to share with your audience), and reupload the episodes, you can now use Transistor’s dynamic ad insertions to set up campaigns. Your announcements/ads will run on all live episodes for whatever specified time you set in the backend, and once it’s done, the ads are automatically removed from all episodes.

Mentions

• Bootstrapped Web Podcast
• The Art of Product Podcast
• How I Built This: Patagonia

In this week’s episode, we talk with the host, writer, and producer of This is Purdue, Kate Young, about why a university like Purdue would start a podcast.

You’ll hear how they measure success, what their goals are with the podcast, how it impacts growth at the university, and how they grew to 116,000 listeners in 2021.

Guest-at-a-Glance

Name: Kate Young

What she does: Host, writer, and producer of the This is Purdue podcast

Connect with her: LinkedIn

Key Takeaways

Use YouTube as a way to grow your podcast.

Don’t forget about YouTube when it comes to sharing your podcast. Particularly, if you record video versions of your episodes. The Purdue team uses a mix of organic and paid strategies to boost their podcast views by taking an entire 40-minute interview, optimizing the titles and descriptions, and also uploading the audio version of the podcast using Wavve or Headliner. They’ve seen a 195% increase in downloads using this strategy.

Podcasting allows you to tell a more personal story.

Purdue uses their podcast as a pure brand play. Rather than writing these stories, they bring on faculty, alumni, and students so listeners can hear these stories directly from the voices making an impact on their school. Not only does this create a sense of community within students, but it also connects alumni and faculty back to their alma mater.

You can reach older alumni by sharing the podcast RSS feed on Facebook.

Some of the older alumni might not be as familiar with podcasts or podcast apps. So in order to reach that audience, the Purdue team connects the podcast’s RSS feed to Facebook so people can listen directly from that platform. YouTube would be another great way to reach an audience who might be less likely to subscribe to a podcast but are more likely to subscribe to a YouTube channel.

It’s important to repurpose each episode into digestible social content.

Purdue shares everything from audiograms and TikToks to short video clips and quote graphics for every episode they publish. Because this is their official university podcast, the marketing and communications teams are able to manage the show from start to finish, meaning the branding is consistent throughout, and social content is created on a regular basis. This helps their audience grow on all platforms.

Work hand-in-hand with your PR team to cross-promote your podcast episodes.

When pitching to media outlets, Purdue’s PR team embeds any relevant podcast clips into their articles to provide an audio version of the story they’re trying to tell. Not only does this give the reader and media outlets a more personal perspective on the story, but it also increases your podcast reach and downloads.

Growth can explode when guests share your show.

It’s important to give your guests a nicely packaged set of assets they can use to promote your podcast episodes. This should include graphics, videos, show notes, and even social copy. Make it as easy as possible for them to share your content in order to increase your podcast’s reach within their audience.

The ultimate success metric is getting positive podcast feedback from people outside the Purdue community.

When Kate hears compliments on Purdue’s podcast from people who went to other schools (even rival schools), that’s when she knows the show is a true success. Those people aren’t tied to Purdue, they didn’t drink the Kool-Aid, yet they still enjoy listening to the podcast and find value in it. That’s the ultimate goal and measure of success.

It’s not too late to start a podcast.

It may seem like there’s an overabundance of podcasts out there and your window to start a new one may be closing. But Kate mentioned out of the millions of podcasts in production, only 322,000 are active. Many people and brands realize how much work goes into creating and sustaining a show and give up after a season, or even after 10 episodes. So if you’re thinking of getting into podcasting as a marketing or brand play, know that it’s not too late.

Having 100 people listen to your podcast for 30 minutes is more impactful than 500 website impressions.

The power of audio is undeniable. Having 100 people listen to your branded podcast content for 30 to 45 minutes and truly immersing themselves in your brand has a much larger emotional impact than 500 website visits. A podcast allows listeners to spend quality time with your brand, which is incomparable to a 2-minute article read. This allows you to build trust and brand affinity.

Mentions

• Riverside
• Descript
• Wavve
• Headliner

In this episode, we chat with Julie Douglas, Senior Manager of Mailchimp Studios, about their on-demand audio and video platform for entrepreneurs, Mailchimp Presents.

You’ll learn how they got started and the philosophy and belief in brand that drove the creation of Mailchimp Presents, how they think about the success of their content, how they develop concepts for the platform, their podcasting goals, and so much more.

Guest-at-a-Glance

Name: Julie Douglas

What she does: Senior Manager of Mailchimp Studios

Connect with her: LinkedIn

Key Takeaways

Podcasts give you a way to bring people into your brand’s ecosystem without directly marketing to them.

Mailchimp creates content that truly addresses current and potential customers in a very holistic way. They think about all the different aspects of being an entrepreneur, from the emotional to the tactical journey, and create podcasts that speak to those experiences. This helps their listeners connect with the brand on a deeper level without feeling like they’re being sold to.

Research and speak to your customers to understand how to position your podcast in a way that brings value to them.

Run focus groups, get on the phone with customers, and collect survey responses. Do whatever you can to hear from your target market directly so you can understand them on an emotional level. By doing so, you’ll know exactly how to position your podcast in a way that inspires them and helps them through any challenges they face.

The purpose of a podcast isn’t to Trojan Horse your company out there.

The purpose is to create content that is meaningful and sincere. Your audience can see right through any marketing play you might throw at them by creating a branded podcast. In order to create a meaningful and emotional connection with the audience, think about how your content helps them. How does it inspire them? How does it make them feel?

Make sure your host is a stakeholder in the topic you want to cover.

Don’t just hire a host for the sake of hiring someone that is talented on the mic. They need to be a stakeholder, an expert, or a guide in the topic your podcast will cover. The show needs to reflect the host's own world in order for it to feel authentic to the listeners. This also helps the host know how and when to dive deeper into certain topics. 

When creating a podcast, think about whether it can stand for the long haul.

Your podcast should be centered around a topic or concept you can execute for a long time. The reason being is it takes a while to build an audience. When you think about starting a podcast, think about what it looks like 10 years from now versus just 1 year from now. This will help you determine if you really have what it takes to grow it into a cornerstone piece of content.

If you’re considering running ads on your podcast, think about how it benefits your audience and customers.

Rather than running ads as an opportunity to open up a revenue stream, think about how the content in those ads is going to help the listeners and potential customers. Take a page from Mailchimp and be “customer-obsessed.” When you put your listeners first, you create the trust needed to build a loyal audience and customer base.

Mailchimp measures the success of the Mailchimp Presents platform by how it supports their spirit of generosity and support.

Yes, they measure the analytics behind the platform. How many people visit the site, how many people consume their content, and how many of them convert to customers. But they also look at it from a holistic perspective of how is this platform helping or supporting its audience and creators.

Approach podcasting from a sincere angle.

Try to get to the why of what you’re doing with your podcast and identity what can be useful for the audience. At the end of the day, you want it to be a two-way conversation between you as a host (and brand) and the audience.

Mentions

• Mailchimp’s ad on Serial
• The Jump
• Bloom Season
• Hands on a Hardbody
• Going Through It
• Pineapple Street Media
• Little Everywhere
• Call Paul
• All in a Day’s Work

In this episode, we talk with Alanah Joseph, Head of Creator Partnerships at HubSpot, about the ins and outs of building a podcast network through unique partnerships.

You’ll learn why HubSpot started the network, the innovative ways Alanah and her team form mutually beneficial relationships with the hosts, and how they’re taking it all to the next level with their new HubSpot Creator Network.

Guest-at-a-Glance

Name: Alanah Joseph

What she does: Head of Creator Partnerships at HubSpot

Connect with her: LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube

Key Takeaways

Successful podcasts have talented hosts who want to inspire and educate their audience.

When looking for podcasts to add to their network, HubSpot focuses on finding talented hosts who are dedicated to bringing educational content to their audience. Instead of looking at downloads, they analyze reviews and comments on social media to see how engaged the audience is and to gauge whether or not they appreciate the content the host works hard to create.

Sponsored ads should be customized to fit the audience of each show.

As an advertiser, HubSpot collaborates with the podcast hosts in its network to ensure their ads fit the personality and audience of each show. They work hand-in-hand with their podcasters to figure out who their audience is, what they care about, where in the world they are, etc., and then create ads that will be valuable to the listeners.

The success of a podcast network depends on whether the hosts see value in it or not.

Of course, you can measure the success of a podcast network based on acquisition and lead generation. However, it’s equally, if not more, important to understand how the hosts feel about working within the network and the value they see from it. Do they feel supported? Is it a collaborative partnership? HubSpot, for example, has a match program where they help match a podcaster’s ad budget so they can run larger campaigns on Facebook or Spotify.

When it comes to podcast analytics, qualitative feedback is king.

While downloads are an important number to keep track of, it’s also important to monitor the qualitative data from your show. What sort of feedback are the listeners sharing with you? Are they leaving positive or negative reviews? Are they sharing your episodes on social media? Because the tech behind podcast analytics isn’t quite where it should be, you need to be able to go off of instinct based on what you hear from your audience.

HubSpot Creators is a program focused on helping smaller, more diverse voices grow.

HubSpot’s newest initiative, HubSpot Creators, is a program for emerging business-related shows and creators. They want to make an effort to bring forward smaller, more diverse voices that are offering valuable content and support them as they reach success.

Mentions

• Selling Made Simple Podcast
• Podsights
• Chartable
• HubSpot Creators

In this week’s episode, we talk to Adam McQueen, Content Marketing Manager at Klue and host of the Competitive Enablement Show, about how he grew and humanized their podcast from the ground up with very few resources.

You’ll learn more about how Adam and his team chose the concept and hook of the show, how they measure success and think about ROI, and how he successfully launched a live community during the early stages of the podcast.

Guest-at-a-Glance

Name: Adam McQueen

What he does: Content Marketing Manager at Klue

Connect with him: LinkedIn

Key Takeaways

Running a podcast for your business can help make you an expert on the topic.

Even though Adam was new to the topic of competing in business, he took the podcast as an opportunity to bring in experts to learn from. Not only did this give him quality content to share with their audience, but it provided a level of education he could then use to confidently form his own unique point of view on the topic of competitive enablement. You can either be the expert or the guide to the expert and in this case, Adam was the latter.

The key to building an audience that comes back is having authentic conversations with your guests.

As a host, you need to know how to facilitate the conversation and extract real examples. It’s also important to know when to poke and prod at the guests’ answers to uncover why they believe what they believe. This may also lead to healthy debates or contrarian points of view, which help to solidify the authenticity of the conversation and keep listeners engaged.

Don’t make a copycat podcast.

Canvas the market and take inspiration from the best podcasts you see in your space, but put your own spin on it. Be human and figure out what makes people want to listen to you over anyone else. No one follows a copycat.

Podcasting is extremely effective for marketing teams because it fuels every other content channel.

You can take clips, snips, highlights, guest quotes, etc., and use those moments as fuel for your other marketing channels, like newsletters, socials, or blogs. Just because someone doesn’t have 30 minutes to listen to a full episode doesn’t mean they can’t still learn from you from a 60-second segment. This, in turn, might be a gateway to getting them to listen to the next episode.

Use your podcast content for sales enablement.

Klue keeps a searchable internal repository of podcast content within Notion so their sales team can easily access clips and “SparkNotes” on specific topics covered on the show. They can then use this content to share insights with prospective customers and showcase the company’s POV.

The success of your podcast should be measured on engagement, not downloads.

Are you making a connection with the audience? Do they send you feedback on the show? Are they sharing your episodes on social media? It’s more impactful to have 100 people listening to your show who really care and engage with you than it is to have 5,000 downloads with little to no feedback.

Don’t treat podcast lives like webinars.

It shouldn’t be a one-hour presentation or a siloed conversation between the host and guest. Instead, make it human. Open up a Zoom room and actually interact with the faces on the screen. Have conversations, and let people chime in. That’s where the magic of community is built.

Avoid the “sameness” of B2B content.

Oftentimes, B2B content can feel a bit repetitive. It seems like when you scroll through your feed, everyone is talking about the same things or sharing the same style clips. Don’t fall into the trap of “sameness”. Ask yourself, “What can I do, even with a podcast clip, that’s different than everything else out there?” Continue to iterate and improve your content until you find your unique voice and approach.

Looking into why specific episodes get more downloads than others will help grow your show in the future.

Even if your numbers are modest to start, it’s important to analyze why certain episodes get higher downloads than others. Is it your hook? Is it your episode title? Is it your guest? Is it because of a specific clip you shared on social? Was it the way it was distributed to your email list? Learn from these tactics so you can apply them to future episodes and grow your podcast.

It’s important to have leadership support to take creative risks.

You’re not going to get your podcast right from the start. You’re going to make mistakes. You’ll likely cringe when you listen back to your episode 01. But the key is having support from the top to take those creative risks, test different strategies out, fail your way through a few of them, and learn from it all so you can make a bigger and better show.

The value of your show is in the quality of the content, first and foremost.

Identify who your audience is, the problems they face, or the questions they need answers to, and go out there and create a show that helps them work through these challenges. If you’re not giving your audience the value they’re looking to get from you, your show will inevitably fail, regardless of the level of production or guest roster. 

Today’s guest is John Bonini, Director for Marketing at Databox, a cool SaaS platform that lets you build reporting dashboards and track performance from every tool you use.

In this episode, you’ll hear why podcasting was one of the first channels John chose to invest in after seeing massive success with SEO. He also explains how their podcast, Metrics & Chill, plays into the rest of their content strategy, along with how he thinks about growth, and a ton more.

Guest-at-a-Glance

• Name: John Bonini
• What he does: Director of Marketing at Databox, host of Metrics & Chill, and creator of Some Good Content
• Connect with him: LinkedIn | Twitter

Key Takeaways

Podcasts are a great way to stand out from the competition.

Databox was quick to convert to podcasting once they realized none of their competitors were in that space. It was a great way to stand out, talk directly to their ideal customers, showcase their brand’s personality, and help break them into the industry.

Podcasts with a repeatable format are easier for smaller teams to manage.

John decided to use a repeatable format, or what he likes to call “The Tonight Show Approach”, with the Databox podcast in order to make it easier for their small team to manage. With quicker episodes and a consistent set of questions, their podcast content can easily be transposed into different content formats, like blog posts or newsletters.

If your content strategy is focused on SEO, don’t overlap that approach with your podcast.

Use the two content channels differently. Many companies treat podcasting as another way to drive more traffic or leads, but if you already have a written content strategy in place that performs well at the top of the funnel, then your podcast should be more of a brand play. Use it as a way to showcase the views of your company and leaders to cement your positioning in the minds of the listeners.

A repeatable podcast format helps listeners know what to expect from each episode.

Rather than freewheeling an interview, you could take a repeatable approach and ask the same 10 questions to each guest. After 25 episodes, you’ll be left with a lot of qualitative data around those questions that you could then use to create reports, blog posts, or videos.

A strong podcast host knows how to get the human side out of a conversation.

Avoid asking yes or no questions. Instead, focus on pulling out stories from your guests. Lead with things like, “Tell me about…” or “Tell me a time when…” or “How did you feel when…”. This helps guests open up about their feelings and experiences rather than respond with short, surface-level answers. If you can get the human side out of a conversation, that’s where the magic happens.

Don’t start a podcast because everyone else is doing it.

You have to have a desire to start your own branded show. Don’t feel pressured by what the rest of the market is doing. It’s important to ask yourself, “Should you do it? Do you want to do it? And do you have the staff to execute a full show?”

Podcasting is a good way for legacy companies to stay in the conversation.

If you’re running a legacy company, you might wonder if you should even bother podcasting at all? John thinks it’s a great way for staying top of mind. Particularly, for consumers who are trying to decide between you and your top competitors. If you’re one of 5 big players in your industry and all 4 of your competitors are podcasting, they’ll be more relevant in conversations than you.

In this special Q&A episode, Jeremiah is joined by Lemonpie CEO and Founder, Erik Jacobson, and our Head of Talent Relations, Josh Crist, to talk about what it takes to run a podcast PR tour.

This is a must-listen if you’re considering a tour for your brand but aren’t sure where to start. Erik and Josh walk you through the ins and outs of identifying shows to pitch, strategies for landing interviews, the value of podcast guesting, and how to measure the success of it all.

Guests-at-a-Glance

Names: Erik Jacobson and Josh Crist

What they do: Erik is the CEO and founder of Lemonpie and Josh is the Head of Talent Relations at Lemonpie

Connect with them: Erik’s LinkedIn | Erik’s Twitter | Josh’s LinkedIn

Key Takeaways

Podcast tours are like the digital version of a book tour but for your brand.

Podcast tours, like book tours, are a way for you to build awareness for your brand and for you (or your employees) as a thought leader in your industry. It’s the proactive strategy of finding podcasts that your ideal customers or ideal team members listen to and getting interviewed on as many of them as possible over a short period of time.

Being a guest on a podcast helps position you as the expert in your space.

The more your name appears across podcasts in your industry, the more dominant the perception of you and your brand becomes. You don’t have to be a market leader to reap the benefits of a podcast tour. Instead, your goal should be to give the best, most transparent interview those shows have ever had in order to build trust with the audience and be seen as an expert in your space.

Leads from podcast tours come from the aggregation of multiple interviews.

Rather than micro analyzing the number of leads you get from one specific interview, you should take a more holistic approach. Look at the aggregation of leads coming from all the interviews on your tour. It’s about setting the sail in the right direction versus narrowing your focus on each individual opportunity.

Repurpose episode content from your guesting opportunities.

Many guests miss the chance to repurpose content from their interviews to share across their own organic channels. Rather than waiting for the host/show to send you assets, you can actually record videos of yourself for every single interview you give or even write blog posts out of the topics you cover. This will give you the ability to distribute your own repurposed content even if the host/show doesn’t provide you with marketing content to work with.

Go into your podcast tour with clear and realistic goals so you don’t quit too early.

What are you asking of this channel in relation to the goal you hope it achieves? If you’re looking for podcast PR tours to drive leads in the first 30 days, there’s likely a mismatch between what this channel can do for you and what your goals are. Measuring podcast tour results is not the same as measuring paid acquisition channels. You need to be willing to stick with it long enough to see the outsized returns it can drive, even with the limitations of podcast tour analytics.

Podcast tours are great for companies that believe in raising the profiles of the executives on their teams.

If you believe that people want to buy from people, then this is the right strategy for you. You need to go into this channel with the philosophical mindset that brand building comes from raising the profiles of the executives on your team.

The compounding results of a podcast tour come in months 6 through 12+.

This isn’t something you see results from within the first 3 months of your tour. Yes, you will see and be able to generate activity, but there’s oftentimes a lag from when the podcaster agrees to interview you to when the episode goes live. So you need to go into the first 3 months knowing it’s a ramp-up period where you build up a snowball effect with compounding results in months 6 through 12+.

The key to being a successful podcast guest is having domain expertise and sharing it in a vulnerable way.

A podcast interview isn’t a 30-minute pitch or webinar of your product. Instead, it’s a time for you to share the expertise you’ve learned from being in the same position the listeners are in. What sort of experience do you bring to the table that only you could have from having lived the same experiences of the listeners you’re speaking to?

It’s more important to look at the impact of a show vs. the size.

When deciding which shows to pitch and guest on, it’s important to look at the size and impact as two separate factors. Shows with hundreds of downloads versus millions of downloads both have their place and can be valuable. But in the end, what matters is the impact this show has and what the audience fit is relative to your brand. We use the Lemonpie Score to figure out which shows to pitch for our clients.

Lead your podcast guesting pitch with empathy.

When pitching to be a guest on a show, it’s important to lead with empathy and show up with value whenever you’re engaging with a host. Rather than assuming you have something they want, take the time to learn, engage, and build them up and their show in some way. Get to know the podcaster, what they care about, what kind of guests they like to spend time with, what community engagement they like to drive, etc. and figure out how you can help them succeed in those areas.

Timing, fit, and approach are all critical to how you pitch a podcaster.

Whenever you pitch a guest to a podcaster, think about the timing, fit, and approach. Timing means they must be in need of and open to guests. Fit means you’re bringing value to their listeners that’s relevant to the show. And when you’re approaching them, you need to meet them where they are and not assume the host wants to engage with you on your terms.

Personalize your pitch and add a “5-Minute Favor”.

Personalizing your pitch emails seems obvious but it’s a point most people miss. Take the time to actually listen to the podcast, comb through their social media, find out what the host really cares about or what excites them so you can reference those conversations in your email. Also, you can add a “5-Minute Favor” where you do something to be kind, helpful, or deliver value to them that shows up within the first 5 minutes of your engagement with them. This could be a thoughtful and personalized review of their show, it could be buying their book and leaving them a review, it could be tagging them on social and promoting their show.

Prep is key to giving the best guest interview.

The research and prep that happens before your interview isn’t something to skip over. This can be as simple as listening to previous episodes, researching the host on social media to understand what matters to them, reading any articles they’ve written or been featured in, or watching videos they’ve produced. A lot of the work you do to prep your pitch can then...