“I’ll show you how to engage with people in your space. And uncover how to get more consistency, quality and variety in the content you produce from a podcast.”
Justin Brown
Co-Founder
Motion
Creating a name and establishing a brand for your show can seem overwhelming. The best way we’ve found to get over this hurdle? Go through a process to brainstorm names and then write your description (which can also be used for the intro).
Like I mentioned in the video above…we feel there are five types of guests you should have on a B2B podcast: 1) Prospects, 2) Customers, 3) Internal experts, 4) Partners and 5) Industry experts & influencers. One thing that’s helpful – create an empathy map for each. Go through this exercise to try and determine the types of questions or topics to uncover.
Because of the need to do the podcast on a regular basis and on a schedule, one of the biggest struggles we see is: who is going to host the show? So, before you get too far down the path, make sure you clearly define the host. Here’s a blog post we put together to help identify the host within your company.
Look, there are a lot of different ways to structure a podcast. In fact, Wistia broke down the five most common podcast formats you’ll see today. For a B2B podcast, it’s best to start with an interview-style. This will allow you to get a handle on things…and then you can branch out into other formats.
The best podcasts feature stories and genuine conversations. But in order to make that happen, you still need to be prepared. Brainstorm a list of questions to ask different guests and keep them in one place. Continue to revisit the list with each guest & add/subtract based on how your interviews go. For some great questions to get started, check out our article on Podcast Insights.
Once you’re ready, you’ll need to map out a process for booking guests on your podcasts. Like anything else, it’s important to have a system in place. Check out some of the tech we highlight below…but at a minimum, you need to identify guests, schedule a recording session and provide a calendar invite.
The best part about a podcast is building relationships. So when you have your show in place, it’s good to think about the experience – from a guest’s perspective. We recommend mapping this out in a one-hour time slot. Identify an agenda for the one hour to make sure you set up the show for success. Leave some room for improvising…but make sure you are confident with each session.
After recording, you need to outline how the post-production process will work. Are you using a freelance editor? Internal resource? Partner? Where will you store raw files, project files and final exports? Where will you place the “latest & greatest” show elements (like your intro, outro, sound effects, etc.)? A podcast is not quite as intensive as pure video content, but you need to get all of your assets organized and create a process.
After you have the final podcast files ready & and any other repurposed assets, you’ll need to schedule the episode to go live on your podcast hosting platform (here’s a post outlining recommendations for hosting). Then, you need to prepare social posts and distribute from both company accounts and personal profiles. Create a process that includes a calendar and maps out when/what you’re sharing from the show.
Highlighting your guests is important to the success of your show. Whether it’s a prospect, customer or internal subject matter expert…you need to make sure to follow-up with them. Let them know when the episode is going live. So create an email template that includes everything you need to share. It should have a link to the episode page and a link to any assets (images, videos, written content) so they can promote it.
A podcast is a lot of work…if you want to constantly deliver high quality content – consistently. So, this requires project management. Whether it’s Trello, Monday.com, Asana, ClickUp – doesn’t matter. Build out a process to manage the podcast episodes & keep track of all the moving parts. The key thing here is to create a consistent process for each episode. Develop a checklist and make sure all the steps are complete before distributing to the world.
The amazing thing about a show is that you get so much rich, deep material. The downside is that if you don’t manage the content, you don’t get as much out of it. Check out Episode 269: Enabling Sales with Content and see how you can use a content management platform to keep track of all the different assets. If that seems like a bit too much, at least create a Google Drive folder with a clear structure. That way, you can search for assets and reuse material throughout all of your content marketing.
If you’d like to get your podcast launched in the next 21 days, we’ll build out a plan for you (it’s included with every package). Because if you don’t have a plan…you can’t get started.
There’s so much you can get from a single episode. Full-length transcripts, videos, social posts, images. But most importantly…you get engagement. You build awareness. And build your brand.
Ready to get that podcast started? Schedule a call with us and we’ll get it going.
Most B2B marketing heads at tech companies want to start a podcast but don’t have time, resulting in lost demand and brand awareness. At Motion, we help B2B marketing professionals launch their podcasts so they can publish more high-quality content consistently, develop new relationships within their industry, and get their team excited about marketing again.
