Many branded podcasts experience ‘podfade’ — a scenario where your company’s show fades away after about seven or eight episodes. There are many reasons branded podcasts don’t make it past the first few episodes.
But most of the time, this happens because the marketing team cannot generate a consistent flow of content ideas.
At Motion, we’ve worked with over fifty brands (mostly podcasts for B2B tech companies) and have helped companies bust through the podfade stage. And one of the reasons our clients can sustain momentum with their show — they collaborate with us to develop their own system for generating new podcast episode ideas.
If you’re new to podcasting (or want to start a podcast for your company), you might not have an agency to collaborate with every week. And you might need to develop your own system for generating good podcast topic ideas.
In this article, we present seven major areas where you can source content ideas:
- Audience
- Questions
- Company updates & announcements
- Industry experts
- Different formats
- User-generated content & partnerships
- Events
By using the techniques within each area, you can generate an endless stream of content ideas for your company’s podcast. You’ll get to connect your best podcast ideas to your company’s overarching content marketing strategy, keep the conversation going, and build a strong relationship with your best customers.
“The ROI of my podcast comes from getting educated, getting a pulse on the industry, and building relationships.”
Josh DeTar
VP Sales and Marketing
Tyfone
Decoding your audience: The first step to a thriving podcast
Understanding your audience is the foundation of generating engaging podcast ideas. It’s about knowing who they are, what they want, and how your podcast can deliver value.
Here are some key techniques to help you understand your audience better and build podcast episodes around what you learn:
1. Conduct Customer Surveys: Regularly survey your customers to gather insights about their interests, challenges, and feedback. If you’re in marketing, you’re probably already conducting customer surveys. This can be done through email, social media, or directly during your podcast episodes. The feedback you receive can be a goldmine for content ideas.
2. Monitor Social Media: Your audience’s social media activity can provide valuable insights into their interests and concerns. Look at the topics they discuss, the questions they ask, and the content they share. For example, take a specific post that blew up on LinkedIn. Go through the comments and see how people reacted — positively or negatively. The comment section of a viral LinkedIn post can spark many ideas for specific podcast episodes.
3. Analyze Audience Behavior: As a B2B marketer, you’re already measuring engagement on various content types. Whether you analyze your company’s blog, organic social, or YouTube…determine which topics get the most downloads or shares. Find out which videos get the highest completion rates. Identify which blog posts hold the attention of your website visitors. This data can guide you in creating more content your audience loves.
4. Conduct Audience Research: Develop detailed profiles (or personas) for your audience and find out where they hang out online. What are their demographics? What are their professional interests? What challenges do they face in their industry? What publications or online sites do they consume the most? You can use a tool like Sparktoro to get deeper audience insights and learn more about your audience. When you conduct research regularly, you often stumble upon trends or patterns that lead to relevant podcast ideas.
5. Engage with Your Audience: Regular interaction with your audience can provide direct insights into new podcast episode ideas. When you get involved in communities or through social media, you can often source content ideas directly from ongoing conversations. What’s the most engaged community for your audience right now? Find out where your audience spends time (maybe it’s a Slack group, or maybe it’s on a platform like Circle) and see what conversations are gaining traction. In many cases, you can ask people to expand upon their ideas in a podcast episode or build upon the conversation yourself in a solo episode.
By understanding your audience, you can generate content ideas that resonate with them. This not only keeps your podcast fresh and engaging but also builds a loyal listener base that keeps coming back for more.
Remember, your best podcast topic ideas are for your audience. The better you understand them, the better your content will be.
Feedback to the forefront: Driving your podcast content strategy
Leveraging questions and feedback from your audience is a powerful way to generate content ideas for your podcast. This strategy not only ensures that your content is relevant and engaging but also makes your listeners feel heard and valued.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Encourage Listener Questions: Once you get your podcast moving along, make it easy for your listeners to ask questions. This could be through a dedicated segment in your podcast, an online form, or social media. Regularly addressing listener questions on your podcast not only provides you with content but also increases listener engagement. At Motion, we created an entire show built around audience questions — check out the Anonymous Marketer to see how we put it all together.
2. Use Feedback Forms: After each episode, encourage listeners to provide feedback. What did they like? What didn’t they like? What topics would they like to hear more about? Make sure to uncover if your audience needs more information. A lot of times, a single episode doesn’t answer all of the questions, and you need to expand upon certain ideas in a follow-up episode. This feedback can guide your future content.
3. Monitor Social Media and Comments: Consider the questions and comments your listeners post on social media or your own podcast host’s website. These can provide valuable insights into what your audience is interested in and spark ideas for future episodes.
4. Address Industry News: If you’re in a specific industry, there are likely common questions that people have. But the key thing to remember is that your industry changes, too. So it’s important to recognize when new regulations surface or new challenges exist. Use your podcast to answer these questions and provide valuable insights for your audience.
5. Use Live Q&A Sessions: Consider hosting live Q&A sessions where listeners can ask questions in real-time. This not only provides you with immediate content but also increases listener interaction and engagement. Some companies use the live format as the foundation for their entire podcast. And over time, the audience guides the content each and every week.
By leveraging questions and feedback, you can create content for a podcast that truly resonates with your audience. This strategy ensures that your content is always relevant, engaging, and valuable to your listeners. Remember, your podcast is a conversation with your audience. The more you listen to them, the better your content will be.
Your company, your content: Leveraging internal stories for your podcast
When producing a podcast for your company, it can be difficult to determine how and when to integrate your product. But if you don’t have a way to connect your product to your podcast’s audience, then you’re missing out on an opportunity to generate revenue.
For me, I like to simplify things a bit. From my perspective, you should create a show designed to help your specific audience. And since your product also helps your audience — you need to connect the dots.
Showcasing your company through inspirational stories on your podcast is a unique opportunity to humanize your brand, share your story, and build a deeper connection with your audience. Here’s how you can do it:
1. Share Your Company’s History: Your company’s journey can make for compelling content. Share stories about your company’s founding, its growth, and the challenges it has overcome. This not only educates your audience about your company but also builds a narrative that listeners can connect with. Recently, we produced an episode on Recorded Content outlining the evolution of Motion and documenting why we decided to acquire another agency, New North.
2. Highlight Employee Stories: Your employees are a vital part of your company. Sharing their stories, experiences, and insights can provide a behind-the-scenes look at your company and humanize your brand. When you involve various employees in content creation, you also break out of traditional silos within your company. You get a larger group of individuals contributing to the marketing team.
3. Discuss New Product Updates or Services: Use your podcast to announce and discuss new products or services. This not only keeps your audience informed but also allows you to go in-depth about the features and benefits of your offerings.
4. Share Customer Success Stories: Customer success stories can be a powerful way to demonstrate the value of your products or services. They provide real-world examples of how your company solves problems and delivers results.
5. Comment on Industry Trends: Position your company as a thought leader by discussing industry trends and providing your company’s perspective. This can stimulate discussions and keep your content relevant and engaging.
By showcasing your company, you can turn your podcast into a powerful tool for building brand awareness and loyalty. Remember, your podcast is not just a platform for content; it’s a platform for your company. Use it to tell your story, share your insights, and connect with your audience on a deeper level.
Want to see how other B2B marketers get the most from their podcasts?
Recorded Content is a show for small, scrappy marketing teams who are looking to launch & grow a successful B2B podcast. In each episode, we provide stories on how to overcome the challenges of launching, running and growing a show. We tackle issues with technology, content marketing, distribution and more. We help you become a B2B podcasting hero with an amazing show.
Interview experts: Leveraging thought leaders for podcast content
Engaging with industry and thought leaders can significantly enrich your podcast content. These experts can provide valuable insights, fresh perspectives, and lend credibility to your show.
Here’s how to leverage their expertise:
1. Conduct Expert Interviews: Inviting industry experts to your podcast can give your audience valuable insights. These interviews can cover various topics, from industry trends and challenges to career advice and personal stories.
2. Discuss Industry Predictions: Thought leaders often have unique insights into the industry’s future. Discussing their predictions can stimulate interesting discussions and position your podcast as a source of forward-thinking content.
3. Analyze Competitor Strategies: Thought leaders can provide valuable insights into what your competitors are doing. Discussing these strategies can spark ideas for your own company and provide your audience with a broader understanding of the industry.
4. Host Roundtable Discussions: Hosting a discussion with multiple thought leaders can provide diverse perspectives on a topic. This can lead to engaging and insightful conversations that your audience will find valuable.
5. Share Thought Leader Content: If a thought leader publishes a book, article, or report, discuss it on your podcast. This can provide your audience valuable content and stimulate discussions around the thought leader’s ideas.
Engaging with industry thought leaders can significantly enhance the quality of your podcast content. It not only provides your audience with valuable insights but also positions your podcast as a credible source of industry information.
Remember, your podcast is a platform for learning and discussion. The more diverse the voices, the richer the conversation.
P.S. – If you want to look at the intersection of thought leadership and podcasting, check out The Notorious Thought Leader, hosted by Erin Balsa (and produced by Motion).
Beyond the interview: Exploring diverse content formats for your podcast
Diversifying your podcast formats can keep your show fresh, engaging, and appealing to a broad range of listeners. Here’s how you as podcast hosts can mix things up:
1. Case Studies: Discussing successful projects or partnerships can demonstrate your company’s capabilities and expertise. Case studies provide real-world examples that listeners can learn from and apply to their situations.
2. Book Reviews: Discussing relevant books can provide educational content and stimulate intellectual conversations. It also gives you the opportunity to develop ideas and to invite authors as guests on your own podcast show. You also don’t even have to break down a book — you can choose to dissect a long-form blog post or white paper, too.
3. How-to Guides: Providing actionable advice on relevant topics can be very valuable to your target audience. How-to guides can range from industry-specific skills to general business advice. Tactical podcast episodes are useful for helping out your customers throughout their entire journey.
4. Roundtable Discussions: Hosting a discussion with multiple guests can provide diverse perspectives on a topic. This format can lead to engaging and insightful conversations that your audience will find valuable. This format also allows you to associate your brand with a well-rounded viewpoint.
5. Listener Q&A: Inviting a listener to share their thoughts or ask questions can increase audience engagement. It also makes your listeners feel valued and part of the podcast community. We took this concept a step further in an episode of Recorded Content. We flipped the script and had a customer host the show — this gave the audience a chance to directly ask questions to one of the founders of Motion, Justin Brown.
By diversifying your content formats, you can cater to different listener preferences and keep your podcast fresh and engaging.
I also think different formats give your marketing team an opportunity to try new things. When your team gets burned out, it’s often because they’re doing the same thing each and every week.
From listeners to contributors: User-generated content and partnerships for your podcast
Utilizing user-generated content and partnerships can significantly enrich your podcast content and increase audience engagement. Here’s how you can leverage these resources:
1. Feature Listener Segments: Invite listeners to contribute content to your podcast. This could be in the form of questions, short stories or, just interesting life stories or insights. Featuring listener segments not only provides you with content but also makes your listeners feel valued and part of your podcast community.
2. Share User-Generated Content: If a listener creates content related to your own podcast topic or industry, consider sharing it on your podcast. This could be a blog post, a social media post, or even a comment on LinkedIn. I’ve personally highlighted soundbites from other podcast episodes as a way to make an episode more dynamic. Sharing user-generated content can increase audience engagement and inspire other listeners to contribute.
3. Host Listener Q&A Sessions: Consider hosting live Q&A sessions where listeners can ask questions in real-time. This not only provides you with immediate content but also increases listener interaction and engagement.
4. Announce and Discuss Partnerships: If your company forms a new partnership or collaboration, discuss it on your podcast. This can keep your audience informed about your company’s growth and direction and provide insights into your industry.
5. Collaborate with Other Podcasts: Consider collaborating with other podcasts in your industry. This could be in the form of guest appearances, joint episodes, or content exchanges. Collaborations with other podcasters can provide fresh content, reach new audiences, and build relationships within your industry.
By utilizing user-generated content and partnerships, you can create a podcast that is not only informative but also interactive and community-driven. Remember, your podcast is not just a platform for content; it’s a platform for engagement. The more you involve your listeners and partners, the richer your content will be.
Event highlights: Turning key moments into podcast topics
Making the most of events can provide a wealth of content for your podcast. Whether it’s industry conferences, company events, or community gatherings, these occasions offer unique opportunities for engaging content. Here’s how to leverage events:
1. Event Recaps: After attending or hosting an event, provide a recap on your podcast. Discuss the key takeaways, memorable moments, and any insights or trends that emerged. This not only provides valuable content but also keeps your audience informed of current events.
2. Interviews at Events: Events are often filled with industry leaders, experts, and influencers — all connected to your target audience. Take the opportunity to conduct on-the-spot interviews and invite people from the event. These can provide fresh perspectives and spontaneous insights that your audience will appreciate.
3. Panel Discussions: If the event features panel discussions, consider summarizing the discussion on your podcast or inviting the panelists to continue the conversation on your show.
4. Live Podcasting: Consider recording a live podcast episode at the event. This podcast format can capture the energy and excitement of the event and provide a unique listening experience.
5. Audience Participation: If possible, involve your audience in the event. This could be through live Q&A sessions, audience polls, or listener meetups. Audience participation can increase engagement and make your listeners feel part of the event.
By making the most of events, you can create dynamic and engaging content for your podcast. Events offer a break from the usual studio recording and bring a sense of immediacy and excitement to your show. Remember, your podcast is a platform for experiences, not just information. The more you can bring those experiences to your listeners, the more engaging your podcast will be.
Infinite podcast ideas: The secret to building an effective podcast for your company
Generating fresh, engaging content consistently can be a challenge — but this is also what makes a successful podcast.
Hopefully, the techniques referenced in this article will help you maintain momentum with your show. From understanding your audience to leveraging user-generated content, from showcasing your company to making the most of events, these tactics provide a roadmap to an endless supply of content ideas.
Remember, your podcast is more than just a platform for content; it’s a platform for connection. It’s a way to engage with your audience, share your company’s story, and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. The more diverse and engaging your content, the stronger these connections will be.
Keep exploring, keep innovating, and keep your listeners at the heart of your content strategy. The result will be a podcast that survives and thrives, building a loyal listener base and making a real impact in your industry.
Written by Tristan Pelligrino
Tristan Pelligrino is the Co-Founder of Motion. He’s a serial entrepreneur who started his career as a consultant with large IT companies such as PwC, IBM and Oracle. After getting his MBA, he started and grew one of the fastest video production companies in the country – which was listed on the Inc. 5000. Tristan now enjoys leading the content marketing strategies of some of the most innovative B2B technology companies in the country. You can find him on LinkedIn and Facebook.
