Episode Summary
The advances in technology the internet and the growth and popularity of social media have caused companies to consider becoming media companies regardless of their industry Further the digital space offers convenience to businesses by allowing them to use different channels to bring their offering closer to a target audience A podcast is one of those channels
However running a podcast comes with many challenges As a marketer considering launching a podcast you must first convince your executive team that podcasting is the way to go Once you get their consent the roller coaster of a podcast begins You need the right tools and team to bring that idea into reality
This episode of Recorded Content is a bit different Our host Justin Brown was a guest on Christian Klepps B2B Marketers on a Mission podcast In this episode Justin shared his experience as a podcast host He also talked about the reasons for and benefits of repurposing a podcast and whether podcasters should monetize their shows Justin also discussed the most common struggles and misconceptions people the clients they work with have around podcasting
Guest Profile
Name: Justin Brown
What he does: Justin is the Co-Founder of Motion and leads customer success for all of the shows produced by the company
Company: Motion
Key Insights
- Use a podcast as the foundation of your content strategy A podcast is more than an audio format it is a piece you can repurpose to create different types of content that you can then distribute across various channels So the question is not whether you should start a podcast its whether you have the resources especially people who can commit to such a project If your answer is yes prepare yourself for a lot of work but the results are worth it What our clients are finding is that theyre on these small teams and the podcast gets them the most traction from a content creation standpoint versus anything else that theyre doing
- Find your niche Many podcasters believe they will be more successful if they speak to a broader audience But as Justin explains the key is to be specific Find your niche and the people you want to share your message with Otherwise you risk staying unnoticed in an already crowded podcast space You need to narrow in on who you speak to So when it comes to creating repurposed content I think it goes to the theme of your show who does your show speak to And then when you create the repurposed content all that repurposed content should focus on is helping that segment of people
- Podcasts dont have to be entertaining One of the misconceptions about podcasts is that they have to be fun As Justin says theres nothing wrong with being funny in a podcast but if thats not part of your personality dont force yourself to make it like that Finally you want to bring value to your audience to show your podcast is worth their while I think that B2B podcasting should be actionable and helpful for your specific niche audience that cares about the content youre making and it should help them get better at their job
Episode Highlights
A PODCAST CAN BE A FUNDAMENTAL PART OF YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
By using a podcast and very specifically a video podcast in most situations capturing that piece of 30- to 40-minute content can just turn into so many things
We try to take that middle piece which is the creation of the written content show notes featured articles the video content the promo videos the full-length videos for YouTube the actual audio piece itself images LinkedIn sliders Our clients on average get eight to ten pieces of content out of every 30- to 40-minute episode
REPURPOSE A PODCAST TO MEET DIFFERENT PEOPLES HABITS AND PREFERENCES
I believe that people consume content differently Different people consume content differently I think people consume content differently in the different environments theyre in on a day-to-day basis
So the reason that we produce written video audio and image-based content is so that you can be in front of people in every possible way they consume content And theres nothing that youre leaving on the table If you just produce an audio podcast the only people youre going to get are the people who consume audio podcasts versus setting yourself up with the opportunity to be in front of people wherever and whenever theyre consuming anything business-related
THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTIONSSTRUGGLES AROUND STARTING A PODCAST
First and foremost were just seeing that people dont know where to start when it comes to a podcast People dont know how to get it up on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Were talking about full-length episodes I think theres a lot of stuff out there that is very similar
And then in terms of the actual work that goes into it its not only editing the episodes but then creating the repurposed content And so where weve found people struggle is that they take on this new initiative that they dont know much about So they have to learn a lot in terms of what it takes to get it live
That is less than exciting for those folks who most of the time are marketers by trade who want to do a job thats going to drive revenue and thats going to drive results And the podcast definitely can do that But if youre on just the content creation side and not the distribution and execution side it can be pretty thankless work
What we try to do is allow marketers to market We take away that creation part because we were watching marketers spend so much time creating that they werent spending any time marketing and they didnt have the time to take this amazing thing they made and get it in front of people
And so I think that the biggest misconception or struggle that I see is that a people dont know what goes into it and then b by the time they figure out what goes into it theyre exhausted by the work that it took And it doesnt end up getting in front of as many people as you would have thought
TO MONETIZE OR NOT MONETIZE A PODCAST THAT IS THE QUESTION
I was talking to someone and they were talking about monetizing their podcast and they got advice from someone who was the CEO of a company and that CEO said Do not monetize your podcast And now this person is running their podcast
I dont monetize my podcast because Im also the owner of a company And when I first heard that I was like Yeah I agree You shouldnt monetize your podcast You should be trying to cultivate an audience and bring value and engaging content all the BS that you always hear And then I disagreed with myself because I realized Why do I have a podcast
I have a podcast to fuel my content marketing strategy for my business so that people will buy from me Im selling something So I dont need to monetize my podcast because the thing Im selling is our podcast services But for an individual whos running their podcast for me to say you shouldnt monetize like what are they getting out of it
So I think if its a business podcast in most scenarios probably 99 of them monetizing your podcast as a business is not going to make that much sense As an individual contributor I think monetizing can make sense if you feel like you can provide so much value and youve cultivated a big enough following that people love your brand or whatever you want to call it They just love you enough to want more and you feel like you can provide more Then go make your money
