Episode Summary
When you are considering a podcast as part of your marketing strategy, choosing a niche and determining your target audience are just the beginning of the process. A podcast is also much more than just chatting with your guests each and every week.
In fact, our host Justin Brown said, ”It takes a village to put these things together.”
But how do you measure the success of your company’s podcast? How do you know it’s working for your company and your audience?
Many companies struggle to determine how to measure the success of their podcast. Download numbers are a metric to consider, but the overall impact of your show goes way beyond the number of subscribers.
In this episode, Christian Klepp, the Co-Founder of EINBLICK joins Justin Brown to talk about how EINBLICK measures the success of their own podcast. The two also get into details around the skills, tools, and processes required for creating, hosting, producing, distributing, and repurposing podcast episodes.
Guest Profile
- Name: Christian Klepp
- What he does: Christian is one of the founders of EINBLICK Consulting Inc.
- Company: EINBLICK
- Noteworthy: Christian is on a mission to help B2B brands find their competitive uniqueness. He is also the host of the B2B Marketers on a Mission podcast.
Key Insights
- Research is a vital part of every creative process, including podcasts. Although it may look like that to the audience, having a podcast doesn’t just involve sitting in front of the mic, pressing the record button, and chatting with guests. There are many steps prior to and post recording. ''I spent quite a bit of time researching on platforms like LinkedIn and other websites to see what B2B marketers were talking about, the questions they're posting on forums and on LinkedIn and the challenges that they're facing. After I do that, I try to identify issues related to or questions about a specific B2B discipline; I try to identify people who have that specific area of expertise. I connect with them; I engage with their content, and we have conversations, and then I slowly slip it in there and say, 'By the way, I run a podcast, and this is what it's about.'''
- I tend to look at the KPIs that are not quantitative. When measuring success, many podcast creators focus solely on downloads. However, experience has shown that qualitative KPIs are even more relevant indicators of success than quantitative ones. ''We do look at downloads; we just don't like to take them too seriously. We look at completion rate — how many people listen to the episodes from start to finish. What we have observed, in the past four to six months — at least with the last 20 episodes — is that the completion rates have all been about 50%. The other thing that we look at is engagement. Downloads and completion rate for specific topics. And that's how I also do some of my planning moving forward,'' says Christian.
- I truly believe marketing needs to have a stronger and louder voice at the table in B2B organizations. Christian has created a podcast with a desire to make a change in the marketing space. He wants to contribute to the field he’s dedicated his career to. That's why his podcast is a space for every talented and/or experienced marketer eager to share their professional journey with a broader audience. ''I'm not going to say that marketing gets sidelined, but they just don't get the budget that they need. So how does all that link back to my podcast? It's to help people start thinking differently about marketing. So not just the marketers themselves but the people who sit higher up in the C-suite as well.''
“I tend to look at KPIs that are not quantitative.”
Christian Klepp
Co-Founder
EINBLICK
Episode Highlights
The Mission of the B2B Marketers on a Mission Podcast
”When I started out with the podcast, we came up with a strategy. We were very clear about who we were targeting. So it wasn’t, ‘Let’s go and get my friends on [the podcast] to talk about random things.’
We had an approach, but the purpose of the podcast is personal and professional at the same time. Things that came out of my personal experience working in this space over the years and the clients I work with.
The mission is to get B2B organizations to stop treating marketing as an afterthought and to start giving it the airtime it deserves.
But in order to get to that point and to achieve that milestone, marketers need to change. There’s no other way to say it. Marketers have to change. There are so many things that have shifted in the B2B marketing world over the past couple of years, and marketers need to adjust accordingly.”
A Prep Call is a Prerequisite for a High-Quality Episode
”I think it’s always important to get a little bit of chemistry; I’d almost compare it to going for an audition, because then you can see what they’re like on camera and what their voice sounds like.
It’s not just their voice, but also talking specifically about their area of expertise. Getting a feel for how they talk about it and sharing your thoughts with them about what you’d like to discuss. And whether you agree or disagree with them, or if there is anything else that they would like to bring up.
And more often than not, a lot of these guests are generous and share not just their expertise but also stories from their personal experience, which I think brings a different level to the show.
We’re not just talking, and I’m not just getting somebody that’s an expert on data analytics. You’re also getting the background of how this person got to where they are today. And I think that’s extremely important and, to varying degrees, also very inspirational.”
A Mix of Standard and Customized Questions
”I do have a standard set of questions, which I tend to ask, and I like to change it up a little bit, just to add a little bit of variety. So, I try to customize the questions based on the topic.
And then usually, I’ll throw in two or three questions that are specific to that individual. […] I will usually do some research. So I’ll Google that person and see if they’ve been featured somewhere, or if it’s on LinkedIn, they post something that got a crazy amount of engagement.
And usually, when I say a crazy amount of engagement, I imply that it was positive. I’ll bring that into the conversation and say, ‘Can you talk about that a little bit?”’
One Episode — Seven Content Pieces
”First, you’ve got your interview and audio file, which is hosted on Blubrry. Then you’ve got the interview in video format, which is hosted on YouTube.
Then you’ve got the short interview summary which goes on the company page on LinkedIn. You’ve got the long tail episode summary, which goes on my personal feed on LinkedIn together with the podcast artwork. So it’s basically the person’s photo, the name of the episode, and the person’s name and title.
Video and audio snippets, which we create in the headliner. And that’s also got subtitles underneath. You’ve got the LinkedIn image carousel, which I try to keep under 11 slides. They also get chopped up into different formats, and they are then also posted on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. We use those platforms to a lesser degree. And then you have the quote cards. So, you’re looking at seven pieces of content.”
Constructive Criticism is Always Welcome
”I try to get feedback from every guest that I interview, and I take their feedback down and see how we can, not necessarily enact that feedback, but make adjustments based on what they say.
The other one is also people I engage with online, for example, on LinkedIn. So people do send me direct messages talking about the show. Some have also sent me emails about the show, and most of the feedback has been positive and encouraging.
But, another guy I interviewed, based here in Toronto, gave me some feedback on the show notes and the transcript and how I can improve those. So, I’m always open to constructive criticism.
Anything that will help the show become better and gain a larger audience that will benefit other people. I’m always open to those conversations.”
