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April 10, 2023 Content Chat Recap: Why Podcasting Is a Smart Content Marketing Investment

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A Content Chat header image that says today’s topic is why podcasting is a smart content marketing investment, with guest A. Lee Judge who is @ALeeJudge on Twitter.

“Right now, one of the hottest types of content is podcasts, both audio and video. Being focused on B2B, my current crusade is to inform everyone that B2B or business podcasting is different. All the numbers we hear are mixed together—everyone from someone who started their podcast on their phone to Joe Rogan—which doesn’t give a clear picture of where you should be heading for your business podcast.”

In this #ContentChat recap, Erika joins Lee Judge (@ALeeJudge), co-founder and CMO of Content Monsta, to discuss why podcasting is a smart content marketing investment and how to build a successful B2B podcast. They cover everything from the benefits of joining or starting a podcast, common podcasting mistakes to avoid, ways to measure your podcasting ROI, and more.

Read through a few highlights from the conversation below, and listen to the full recording here.

Q1: Why can it be beneficial to join a podcast, both from a brand and personal thought leadership perspective?

“We always need more articles and website content. How do [marketing teams] make a longer ROI on their white papers or research? Podcasts allow you to take all of those [content assets] and multiply the amount of content your company can put out. That, of course, multiplies the number of touches you have with your potential customers.” – Lee Judge

Joining a podcast can boost your brand awareness, help you build authority and thought leadership, and can even assist with lead generation.

Podcasts are especially effective for building a personal connection with your listeners.

Further, some of your community members prefer podcasts because they can listen to them from anywhere.

Q2: How should a marketing team assess a potential podcast opportunity to decide if it’s the right fit?

“If you’re looking at creating your own podcast, you want to make sure that you have information that your potential customer or existing customers need to hear or understand better, especially if you are in a demand generation scenario.” – Lee Judge

If offered to appear on a podcast, review the podcast’s audience to ensure they have similar—but not the exact same—needs as your primary community.

A podcast is not a one-off campaign. If you can’t make an ongoing investment—often without a clear ROI for several weeks or months—then it’s best to be a guest on other podcasts instead of starting a new one.

Research a podcast host to ensure their branding and public statements are in line with your brand identity and values.

Q3: What should a team prepare for when starting a new podcast? Are there any red flags to be aware of that indicate you may not be ready to launch your own podcast?

“We’ve had clients come to us and say ‘we just want to do one or two episodes to test it out’ or ‘we want to do a five episode series.’ And our response to them is that ok, you’re doing audio content (which is great). It’s not a podcast, however, so don’t expect listeners to grow or try to use podcast statistics to meaure your results. It is great for audio content and it is great content marketing, but I wouldn’t call it a podcast.” – Lee Judge

A podcast requires a significant investment to sustain. From a team resource standpoint, you’ll need an executive producer, host(s), outreach manager, audio/video editor, writer, repurposer, and social media manager. If you do not have this on-staff talent and cannot afford to outsource, then you are not ready to start a podcast.

If you’re considering starting a podcast, start a list of potential episode topics and guests. If you have a hard time coming up with ideas, then you may need to do more research before starting your podcast. Additionally, you need a host whose schedule can support podcast planning and recording.

Be clear on how you will measure your podcast success. Remember that most shows do not show a clear ROI for several weeks or months, if not years.

Q4: What are some common podcasting mistakes that you see brands make?

“The statistics that matter the most to business podcasters are not going to be on the podcast platforms. The statistics you want are ones that you own, like your website traffic. Some statistics [like audience growth] will be on your podcast host, but most will be on your website in terms of engagement and traffic.” – Lee Judge

Teams often compare their podcast stats and KPIs to shows that are fundamentally different. Avoid this trap by comparing your podcast results to those of a similar show or company at a similar stage as yours. Lee explains each of the below mistakes in detail in the audio recording.

Too many brands start a podcast but fail to sustain it. Create a backlog of episodes before you release your first one to give your team a healthy amount of space to produce new episodes on a consistent basis.

You need to invest in quality audio or editing. There are plenty of cost-effective tools and resources, like Shure or Blue Yeti microphones for ideal audio quality.

Lee and his Content Monsta team shared the below presentation to learn more about how business podcasting is different.

Q5: What are your go-to podcasting tools or resources?

Remember: no tool alone will make your podcast great.

Lee and his team use Adobe Audition and Premiere Pro, as well as Riverside FM for recording remote projects, and they consistently research and test new AI-powered tools.

Erika and our team use Google Docs to share a show plan with episode guests. We also recommend using a Shure desktop mic for high audio quality.

Lee shared in-depth advice about how to properly use your microphone, including how to properly position it and the difference between a dynamic mic and condenser mic. Jump to 25:23 in the recording to hear his advice.

Q6: How can you measure ROI for a B2B podcast?

Focus on audience growth, website engagement, content output, relationships built, and lead generation, not “popular” metrics like the number of subscribers.

Define your podcast objective to then set a goal that you can measure against.

Q7: What tips can you share for planning a podcast schedule and keeping the audience needs front-and-center?

Lee recommends you record 3-5 episodes before launching, and then have all recordings done ahead of schedule. This will keep you on track regardless of any inevitable delays.

Ask your podcast guests questions that your audience needs to know. Conduct social listening and speak with your customer success or sales team to understand the questions your customers often ask.

Q8: How can teams repurpose podcast content to extend its value to other channels?

At 36:45 in the recording, Lee walks through the steps you should take to publish and promote your podcast, including why you should embed the audio on a landing page or website, and how to encourage your podcast guests to promote their episode.

It’s easy to repurpose podcast content as blog posts, e-books, social media content, sales collateral, and more. Erika and our team wrote this post that explains how to refresh content to boost its value in new channels and formats.

You can video record your podcast, which may be more successful than the audio version.

Download Lee’s podcast repurposing chart through the link below to get all of his ideas.

Listen to the full recording to hear Erika and Lee discuss how to redirect a podcast audience if the podcast ends especially abruptly, and their recommendations for podcasting platforms that allow you to record and edit in post production.

About Alek Irvin

Alek Irvin is a content marketing professional with a rich history in social media management, executive thought leadership development, and media relations. As a consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, he creates human-focused content and thought leadership platforms that help brand leaders connect and engage with their communities. Alek has worked with a range of startups and Fortune 500 companies across the B2B technology and consumer spaces, including IBM, Dell Technologies, Hitch Works, Emtrain, Integrate, and Frameable. Connect with him on Twitter @AlekIrvin.

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