As marketers, we’ve grown accustomed to traditional marketing and advertising tactics, including everything from print and television to PPC and social media ads. But B2B podcasting is a relatively new category, leaving many in uncharted waters when it comes to promoting this ultra-rich content. The good news is this: the B2B podcast audience is ripe for the picking — it’s just a matter of getting it in front of them using a solid podcast marketing strategy.
With the right tools, there are a number of podcast marketing tactics you can implement at both the episode and show level. Take a look and see what killer ideas you may be missing out on!
How to Market Your Podcast Episodes
Don’t make the mistake of thinking every episode you produce is a “one and done” effort. The most successful showrunners are not only adept at producing engaging content, but they make it work for their brand long after the initial launch. That’s the beauty of podcasting — written content doesn’t always feel fresh and timeless, but conversations usually do.
To maximize all the work you’re putting in, try these tips for marketing each podcast episode you produce:
1. Transcribe your podcast to share/post on your site.
Transcription provides tremendous benefits for your show, including improved SEO, more thought leadership, and additional backlinking opportunities. When you transcribe your audio content, you transcend channels, making your podcast available to more people through the written word. Publish full transcripts, distribute snippets in other mediums, or use the written content to track audience engagement for developing future shows.
2. Generate clips (audiograms and videograms) for social sharing.
Curate the best parts of your podcast by pulling out bite-sized sound clips that draw in new audience members. Then, share on your web pages, blogs, or emails to drive traffic back to the podcast. No way to share audio on social media? Audiograms and videograms make it easier to post and get noticed. Plus, they’re just irresistibly fun to see and hear.
3. Create co-marketing materials for your guests to share.
Your podcast guests hold a lot of power. Leverage their clout by sending them off with episode-based marketing materials they can repurpose across their own networks. Create clips and collateral featuring full or partial transcripts of the interview so your guest can promote their own brand while also driving traffic to your show.
4. Arm sales with marketing fuel.
Build your podcast into an ABM strategy. First, identify and understand which accounts your sales team is going after and what pain points those companies are trying to solve. Then, map podcast topics and clips to those pain points, giving sales more relevant content to appeal to prospects.
PS: Don’t forget to invite those prospects onto the show! This way, you’ll strengthen the relationship, take an interest in their story, and give your audience more perspectives to learn from. It’s an all-around win!
Show-Level Promotion
Your podcast is more than a show; it’s a brand. And for B2B marketers, it’s a brand within a brand, requiring nourishment and a promotion strategy that brings in a loyal fanbase.
Try these quick wins for boosting your show’s reputation:
5. Publish your show to all major platforms.
First things first — if you’re not publishing your podcast to the big platforms (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify), you’re severely limiting your reach. By listing your podcasts in the top directories, you’ll increase your searchability by millions of potential listeners.
6. Promote your podcast on your website.
Conversely, if you’re only publishing your show on the major directories, but not on your website, you’re missing out on local traffic too. It’s free to you, and visitors will already be familiar with your company brand. Plus you can dish up related content and cross-pollinate to your heart’s content on your own site.
7. Add your podcast to employee email signatures.
Every email your employees send is an opportunity to market your show. Like the whitepapers and case studies you already promote, add your podcast to the mix and introduce new audiences — customers, prospects, partners, vendors, and investors — to your powerful content.
8. Be a guest on other shows.
We know a thing or two about incredible guests! In addition to promoting your show, appearing on other podcasts showcases your expertise; drives awareness of your company and brand personality; and forges relationships with other podcasts, companies, and industries.
Don’t feel comfortable inviting yourself onto other shows? Just make the connection! Seek out showrunners of other podcasts, and let them know you’re open to the possibility. Being an active part of the podcasting community is a big part of circulating your show. Plus it’s a great way to meet amazing new people, too!
9. Ask for reviews.
Let your listeners do the talking. Remind them to rate and review your show at the end of each episode, on your podcast web page, or in an email or social media campaign. Then, showcase your reviews on show pages to demonstrate to newcomers what your listeners love so much. Not happy with the reviews you receive? Use the posts as feedback to improve specific aspects of your podcast.
10. Repackage existing shows for a fresh take.
Round up related clips from several episodes for a “best of” podcast or a convenient bundle that audiences can listen to for a comprehensive topic overview. We did this with two “Best of Season 1” episodes on The Casted Podcast, packaging up the best sound bites from our top-tier guests. Bayley (Dietz) Markopoulos, former Senior Marketing Manager at OpenView and showrunner of the Build podcast, does this each week through a savvy recap newsletter, as she shares on her episode of The Casted Podcast.
“We put out new content several times a week and then put it in a round-up newsletter that goes out every Saturday morning to over 100,000 subscribers,” she says. “We really had a great base that was already coming to our blog and reading our content... The main goal was to be in the channel where our readers already were and that was to get in their headphones.”
You Can Do This!
See? Podcast marketing is just like your other channel marketing. It’s not rocket science — it’s a matter of creating great content and putting your show in front of ideal listeners, wherever they may be. The great thing is, these best practices don’t require a lot of investment or ramp-up. You can get started today and start reaping the benefits of a well-marketed podcast in no time.
At Casted, we’ve got the tools that make podcast marketing exponentially easier. We built the industry’s first B2B marketing platform, making it a breeze for marketers and showrunners like you to transcribe, create clips, measure deep analytics, and more, so your podcast finally gets the traction and longevity it deserves. Let us show you the difference!
