When the world shut down in 2020, everybody got disconnected. Offices were closed, employees worked remotely, and yet for B2B brands, there was still business to conduct. But it was a lot harder all of a sudden. No more in-person meetings or events, and there was a lot of uncertainty about how to move forward.
Back then, Vincent Pietrafesa, VP of B2B Products and Partnerships at Stirista, faced the same challenges as the rest of us in marketing, but he already had an idea in his head about how to leverage an untested channel. He saw podcasting as the perfect format for just such a disconnected period in the world. The audience can engage with the content however and whenever they prefer, despite lockdown, and if you see podcasting as a conversation, you can start thinking about the WHAT you want to cover (thought leadership) and the WHO you want to discuss it with (the subject matter experts you can invite on your show).
If the show’s value resonates with the audience, you will add other goals, like listenership growth, amplified marketing, and big-picture marketing strategy, but in the beginning, you just have to make the thing and get it out there. That’s just what Vincent did with The Marketing Stir Podcast at Stirista, and he's sharing this story and more with us on this episode of The Casted Podcast.
Digging into Key Takeaways
For each episode, we like to highlight some key takeaways. Think of it as a podcast outline or live show notes. Here are just a few of the takeaways that really stood out to us in this episode.
Lessons from COVID: What Stirista Has Learned from Growing a Podcast Through the Pandemic 🦠
Hard to believe, but many brands still do not have a B2B podcast. For example, Stirista didn’t have one when Vincent came onboard just before the pandemic. However, Vincent had already been thinking about podcasts, and when the world got up-ended by COVID, he saw the opportunity a podcast would give the brand to get their name out there and more importantly build trust with Stirista’s audience and provide human connection when most of us were locked down at home. Best of all for Vincent, Stirista leadership also saw the value of launching The Marketing Stir and invested internal resources.
Why Vincent Says They Have No Listenership Goals — What Are They Measuring? 🎧
It might sound shocking, but you shouldn’t really ever start a podcast with the goal of getting a million listeners. That’s putting the strategic long-term cart in front of the podcast horse… if you will. The very first thing you do is experiment with the format and figure out what your content’s going to revolve around. For Stirista, The Marketing Stir set out to promote brand awareness and offer thought leadership on how companies were adapting to the pandemic over trying to sell a single Stirista product.
Stirista’s Method for Success: The Team Behind the Podcast Magic 🏆
Now, two years down the road, The Marketing Stir has established itself as one of Stirista’s most powerful content marketing channels. More customers have come on board, and the audience has grown to the point where it’s time for Vincent and his team to advance up the B2B Podcast Maturity Curve with a consistent cadence and amplify all the great content his show produces. All the experimentation has paid off as Stirista refines strategic goals and measures the show’s success with the invaluable support of a full marketing team.
Interested in More from Stirista?
For more on how Stirista has grown their customers and revenue with podcasting, visit Stirista.com, and to hear all of the incredibly relevant conversations Vincent is having with his guests, check out The Marketing Stir Podcast.
Want to skim through Vincent’s episode instead of listening? Read the transcript here.
About Season 8 of The Casted Podcast
Welcome to Season 8 of The Casted Podcast, where we focus exclusively on our customers, brands who know the value of delivering high-quality podcast, video, and written content that their audiences truly want. Hear from the most forward-thinking brands discovering how to harness the power of conversation and amplify their content marketing in a range of formats and channels — and how they build integrated marketing strategies around podcasting. They're practicing what we preach, and we want you to hear all about what they're doing, why they're doing it, and most of all, how you can do it too.
