When you first started a B2B podcast, what was your goal? Chances are it had something to do with building up your brand awareness, building trust with your audience, and ultimately (hopefully) driving more leads to your business.
However, if you’re not seeing the results you want, then it’s time to stop thinking about your podcast as a singular channel of opportunity, and look at all the ways it can enhance your content marketing strategy.
That’s what we do at Casted.
Instead of looking at our podcasts as one-off pieces of content, we use them to build out more informed campaigns. In fact, each B2B podcast season we release is treated as a campaign. And thanks to the integrations we have as a HubSpot partner, we’re able to amplify each podcast episode with omnichannel content wheels.
For example, we can build reports showing how the pipeline was influenced by the podcast content (yes, podcast content!) and even what our contacts are listening to and what pages they visit. With this information, we’re able to learn about our audience’s consumption habits and where they stem from so we can perfect our content strategy.
That’s exactly what we seek to help our clients do with Casted—but more on that later.
Let’s take a closer look at how you can use your B2B podcast to build trust with your audience and ultimately directly influence your inbound leads.
It’d be awesome if all you had to do was publish B2B podcast episodes to your website and watch leads flow to your website. But that’s not what happens. At least not right away.
Once you upload your episodes, your job is far from over as a B2B marketer. You’ll need to put in the legwork to ensure your target audience is strategically driven towards the podcast and from the podcast to your content, email list, and/or product.
Here’s a look at some of the methods you can use to do just that.
One of the reasons podcasts are growing so much is because they allow audiences to tap into industry experts who are discussing the real pain points they are experiencing and offer solutions for free! If you know your audience as well as you think you do, then choosing relevant topics should be a breeze.
For example, if you’re a business that focuses on financial planning, consider the topics and questions you hear from your customers often. For example, Rubino & Liang Wealth Partners chose to focus their podcast around questions that would educate their audience and offer guidance and help like “how to convert an IRA into a Roth 401(k).” By turning to podcasting, Rubino & Liang is able to educate their audience and build trust with them by offering information (from the experts at their company) for free.
When you focus on topics that educate and help your audience, you’re building trust and loyalty with your fanbase. This way, when it comes time to promote each episode, your prospective customers will come in droves to hear what you have to say.
You’ve hit a home run with one or more of your B2B podcast episodes. Now, it’s time to amplify it even more with repurposed text content.
You can do this in numerous ways. For example, you can choose several key takeaways from the episode and make them the main point of a blog post. Then you can embed audio clips in the piece, driving readers to your podcast.
You can also repurpose content in the form of:
If there’s anything the internet taught us, it’s that convenience is everything. This is especially true for audiences who are all about instant gratification. So to accommodate this group, you can embed entire episodes to your blog posts, so they don’t have to leave the page to consume it.
Bonus, you can also embed clips throughout your content to offer a glimpse into the podcast throughout the rest of your content.
It’s not enough to share your own podcast episodes to your social media channels. People trust their peers more than brands and will more likely take a listen to a podcast at the recommendation of someone they know.
So be sure your podcasts have social share buttons so your audience can act as your brand advocates and don’t underestimate the value that audiograms can have in your social feed for engagement with your audience.
If the CTAs to downloads are working, then be sure the opt-in process is as easy as possible. Don’t ask for too much information. A simple form with minimal fields requesting a name, email, and company is enough.
But what if your audience isn’t in front of a computer?
Then offer a memorable URL that’s short and sweet for your listeners to visit after the show.
It’s important for us to note that we believe the value in podcasting is far more reaching than a one-off lead generation tactic. The beautiful thing about podcasting is that is gives your brand a real, human voice and shines a light on the true superpower of your brand - the humans behind it.
That said, it’s also a wealth of information, insights, and expertise that, when done right, deserves to be shared with your audience and can ultimately bring in leads. Seriously, never underestimate the value brand has to build an amazing, loyal audience.
So don’t be shy about using your podcast to get in front of more people and growing your audience. Like any tactic or campaign you run, just make sure that you put thought and strategy into this endeavor. Simply using podcasts as one-off hacks to drive leads isn’t going to cut it.
You need a plan that incorporates detailed steps for how you’ll continuously drive traffic to and from each of your episodes and create value for your audience. This includes using all channels available to you, such as your blog, landing pages, social media channels, and ad retargeting.
But most importantly, you need the right tools to ensure your methods are backed by data. This way, you can improve the odds of generating favorable results.
At Casted, we offer a platform that simplifies uploading, sharing, and repurposing your podcast episodes. Want to use audiograms to attract social listeners? We’ve got you covered.
Need services for repurposing each episode into highly-shareable content? You can count on us.
Our platform also acts as a data tool, collecting information about your audience so you can better understand how they’re consuming your content throughout the buying cycle.
Since the podcasts you publish through Casted are live on your website, you’ll have all the analytics you need to enhance your lead generation strategy.
Want to see how Casted can turn your B2B podcast into a lead generator? Then schedule a demo today!