Where does a podcast fit in a marketing strategy? For many brands, the answer to this question dances between two areas of marketing. Brand and demand.
For Stephanie Cox and her team at Lumavate the answer is always brand.“I have no lead metrics tied to the podcast, that's not what our goal is. Our goal is really around, we want to be seen as experts in the space of digital marketing. We want to bring a unique perspective and we want to really be one of the places that you would turn to for great content. And it starts with the podcast” - Stephanie Cox, Lumavate.
Instead of thinking about their podcast as a lead generation tool, the Lumavate team uses their podcast, REAL MARKETERS, as a way to position themselves as experts in the digital marketing space.
Lumavate does a brilliant job of using their podcast to drive their overall BRAND forward. In fact, the REAL MARKETERS podcast has been such a success for Lumavate, it’s beginning to take on a life of its own and giving new life (and a very fun personality) to the Lumavate brand.
And just because their team views their podcast as a part of their brand awareness strategy doesn’t mean they look at their podcast as a single channel of opportunity. The Lumavate team is using their podcast in a TON of different ways to showcase their expertise and as a way to build a community of marketers.
How Lumavate is Getting the Most Value Out of Their Podcast
Their show features no-nonsense conversations between the host (Stephanie) and… well… real marketers. They focus on real challenges that marketers face and their no bullsh*t approach is both refreshing and fun. They strike a beautiful balance between a fun, authentic conversion and really insightful takeaways.
So how are they using this new, fresh approach to their show and weaving it into their overall strategy?
Building a real (Slack) community of marketers
While each episode might come to an end every week, the conversations that are foundational to their show do not. Stephanie and her team created a private Slack community of like-minded marketers as a place for people to bounce ideas off each other, have genuine conversations about what’s working and what’s not, and create a sense of community in the marketing space.
As a member myself, something that drew me to the group was Stephanie’s honest approach to who she was looking to connect with in this group.
The opportunity (and community) they are creating isn’t about promoting their podcast. It’s about building relationships, building a community, and finding comradery. And at the end of the day, that’s a beautiful way to create a positive association with your brand.
Interested in finding out more about the REAL MARKETERS community? Join here.
Fueling their content strategy
While Stephanie leads the charge for REAL MARKETERS (and the Sales and Marketing org at Lumavate), Michelle Lawrence is the content marketing mastermind behind turning their podcast into marketing gold for their brand.
Michelle doesn’t think of the Lumavate podcast as a single channel or single content piece that lives in a world of its own. Instead, she used the podcast to fuel a ton of different content and marketing initiatives for their brand.
From a single episode, Michelle can create:
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Several takeaway-driven blog posts
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Overall summary blog post
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10-15 social media posts
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Several audiograms
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Ebook or infographic
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Employee-driven social posts
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Videos
And to think… some people publish episodes, promote them once and move on! All of this content creates an amazing opportunity for the Lumavate team to expand the shelf life of every single episode and create amazing content that showcases their expertise and the expertise of their guests.
Humanizing Their Brand
Lumavate is a brand that enables marketers to build apps without code. Essentially, they’re a brand that enables marketers that have a crazy idea in the morning to bring that idea to life by the afternoon.
Because REAL MARKETERS is a show that was born out of the desire to talk to these types of marketers - marketers who move fast, ask for forgiveness instead of permission, and aren't afraid to bring crazy ideas to life, there was a lot of opportunity for their team to lean further into the brand their show was bringing to the surface.
Instead of keeping the podcast as a separate segment of the Lumavate brand, the team decided to allow the show to become a bigger part of the brand itself. Their language got punchier and their content focuses a lot on the conversations that are discussed on the show.
And this is such a beautiful use case of bringing their brand to life. Of humanizing their brand. And because they’ve done this, and done it so well, their show is a huge catalyst for breaking through the marketing noise and allowing their brand to standout in the crowd.
How You Can Break Through the Noise with Podcasting
The work that Lumavate is doing to cut through the noise and standing out in their industry using their podcast is amazing. It’s a use case that everyone should look to emulate because they are focusing on their audience first by growing relationships.
So how can you take a page from their book and use your podcast to break through the noise?
Think of your podcast as a way to build a community, not just an audience.
Too often we focus on what a marketing initiative can do for us and not what value we’re providing to our audience. Of course the marketing strategy you put in place has to fuel pipeline and revenue for your brand, but don’t count out brand awareness as part of that play. Focus first on creating a show that delivers value to your audience. Doing that will build a community of people who are brand advocates not just leads.
When we focus too heavily on conversion and not heavily enough on connection, we’re missing out on the opportunity to build relationships that will serve both you, and your audience, better in the long run.
Reuse, repurpose, remix your podcast!
Never underestimate the value of the podcast. Take every opportunity you have to get the amazing content from your podcast into other areas of your marketing strategy. Michelle does an amazing job of finding a lot of different ways to use the podcast to fuel her content strategy, so borrow some of her ideas (or some of the ideas here) to get started.
Don’t be afraid to be human.
One of the reasons I was personally so drawn to REAL MARKETERS (the podcast AND community) was because of the personality that Stephanie was bringing to the Lumavate brand. They aren’t afraid to be HUMAN.
Too often, especially in the B2B space, we see brands that are rigid and robotic. It’s time we move beyond the fear of being seen as unprofessional (or whatever we’re worried about) and be more authentically ourselves. If you're podcasting and you're NOT being authentic to yourself, it's probably quite obvious and uninteresting to your audience.
Because at the end of the day, there are humans behind the brands you know and love… and it’s likely thanks to the humans running the show that you feel so connected to those brands. So take a cue from Lumavate and be a little punchy, sassy, funny, or whatever fits you. Just be a human and focus on building relationships, not completing transactions!
Interested in hearing more from Stephanie and Michelle’s interview? Check out the full episode below.
Interested in learning how you can turn your podcast into marketing gold for your brand like the Lumavate team? Schedule a demo so we can discuss ways you can get more value out of your podcast.
