Podcasts are more popular than ever right now, and for good reason. They are an accessible and user-friendly way for listeners to receive information. For brands, podcasts offer the incredible opportunity to connect with the listening audience on a whole new level—one that goes beyond the basic, one-dimensional relationship that brands used to focus on.
With brand awareness podcasts, your brand literally gets a voice, allowing it to showcase its unique expertise and offerings in countless ways, presented by a wide variety of experts and guest speakers. This is a great chance for brands to use this exciting medium to build trust and loyalty with the audience.
Brand awareness podcasts, specifically in the B2B realm, are relatively new and feature an untapped well of opportunity and possibilities. This is exciting, yet can also be daunting, as getting started on your brand-building journey can seem overwhelming, to put it mildly.
After all, where do you start? At Casted, we’ve been there–at the forefront of something new and exciting, and working on building an unbeatable, ever-evolving, and improving voice that speaks to our audience on a relatable level that yields real-world results.
We’ve come across some phenomenal experts on our journey—many featured on our podcast—that have shared their insights and offered inspiration and direction in droves. Below, we’ll share the tips and wisdom of two particular brands that have exhibited unique, creative, and successful marketing strategies centered around their B2B podcasts.
Lumavate is a brand built to help marketers bring exciting ideas to life quickly and effectively. Since Lumavate is uniquely positioned to help marketers turn their wildest ideas into reality, they knew that their brand (and podcast) needed to reflect that same attitude.
Lumavate’s VP of Sales and Marketing, Stephanie Cox, shared what they view as their ultimate goal: “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, but really goes across everything that [we do] from a content marketing perspective.”
Upon realizing that everything starts with a podcast, REAL MARKETERS was brought to life. One of the coolest things about REAL MARKETERS is that Lumavate doesn’t just look at it as another channel or piece of content. Instead, it’s a part of who Lumavate is as a brand. And that brand wants to connect and build community with marketers who want to move fast and get things done.
Among the many amazing things that Stephanie and her team are doing to build these relationships includes building a community of marketers. Stephanie shared why this particular community feature is so unique: “I think a lot about myself and what I kind of miss. And I think every senior marketer that has had a lot of success has kind of their little inner circle—the people that they can have real honest conversations with, where they completely tell the truth and are super transparent about what works, what doesn’t, what’s hard, what’s not. And my thought was: Where can I get that?”
Stephanie explained that she wasn’t finding it in any other social media, from LinkedIn to Twitter—nothing was truly authentic, a real community. “Even some of the other groups I’m in, you can have authentic conversations with a couple of people, but there’s not a place where people are really just kind of pulling behind the curtain and showing you the good, bad and ugly of marketing. And that’s what our community’s got to be all about … [W]hen you get in, you’re going to have access to not just our team, but all of the people in our community to ask your harvest marketing questions, to say what you’re struggling with to get help and feedback, and really a place where marketers help marketers.”
The REAL MARKETERS podcast helps the team create several different types of content. For example, it fuels marketing initiatives and other areas of the business, including takeaway-driven blog posts, social media posts, audiograms, Ebooks, infographics, employee-driven social posts, videos, and more—if you’re looking for further inspiration.
The second brand whose insights we’re confident can help you on your brand awareness podcast journey is Rubino & Liang Wealth Partners. When faced with challenges in 2020 due to social distancing, Rubino & Liang had to rethink how they were connecting with their audience. Virtual meetings weren’t cutting it (can we say Zoom fatigue?), so Adam Blye, Rubino & Liang’s Marketing Manager, and his team turned their attention to the power of podcasting.
This particular Casted podcast session centered around how we can use podcast conversations to fuel connection. It’s no secret that creating connections is a crucial component of any good podcast. And what better way to connect with your audience than stepping into their shoes and really trying to become them?
By understanding the questions your listeners have and the things they are trying to solve, you are able to speak authentically about those topics with experts and thought leaders. This provides value for your audience and humanizes your brand, making you much more accessible and appealing on the whole.
Adam explained how they are doing this with their podcast: “We’re marketing more in a human way, rather than that compliance of ‘We have to use these words and these phrases to make sure that nobody thinks that we’re saying or doing something in the wrong way.’”
“Humanizing” as Adam put it, is a great way to summarize their marketing aim in a nutshell. Another purpose Adam shared? Helping. Specifically, helping the audience by focusing on serving your listeners and getting to know them better—only then can you connect with them authentically and provide them with real value.
Adam offered a profound insight on how even altruistic aims often result in bottom-line rewards, noting that “helping people will naturally result in the growth of our company.” He added, “I think focusing on educating and really growing people, no matter what your scenario is and what your background is, is a personal goal for me to make sure that this brand succeeds.”
We here at Casted also want you to succeed on your brand journey, which is why we suggest downloading our podcast strategy lookbook, filled with further insights and easy tips you can put into action today.