Podcast Strategy BG

Heeey there,

Every week I write about a marketing topic with tangible tips and real-life examples.

I always base these topics on my personal experiences so that you may skip a few steps and avoid costly mistakes.

Last week we talked about the ‘how to’s of setting up a podcast + the secret that all of our guests praise.

This week we’ll talk about our strategy and potential angles you may take.

But first » did you know one of my first businesses was to rent out a vintage Citroën?

When cleaning out my childhood room, this is the ‘brochure’ I found.

I know, my design skills were and remain horrible.

But look at that copywriting going on.

I know, horrible too.

Now back to current marketing stuff 👇

[Stick around until the end to copy our setup.
Just make sure to CLICK "View entire message" 🤙]

Topic Overview:

• Potential Angles With Podcasting 📐

• The Goal Of Your Podcasting 🥅

• How We Set One Up 👷‍♀️

Quick Recap 🔃
Last weekend we ran through the following:

• Should you start podcasting?

• What hardware do you need to start?

• What software do you need to start?

• Some resources on how to set these up.

While it might not be for you…

Podcasting is an excellent and versatile tool for:

✅ Building Authority
✅ Expanding one’s network
✅ Branding - i.e. showing your face
✅ Outputting creative flows in an interactive manner
✅ Creating content that may be repurposed for multiple platforms

And definitely not least » ✅ Prospecting.

So today, I’d like to discuss some of the above in relation to your strategy when it comes to podcasting.

I’ll talk about:

1. Angles you may take

2. The goal of your podcasting

3. How we approach setting one up

Check your oxygen tanks, we’re diving in.🤿

1. Potential Angles With Podcasting 📐

Let’s start with what your podcast is about.

While this may seem like a no-brainer, this question can greatly impact your strategy & setup.

Just as a Youtube channel with a talking-head teaching how to use software will have a vastly different setup to one where someone is interviewing people »

Based on the goal and topic of your podcast the look and feel of it will significantly change.

A common issue I encounter when people set up any creative outlet is that they start with the details before the direction.

Before you decide what neon lights to get, the catchy title and your logo…

First, figure out what you want to achieve with your podcast.

I know this still sounds like the most obvious advice.

Yet it is undoubtedly tempting to get carried away by focusing on the less important details before one has a sound idea of the angle and strategy of their content.

At the heart of it, the goal of any content produced for a business is to “advertise” the business.

Duh.

But, while there are those activities that you can connect to revenue with a straight line…

Content like your podcast, blog etc. likely won’t be one.

At least not in the beginning.

Why am I on about this?

When you set up your podcast, your goal above all should be to generate content that is:

• Current

• Relevant

• Valuable

• Intriguing

for your audience.

Once it ticks all these boxes, plus it works both auditorily and visually »

i.e. people can enjoy how it sounds and looks, and then you can think about details like the name, logo and gimmicks.

So let’s run through a few potential angles you can aim for while ticking these boxes.

   A. Prospecting
   B. Media & Content building
   C. Generic branding

One may argue that all of these are related/intertwined.

One may be right.

But I’d still like to briefly mention some of the different directions you may take.

A. Prospecting

This is something that Fullfunnel.io’s Andrei Zinkevich and Vladimir Blagojevic teach excellently.

As discussed, ultimately all of your content goals are likely related to generating more revenue (to more or less an extent)...

In this version, your podcast’s strategy is solely focused on generating prospects.

This means that you are not aiming at massive views nor at crafting content that targets a large audience.

Your only focus is content that speaks to your selected few.

In this setup, you are creating a podcast where you interview the leaders, champions or influencers from a target business.

[Champions are the people who can bring your solution to leadership inside of the business.

Influencers are the people who can influence the decision of choosing your solution.]

The idea is that your podcast discusses topics that your targets are experts in.

Through setting up the episode you are:

• solidifying your relationship

• creating familiarity

and gathering priceless information about your prospect that you can later use in your pitch.

As per Fullfunnel’s teachings, you can gain further insight and further strengthen your position by setting up a pre-podcast call, where you can discuss what questions to avoid and what to focus on.

During this call, you can figure out whether there are any current pain points your prospect is facing that you might be able to aid with.

A key point to remember here:

This is not meant to be a quick win.

It can be, but your goal is not solely winning the prospect you interview…

And certainly not winning them with one call.

The goal here is still creating content that ticks all the boxes we mentioned above.

Your aim is to generate interest and trust, by being the person that asks all the right questions from known figures of the industry your target audience is in.

This way, instead of only targeting your guest as a prospect, you can simultaneously target them directly, and everyone else in that niche through the valuable content.

Media Building 🎞

You have likely heard/seen a number of successful marketers talking about this on podcasts & Linkedin lately.

An idea that, if you are good at creating visual/audio content, you shouldn’t treat it as a relevant yet small part of your marketing activities.

You should create a separate business that solely focuses on creating content. I.e. your own Media.

Think of Red Bull. A company that started out as a fizzy version of a Thai energy drink.

I know, check it out, fascinating.

Anyway, if you think about Red Bull, I’m almost certain that your 1st thought won’t be the energy drink.

Or at least, I’m sure that among your first thoughts will be all the amazing footage of extreme sports athletes doing ridiculous feats of skill with a Red Bull helmet on.

That’s not by mistake.

Red Bull brilliantly set up its own media house in 2007.

If you look them up, you’ll find them saying:

“Red Bull Media House is an award-winning, globally distributed multi-platform media company on a mission to inspire with 'beyond the ordinary' stories - both direct-to-consumer and through partnerships.”

While the energy drink has been around since the late 70s, its experimental marketing and media leg has definitely made a steep rise in its revenue.

I am of course not suggesting that you try and copy what Red Bull did. That would be false causality (they’ve built a media business » they are extremely successful » i.e. you should build one too).

I am merely saying that your podcast does not necessarily have to focus on generating short-term success with prospects.

This version is definitely a long game.

Your topics could be less closely related to your prospect’s pain points, but you should still focus on things that tick the boxes above.

For e.g., a skydive or downhill cycling footage might not relate closely to a finance bro chugging Red Bulls to keep his focus

…but it still is likely something that they’ll love and thus strengthen their relationship with the product.

Also, keep in mind that even if you do decide to set up a “separate business leg” it does not mean that you should spend 50% of your time on it right out of the gate.

This still can be an experiment that you pour more resources and effort into when it proves to work.

C. Generic Branding 💅

Again, yes - all of these are related.

Yet one can argue that talking head podcasts are neither specifically for prospecting nor are separate enough to be handled as media (but of course, they can be).

In this setup, instead of inviting your prospects as guests, our talking about interesting yet less directly related topics »

You can address the relevant pain points of your target audience in a visual form of thought leadership.

Once again. It still needs to tick all these boxes:

• Current

• Relevant

• Valuable

• Intriguing

But, instead of inviting your targets and focusing on them »

you can use your podcast as a tool to focus on building your authority as an expert in the topics relating to your audience.

2. The Goal Of Your Podcasting 🥅

Now that we’ve covered what your podcast is about and some potential angles » let’s quickly cover the goal of your podcasting.

At this point, this should be rather obvious »

but before you decide the angle to take and what your podcast is about, you need to decide why you are starting your podcast in the 1st place.

If for example, you aim to generate quickish wins and feel like podcasting is the way to go:

• Because you are great at creating visual/audio content

• Because your brand has a strong personal side

• Because it fits with your brand’s style

• Because why not

Then prospecting is likely the route to take.

If it is more about you wanting to express your creativity while also expanding your reach by creating content in a medium that is widely consumed »

You could aim at setting up a separate business with your media.

In conclusion, when setting up a podcast, make sure you have a clear goal and measurable KPIs attached to it (not necessarily X revenue in Y months) »

otherwise, you’ll have a hard time knowing whether it makes sense.

3. How We Set One Up 👷‍♀️

Honestly, I’m not telling you any secrets here.

We are following all that I’ve outlined above.

When we set up our current podcast, and now that we are working on another one, we are running through the same concept.

1. What is our goal with the podcast?

2. What is the angle we want to take?

3. How can we best translate our goal & angle into topics?

4. What name best reflects our topics?

Once we have these, we start gathering research and preparing a pilot episode.

From there we see what could be improved and what should be changed »

• Fix what needs fixing

• Improve what can be improved

• Pivot to a new direction if it makes sense

• Pour more resources into what proves to work

And Voilá. We’ve got ourselves a podcast.

Getting Started Today Instead Of Tomorrow 🏁

When getting started we all want to have the perfect set-up, the creative logo, the best name…

But let’s be honest, the only one who really cares about this is either your ego or your boss.

When we started our Podcast: Connecting The Dots, we knew the power of podcasting, and knew our general direction.

Yet we didn't prepare the external details.

In fact, we didn’t even have a name for it.

It was just called: A Podcast.

When one of our guests asked us where they could find the full interview, I had this to say:

We wanted to validate the idea first, create traction and build the aeroplane along the way.

The name came during a conversation with a podcast guest where we were talking about how we were connecting the dots between finance and marketing at Saasmic.

We validated the podcast with the means we had and assembled the plane as we flew out.

In my experience, the best ideas are formed when in motion, not in a big corporate room sticking some random post-its.

Because as Newton's first law of motion teaches us:

“An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”

Create motion, and assemble the plane as it is taking off.

And avoid unbalanced forces.

LinkedIn posts worth reading this week:


1. Content Brief Assistant powered by ChatGPT

A free tool in the form of a Chrome extension to speed up your content outline creation... put on steroids with ChatGPT.

2. Why you shouldn't wait 6-12 months for your SEO to kick in

Plus a 5 min SEO hack to try.

3. Why Chris Walker stopped gating content 7 years ago

...and how in his view it should go way beyond simply removing forms from your content distribution channels.