Podcasts ARE marketing

Is your podcast part of your marketing plan? 

Did that question surprise you? 

Because podcasts are so personal and genuine sounding, we tend to forget that they are a form of marketing. Not always, but for you, the solo business owner or community leader, this IS a huge way that you're doing outreach. 

Outreach, making connections: that's marketing. 

your podcasts = marketing

Let's begin to connect the dots with this realization. 

Transcript

Welcome to podcast to Connect. If you are using a podcast, or want to use a podcast to find your people and make connections with them, whether it be for business or community purpose, then this is the place for you. Hi, I'm Steph from Ko Fi like media, and I've been podcasting for quite a while, and I have definitely grown my community and my business, both from podcasting as well as supporting mediums like newsletters and YouTube channels.

And we'll talk all about that, don't worry. But I wanted to share some of the things that I have learned throughout the years, as well as some of the conversations I'm having with people about the different things we're doing to connect to folks in the podcasting space and what glorious things come out of those connections. In this first season, I'm repurposing episodes from earlier versions of podcasts to Connect, one of which was a 30 day experience called National Podcast post month, where a bunch of editors came on to the podcast and gave tips and advice on how to maneuver your podcast to sound good.

And then it grew from there into more of the connective and outreach and community focus of podcasting. I've taken a smattering of both of those flavors, and here are eleven of those that I think give you a variety, a bouquet, a rainbow, shall we say, of different tips that I think will help your business or community podcast. If you need help with your podcast, feel free to reach out to me@coffeelikemedia.com.

Alright, let's get on with today's tip. I personally, in my brain, in my professional life, in my thinking life, I tend to separate things out a little too much. And I think I'm not the only one when it comes to podcasts and marketing.

The number of conversations I have had during my six years of editing, six years of being a podcaster, and three years of editing for clients, editing and doing consultations for clients. The number of conversations I have had where people artificially separate podcasting and marketing is mind blowing. And when I was first an independent podcaster, I was just having fun and I didn't think about it too much.

But it didn't take long for me to want a bigger audience and for me to start thinking about monetization and like, opportunities within the space, because I really fell in love with being a creator and being like full time in the podcasting space. And that's when I started to really see how podcasting is marketing. Not for everybody.

There are folks. There are hobby podcasters who just do it for the topic for the community, for the pleasure. And there is nothing wrong with that.

We're talking about your branded podcast, your entrepreneurial or business podcast, and in that case, your podcast is 100% marketing. Now let me be very clear about this. I'm not telling you that you can create your podcast and let it sit on all the platforms that you distribute it to, including but not limited to Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher.

Oh gosh, how many others? So many. So many others. I'm going to leave a link down below for a really good distribution list from Pod News, a podcast newsletter, the podcast newsletter that the vast majority of folks follow religiously because it is so information drenched.

Podcasting is marketing, but it is not the only component in your marketing landscape. Okay, let me explain that. When you make your podcast, you can't just put it up on those platforms and expect everybody to come.

Those days of 20 04 20 05 20 06 when there were so few podcasts that any podcast got attention are well over. You have to actually do something with the podcast now. So it is an integral part of your marketing plan.

But it is not, in and of itself going to sell itself. It is not going to, is not going to spread like bunnies all over the places that your clients are. You have to strategically expose your potential clients to the content that you're creating.

You have to get it out there. Now, that depends where you do. That depends on where you are as a brand, where you are as a person, depending on how small or big your entrepreneurial enterprises.

If you are one person just starting out and you're an entrepreneurial business, then maybe you're very present on LinkedIn and maybe one other social media platform. And those are the places that you need to start sharing the content of your podcast. But if you are a bigger organization or you've got a small team now, maybe you actually have a full on like social media planner to help you and they can navigate the long term strategic plans of multiple platforms, then you would weave in different kinds of contents for the different platforms because people speak differently on all these platforms.

So if you just copy and paste the same thing on all platforms, it doesn't always go over well. Now, if you, if you're a solopreneur, you might be able to do that for a while and still attract the, the listeners that you want and slowly get them into your funnel so that you can get connected to the right folks who need your product or services and have them become your client. But you can't just put it out there and expect people to find it.

SEO does do you some good with the titles of your podcast and the keywords. If you're using it, if you're putting your podcast over on YouTube, that will help you, but you still have to get it in front of people in addition to that, because those things alone will not be enough to get your podcast seen by the right people in the right spaces at the right time to really grow that audience of potential clients in a way that you're probably expecting. So expectations are tricky.

A lot of the messaging in podcasting is how easy and quick it is to make a podcast. It can be. But that doesn't mean that your podcast is going to reach the people that you want it to if you just do the basics.

Now, what you would want to do in an ideal world, in an ideal world, what you want to do is, is take that podcast content and repurpose it in a variety of different ways. If you're doing video, you can take different screenshots, you can take different video clips, and you can put those on whatever social media that you're already on and that you're having conversations on. And you'll hear a lot of my community speak throughout this because I am very much so a community driven podcaster and podcast editor, I believe, and a lot of folks are actually starting to lean towards the side of community as a way to grow.

Your business is the way to grow. Your audience is the way to grow, period. You can repurpose your video.

You can also repurpose your audio into audiograms if you want to, which is the little squares you see in social media where there's usually a waveform and you can hear like a minute of the conversation or of the episode with probably the podcast name and some transcripts at the bottom. Those are called audiograms. You can create some of those, you can take quotes from the episode and you can post those in different places, and quotes can go far for in one, even 15 minutes conversation or episode, you could take out three or four quotes and put those with the link to that episode at different days of the year.

Like you can repurpose it so much, you just have to allow time to plan that marketing and to dissect the episodes. I know it would be great if the title and just the artwork that we put so much time in getting just right for our podcast would get us the audience that we want. But in all reality, your podcast is part of your marketing, and it needs to be repurposed in a variety of different ways to get into the right ears.

Literally to get into the right ears. So you need to put it in places where people are the people. I mean the listeners, the potential clients that you want to reach, you have to get in front of them.

Whether it be an audio form, video form, quote form. If you've got a newsletter, that's a great way to start repurposing it to your already existing audience. You can ask them to forward it to other folks that might be interested as your call to action.

There's a lot of different ways you can repurpose your content, but you must repurpose your content, especially after the episode goes live. And after that first week, people will still go back and look and they'll read your, your titles and they'll listen to other episodes. But by far, the best way to encourage them to listen to other episodes is to keep getting it out there.

Again. When you, or maybe for the first time, when you post information about your podcast, please do not just drop the link and the artwork, because that doesn't add value. And adding value will actually entice them to listen.

When you give a little, you'll get a lot back. So you want to give like a tip or that quote I was talking about that makes people think or asks them a question gets them. You know, you want to connect with your listener, your potential customer.

So you really want to add value in the social media posts that you're giving and then drop your link. So if they want more, which they will, because your value will be good and useful, and they'll remember that. They'll probably click and listen.

Maybe not the first time, maybe not the second time. But we know how this goes with marketing. It takes a few times for people to click and listen.

And once they listen, if they like the content, they may subscribe. Or even better, forget subscriber listen through rates. We want them to contact you to check out your website to become a client.

So that's the important thing. Downloads are great. They're fun to look at, they can tell you trends, but truly what you want is them to listen and to understand that you are right for them, for that business need or service, and you want them to reach out to you.

That's truly the KPI that you want. But I'm getting a little too far off of this content. The point today is that podcast is an integral part of your marketing, but it is not the whole thing.

And it is not separate podcasting. Your podcast, your entrepreneurial or small business podcast, is an integral part of your marketing. You need to make time for it, and you need to make time to repurpose it in a variety of ways to get the amount of potential listeners who hopefully will turn into clients to view that and to hop over to whatever space you want them to to check out your survey.

All right, so this is my semi rant on how podcasting and marketing are not separate. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of podcast two Connect. I'll have all of the information in the show, notes or video notes, depending on where you are consuming this.

Again, podcast two Connect is available in audio and video format. And. Yeah, and if you need any help with your podcast, feel free to reach out at@coffeeslikemedia.com

thanks so much. Bye.