The Role of A Podcast In Your Business

To have a successful podcast for your business, you need to be clear on your business goals.

Note that I didn’t say podcast goals, or even marketing goals.

I said business goals.

Because if you don’t start there, with what your business actually needs to grow and be sustainable, then you stand a very real chance of investing a huge amount of time, money and energy on a large (and public!) marketing project that doesn’t make a bottom-line difference to your business.

And none of us have time for that.

If what your business needs most is something that a podcast can’t help you achieve, it might not be the right time to start a company show. It’s much better to make that kind of evaluation before you start then six months down the road when you’re exasperated with the whole thing.

So before going any further, think about your top 3-5 goals for the next 6-12 months.

They don't have to be too specific, but they should be clear and distinct.

Think: more traffic, lower costs, better retention, more leads, more backlinks, better company culture, that kind of thing. (Don’t worry, specific measurable metrics will absolutely come into play – just after you’ve decided whether you should be podcasting at all.)

Write down these goals, or at least firmly affix them in your mind, before moving on.

And what if you ARE six months down the road and exasperated to the point of aggressively shit-canning the entire process?

Or just six month down the road and feeling like it should be a bit easier and more profitable that it is?

No worries. If the first best time to think about your podcast’s role in your business is before starting it, the second best time is now.

The process is the same. Think about your business goals, without considering the podcast you already have. What does your business need?

Got them?

Good.

High level, there are 5 business and marketing areas that a podcast can help you make progress in.

We call them the Business Podcast Blueprints. They are: Relationship Building, Audience Engagement, Thought Leadership, Conversion and Content.

Let’s look at each of them, and the types of goals they can hep you achieve:

Relationship Building Podcasts

These are all about connecting with new people. These could be people you’d like to work with, experts you’d like to meet, referral or promotional partners, owners of complementary businesses, event organizers, journalists and influencers - anyone that would be, for whatever reason, a valuable part of your professional network.

A relationship building show is a foundation that you build real ongoing relationships on.

Goals that can fit: More referrals, more customers or clients, sales of higher ticket products and services, speaking and other promotional opportunities, guesting on other shows.

Audience Engagement Podcasts

This blueprint will help you connect with the audience you already have. These may be people who already follow you, like members of your email or social media community, or they could be people who become aware of your through marketing you are already doing like paid traffic, speaking or other organic marketing. Finally, they can be people who work with you - your employees, team members or colleagues.

An audience engagement show is going to be a way for you to serve and connect with them.

Goals that can fit: Company training and culture, hiring and recruiting, social media engagement, email response rates, feedback or reviews on products and services, and customer lifetime value.

Thought Leadership

Thought Leadership shows exist primarily to increase the influence, authority and reputation of the host and company that create them. These are shows where you are bringing IP to the table, engaging in high-level conversations with colleagues and generally setting the tone and topics for what your industry is talking about.

Thought leadership shows are mainly for sharing and promoting your own brand and ideas.

Goals that can fit: Mentions and backlinks, interview requests, invitations to speak and present, PR opportunities, brand awareness and shortened sales cycles.

Conversion Podcasts

These shows are about moving people from one point in a sales or opt-in process to the next one. They exist as a part of, or move directly into sales funnels (can be top, middle or bottom for the funnel, depending on how you deploy them!) They often involve some kind of gated content or access to you s the host or to your guests.

A conversion podcast is going to be a part of a sales or opt-in funnel.

Goals that can fit: Community and Email list growth, product and service sales, monthly recurring revenue.

Content Podcasts

Content Shows may or may not be a standalone Blueprint for your business. No matter what kind of podcast you make, content will be a necessary side effect. But, there are shows that exist primarily for the content that can then be distributed and repurposed, however, and that is a completely legitimate use of one!

Content podcast are for creating the content you need in other areas of your work.

Goals that can fit: SEO, website traffic, content to repurpose, long term content projects like books, courses and opt-ins.

So - should you have a company podcast?

If one or more of your goals fits into one or more of the Business Podcast Blueprints - then you can confidently proceed, knowing that you’re going to be taking action that moves your business forward.

If none of them do, then you might want to pin the idea of a podcast for a few months while you handle what needs handling. (Unless you have the time and bandwidth, both energetically and financially, to play a longer game, which is no bad thing!)

A note on the timeline.

Before moving on, the other thing to consider is timeframe. If you need more clients, a podcast can certainly help you win them (and maybe even better ones that you can get otherwise!) but if you need them yesterday, then other strategies might be a better fit just now.

It’s important to be realistic here. Podcasting is rarely profitable from day one.

Expect that a podcast can help you make meaningful progress towards your goals over 3-6 months - sometimes more, sometimes less depending on your goals and how you are optimizing it - but you should plan to spend time and money on the project for at least that long before you start to see a return.

What Does The Data Tell Us?

What we can see in the data is that podcasting is a long game.

The vast majority of top 100 podcasts have been in production for three years or more. When you’re thinking about your show, always remember how the value and benefit of creating it compounds over time – not only are you serving your audience on an ongoing basis, but you’re establishing a massive professional networking and creating a huge archive of content that can be used within your business.

Of course, you want to start seeing value out of your podcast as quickly as possible - but remember that it really does compound over time. Make sure to give yourself enough runway to really see meaningful results before deciding the project doesn’t work.

Podcast Impact Assessment

Your podcast should be getting your brand out there, connecting you with other professionals in your industry, and creating content that you can use throughout your business.

And it should be happening without taking up too much of your time and brain space - you’ve got a business to run.

Regularly checking in to make sure you’re getting maximum value for the time and money you’re investing is critical to avoid wasted time, prevent focusing on outcomes that won’t make a bottom line difference in your business, and see the kind of growth you want.

But there there’s a problem:

It’s too hard to track podcast work to business outcomes.

And that means that business owners are often spending more time and money on their podcast to get less value then they could.

The first step to solving that problem is identifying it, and that’s what the Podcast Impact Assessment is going to do.

Download it for free right here.

In this assessment, which will take you about 5 minutes to complete, you will find 15 statements about what your podcast should and could be doing to maximize your time, profit and opportunities.

You’ll evaluate your own show on each one, and at the end you’ll have either the confidence that you’re doing everything right - or a hit-list of action items to save yourself time, generate more profits and create more opportunities from you podcast.

The team and I will be here to support you every step of the way - so if you need help deciding where you fall on one of the indicators, or how to make changes, you can email us for support or book a complimentary audit.

Do This Right Now:

Want to take one action to make a difference in your show and how well it’s working for you? It’ll only take 5 minutes.

Download the Podcast Impact Assessment, and evaluate your show on the different criteria.

This will let you know in about 5 minutes, what the lowest hanging fruit in your own podcast is, so you can start saving time, and seeing more profit and opportunities right away.

The team and I will be here to support you every step of the way - so if you need help deciding where you fall on one of the indicators, or deciding what to tackle first if you want to make changes, just hit reply and let us know!

Onwards!

Megan Dougherty

and the rest of the team at Podcasting for Business by One Stone Creative