6 Frameworks for Naming a Business Podcast
One of the hardest parts about launching a business podcast is selecting the right name. It needs to be succinct, yet also encapsulate what your show is all about. Naming a podcast is a tricky balance to strike.
6 frameworks for naming a business podcast:
This article was first recorded as an episode of Podcasting in Professional Services. Hear insights and perspective from other podcasters in industries like marketing, technology, accounting, finance, and architecture.
1. Search-friendly podcast naming
This approach focuses on a keyword that your target audience uses to search across platforms. It’s useful for educational-focused podcasts where the strategy is to educate a target audience. Individual episodes are optimized for topical keywords related to the main show keyword.
Here are a few examples of podcasts with search-friendly names:
The Accounting Podcast - Blake Oliver’s Accounting Podcast is among the first to show up when you search for “accounting” on podcast platforms like Spotify.
Digital Marketing Troop - We targeted the “digital marketing” keyword when we launched this show. We also did keyword research for each episode. One of our episodes even ranked #1 for “Google Analytics 4” keyword at one point.
I caught up with Allyson Cochran, Chief Revenue Officer at Silverback Strategies, to chat about Digital Marketing Troop and how we came up with that name. Sure, we targeted “digital marketing” as a keyword, but why ‘Troop?’
“A group of silverback gorillas, a fun fact, is called a troop.” Said Allyson. “It's typically made up of one silverback, his female companions, and their offspring. So, Silverback Strategies; we are a group of sophisticated digital marketing pros. We are a digital marketing troop. So the name just clicked.”
2. Action + Payoff
This is typically a two-word name that includes an action verb (-ing) and a payoff noun - what the listener gets out of the show. This framework is useful for an audience who is intrinsically motivated, like entrepreneurs or business leaders.
Here are a few examples of podcasts with a name that includes an action and payoff:
Seeking Wisdom - A podcast hosted by Drift's David Cancel. You'll hear about the leadership principles that have changed his personal and professional outlook and the hard-earned lessons he's learned over his 25+ year career as a 5X startup founder.
Finding Mastery - Dive into the minds of the world’s greatest athletes, leaders, thinkers, and doers with Dr. Michael Gervais—a high performance psychologist and world-renowned expert on the relationship between high performance and the mind.
3. Using alliteration in your podcast name
Alliteration is when you use the same consonant sound to create an easy-to-remember name. One of the benefits of podcasting for B2B and professional services firms with long sales cycles is the podcast effectively becomes a nurture channel. A name that uses alliteration makes it a little easier for prospects to remember the podcast.
Here are a few podcasts that use alliteration in their show name:
Negotiations Ninja - Interviewing the best negotiators in the world, we explore negotiation strategy, negotiation tactics, stories of negotiation failure and negotiation success. When I hosted Digital Marketing Troop, I interviewed Mark Raffan about negotiation, and how to turn B2B brands into thought leaders.
Breaking BizDev - Twice each month, Mark Wainwright and I break down, beat up, and redefine "business development" for the professional services firms of tomorrow. We think this is a good name, not because of the alliteration, but because it reflects our main message: “business development” is too broad. We need to break it up into marketing and sales and other pieces. The alliteration helps too, because Mark and I are both solopreneurs who offer a professional service and have longer sales cycles.
4. Using a play on words
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." - Groucho Marx. A plays on words is a literary techniques that stretches words to give them dual meanings or make them sound familiar in a different context. REO Speedwagon used a pun (a specific kind of play on words) to name their 1978 studio album, “You Can Tune a Piano, You Can’t Tuna Fish.”
Using a play on words when naming your business podcast could help your listeners remember your show, or inspire different emotions like amusement, nostalgia, or introspection.
Here are a few examples of podcasts that use a play on words in the show name:
SERP’s Up - By Wix. Each week we offer an in-depth and unconventional take on SEO—from hot topics to the latest industry developments. SERP stands for search engine results pages. It plays on “surf’s up”
Accounting for You - The Accounting For You podcast provides relevant tax and accounting information to help you and your business succeed. Plays on the word “accounting” to convey safety. You won’t be at risk for an audit by the IRS or owe back taxes.
What’s in it for them? - What’s in it for them explores the psychology of using incentives for research, marketing, and employee engagement. Recently I caught up with Ian Floyd, a co-host on the podcast and head of Research and Insights at Tremendous about how they named their podcast.
“There's a common saying of, ‘if you're going to try and convince me of something, well, what's in it for me?’ But our audience is companies that are trying to influence their customers or their participants or their employees.” Said Ian.
“So we came up with ‘What's in it for them?’ And then you came to us with ‘What's in it for them?’ And once we knew, once we saw both of us—independently—coming up with a very similar idea, we knew it just kind of clicked.”
5. Zig when the rest zags
Taking a bold stand is risky, but this approach to naming a podcast is when you go to an extreme to make sure your show name stands out from other shows. This is a viable strategy, especially in professional services industries where marketing tends to be conservative.
Here are a few examples of podcasts that zig while the rest zag:
Unprofessional Engineering - They released their final episode in September, 2023. But great example of podcast naming. We break down a weekly engineering topic in a way that everyone can understand and enjoy.
Two Drunk Accountants - Solving problems for small business owners, one drink at a time.
99% Invisible - Design is everywhere in our lives, perhaps most importantly in the places where we've just stopped noticing. 99% Invisible is a weekly exploration of the process and power of design and architecture. The name stands out because it starts with a number.
Working Theories - More of a newsletter, but I wanted to call this out. I think there is a natural synergy between a good email newsletter and a podcast. I worked with Same Page HR helping them with some content marketing support and caught up with co-founder Callie Murray about naming the newsletter, which we repurposed into a standalone podcast episode.
“My co-founder, Matt, had this idea for an email newsletter called Working Theories. So he started writing these great stories, but they all came down to this little memorable phrase that he called a working theory.”
6. Brand-driven podcast name
Some brand names hold weight, and can be used to help grow your podcast through a phenomenon known as the halo effect.
Deloitte - I wanted to find a good example of a brand-driven podcast. I searched for Deloitte and stopped counting after 50 different podcasts. All in different languages around the world. Some were explicitly branded as Deloitte, some were less prominent, and some were collaborations between individuals and Deloitte. While this strategy might not work, it does illustrate how larger brands may be able to experiment with multiple podcasts for different segments of their audience.
The Visible Expert - When I was at Hinge Marketing, a branding agency for professional services firms, we launched a podcast based on a concept we came up with called “The Visible Expert” who are experts who build a personal brand, make their expertise highly visible in the marketplace, and command premium fees.
“Funny enough, the whole concept of being a Visible Expert is guiding people and showing them what tools and techniques they need to use to build their reputation, to build their followers, to build their authenticity.” Said Kelly. “And that's exactly what we were doing when we were doing the Visible Expert [podcast].”
Find the right name for your podcast
Naming a podcast is hard. But it doesn’t have to be. If you’re thinking of launching a podcast for your B2B or professional services firms, contact us to learn more about how we help companies launch their own business podcast. Contact us today.
