Starting a Business Podcast in B2B or Professional Services
Starting a business podcast can be an effective way to scale the visibility of your expertise. It can differentiate your marketing strategy from competitors, and it can give you a source from which you can generate many different kinds of content. But how do you start a business podcast? What platforms do you use? What resources and workflows do you need to consider?
How to start a business podcast
In my experience producing and hosting various shows, there are four main steps to starting a business podcast:
Set your podcast marketing strategy
Establish your podcast operations
Launch your podcast
Grow your show over time
This article takes a closer look at each step in the process. If you’re a bit overwhelmed at the thought of starting a business podcast on your own, contact us to learn more about how we support companies who want to launch a business podcast.
1. Set your podcast marketing strategy
An effective podcast marketing strategy effectively connects the show to business goals, and considers what’s in it for target listeners.
Connect your show to business goals
Your company’s show should ultimately roll up to specific marketing goals and business objectives. That’s what key stakeholders expect. They want you to connect the dots so they feel comfortable investing in your podcast idea.
Here are a few marketing objectives that a podcast can roll up to:
Generate more leads
Increase brand awareness
Deepen client relationships
Establish strategic partnerships
Attract top talent
If you’re unsure how a podcast could connect to your overall business goals, there are many different benefits of podcasting for business. I interviewed Aaron Weiche on the A/V Marketing podcast about the impact his two podcasts have had on his business. In the video below, he shares how Conversion Cast connects to his overall marketing objectives:
Connect your show to target listeners
Your podcast also needs to convey the value you offer to listeners. But first, you need to understand who those listeners are. Consider answering the following questions to build a target listener profile:
Who is your target listener?
What activities are they doing while they listen to podcasts?
What channels do they use to get business news and information (outside of podcasts)?
What topics or conversations are they interested in?
Who are the influencers around these topics or conversations?
Another critical part of an effective podcast marketing strategy is naming a podcast. It must signal the value you intend to create for your listeners. In the video below, a host of What’s in it for them?, talks about the connection between Tremendous, the parent company, the target audience, and how they came up with the name for their show.
“We needed a name of a show that would encapsulate how you can run different programs across different verticals and use-cases.” Said Ian. “We didn’t want to have the word ‘incentive’ in the title because it doesn’t apply to employee rewards and recognition space, and we didn’t want ‘rewards’ in the title because it didn’t apply to research incentives. There’s a lot of nuance in there in-between.”
2. Establish your podcast operations
Once you’ve identified your target listener, have a name for your show, and understand the kinds of topics you’ll talk about, you’re ready to build out the back-end. Podcast operations can look different depending on the podcast, but this section should give you an overview of what to consider.
Team roles and responsibilities — who is responsible and accountable for things like audio production, marketing, graphic design, and web development?
Hardware for recording and editing — what microphones, headphones and cables do you need? How will the audio interface with software on your computer? Will you need a better webcam?
Software for recording, editing, and hosting — what software will you use to record audio? Edit and mix the audio? How will you distribute your podcast to platforms like Spotify, Apple, or Google?
It’s important to establish workflows for running your podcast. Below is a video of my colleague, Geoff Kerbis, explaining his podcast editing workflow:
Podcast workflow documentation
Finally, put it all together in a podcast workflow document—a resource you can use to establish processes so you don’t become a bottleneck as your show grows. This is important because people on your podcast team may move on to new companies, or your show may grow to the point where you need to bring on additional help. A podcast workflow document helps to make seamless transitions for people who support the show.
3. Launch your podcast
Getting the operations in order is critical, but there are also a few other things you’ll need for your podcast launch:
Visual assets — what will the look and feel of your show be like?
Audio assets — What pre-recorded elements will you need for your show? Will they require music? Do you have music specifically licensed for podcast use?
Promotion plan — How will you reach your target listeners? What channels will you use to grow your audience and build support for the show internally?
4. Grow your show over time
Starting a business podcast begins at launch. But it’s a marathon, not a sprint. You’ll need to promote each episode, find ways to repurpose past episodes, and maintain a consistent publishing cadence. Here are a few things to consider:
Promoting new episodes — what sort of rhythm or workflow do you have for promoting new episodes? What channels will you use?
Repurposing past episodes — new followers didn’t hear your podcast episode from 3 months ago. How will you use past episodes in your promotion cycles?
Managing a content pipeline — do you have enough episode content to maintain a consistent publishing cadence? How will you manage to take PTO?
I produced and co-hosted the Visible Expert—a weekly podcast—with Kelly Waffle between 2019 and 2020. In the video below, Kelly shares his perspective on hosting the podcast over time, the impact it had.
“Every week I would get notes from people.” Said Kelly. “They would say ‘I loved your last podcast’ or, ‘based on what I just heard, you've motivated me to go pitch a new budget to my boss’ or, ‘based on tips that you guys gave me, we're now trying, account based marketing for the first time’ or whatever it was. There was enough credibility, reputation and authenticity people not only heard in our content, but they heard it in our voices, the conversations, and things like that.”
I think this illustrates the impact that a podcast can have with the right strategy, a plan to run the show, a smooth launch, and consistency over a long period of time.
Let’s launch a podcast together
Don’t know how to start a business podcast? We’re here to help. Whether you need a coach to show you the ropes, or a fully-outsourced podcast partner we’ll help you launch a business podcast that connects to your overall marketing objectives and business goals. Speak with an expert today.
