Podcasts' popularity has the potential to open doors for every company, including B2B. Here are three ways B2B enterprises can leverage podcasting
The most popular podcasts are businesses unto themselves. From interview formats to history lessons to true-crime storytelling, long-form spoken content has captured the imagination of the public. A staggering 165 million Americans have listened to a podcast at some point. Top podcasts earn millions of viewers and attract top-paying advertisers.
If you operate a business-to-business enterprise, this may seem to have nothing to do with you. Your warm market is not millions strong—you may only be a few thousand appropriate prospects in the world. Even if all of them became avid listeners, it wouldn’t attract big advertising dollars.
Still, a successful podcast isn’t just about direct revenue. Podcasts are relatively easy, cheap, and even fun to produce, and their popularity has the potential to open doors for every company, including B2B.
Here are three ways B2B enterprises can leverage podcasting.
1. Establish Yourself as an Authority
Producing an authoritative podcast makes you an authority. Podcasting can up your cache in your industry, even if your content does not specifically target your B2B warm market.
If your podcast resonates with the consumer base of your B2B vertical, B2B prospects will take notice. It could lead them to favor your brand over competitors as their B2B vendor. They might agree to be guests on your podcast, establishing their own authority and forming a bond of reciprocity that could blossom into a business relationship.A quality podcast could open the door to speaking engagements, exclusive invitations, and VIP industry insider status. No convention MC is mad about including “Host of the popular podcast XYZ…” when they list the credentials of the keynote speaker in their introduction.
2. Laser-Target Your Warm Prospects
The smaller size and specialization of your warm market is a good thing when it comes to podcast promotion. There may not be many of them, but all of them will be interested in what you have to say. There may only be a handful of podcasts targeted directly to their needs. You could target your prospects with paid search or email campaigns with your podcast as the content.
Consider—a prospect may spam-file a marketing email or scroll right past a social media ad … but a podcast with an attractive subject matter specific to their industry? That may go on the Bluetooth media player of your prospect’s car on the drive to work. Talk about making a warm prospect even warmer.
3. Hone a Brand Message
To cut through the noise in a crowded marketplace, you need a brand message that sets you apart. B2B companies probably already know this, but they may not know how to communicate that voice to the world.
One of the keys to the podcast boom is the unique ability of the format to humanize the podcaster. Like FDR’s fireside chats (arguably the original podcast), it’s a chance for listeners to dive deep into an aloof public persona and find the genuine person beneath.
Podcasts allow you to tell your story—articulate the journey that led you to your position of expertise. Even if a mass audience does not gravitate to your content, it’s an opportunity to forge a personal connection with the B2B prospects who will resonate with your message.
It’s a chance to be edgy, honest, unflinching and authentically you, to put your brand purpose out into the world and see what comes back.
Ready to put into the world your voice and your brand's purpose?
