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Podcast Playbook: Helping Coaches & Advisors Convert Podcast Content into Clients
The Only 4 Reasons to Start a Podcast (Even If It Never Gets “Big”)
00:15:59
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- [00:00]
A
Is it even worth podcasting if you don't have a large audience and don't intend on growing your listenership? We both know that podcasting is a lot of work and there are a thousand things that you could be doing to grow your business. But despite all of this, Kyle and I still feel like podcasting is something that you should be doing even if you don't intend on growing a large audience. There is so much other ROI that you can gain outside of just building and growing the biggest podcast you possibly can. So in today's episode, we're going to be talking through those four reasons why you should have a podcast, even if you don't build a large audience. So let's get this out of the way right from the get go. We're not saying that it is a bad idea to actually try to intentionally grow a large audience with your podcast. We actually think it's a really great use of your time and effort whenever it comes to podcasting. But what we are trying to say is that even if you don't want to put that time and effort into growing a podcast, and we know it's actually really hard to do, there's still other ROI that you're going to get from podcasting. So, Kyle, let's actually start out with some definitions around large audiences, because I see this as one of the most frequent questions in the Facebook groups. I don't know if you're a part of these, but they're podcast Facebook groups and I always see people posting, I got this many downloads on my podcast episode or I have this many total downloads for my whole podcast. Do I have a big audience? Is this good? I get these kind of generic questions, so I kind of want to suffice people's interest in what a large audience is before we really get into the content. Do you have any stats or statistics that you can bring to the table that actually might give some frame of reference for what a large audience really is?
- [01:55]
B
Yeah, I love the caveat where you're like, of course growing your show is important because every single one of our clients, when we're talking to them, will rank. I want to grow my show as one of probably the most important goals they have for their podcast because a lot of ancillary benefits will come from there. But today is all, all about talking about where the ROI is outside of that for having a podcast. So I actually went to a couple blogs and seems like a lot of them are pulling a lot of their information from Buzzsprout's annual Report if you're not familiar with Buzzsprout, they're one of the largest hosting platforms in the podcast industry. They had a bunch of numbers I found really interesting, so I'm just gonna run through them really quickly. Top 1% of podcasts, first seven day download metric is gonna be 5,000 downloads. Top 5% of podcasts is gonna be a thousand downloads. Top 10% of podcasts is gonna be 500 downloads 10 and top 25% of podcasts is going to be a hundred downloads. And top 50% of podcasts is going to be 30. And probably the top 95 is going to be more than you've. You're just posting episodes because those hit the graveyard. You listen to it. Um, even if zero people are listening to your podcast, what are some reasons that you might continue podcasting? Justin?
- [03:13]
A
Yeah, so we actually have four of those for you today. And I think there's a lot of benefits in each of these. But the number one that I have on the list is personal branding. We have a downloadable that we're going to share at the end of this episode where you can rank the goals for your podcast. And this is one that comes up fairly often with our podcast launch clients. I like to ask them, why do you want to have a podcast? And they tell me personal branding. And I've really seen the transformation over the last five years with podcasting. So starting to become the online business card like it was being an author. And now it's, you know, on top of being an author, it's having a podcast. You see the host of similar to like the author of type titles that are out there. But I feel like it might go one layer deeper than just that. I don't think it's just entirely these, these titles, but it's being recognized and known for the subject that you speak about on your podcast every single week. This happens to me all of the time. I get text or DMs, I'm in a conversation with somebody. They know I have a podcast about podcasting. Sometimes they're like, interested in wanting to launch a show themselves. But more importantly, they know I'm the podcast guy. So they love to ask me a ton of questions about podcasting. So to wrap this one up, yes, it gives you that kind of personal brand play whenever you're in the room. Like, yes, I'm the host of this podcast, but it also gives you that personal branding play whenever you're outside of the room, when a topic comes up and somebody immediately thinks of you because you're known for that thing because you've spent so much time developing content around it through your podcast.
- [04:51]
B
Yeah, you made a really good point there. You've said the word no, like at least five to 10 times in the past minute. And I think when it comes to people buying from you that know, like, trust factor is so, so important. Moving on to point number two, and I'm just going to go ahead and hand the baton off to you. Relationship building.
- [05:10]
A
Yeah, I, I'm probably the most excited about this one because I've seen podcasting impact me the most in this way. I started podcasting as a solo hobby podcaster five years ago and my network is exploded because of podcasting. It's so cool to look back on all of the people that I've interviewed over the last five years and the people who have become really good friends of mine have become referral partners of mine who have become prospects and then eventually clients of mine, all through podcasting, how it built or established our relationship.
- [05:44]
B
Can we give some shout outs here?
- [05:46]
A
Yeah, a couple of people that come to mind. Krista Edwards, she was actually a friend, kind of a loose friend of mine. And then I had her on my show and now I consider her like a best friend. I could call her at any point in time. Also, Carla Fowler, she was a guest on the Struggle is Real. We chatted like after the fact, maybe every three months we catch up. She's in the space of executive coaching and all of a sudden she reached out to me one day and was like, hey, you, you do something with like podcast production, right? I was like, yeah. She was like, actually one of my friends is looking for a podcast editor. Could you chat with her? And I was like, of course. And she referred over somebody to, to us that turned into a client within like two weeks. So that was someone that was great. And, and finally someone like Mark Hirschberg or Sean Mulaney. These are two names of people that have continued to collaborate over years and years. I had that initial interview with, with them, which was kind of the spark of our relationship. And subsequently we've done five or six different kind of interactions. I've guested on their shows. I've. They came and guest spoke at, at companies I've worked for. We've created joint content together. It's really cool how podcasting can kind of expedite some of the relationship building aspects. And it's this like forced and built in networking plan. Like we all know as, as business owners how important it is to network. But how many of us intentionally set time aside every single week to go ahead and network. I'm sure we do it and we do it when we can and people come into us and we, we take introduction calls and meetings. But the joy about podcasting is you're just like meeting all of these people because you're forced to you, you either need guests on your show or you go guest on shows or you're meeting other podcasters and learning from them. You're participating in industry events. You're being known as this content collaborator. So people are coming in and, and they're kind of connected to you or they're attracted to you. So I really like it for, for this reason I do think it will super juice your your your relationship building and networking activities. I want to intro number three though, because I feel like we're speaking to business owners right now who have a podcast. They are full time business owners, maybe part time podcasters. They don't have time to also be part time TikToker, part time YouTuber, part time LinkedIn, part time Email writer. And I really like the efficiency that podcasting can do to help drive a lot of the to do list or content creation that needs to happen for you to be omnipresent. Fourth wall break inside a fourth wall break. That's like 16 walls.
- [08:32]
C
I have to pause this conversation because what I'm about to say next is critical to the long term success of every podcast. You're a busy business owner and marketing is a challenge, especially considering the growing number of outlets you have to keep up with. Podcasting can be your content engine and it doesn't have to be difficult. Look, chatgpt is our friend. Sure, he's that friend that always knows the answer but insists on giving you a five paragraph explanation first, but a friend nonetheless. Here's a couple examples. A transcript that you can upload to your website for SEO and accessibility. A blog which also fuels your website. It's digestible, easy to link out online, and allows you to double click into a topic that you discussed during the episode. A newsletter which is going to go straight into your audience's inbox in a later episode. Me and Justin are certainly going to talk about why podcasting and email go hand in hand. And let's not forget simply splicing the episode into smaller segments or reels. Now, you remember when I said it doesn't have to be difficult? Well, there's one small caveat. You have to have a process to get it right. And we found that for you already. That's why Me and Deadpool had to come barging in here just a few moments ago to break the fourth wall. If you haven't seen that movie, I highly recommend it. You see, when we initially recorded this conversation, I wanted to outline a few places where your podcast could be repurposed. And we did that. But then I thought, why not show you? That's why I've provided how we've outlined and repurposed this entire episode@simplepodstudios.com repurpose. And in case we change that link, I'll keep an updated one in the show notes. In that example, I go a step further and actually show you how you can repurpose your episode as well. So reason number three to have a podcast, even if you don't build a large audience, is your audience is everywhere and your episode can be, too.
- [10:22]
A
Let's bring home the very fourth point here, which, I don't know, maybe is our most contradictive point to this entire episode. But the number four reason that you should have a podcast, even if you're not going to build a large audience, is lead generation. I thought you start out with this one. You've noticed this in a couple of our clients. We have some clients that play in the exact same space. How does their audience size really impact lead gen?
- [10:48]
B
You hit me with a loaded question. You know that?
- [10:50]
A
I know, I know. Softballing you right now.
- [10:53]
B
Yeah. So that is a thing that we've noticed with some of our clients is that when you have a niche show that can go so far, you don't need a thousand, ten thousand downloads per episode to really resonate and garner that one listener. That is. This is going to be so resonant for you really only need 100 downloads or less than that in some cases.
- [11:16]
A
I agree with you. And we were. You were like running through those stats at the beginning from Buzzsprout. That's like the top 1% of podcasters. It's 5,000 downloads plus the top 25%, it's 500 downloads plus. So, yes, on a grand scheme of things, maybe you have a hundred downloads, so you're in the top 50% of podcasters. But if your show is very niche and specific, let's say you cater to people who own dentistries in San Antonio, there can only be so many dentistry owners that are living in San Antonio. So, yes, if your show overall is in the top 50%, you might only be competing with one, maybe even zero, other shows in your very niche category. So you might be the number one show in that niche category. And sure, like, it would be great if 25,000 dentistry owners listen to your, your podcast. But if the 25 people who own all of those dental practices in San Antonio listen to your show, then it is probably the right lead funnel for you and it's probably going to generate leads for your business.
- [12:25]
B
Yeah. So I think a point of emphasis here really is your podcast download metrics are so arbitrary. At the end of the day, you really have to align that with your service offerings and have a trackable goal and know that the download metrics aren't necessarily what you're chasing. It's the ancillary objective that comes from having a large audience that you think can pull in and help out, achieve that objective, whatever that objective is. I still remember this conversation that you had with me. You mentioned, imagine yourself speaking in an auditorium and there's 100 people sitting down. I would be personally pooping my pants because that's a ton of people. And a lot of people having that size show might not realize Every single week 100 of those people are showing up to listen to what you have to say. So it's just such a powerful thing.
- [13:17]
A
I do think you should be appreciative to anybody who listens to your show. But with this, the goal of this episode, we were really trying to reinforce some of the other ROI benefits that you're going to get from podcasting and to, to recap, number one is personal branding. Using your podcast to build your personal brand is such a powerful way to, to get a lot out of your podcast. Number two, relationship building. We all know it's a built in networking plan and you're going to meet a whole lot of people that you didn't intend to meet just through the world of podcasting. Number three is the content engine you have to make content. Podcasting is that great trunk of tree for the start of the rest of the content that, that fills out your ecosystem. And as we were just talking about lead generation number four, I think even with a small audience, you can, if you're speaking to the right people and you're covering the right topics, you will resonate with your ideal prospect and that prospect will be reaching out to you. So this was a great episode. I really like this conversation. I wanted to leave you with a downloadable that we have out at simplepod studios.com forward/goals. This is our goal sheet and we have about 15 goals on that sheet. And we like to force all of our clients to go through this exercise. They have to rank order each goal. And some of those are the goals that we talked about today. Personal branding, lead gen monetization, all these type of things. You go ahead and rank those. And the cool thing about this download is that after you rank them, there's also a section in there that shows you what podcasting activities you should be focused on, because we know podcasting can play dividends in a whole lot of different facets of your business. But as business owners, if you try to focus on everything, you're not actually focusing on anything. So let's pick one or two of these primary ROI metrics to focus on. Maybe it is building relationships with key referral partners, or maybe it is monetizing through sponsorship. If we go ahead, double down and focus our podcast on those efforts, then we're going to get what we actually want from podcasting, which at the end of the day typically isn't building a large audience, it's growing our business. So once again, you can go hit that downloadable@simple podstudios.com goals. This was a fun episode. Thanks for joining us today. We're your podcast coaches, Justin and Kyle Peters, and we'll see you in the next one.