02 - 3 Reasons Why Your Business Should Create a Podcast or Private Podcast

Let's explore 3 fundamental and multifaceted benefits of incorporating a podcast into your marketing toolkit.

Discover how versatile podcast content can be—ideal for crafting everything from sound bites for social media to full blog posts. Learn about the compelling impact of audio reviews to build trust and authenticity, and explore the diverse monetisation opportunities that podcasts offer, from sponsored content to exclusive subscriber-only episodes.

This first episode, brings you 3 reasons to get excited about the world of podcasting.

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Transcript

Mike Roberts: 0:00

If you've been thinking about creating a podcast for a while now, this is the episode for you. This is the first episode in Season One. And here are three amazing reasons why you should consider a podcast for your business. So let's get straight into it.

Jo Pickard: 0:15

Get ready to unlock the secrets of success and make digital real.

Mike Roberts: 0:23

Okay, so let's kick things off with just how adaptable podcast content can be. Strategy number one, when we are talking about creating a podcast episode, immediately, what comes to mind is an episode that people will listen to on Spotify or Apple or whatever platform they're using. But we can do so much more with our episodes. And this is why I think it's so so powerful for small, medium large business owners to consider having a podcast series for their business. Now, we will go into the content that people have in their episodes on a later date. But today, what I just want to talk to you about is being able to extract incredible pieces of content from one episode, I'll give you an example. sound bites. Now I use Buzzsprout, to host my podcasts, and Buzzsprout allows me to take my episode that I've just created and edited. And I can pick small amounts of audio from that episode, and it will turn it into a soundbite. For me. If I think to myself, You know what that 45 second segment in that episode, it was just so good, it was captivating. I think that would really drive my audience to Spotify or Apple or whatever it is they're using and listen to this episode, then I'll create a sound bite for it. It's an amazing little tool, which you can then put into your social media. If you're using a platform that doesn't allow you to create sound bites, no problem. There are so many editing tools out there, which will allow you to do this. Or you can use someone like me, for example, that can create it for you. It will also include the cover of your artwork for your podcast, you can have a nice sound wave that's moving. So there's a visual moving image in there as well. But I think sound bites are great. And I think it's just so easy to extract them from your episodes. And think to yourself, This is an amazing marketing tool that's going to drive my audience to listen. You can even take the audio, transcribe it. And what I mean by that is extract what you've spoken about in terms of bringing it into a text file. So it's like a transcription, like a dialogue. And you can turn that into blog posts, you know, throw it into an AI tool or chat GPT and say, you know, give me five blog posts from this one transcription, which is an episode that I recorded recently. So now we've looked at video, we've looked at text, you know, this approach, it doesn't just maximise your content, but it massively extends your reach across all sorts of different platforms. And the best thing of all, it doesn't require any additional content creation efforts on your side. I'm thinking newsletters, social media, blog posts, there's reason number one. Okay, look, let's look at Reason number two reviews. Now, all of you out there should know the power of having great reviews, whether it's on your website on a landing page, on your LinkedIn profile, whatever it might be hearing from your clients, getting some social proof is incredibly powerful, because suddenly, your audience are not learning about you. They're learning about the people that have used you and their feedback and how they found working with you. I'm all about reviews. Notice as well, I don't say testimonials, I think testimonials is quite an outdated word. And I think if you've got the word testimonial somewhere on your website, change it to reviews, because more people now are searching for reviews from your clients, not testimonials. There's just a handy little ninja tip right there. But you can get reviews on your podcasts. Now I'm going to be talking about some amazing ways that you can capture audio reviews from your clients in an upcoming episode in this season. But for now, I just want to talk to you about the power of this. Now there is a certain magic to hearing a satisfied client or a passionate listener speak about their experiences. It's not just words on a page anymore. It's just all about that voice tone and emotion. Now these audio reviews will absolutely dramatically enhance your credibility and it will create an emotional connection with potential customers. That's really going to give them a huge sense of the people that you've impacted. Now I'm going to use this word again, re humanization. I've done hundreds and hundreds of sessions over the years on the power of re humanization, whether it be sending a voice note to your client, or a video message on LinkedIn to a prospect or somebody who's got in touch with you because they're interested. But these things really do count. People are going to much more buy or work with somebody who they feel as though they know or they've met, which you're just not going to do through text through a PDF through an email. If you aren't going to be sending an email or a message to somebody throw a video message in there using something like Bom Bom, which is my favourite tool of all time to send video messages. But when it comes to podcasts, imagine in your opening intro or a little gap in the middle or even at the end, as that music kicks in. Instead of listening to you and your normal intro, it's your client, talking about how they've benefited from working with you, or a listener, saying how much they benefited from listening to Episode 12, for example, where you talked about this, this and this is so powerful, but reviews, absolutely gold. Let's look at the third reason why you should consider a podcast for your business. Now, I'm never going to be able to talk about podcasting without discussing the fact that there is a monetization potential. It's not just a marketing tool, it really is a potential revenue stream. What I'm hoping you're thinking about right now is things like hosting sponsored content to offering exclusive episodes for a premium, or even having an exclusive episode that is behind a subscription wall. So it's still free, but your audience still needs to give you their name and email address to access it. Now you're building up an email database, which again is going to be key when we're talking about monetization, we're going to have episodes directly involved in this further down the line. And you might start by featuring small targeted advertisements, or developing specialised content that your listeners can access through a subscription or a one time purchase. But remember, folks, if you are creating a podcast for your business, you are your own sponsor, you have free rein to do what you want with whether it be in the intro in the middle or at the end. Are you going to be advertising yourself? Is there going to be a new product or special offer that you want to talk about? Or do you want to direct people to a special call to action, it might be a website, it might be a landing page, like I said earlier access to a secret episode that is only available to your perfect subscriber database. There is so much potential here. And a lot of people think about, well, I don't have I don't know whether I'd get enough listeners to get people to sponsor me. That's fine. It's not all about sponsorship, you can do this in so many other ways. And we will go into that in much more detail moving forward. So there you have it, folks, three amazing reasons why you should consider starting a podcast for your business. If you are in the category of thinking about doing this and getting it set up. Don't waste any time. There has never ever been a better opportunity than right now to get inside your listeners ears. Like I said in the trailer, people are getting a little bit of screen fatigue. They don't want to be sat in front of zoom meetings or screen time anymore. A lot more people now are benefiting from the wonderful world of audio driven content where they can do all sorts of different activities where they're not stuck in front of a screen. And that is three great reasons three of my favourite reasons why business owners should consider creating a podcast. Now if you'd like to be on a call with me on a strategy session, which we will put out as a podcast episode. You can reach me at Volt Var UL T dot making digital real.co.uk where you'll see all of my offers services and ways to get in touch or connect with me on LinkedIn. Just look for Mike Roberts making digital real. And in the meantime, have a great one and I'll see you all in episode two.

Jo Pickard: 9:31

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Making digital real podcast until next time, keep innovating, keep growing and keep making digital real