Engagement is everything. That may sound reductive, but when you think about the goals of your business — be they long term, short term or overarching — they all start from a place of audience engagement.
Creating a B2B podcast is an excellent way to engage audiences, showcase industry expertise and build brand authority. Podcasts are a popular format, with nearly half of people in the US listening to a podcast at least once a month — and they’re a vital way for B2B companies to connect with decision-makers, drive thought leadership and build relationships. The best part? You probably already have content you can repurpose to get started.
In this guide, we’ll cover the essential steps for producing B2B podcasts and ensuring your program is successful — from planning and setup to promotion and more.
Planning Your B2B Podcast
The planning stage is the foundation of your podcast’s success. You can’t charge in blind and hope that the stars will align. Here’s how to begin.
Define your audience and objectives
Who are you speaking to? The “who” will dictate the “how” and — more importantly — the “why.” Understanding your audience’s needs, challenges and preferences will help tailor your content to their interests. For example, an industry professional and a budding entrepreneur are at vastly different stages of their career journeys — information that would appeal to one likely wouldn’t be of any use to the other. Deciding on your audience will help you to define your podcast’s tone and messaging.
Once you know who you want to address, outline your podcast’s objectives. Are you aiming to generate leads, boost brand awareness, or provide thought leadership?
Your objectives should be easy to measure and align with your overall marketing strategy. For example, metrics such as downloads, website traffic or form submissions related to your podcast content would help to measure lead generation.
Select podcast topics and format
Your choice of topics can make the difference in attracting and maintaining listener interest — what about your podcast makes it so unique that potential listeners can’t find that information anywhere else? How are you offering value? Education? Inspiration? Entertainment? Your topics should align with audience pain points and industry trends. Consider gathering feedback from your current audience to identify hot topics or look into direct engagement touchpoints with your audience, like webinars.
Once you have a list of potential topics, decide on a format that best suits your content. Popular podcast styles include:
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- Interview-style podcasts: Feature experts, clients or influences to provide diverse perspectives.
- Solo episodes: Host-driven episodes for sharing insights, tips or stories directly with the audience.
- Panel discussions: Engage multiple guests in a roundtable format for in-depth discussions.
- Case studies: Share success stories and deep dives into industry challenges.
Experiment with different formats to see what resonates with your audience. Using a variety of formats can help to keep your podcast dynamic and engaging over time.
If you have any webinars planned or any that you’ve already recorded, consider repurposing the audio as a podcast.
Setting Up Your B2B Podcast
The quality of your podcast’s audio impacts the listener experience. So, investing in the right equipment and software is essential. If you already have experience in running webinars, it’s likely youalready have the necessary podcast equipment.
Equipment and software
At a glance, here is some of the equipment you’re likely to use when recording your podcast:
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- Microphone – A good microphone is non-negotiable.
- Headphones – headphones help you to monitor audio quality during the recording and editing process.
- Pop filter – a filter used on microphones to reduce the popping sound made by plosive consonants – “p” and “b” sounds.
- Audio interface – used to connect an XLR microphone to your computer.
Software such as Audacity, Adobe Audition and GarageBand can edit your podcast.
Recording and editing tips
The place where you choose to record your podcast should be quiet, with minimal ambient noise. Soft furnishings can absorb sound and reduce echo. During the editing process you can filter unnecessary words, pauses and background noises. Add an engaging intro and outro that reinforces your brand, and remember to invite listeners to subscribe or visit your website.
If you intend to repurpose webinar audio in the future, make sure you’re applying the same podcast production principles to your webinar recordings to give yourself the best quality audio to use later.
Promoting Your B2B Podcast
No one will listen to your podcast if they don’t know it exists. Effective podcast marketing is crucial to growing your audience. Use a mix of marketing strategies to ensure your content reaches the right ears.
Leveraging social media and email marketing
Social media is where most people discover new podcasts, making it a powerful promotional tool. Share new episodes broadly across your social media channels, tailoring your messaging to each platform — quotes from your podcast on text-based platforms, eye-catching graphics on visual platforms and more so on. Email and partner marketing are also great ways to spread the word about your podcast. When you drop a new episode, mention it in your regular email newsletter.
Repurpose podcast content
We’ve already mentioned how webinars can be repurposed into podcasts — but podcasts can also be transformed into a variety of content formats. By doing this you can share your podcast with people who may not usually pay attention to audio content and extend the lifespan of your material.
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- Blog posts – use the transcripts of your podcast episodes to create blog posts and articles to contribute to the SEO of your website.
- Social media – present key insights in digestible social media posts and encourage people to listen to your podcast to find out more.
- Infographics – visualizing data with easily understood graphics can help it be found and shared by more people.
Repurposing can turn one piece of content into several and reinforce your message across multiple channels.
Podcast distribution
When it comes to the specific apps and services used for podcast distribution, you shouldn’t limit yourself to one platform. There are plenty of affordable podcast hosting platforms to choose from, and using multiple will help you to reach a wide audience. In fact, 73% of people listen to podcasts on their smartphones — so opting for platforms that are compatible with this style of listening can help to extend your reach.
Remember to optimize your podcast’s metadata and descriptions with the relevant tags, optimal keywords and appropriate tags to further enhance discoverability.
Key Takeaways
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- Podcasts are surging in popularity and are a great tool for B2B companies can use to connect with their audience.
- Understanding your audience ensures you can engage them with information that is relevant to their goals.
- Using high-quality equipment will give your audience the best listening experience.
- Even the best podcasts won’t attract listeners without the right promotion across multiple channels.
- Existing webinar content can be repurposed into podcasts — which can then in turn be used to create blogs and infographics.
Get in touch to see how ON24 can help you to get the most from your virtual events and content experiences. Speak with an expert today.
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