How to Create a Successful B2B Podcast That Drives Business Growth

At some level most people know that to create a successful B2B podcast it should be aligned with business objectives and drive growth. However, that can be quite tricky since research shows that most podcasts don’t make any money.

The increased use of smartphones has made podcasts available to the masses. Today, there are literally hundreds of hours of content on just about any conceivable topic, including B2B podcasts that cater to particular industry interests. The good news is that podcasting is still a growing market.

To examine how we can capitalize on this trend and beat the odds we need to know how to create a successful B2B podcast.

Before we delve into this, it is probably best to start with a few fundamentals and understand how it can benefit your business.

What is a B2B podcast?

To
define a podcast can be tricky because it is quite multifaceted. But most podcasts
do share two main characteristics:

• Multiple episodes
• Organized into an RSS feed that anyone
  can subscribe to

Why care about B2B podcasts?

To
answer the question, it is perhaps better to look at why you should care about
podcasts in the first place.

The
answer lies in the way people consume podcasts: They tend to listen while completing
repetitive, monotonous tasks like commuting or otherwise filling in what would
be idle time. These same people would not consume a text-based post or e-book
in the same way.

Reasons to create a successful B2B podcast

The
reasons to create a successful B2B podcast are not dissimilar to the case for powerful B2B
content marketing. Also, the demographics for podcast listeners are attractive to B2B
marketers. Research from
Statista and Edison Research’s Podcast Consumer 2019 report found that:

• The audience for podcasting has grown
  significantly in the past year. Today, 51% of Americans 12+ have listened to a
  podcast, with 32% having listened in the past month and 22% in the past week.
• In addition, podcasting’s Share of Ear
  has more than doubled in five years, increasing 122% since 2014.
• Although all key demographics grew,
  much of the increase in podcasting has come from Americans ages 12-24, which
  means a younger audience is already accepting of this form of content and will
  likely continue to be as they grow older.
• Forty-one percent of monthly podcast
  listeners say they are listening to more podcasts today compared to one year
  ago, with 13% saying they are listening less.
• Streaming services are playing a role
  in the growth of podcasting, with 43% of monthly podcast listeners saying they
  have listened to a podcast on Spotify and 35% on Pandora.
• Fifty-four percent of podcast
  consumers say that they are more likely to consider the brands they hear
  advertised on podcasts, compared to 7% who say they are less likely.
• There are 525,000+ podcasts on iTunes,
  in 100+ languages, from 155+ countries, with 18.5 million episodes and 50 billion-episode
  downloads.
• Eighty-six million people listened to
  a podcast each month in 2019.
• Weekly podcast listeners listen to
  seven podcasts per week.

Why should you create a successful B2B podcast?

Just
looking at the stats above, you will realize podcasts are more than just a good
idea.

In
fact, they work best to attract customers and engage with them at different phases
of their journey. You can use your B2B podcast to:

• Build brand awareness
• Create thought leadership
• Standing out from the competition
  through this content format
  as well as brand voice and tone
• Fuel your content machine through
  repurposing
• Get to know your future customers via
  relationships formed through this medium

Take,
for example, the Dell
Luminaries podcast. Hosts Mark Schaefer and Douglas Karr provide a great example of
thought leadership B2B podcasting. The episodes feature guests who share their
insights and perspectives. Some guest are experts within Dell, and others are experts
from across the tech industry.

Benefits of a successful B2B podcast

Setting
up the foundations of your podcast will determine the success of it over the
long term. A podcast shouldn’t be a time suck or a money pit in that it shows
little or no return on investment rather benefit your business by driving
growth a revenue.

Here
are a few benefits worth considering:

1. Define your successful B2B podcast strategy

Your
purpose and strategy in creating your B2B podcast is to attract a specific
audience that has characteristics that closely match your ideal customer
persona.

Your
strategy can also:

• Increase brand awareness and generate
  leads
• Connect with existing and future
  customers
• Provide a channel to promote your
  products or services
• Build a community around your mission
  or brand

2. Position yourself as an authority in your industry

Being
a recognizable authority in your industry or niche makes selling a lot easier.
Why?

Because
you don’t have to spend as much time convincing them that you can solve their
problems. They trust your expertise, knowledge, and wisdom, which they have seen
on the podcast.

3. Drive more traffic to your website

A
relevant and successful B2B podcast will bring new visitors to your website. Each
time someone visits your website is an opportunity to engage them and nurture
them, especially if they resemble your ideal client profile.

Let’s
assume that 1% of your website visitors reach out to engage in a conversation
or sign up for a trial, and 10% of those turn into paying customers.

If
your website gets 1,000 visits per month, this would result in one new
customer.

Let’s
look at the math involved:

1,000 visitors x 0.01 (who engage with you) x 0.1 (conversion
rate) = 1

With
a podcast, you’re building partnerships that result in sharing episodes with your
guests. Let’s say you receive 10 times the amount of traffic via your podcast. In
effect, if the visitors to your site are similar to your ideal customer persona,
that would mean you get 10 times the customers.

4. Increase the visibility of your business

Consider
being a guest on other podcasts. Conversation on podcasts creates lots of
opportunities to bring awareness to yourself and your business.

The
other benefit is that most podcast hosts will have a show notes page, where
they include a link to your website and social media profiles. In other words,
you’re getting high-profile links from respected sites (and other sites related
and unrelated to the podcasts), which act as important ranking factors in
search engine algorithms. More visibility on internet search engines means more
visitors to your website and, in turn, more sales.

5. Rank higher on Google

Your
podcast can be converted into videos and transcribed, or even have a blog post
created around it. Each of these options provides the opportunity to rank higher
for your keywords and related keywords, which helps you gain visibility,
traffic, and sales.

6. Save time and resources on content creation

You
can create multiple pieces of content from a single episode. Here are a few
ideas:

• Transcribe the podcast and publish it
  as an article
• Offer the transcription as an option and
  have an SEO-focused article around the podcast topic that also incorporates
  other expert perspectives
• Turn parts of the podcast into social
  media posts that include video or audio file formats
• Share tweetable sentences or quote
  posts
• Turn your podcast into a video series
• Create lead magnets in content formats
  that are relevant to your audience

7. Use your B2B podcast to generate leads for your
business

To
generate leads for your b2B business, you need the right content strategy. Most
businesses make the mistake of creating a podcast around their brand, product,
or service.

For
example, a commercial accounting firm might create a podcast on accounting
practices. The problem in such instances is that their ideal client, often CFOs
or CEOs of companies, don’t necessarily want to listen to content about accounting
practices. But they may be interested in management practices or sales growth,
so those are the topics and guests that businesses should build their podcast
around.

The
added advantage of doing so is that, by sharing the knowledge and expertise of
your brand and guests, you’re:

1. Addressing the pain points of future customers
2. Building their trust and confidence in you
3. Show your audience your ability to deliver what you offer in a way that is relevant to them.

This dramatically simplifies the sales process especially if you are interviewing future customers as it reduces the time taken to engage them. More importantly, it is a way of engaging them by increasing their exposure and by giving them a win.

Let’s
dive into how this could work for you.

8. Find your B2B podcast audience

In
finding your podcast audience, you need to identify your ideal clients and
partners.

Why?

Because
your B2B podcast audience should share the same characteristics as your ideal
clients. It would be safe to say that they would be people who:

• Gain the most from using your products or services.
• Are able to pay for your products or services.
• Struggle with certain areas or aspects of their business that you will be able to address with your podcast episodes.

Other
advantages of defining your podcast audience this way is that:

• It ensures a higher percentage of your
  audience comprises of potential future customers and existing customers
• Improves the relevancy and link-worthiness
  of your content with respect to your industry

How to set up a successful B2B podcast

Setting up a podcast for success in the long term requires ensuring that you have the right foundations, systems, and processes to maximize your investment in this form of content.

Areas to
consider include:

Questions to discover your ideal podcast audience

To find your ideal podcast audience, it’s easier to begin by also identifying one person who could be your ideal client.

Questions
you could ask yourself to clarify the characteristics of this person include:

• What is their age?
• What is their gender?
• What is their level of education?
• Do they live in an urban, suburban, or rural community?
• What is their marital status?
• What religion or ethnicity are they?
• Do they have children?
• Do the children live at home?
• Are they the children’s primary caregiver?
• Do they care for aging parents?
• What is their annual income?
• What type of work do they do?
• Is this person self-employed, or do they work for a company? If they work for a company, is it a corporation, a small business, etc.?
• In what industry? What’s their role?
• What are their passions and hobbies?
• Where or what was their last vacation, did they enjoy it, and why or why not?
• What type of neighborhood do they live in?
• Where do they buy groceries? Why?
• Where do they buy clothing and shoes? Why?
• What are some of their favorite clothing brands?
• What kind of car do they drive? Why?
• Do they belong to a church, country club, etc.? Do they take an active role in their organizations, such as participating in charity events?
• What brand or product has so changed this person’s life that they now couldn’t live without it? Why?
• Where do they get information? Newspapers, blogs, books? Online or print?
• Do they watch television? What are their favorite shows?
• Who do they admire most?
• What would people be surprised to find out about this person?
• What are their values, interests, and attitudes?
• What is their daily lifestyle like? Describe it in as much detail as possible.
• What in their journey has helped shaped who they are?
• What makes them stay up at night worrying?
• What makes them stay up at night worrying about that directly relates to what you have to offer?
• What are their hopes and dreams?
• How would you characterize their relationship with their immediate family?
• What recently happened that made this person search for information as it relates directly to what you offer?
• What did they already try that didn’t work and is the reason they’re is coming to you? Or are you introducing something they’ve never tried before?
• What would be their objections to buying your product or service?
• Where does your ideal customer get their information? (e.g., books, magazines, etc.)
• What does your product or service accomplish from your customer’s point of view?
• What are the specific benefits your customer is seeking in buying your product?
• Where is your ideal customer located?
• When do they buy your product or service?
• What is their buying strategy?
• What topics are your ideal podcast audience really interested in that are also a fit for your podcast?
• How would you help them to overcome their challenges and achieve their business objectives?

To
create your ideal customer persona, use Xtensio, a web app that allows you to
create and export customer personas.

To
answer the above questions, consider doing the following:

• Start with brainstorming answers with your team and those who know your customers best
• Survey your existing customers or clients
• Dig into your Google Analytics
• Spend some time on social listening
• Pore over your social media analytics
• Get insights via Quantcast Measure
• Spy on your competitors to see who they are serving

Once
you have a clear understanding of who this one person is, you can repeat the
process for other ideal customer profiles.

Expanding and qualifying your audience

To expand your ideal customer personas, you could also look at identifying profiles based on an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach, or that combined with buyer intent databases, which tools like Leadiro or PathFactory provide.

To
further qualify your audience, you could also go through the above questions while
checking if any of the attributes make them unsuitable as a customer. If you
are not sure, remove the attribute from the list.

Going
through this process should provide a comprehensive picture of your ideal
customer personas. These would be individuals who benefit from your products
and services, have the resources to pay for them, and lack knowledge that you
can address with your podcast episodes.

How to decide on your B2B podcast format

Have
a read below of the different formats to help you decide on a format that would
play to your strengths and resources.

Solo podcasts

As
the name would suggest, with a solo podcast, there is only one person involved:
you. You have the choice of recording an unscripted talk or using a script,
which could be useful in sharing experiences, storytelling, teaching, and (to
an extent) can also be used to explain certain topics or concepts in depth.

Interview podcasts

An
interview podcast is a common form. Apart from providing relevant content, I
recommend using this form for engaging with future customers, driving lead
generation, and building thought leadership and brand awareness, as discussed
previously. This podcast format requires more organizational skills in that you
need to keep track of all your guests.

To
be successful with this style of podcast, you have to hone your interviewing
skills. The interview-style podcast can be done via video chat or in person.

Panel discussion podcast

This
type of podcast format is similar to the interview podcast but is a bit more logistically
challenging. There is a panel of guests instead of one, so this format requires
more infrastructure to make it work.

You
have the option of recording in a studio or some other location that your
guests can get to. Alternatively, it could be done virtually but would require
software like Zoom and enough bandwidth while recording.

Repurposed content podcast

Repurposing
your existing content is a great way to generate podcast material from content
you’re already using to reach other or similar audience segments. For example,
let’s say you’re speaking at a seminar or conference. You could have your
presentation recorded (assuming that it is not dependent on visuals in your
presentation) and publish it as a podcast.

Here
are a few ideas of content you could repurpose:

• Seminars
• Speeches
• Workshops
• Presentations
• Webinars
• YouTube videos
• Teardowns or case studies
• LinkedIn Live sessions
• Facebook Live sessions

How to define your B2B podcast content strategy

Your
podcast content strategy isn’t a set-and-forget aspect of your business—or your
overall content strategy, for that matter. It will evolve on a constant basis and
require monitoring. However, when starting out, it helps to stack the odds in
your favor; crafting your B2B podcast content strategy is worth spending the
extra time.

A
good practice is to create themes and topics that are relevant to your customer
personas while still being relevant to everyone else. Going too broad can make
the show irrelevant to your ideal customers whereas going too narrow can make
it difficult to target and acquire new listeners.

You
need a fine balance to reach a level of social engagement that grows your
podcast organically. Thus, to grow your podcast quicker, it’s better to take a
niche topic and make it relevant to a broader audience.

Niche topics also help ensure that those who subscribe are a close match to your ideal customer persona. For others in the broader audience, it provides a unique source for your unique take on topics that you cover. Having content that is both educational and entertaining is how you can seed your podcast for increasing engagement with your audience and customers.

So,
what themes and topics can you use? To a large extent, that depends on you and
your business objectives. Contact me if you need
help, and we can explore this more on a call.

In
the meantime, here are a few ideas that could help get you started.

Biographical information

People like to know people. A great way to get to know someone is to understand some of their past experiences. This could include the struggles you had in the past, especially if your audience can relate to those situations.

Lessons
learned and mistakes to avoid can make for valuable lessons. These make for
great stories to share personally or to get guests to share. Here are some
ideas:

• How did you get started in your business journey?
• What did you wish you knew when you started?
• What was the lowest point in your business journey?
• Who or what helped pivot things to get you where you are today?
• Share an interesting learning experience.
• What failures led to your success?
• What has been your most expensive mistake?
• Share a business decision that has paid dividends since you made it.

Tap into current circumstances and events

People
want to know how to best handle change and circumstances beyond their control; for
example, how to deal with a whole slew of changes to the Facebook platform and
advertising rules. Topic ideas and themes to explore include:

• Comment on news, events, laws or
  regulations that affect your industry
• Provide insight into the implications
  of the above
• Report on new developments like
  products or services
• Report on highlights or takeaways from
  trade shows and conferences

You
could also help people look to the future and prepare for what lies ahead.
Ideas to cover could include:

• Predictions or forecasts from industry
  experts
• Future scenarios and how best to
  prepare for them

Educate them

A
B2B content strategy around teaching and simplifying the complex so that it
becomes simple and actionable is one of my favorites. Here are a few broad
ideas that could be a great fit around the theme of education:

• How to do something complex easily
• Explain trends or implications of new rules or changes in the industry
• How to fix issues most businesses get wrong
• How to improve on X
• Strategies and tactics to survive and thrive in your industry
• How-to guides for industry X activities
• How to identify not so obvious opportunities for growth

If
you have been in business for a while, you know there is a lot of
misinformation, untrue beliefs, a lack of awareness, or even a lack of
knowledge. Episodes that address these issues and offer solutions can be quite
popular. Examples include:

• Good industry practices
• Improper execution
• Neglected aspects of strategy and or operations
• Mistakes and misconceptions in your
  industry
• Things that no longer work
• Debunk commonly heard bad advice
• Debunk myths in and around your industry

Air strong opinions

Polarizing
opinions or at the least strong opinions can lead to a lot of engagement and
debate. This works especially well if influencers are part of the discussion.
Having said that the topics need to be relevant to your listeners and industry.

• Pros and cons of doing X vs Y
• Should you do X as opposed to Y

Share your reviews

Reviewing
anything relevant in your industry is another great content strategy. A few
ideas include:

• Products, tools and resources
• Industry announcements and regulations
• Reviews of experiences including events

Questions and answers

Probably my favorite format and one I recommend for interview-style podcasts is question-and-answer. Ask your audience or interviewee what they want to talk about, and, in most instances, they will gladly share.

You
can either ask questions around the topic and record responses or do it live to
create a more engaging experience for your audience.

How to launch your B2B podcast

Once
you have worked through the above details, you can turn your attention to the
creation of the podcast itself.

Below
are critical aspects to consider before launch.

How to name your podcast

Having worked out who your ideal customer is, makes naming your podcast fairly simple.

The
purpose of naming the podcast is to speak directly and simply to your ideal
customer. They should be able to understand what the podcast is about after
hearing the name of your show. There is no need to get cute with the name of
your podcast.

A
few naming formats that work well are:

Customer industry + customer role

Example: The Insurance CIO Show or The Insurance Executive

How to + what your idea customer
is responsible for doing

Example: How to Improve PPC Lead Quality

If
you are hosting your podcast on a separate site, look for an available domain
name. You can use one of the services below to search and acquire one:

• Namecheap
• Domainr
• Namelix
• Nameboy
• Lean Domain Search
• iwantmyname
• DomainsBot
• NameStation

How to name your episodes

When
naming your episodes, you need to consider the audience and the information you
will present them with.

A
few things to keep in mind include:

• Your headlines should create
  excitement and interest.
• The episode title should not include
  the name of your podcast.
• I am not a fan of including episode
  numbers but if you want to include them, put them at the end of your title.

Here
is a simple formula you can use to name your episodes: main takeaway from listening/watching
this episode + name of the guest

Example:
How to
radically improve customer service for business growth featuring
Rich Rose

Note:
You’ll notice that in the image below I include the podcast title which shows
as a logo. You could also include an episode number like the one below
from HelloBeautiful.
 

How to design the podcast artwork and logo

Consider
this—when you ask someone to be a guest on your podcast, what is one of the
first things they are likely to do?

They’ll
look up the podcast, and one of the first things they’ll see is the artwork for
the podcast and the logo. If it looks like a 6-year-old designed it, they
aren’t going to have a very good impression of your content. Chances are, the
person will decline your request or just ignore it.

On
the other hand, if they like what they see, they’ll probably listen to an
episode or two. And if they like what they hear, they’ll accept your invitation
to be featured on your podcast.

So,
invest in the podcast artwork and logo. Hire a professional graphic designer;
it will pay off.

How to design your templates for episodes and promotion

To
speed up the publishing and promotion of your podcasts, you need to create
templates that you can use to complement text-based content and to help promote
your content on social media channels.

We
will talk about repurposing content in more depth later but know that you can
use the graphics you create for each episode to keep your readers’ attention as
they read.

For
templates that you share on social media, consider having at least the
following information:

• The podcast name or the URL of your
  podcast website.
• The guest’s name.
• The guest’s headshot.
• Your show’s logo.
• The episode number (optional).

What you need to start your own B2B podcast

To
start your own B2B podcast, you need certain things in place and processes to
cover the ongoing processes:

• Producing
• Publishing
• Promoting
• Community building

What
software and services should you get for your B2B podcast?

Creating a podcast isn’t difficult but there are a number of things you need to keep in mind and work on to consistently be able to produce quality podcasts.

Domain name + website hosting

Give your future customers the chance to connect, make an inquiry, learn more and subscribe to your email lists via your website which is hosted on a domain that you own. There are a number of options (as we covered above) to acquire a domain name like NameCheap. You can then build out a simple WordPress site which can be hosted by a reliable company like WPX Hosting

Podcast hosting

It
is best to have your podcasts hosted on a service that caters specifically to
podcasts. Options include:

• Libsyn
• Buzzsprout
• Podcast.co

Social media

Create
accounts on each of the following platforms and share your podcasts on them:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube
• SoundCloud

Community

Sharing your podcasts to relevant audiences is important and social media platforms like the ones below make it easier to find and join such groups. Remember the objective isn’t to spam such groups with your episodes but rather to add value when and where relevant.

• LinkedIn group
• Facebook group

Intro & Outro music for your podcast

• Audioblocks
• AudioJungle
• Music Radio Creative

Sound effects

• Free Sound

Analytics

• Google Analytics
• Google Tag Manager
• Google Search Console

Video interviews

There are a few options to conduct video interviews at the moment. Below are a few popular options.

• Skype (requires
  Ecamm Live
  or Evaer
  for Skype to record interviews)
• Zoom
• BlueJeans

Audio editing software

• Audacity (free)
• GarageBand
  (free but Mac only)
• Adobe Audition
  (paid)
• Logic Pro X
  (paid but Mac only)

Recording interviews (audio and or video)

• Skype (Skype now allows for call recording without any other third-party tools)
• Zoom
• Squadcast

If
you prefer to use a third-party tool for calls via Skype, check out the options
below:

• Ecamm (a third-party tool for call recording. Mac only)
• Zencastr / Ringr / Cast
• Evaer (for PC only)

Repurposing your podcast

One
of the best things about podcasting is that you can transcribe and repurpose
the content. There are several ways to do this, including:

• Convert your podcast into a video and
  upload it to platforms that favor video content like Instagram and Facebook.
• Convert your video files into audio
  files and add them to your podcast feed.
• Share your Facebook Live videos on other
  platforms.
• Create a blog post and/or content
  upgrades.
• Create audio files, video snippets,
  and shareable quotes.

Some
of this needs to be done manually, but tools like Repurpose can help with automating some
aspects. It depends on your strategy.

What equipment do you need to start a B2B podcast?

Creating a
podcast doesn’t have to be expensive.

If you’re
starting out, a microphone and pop filter would be a great place to start. As
you grow, you can add or upgrade to the other pieces to improve your production
quality.

Microphone

The
Blue Yeti comes highly recommended. It has four different recording modes:
cardioid, bidirectional, omnidirectional, and stereo.

The
modes you would probably use the most are as follows:

• Cardioid mode
  allows you to only record sound from the front and eliminate any noise from the
  background and sides
• Bidirectional mode
  is great for in-person interviews at the same location; simultaneously records
  front and back and blocks out sound from the sides
• Omnidirectional mode
  records 360 degrees of sounds, which is the ideal setting for recording around a
  conference table

The
microphones gain control setting allows you to adjust its sensitivity. As with
most microphones to reduce background noise and ensure clarity you should bring
the microphone close to you and keep the gain setting to minimum.

Pop filter

When
recording, be aware that certain sounds cause people to expel more air than
other sounds. This can often result in pop or click sounds in your recordings.
A pop filter is an inexpensive way to eliminate these sounds.

A
couple of options include Dragon Pad
and Newer NW(B-3).

Boom arm

A
boom arm allows for optimal positioning of the microphone and works best with a
shock mount. Options include:

• Innogear
• RØDE PSA 1
• Blue
  Compass Premium Tube-Style Broadcast Boom Arm

Shock mount

A shock mount is a must if you are using a boom arm. It acts as a shield between the microphone and the boom arm. In effect, it helps to reduce vibrations or shocks that would otherwise cause noise in your recording.

For example, let’s assume your boom arm is attached to your desk. let’s also assume you knocked the desk with your arm while gesturing mid-conversation. The act of knocking the desk would create shockwaves that would travel into the microphone through the desk plate and through the boom arm.

Sound shield

A
sound shield helps to minimize other extraneous noise, echoes, and other
interference to your recording. The sound shield can be placed behind your microphone
to mitigate any soundwaves that might otherwise bounce off the walls of the room
and cause an echo.

How to stay organized

Now
that you have the equipment for your podcast, you need to be able to record
interviews.

Software

You can use Skype or Zoom to record. For Skype, you can record calls with Ecamm recorder on a Mac. PC users can use Zencastr or Cast. Zoom offers the option to record the episode to your computer or to the cloud.

Storage

You
also need a place to store your recordings. You could use Google Drive or Amazon S3. It is best to create folders for
each episode to hold recordings, show notes, graphics, etc.

Editorial calendar and workflow

Once
you get up and running, you need an editorial calendar to manage all the
content and workflow. This is because you’ll need to manage the intricate workflow
of each episode that you produce, especially if working with a team.

Trello is a simple and great tool for
this purpose.

You
can see in the image below how the Unthinkable Podcast organizes
their workflow and so organize your workflow along similar lines.

I
use Trello too for a few reasons:

• Each card can contain items like
  headlines, blog posts, show notes, and graphics for each episode.
• You can set deadlines for tasks to be
  completed and for the episode to be published.
• You can add your team to the Trello
  board
• You can provide your team access to
  the storage area for the recordings and other files.
• You can also send each other updates and
  communicate via a @teammembername mention in a Trello card comment.

How to create awesome interviews

Remember your audience

Your
show may help you, your brand, or even the person being interviewed, but
ultimately your objective should be to serve your audience by providing value
to them. In other words, ensure that the topic you cover and the manner in
which you cover it speak to your ideal audience persona.

Conduct pre-interview research

Before
you record the podcast, there are a few things you need to do—especially if you
are interviewing a person or group:

• Know and understand who you are
  interviewing so you know the right approach to take and the right questions to
  ask.
• Confirm details of the podcast
  interview including date and time, length of interview, method of recording,
  etc.
• Prepare a list of questions or talking
  points.
• Test your recording equipment and
  setup.

Prepare a list of flexible questions or talking points and
possible follow-up questions

Create
a list of questions or talking points that will serve to guide you and your
guest through the interview.

You
may not get through all the questions, but they are there to help guide the
conversation. Again, you don’t have to be strict about this. Some of the best
conversations occur naturally when things of interest pop up and you follow
those aspects further.

A
few other pointers to keep in mind include:

• Don’t ask questions that result in a
  simple “yes” or “no” answer.
• Don’t ask more than one question at a
  time.
• Keep your questions relevant and
  phrased in a way that encourages the interviewee to expand on them.
• You can also offer to show the
  questions to the person you are interviewing to make sure they are comfortable
  with the questions.

Create a welcoming environment

Creating
a welcoming environment for your guests is essential. You may not have
interacted with them before, so it’s important to make them comfortable in
answering your questions with great detail that will add value to your
listeners.

A
few tips to help create this environment include:

• Make sure they have all the details
  about the interview before you meet for the recording.
• Thank them for the interview before
  you even record or go live.
• Letting them know before you hit
  record that it is a chat between the two of you.
• Ask them if they’d like to go over the
  questions or talking points before you start.
• Have them listen to a prepared
  introduction before getting to the questions to give them context in which your
  audience will get to know them.
• Most importantly, be curious about
  them, be enthusiastic, and actually want to conduct the interview!

Let your interviewee talk

Yes, the podcast maybe yours, but one of the worst things you as the interviewer can do is take over the show and spend a lot of time talking.

Remember: You
have a guest on the show. The best thing for your audience is for you to
facilitate a conversation that allows the guest to share their story or
perspective on the topic. Listening more will go a long way with your audience
and guest(s).

Listen

This
can be difficult while also being obvious.

You
don’t just want to ask questions and then tune out while you wait for your
guests to finish. Conversations aren’t necessarily linear paths, so it’s
important to listen in order to discover where you can potentially find a lot
more value in your guests’ experiences, skills, or knowledge.

Practice
active
listening.
Be engaged and present.

Seek to understand

Understanding
is more than just comprehending the circumstances around the issue or what a
person did.

It also entails
going deeper and exploring why and how they took certain actions. This tends to
make interviews a lot more interesting, both in the moment and for future
listeners.

Andrew Warner
from Mixergy, Nathan Latka from The Top, and David Sitemen Garland from the
Rise to the Top do a great job of eliciting everything there is to learn about
a person or process. It is perhaps the reason their shows are so popular.

Strive for high-quality production

Bad audio or
video quality can ruin a great interview. I know some people won’t listen if
the quality isn’t great. Do what can within your budget to produce a
high-quality interview.

Investing in
good equipment, as covered above, is a good place to start. Tools like Zoom and Auphonic can also help.  

Minimize distractions

Life has gotten
busier for everyone, and, unfortunately, technology and people are generating a
lot of noise as a result.

Noise can be distracting,
and these distractions don’t just come in the form of email notifications and
phone calls. They also take the form of social media message alerts, dogs
barking, cats scratching at doors, mailmen dropping off packages, kids having
fun — the list goes on.

When you
schedule recordings, try to do them when it’s quiet — when noise and other
people are least likely to bother you.

Also, be sure
to put your phone on silent or airplane mode, close your email programs and
social media accounts, put the dog or cat in the other room, and wait to eat
your meals until after your recording is done. A post-meal belch in a
recording is unpleasant.

How to land podcast guests

Guest selection

When your
curiosity about another person is genuine, it’s much easier to ask interesting
and provocative questions. Ask yourself the following:

• Has this story been told before?
• Is there an interesting story we can
  talk about that’s not mainstream or typical?
• Can this person tell a good story or
  help break concepts into easily understandable and digestible chunks?

How to find people

Below are a few
ways you could find potential guests for your show.

Personal interest

Always
be on the lookout for who might make an interesting podcast guest. If you read
about someone in an article, stumble on their work through a Google search or
podcast, or read their book, you can add them to your list of ideas for people
to interview.

Referrals

You can ask each guest if there is somebody else you should interview. Eventually, you’ll come up with a handful of referral sources who know what you look for in a guest and will refer the right people to you.

Cold pitches

Once
you get up and running, you will likely get cold pitches. While they may seem
like a good thing to potentially make your life easier, you should be cautious.
Why? Because some people may try to get increased exposure but offer little of
value to your audience.

Things
that you should be cautious of include:

• Mentioning podcasts that are nothing
  like yours
• They may have a shopping list of
  accolades they have received but offer no value to your audience
• There is no clear theme to your story
• They have done no research
• They copy and paste their pitch

Remember:
The art of a compelling interview is selecting a compelling guest.

How to schedule your recording sessions

The
problem with scheduling is that, more often than not, you have to go back and
forth several times to find a time that is convenient for both of you. A better
alternative would be to use a tool like Calendly or Bookafy.

You
can quite easily set up an account and create the fields for the information
you want from the guest, like their name, email address, company website, Skype
ID, etc.

You
can then send your guest the booking link.

These
tools sync with your calendar, so the guest will be able to see what times
throughout the week are available in their time zone and choose a time slot
that works best for them. You’ll get a notification as soon as they schedule
time to record the podcast.

Interview script and questions

To create an
episode that has value to your listeners and to your guest, know as much as you
can about your guest and the topic you will cover before you record. It’s
worth taking the time.

Lookup details for your guest and prepare questions that will logically help take your listeners from your guest’s introduction to a thorough understanding of the topic you are covering.

Listing a few
questions and talking points will help as you head into the recording session
with your guest.

Intro and outro

You can write a
short script for your podcast’s intro and outro.

The goal with
the intro is to explain the value of the podcast to your target audience. Do
this as succinctly and concisely as possible; you do not want to bore your
listeners.

With the outro,
thank your audience and share your call to action (engage via email, review,
subscribe, etc.).

You can then
record both scripts. You’ll have to record them only once (either yourself or
hire a voice talent on Fiverr, Upwork or Voice.com) and can apply them to every
episode.

Sponsored ad spots

Podcasts aren’t
cheap; they take time and resources to put together. Ad spots can help fuel
your podcast’s production abilities.

To add value to
your sponsor, consider writing out a brief yet magnetic value proposition to
the product or service they offer and give them a call to action that leads the
listener to a website link or specific landing page.

You can record
the ad spot either yourself or via a voice talent (as discussed above) and
place it in episodes for as long as the sponsor wishes to contribute.

The best place
for ad spots is the beginning of each episode before the intro or in the middle
of the segment. Another option is at the end of each episode, but that leads to
lower engagement in most cases.

Preparing for your episodes

In
order to prepare for your recording, you’ll want to:

• Research your guests by reading their
  LinkedIn profile, about page, their book, etc.
• Check the facts
• Ensure you have relevant headshots or
  other photos of your guests
• Obtain your guest’s bio
• Prepare your notes based on a pre-call
  or other sources
• Prepare questions or talking points
• Outline your show notes
• Remember: If you want to entertain
  someone, you must keep their attention for an extended period of time. Do this
  by creating opportunities for your guests to share their stories. People are
  hardwired to listen to stories, and if you evoke an emotional response from a
  person telling a story, you’ll likely elicit an emotional reaction from the
  person listening.

How to start recording

Before
you get started with recording, you will want to:

• Move your phone and any other electronic gadgets away from your podcast setup
• Put your phone on silent
• Ensure you have your notes
• Check the acoustics
• Secure your pop filter
• Check the microphone, headset, and software
• Do a soundcheck
• Keep water nearby for you (and your guests if it is an in-person recording)
• Back up your audio and video files

Editing your episodes

By
the time you’re finished recording, you should have enough material to use in
your final finished episode. You could use a tool like Audacity to accomplish
this like in the video below – “Podcast with Audacity.”

Also
remember to:

• Remove awkward silences
• Add your intro and outro—it helps to
  have templates ready to use
• Normalize the audio levels without
  distorting the audio
• Export the file as a .wav file and
  then convert it to mp3 before uploading to your podcast host

Publishing checklist

Before
publishing, ensure you have completed the following:

• Added the post title
• Added the guest name
• Publish data has been set
• Entered into the right category
• Prepared your show notes
• Prepared a feature image
• Repurposed the content via
  previously mentioned methods
• Getting it transcribed
• Prepared it for video
• Prepared an audio file
• Alerted your guest(s) to the
  podcast going live

Create a podcast page on your website

To send podcast traffic to your brand’s website, you’ll need to create a podcast page on your site (e.g., “www.YourWebsite.com/podcastname”).

Elements
you’ll want to have on the page include:

• Your podcast logo
• A description of your podcast (same as your iTunes description)
• A subscribe button
• A podcast player containing all episodes like Smart Podcast Player
• To see an example of a podcast page, you can check out this one.

Promoting your podcast

Depending on your business objectives, there are numerous strategies and tactics you could employ to promote your podcast. You can take your pick of over 100 tactics to promote your podcast in an upcoming article. (Stay tuned and subscribe to get it when published.)

Acquiring
sponsorships for a successful B2B podcast

As
I said before developing a podcast and keeping it running incurs a cost in
terms of time, money and or resources. So, sponsorships do help ease the cost
of production.

Sponsorships, however, don’t necessarily require you do have a huge audience or downloads per episode. You can learn more about the best ways to secure podcast sponsorships in this interview with Preston Lee.

Distribution: How to submit your podcast to podcast
directories

Most
podcast hosts offer a distribution or submission service that allows you to
share your podcast to directories like Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Cast, Google
Play, etc.

For
example, Podcast.co offers a paid
one-click distribution service or a DIY option where you can get step-by-step
instructions to submit the required details to each directory.

You
will need the URL of your podcast’s RSS feed to submit to each directory.

What’s next?

As
you can see, creating a successful B2B podcast that drives business growth can
be quite a lot of work but can pay dividends if done right.

Use
this guide to help with the process. Contact me if you need some extra help, a
free audit, or resources to make this work for your business.