When’s the last time you listened to a podcast?
If your answer is within the last month, you’re in good company.
Podcasts are an extremely popular method of consuming media. As of 2023, 42% of Americans over the age of 12 listen to at least one podcast every month, and those numbers are expected to continue rising in the coming years.
Why aren’t businesses taking advantage of this powerful channel?
As a business-to-business (B2B) organization, have you considered developing a podcast? Many B2B organizations are starting to understand the benefits of incorporating podcasting into their marketing strategy. Why? Because podcasts are an effective way to build brand awareness, reach new customers, establish authority, and achieve consistent growth.
Your business can accomplish these goals (and more) with a successful, well-planned B2B podcast strategy.
A B2B podcast is a branded podcast produced by a B2B company as part of a broader content marketing strategy. This type of podcast serves as a platform for B2B organizations to create a brand persona, directly engage their target audience, and prove expertise in their industry.
If you do it right, podcasting is an extremely effective medium for B2B companies. In fact, 43% of decision-makers listen to podcasts in order to stay up-to-date on business-related content. That means podcasts are tied with email newsletters, webinars, and social media as the top channel for B2B content.
With the right strategy, a B2B podcast is a great way to increase brand awareness and expand your reach.
B2B organizations can see a variety of benefits from incorporating a branded podcast into their digital marketing strategy:
Podcasts are available on-the-go and are an ideal medium for a wide range of B2B audiences.
Your B2B podcasting strategy will center around the goals you want to accomplish through your podcast show. Are you looking to grow an audience, engage with industry influencers, learn from top clients, build relationships with your employees, or reduce customer churn? Once you decide on a strategic approach, you can begin developing a premise for your show.
With a demand generation podcast strategy, your priority is to grow your audience and generate demand for your products or services. Episodes will likely be conversational, and although you may interview a few subject matter experts (SMEs), most episodes will be less interview-based and more solo. You can measure the success of this B2B podcast strategy by the number of times your episodes are downloaded.
An industry influence podcast strategy is focused on developing relationships with influencers and thought leaders in your industry. This strategy is ideal if you are trying to establish your B2B organization as an expert in your market. Episodes will often contain interviews with authority figures or SMEs. To measure performance, consider the amount and depth of the relationships you create with key industry players.
Account-based marketing (ABM) B2B podcasts are used to engage with potential customers—specifically the key-decision makers at target accounts. This podcast strategy involves interviewing your ideal customers, learning more about their pain points and needs, and offering valuable solutions. Determine ABM podcast success by tracking the number of relationships you build with prospective buyers.
Internal B2B podcasts are an effective method of passing on organizational information to employees. Under an internal communication podcast strategy, you can interview employees so their coworkers can learn more about them, build relationships among a remote team, or train new people. The success of your internal organizational podcast can be measured by downloads as well as quantitative or qualitative feedback from employees.
A customer success B2B podcast strategy targets your existing customer base and is intended to reduce customer churn. By interviewing customers, you can showcase customer successes, address customer concerns, and encourage loyal customers to become ambassadors of your brand. Track your customer churn rate to measure the success of this type of podcast strategy.
Creating a B2B podcast is similar to the traditional podcast process, but there are a few key differences. Follow these steps to build your own B2B podcast show.
Choose a B2B podcast strategy, determine the purpose of your podcast, and set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals. Whether you want to increase website traffic, generate leads, establish industry authority, or engage with employees, these decisions will guide the rest of your podcast development process.
A typical podcast wants to reach as many people as possible, but a B2B podcast is intended to reach a certain group of people—even if that segment is a small subset of key decision-makers or buyers.
Who is your target audience? Identify your ideal market and conduct research. Learn their job titles, industry, and pain points. Where do they listen to podcasts? What format do they prefer? When you understand their needs and preferences, you can create content that resonates with them.
A consistent thread will be more likely to engage your audience and keep them coming back episode after episode, so select a niche or industry segment that aligns with your business expertise and stick to it. Look for a niche topic or unique area that makes your ideal audience tune in every week.
Additionally, decide on a podcast format that best suits your content and audience. Options include interviews, panel discussions, monologues, and solo episodes. Consider audio only vs. audio and video podcast formats as well.
Create an editorial calendar with episode topics and release dates. Consistency is key, here—building a loyal B2B podcast following requires a consistent, long-term publishing schedule. Try to plan at least a few weeks in advance so there are no episode gaps in your calendar.
As far as the content itself goes, ensure it addresses your audience’s pain points and offers valuable insights. Consider producing a mix of evergreen and timely topics to keep your content relevant over time.
When it comes to podcasting, production quality makes all the difference.
To ensure your audio sounds clear and your visuals are crisp, purchase or rent high quality audio and video recording equipment, including microphones, headphones, cameras, lighting, and software for recording and editing. Also, find a quiet, well-designed recording space that minimizes background noises and offers exceptional lighting.
Podcasts are auditory mediums, but there are some visuals involved—even if you don’t have a video component to your episodes. Design eye-catching cover art, logos, social media graphics, and episode thumbnails that reflect your brand. The goal is to create a consistent visual identity across all podcast-related materials, including your website and social media profiles.
A good podcast episode requires careful planning. Before interviewing or holding conversations with industry experts, thought leaders, or key decision-makers, conduct extensive research to determine the best topics to discuss and questions to ask. Learn what you can about your guest before hitting record.
During the editing stage, you have the opportunity to finetune your episode. Remove mistakes, improve audio quality, and ensure your audience has a smooth listening experience.
Once you have a few podcast episodes in the bank, the next step is to publish it. Host your show on a reliable podcast hosting platform like Libsyn or Podbean. Then, submit the podcast to popular directories such as Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher—or wherever your ideal audience listens to podcasts.
Hot tip: Many podcast hosting platforms will automatically share episodes to podcast directories as soon as you upload them, streamlining the entire process.
Make sure your podcast reaches the right ears by developing a marketing strategy to promote your podcast across various channels. Use your B2B company’s existing distribution channels to advertise new episodes, and increase visibility further by leveraging the networks of your episode’s guests. Additionally, consider paid advertising or partnerships with other B2B brands to expand your reach.
To drum up excitement, share teaser clips, quotes, and behind-the-scenes content on social media and on your company website.
Encourage listeners to leave reviews and ratings on podcast platforms, and respond to listener feedback when you can. It’s important to engage with your audience through social media and email to build a long-term following.
Nothing beats word of mouth referrals, so don’t hesitate to directly ask your listeners to tell a colleague about your show.
By tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics, you can determine what’s working (and what’s not working) with your podcast. The exact KPIs and metrics you measure will depend on the B2B podcast strategy you have developed, but the list may include downloads, listener demographics, engagement, consumption rate, and ratings. Use podcast analytics tools to track these metrics and adjust your content and promotion strategies to continually improve your podcast’s performance.
A podcast is a powerful addition to your overall approach to B2B content marketing.. If you’re interested in creating a data-driven digital marketing strategy that helps you establish your online identity, target your ideal audience, generate new leads, and achieve sustainable growth, look no further than OneIMS.
By partnering with our digital marketing agency, you benefit from our team of experienced marketing specialists,, including our podcast production experts, We are dedicated to helping businesses create and implement strategic plans that boost your revenue and lead to sustainable growth.
We pride ourselves on producing measurable and sustainable results. To get an idea of our training, experience, and track record of success, view testimonials from our clients, read our blog, and listen to our podcast.
Are you ready to develop a successful B2B podcast? Schedule a consultation with us today to get started.