- Being a guest on a podcast can improve SEO, brand equity, and consumer trust.
- Instead of selling your brand, choose topics that allow you to share your story or educate your audience.
- Integrate podcasts into other marketing channels for maximum impact.
- This article is part of the Small Business Marketing series, which covers the basics of an SBO marketing strategy for finding new clients and growing your business.
As a small business owner, you may find that starting a podcast is a great way to attract customers to your business. But it's a lot of work for little reward, experts told Insider. They recommend offering it as a guest on a podcast, especially to small businesses without a big marketing budget.
"I think it's a very profitable way to get exposure," said Paul Gunn Jr., founder and CEO of logistics service Quogue Inc.
Linking their company's websites to other websites not only gives them an SEO boost, but the Huntsville, Alabama-based company sees greater brand equity and stronger customer relationships, resulting in better communication and more favorable business terms.
While hosting your own podcast can offer similar benefits, it requires a lot more work on the part of the creator.
“It takes four hours to produce a 30-minute show, or you can be there for 30 minutes or an hour and do an interview,” Michelle Glogovac, founder of podcast PR firm MLG Collective and author of How to Reach Podcasters. told Insider.
Participating in podcasts can help introduce you to new audiences.
“The audience already trusts the presenter, so the trust extends to you,” Glogovac said. In a recent survey conducted by Magna and Vox Media, 75% of respondents said podcasters are the most influential media figures in their lives, ahead of social media influencers and celebrities.
Insider spoke with small business owners about how to get the most out of podcast interviews for marketing.
Share your story, don't sell it.
Glogovac says you shouldn't do podcast interviews thinking about promoting your product or service. Instead, look for opportunities to share something about yourself or your organization in an inspiring, motivational or educational way. “The more they know you, the more they know your story, the more they want to buy from you,” he said.
Brian Clayton, founder of a lawn care company, told Insider that few of the hundreds of podcast interviews are actually about lawn care. Instead, look for “niches” in topics such as personal development, business consulting and fitness.
“If I have experience that I haven't used that I can help people get to where I have, I will,” Clayton said. If podcasting is right for you, your brand should be present in your story naturally and not feel forced, he adds.
Gunn, CEO of a logistics and supply chain company, said he is looking for podcast opportunities that will allow him to share his values while giving clients and partners an insight into what it's like to work with him. “Can they see who you are? Can they visit you before they come to you?” He said
Look for hosts with a specific, not necessarily large, following.
To find podcasts to participate in, Glogovac recommends searching podcast apps like Podchaser for relevant topics or using Instagram to search for “podcast #[topic].” Gunn found several podcast opportunities on Qwoted, an online platform that connects media with brands and experts.
When analyzing podcasts, Glogovac says you should focus more on the quality of your audience rather than its quantity.
“There might be a show that gets 500,000 downloads a month, but two people want what you have to say, and they all want to hear your opinion,” he says. . He advised hosts to look at how they market each podcast episode to make sure it gets exposure.
Candice D'Angelo has a unique style of choosing which podcasts to appear on. To promote her sales training agency, a Florida entrepreneur sought out podcasts whose host was part of her target audience (specifically business consultants who hire podcasts to support their training program teams).
He said he would try to build a rapport with the waiter and discuss the potential value of hiring him to cook for the client. He says that after taping an episode, 70% of the hosts ask him how they can work together in the future.
Optimize Every Podcast for Your Marketing
While a podcast host has to do a lot of marketing on their social media and website, there are also plenty of ways to repurpose content for your channels.
“I encourage every client to write a blog post about their conversation,” Glogovac said. “We asked the player to add code and then wrote notes on the post so it was SEO optimized.” They also extract three quotes from each interview to turn into graphics for social media and create a Spotify playlist for each of their clients, keeping all interviews in one place.
Gunn enjoys doing podcast interviews and writing online articles on similar topics to provide additional touchpoints for clients.
D'Angelo posts links to some of his favorite podcast interviews on the service page of his website. “If you look at our website, listen to a lot of podcasts and schedule a call, I know we are in the same place,” he said.
Go outside regularly
It's important to take the time (and do it consistently) to do podcast interviews to see results. Glogovac recommends doing three to four interviews a month to ensure exposure, and D'Angelo says you should continue doing this for three to six months to build momentum.
“You have to play the long game,” Clayton said. “Every once in a while, like every 10 or 20 talks, there's a big conversation where 100,000 people hear what Greenpal is and it works out. This is victory".
