- Appearing as a podcast guest can improve SEO, brand equity, and consumer trust.
- Instead of selling your brand, choose topics that allow you to share your story or educate the audience.
- Integrate podcasts with your other marketing channels to reap maximum benefits.
- This article is part of “Marketing for small businesses“, a series exploring the basics of marketing strategy for SBOs to win new customers and grow their business.
As a small business owner, you may think that starting a podcast is a good way to introduce your business to potential customers. But it’s a lot of work for not much reward, experts told Insider. Instead, they recommend featuring yourself as a guest on an existing podcast, especially if you’re a small business without a big marketing budget.
“I think it’s the most economical way to get your name out there,” said Paul Gunn Jr., founder and CEO of Kuog Inc., a logistics service.
Not only does his business website benefit from SEO boost After being linked to other sites, he said his Hunstville, Alabama, company saw improved brand value and stronger relationships with its customers, resulting in better leads and more favorable commercial conditions.
While host your own podcast can offer similar benefits, it requires a lot more work as a founder.
“A 30-minute show requires four hours of production — or you can show up for 30 minutes to an hour and get your interview, and you’re done,” Michelle Glogovac, founder of podcast PR company The MLG Collective. and the author of the upcoming book “How to Access Podcasts,” told Insider.
Appearing on podcasts also helps you introduce yourself to new audiences.
“The listeners already trust the host and so that trust is given to you,” Glogovac said. In a recent survey from Magna and Vox Media, 75% of respondents said podcast hosts are the most influential media personalities in their lives, before social media influencers and celebrities.
Insider spoke with small business owners to find out how to make the most of podcast interviews for marketing purposes.
Share your story instead of selling
Glogovac said you shouldn’t go into podcast interviews with the mindset of pitching your product or service. Instead, look for opportunities to share something about yourself or your business in an inspiring, motivating or educational way. “By letting others know you, know your story, they will then want to buy from you,” she said.
Bryan Clayton, founder of lawn care company GreenPal, told Insider that very few of the hundreds of podcast interviews he’s done are actually about lawn care. Instead, he looks for “shoulder niches” on topics like personal development, business advice and fitness.
“If I have unspoken experience and I can help people who were where I was to get to where I am, then I will do it,” Clayton said. If podcasting is right for you, your brand should appear naturally in your story rather than feeling forced, he added.
Gunn, CEO of the logistics and supply chain company, said he was looking for podcast opportunities that allow him to share his values, so customers and partners get a glimpse of what it would be like to work with him. “Do they see your personality?” Can they visit you before visiting you? he said.
Look for hosts with targeted subscribers – not necessarily large
To find podcasts to participate in, Glogovac recommended searching podcast apps, such as Podchaser, for relevant domains or searching Instagram with “#(topic)podcasts.” Gunn found many of his podcast opportunities through Qwoted, the online platform connecting media outlets with brands and experts.
When reviewing podcasts, Glogovac said more attention should be paid to audience quality rather than quantity.
“Maybe there’s a show that gets downloaded 500,000 times a month, but two people will be interested in what you have to say versus the one that gets 250 downloads a month, and everyone will want to have your news,” she said. . She also advised paying attention to how hosts market each podcast episode to ensure it will be promoted well.
Candice D’Angelo has a unique strategy for choosing which podcasts she appears on. To market her sales training agency The Selling Lab, the Florida business owner looks for podcasts whose host is part of her target audience (specifically, business coaches with podcasts that could potentially hire to support their group coaching programs).
She said she was trying to build a relationship with the host and discussing the value she could bring if they hired her to train their clients. She said that after recording an episode, about 70 percent of the hosts ask her how they might work together in the future.
Maximize Each Podcast for Your Own Marketing
Although the podcast host will have to do a lot of marketing on their social media and website, there are also plenty of ways to repurpose the content for your own channels.
“I suggest every client write a blog post about their interviews,” Glogovac said. “We request the code for the embedded player and then write show notes so they are SEO heavy.” She also extracts three quotes from each interview to turn into social media graphics and creates a Spotify playlist for each of her clients with all of their interviews in one place.
Gunn likes to alternate between podcast interviews and writing online articles on similar topics to give customers multiple touchpoints.
D’Angelo links to some of his favorite podcast interviews on the services page of his website, in part because it helps create warmer tracks. “If they looked at our website, listened to several podcasts, and then booked a call, I know we’re in the same space,” she said.
Go out regularly
It’s important to dedicate time to podcast interviews – and do them consistently – to see results. Glogovac recommended aiming for three to four interviews per month to ensure visibility, and D’Angelo said you should maintain this for three to six months to gain traction.
“You have to play the long game,” Clayton said. “Every once in a while, like every 10 or 20 interviews, there’s a huge one where 100,000 people hear what GreenPal is, and that evens everything out. That’s the victory.”
