5 B2B Podcasting Strategies & How to Choose
A rewarding vacation takes some strategizing beforehand. You need to decide what the primary goal is for the vacation. Is it to relax? To sight-see? To test all of the different kinds of potatoes at the resort's buffet?🥔
Once you identify your goal, you can start to build a strategy that supports it.
The same goes for B2B podcasting.
What is a B2B podcasting strategy? A B2B podcasting strategy is a plan for reaching your business goals with your B2B podcast. The five primary B2B podcasting strategies are...
Here are the five B2B podcasting strategies compared side-by-side:
**Psst. This blog post is based on an episode of B2B Growth with Logan Lyles, VP of CX at Sweet Fish, and Dan Sanchez, Director of Audience Growth at Sweet Fish. To hear more episodes like this one, subscribe to  B2B Growth on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Â
Once you know which strategy you want your B2B podcast to support, it's a lot easier to develop a premise for your show.
"Even when competition becomes more fierce, your premise is what's going to keep people engaged."
Dan Sanchez, Director of Audience Growth, Sweet Fish
Simply put, your business goals inform what subject matter your podcast covers and how it's covered -- its premise. Your show's premise is what makes it unique.
You can't tap into that uniqueness until you know which B2B podcasting strategy is right for your business goals.
And, although some of the main five strategies overlap, it's important to focus on optimizing just one. If your attention is split between strategies, your premise is weakened. So, optimize for one of the following strategies and enjoy any secondary benefits.
[READ: Check out the LinkedIn post that sparked this conversation here. Give us your input.]
B2B Podcasting Strategy #1: Demand Gen
AKA demand generation, this B2B podcasting strategy prioritizes audience growth above all else.
The premise for this strategy often looks like one or two subject matter experts sharing their insights. Those experts are normally tied into your company one way or another.
Also, it's less of an interview-based show and features more conversational and solo episodes. The reason for this is that your priority isn't meeting other industry thought leaders or potential customers.
[READ: Not sure which format you want to model your podcast after? Here are 8 of them compared.]
Your main priority is to use thought leadership from your team to generate demand for your product or service. Because your goal is to grow your audience, the time before your podcast reflects ROI is long. Building an audience takes a while.
That is unless your brand already has an established audience. Then, you have a headstart.
For the most part, you can measure the success of this strategy by the number of downloads your podcast gets.
B2B Podcasting Strategy #2: Industry Influence
The second B2B podcasting strategy is focused on gaining influence within your industry. This is done by interviewing established industry influencers -- the top dogs.
You'd use this strategy if you were trying to break into a competitive market. Or, you want to become known in an industry quickly.
The people you interview probably aren't going to become your customers. However, being associated with them leads to more authority within your particular space.
"You may be able to build a good audience and develop some thought leadership even though you don't have thought leadership to share yourself yet."
Logan Lyles, VP of Customer Experience, Sweet Fish
That being said, don't measure the success of this strategy by the number of downloads only. Look at the meaningful relationships you create by interviewing key industry players.
The analogy that best describes the goal of this strategy is GaryVee's High School Party Rule.
https://youtu.be/rkZXlHCQ0mQ
Think about it -- you're the "new kid" in your space. You know the one thing that will help you make a lot of friends quickly: Host a party.
Your podcast is your party. And the popular kids are the industry gatekeepers who've been there forever. Now, they want to be associated with you -- they want to get into the party. 😎
Your Industry's Cool Kids:
- Heads of major content outlets
- Social media influencers
- Heads of major industry events
- Successful business owners
- Keynote speakers
- Podcast hosts (ayyy)
You can meet all those cool kids if you host the party (podcast).
Pro Tip: Use Fabriq as your personal relationship manager. Kind of like a digital Rolodex.
Then, as you and your brand gain more notoriety, you can begin to grow into strategy #3. (Ya know, the one that drives revenue.)
B2B Podcasting Strategy #3: ABM (& Content-Based Networking)
Do you use an ABM (Account-Based Marketing) approach to target ideal buyers? Then, consider using your B2B podcast as another medium to interact with decision-makers from target accounts.
Interviewing your ideal customers on your podcast in order to build relationships with them is a process we like to call content-based networking.
In other words, there are people you want to meet from your company's target accounts. Why not use your podcast as an excuse to talk to them? You both benefit and your audience gets valuable content out of it.
"It's about building genuine relationships because we tend to do more business with the people we trust."
Dan Sanchez, Director of Audience Growth, Sweet Fish
The main focus of the ABM B2B podcasting strategy is to build relationships with potential customers. There are actually three types of people you can target with this strategy:
- Prospective customers
- Leads in your sales pipeline
- Current customers (to upsell or cross-sell)
Since your primary KPI is number of relationships, interviews with people outside of your organization make the most sense. This strategy also provides you with the fastest time to impact rate -- just one interview can yield serious ROI.
Plus, as you make content with potential customers, your audience is slowly building up in the background.
B2B Podcasting Strategy #4: Customer Success
This B2B podcasting strategy doesn't really overlap like the other three do.
A podcast strategy that prioritizes customer success specifically targets your company's current customers. Through interviews with your customers and internal team members, your goal is to reduce customer churn.
This podcast is meant to showcase customer successes, as well as address customer challenges in a helpful way. That way, all your customers have the chance to become your best customers.
It takes some time before you see the impact of a customer success podcast. But, it's absolutely worth it to increase retention rates.
The content produced by this kind of show supports the customer success team and the sales team. It also allows you to brand your podcast around your company.
B2B Podcasting Strategy #5: Internal Podcast
Last but not least is the internal podcast. This one's meant to act as another medium to communicate with your team. So, your audience size is only as big as your organization (given everybody on the team listens in).
There are a few ways we've seen the internal podcast being used:
- Getting to know your coworkers.
- Training your new people.
- Storing audio assets in one accessible spot.
You can record solo episodes for training and internal "thought leadership" purposes. Also, you can interview employees so that their peers can get to know them better. This is a great way for a remote team to feel more connected.
Pro Tip: Use Hello Audio to keep your podcast accessible only to your team.
Plus, storing all of these audio assets as podcast episodes keep them organized and easy to find and download.
To measure the success of an internal podcast, track downloads over time to see if they're growing. If you're using it for training purposes, ask new employees if it's helpful or hindering.
Choose the Strategy that Supports Your Goal
Is your primary goal to...
- Grow an audience?
- Build relationships with industry influencers?
- Build relationships with potential customers?
- Reduce churn?
- Pass on organizational information?
Determining what your goal is will tell you which B2B podcasting strategy to implement. Luckily, optimizing for one strategy often works in favor of your secondary goals, too.
In the end, you're making helpful content. And that's good for everybody.
For more B2B brain bombs, subscribe to B2B Growth on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.