How To Build a B2B Podcast Content Strategy (That Converts)

January 18, 2025

In this article, you’ll learn:

What a podcast content strategy is and why it’s essential for B2B success
Key steps to build a podcast strategy, including goal setting, audience targeting, and content planning
How to identify your niche and differentiate your podcast in a crowded market
Tips for creating engaging content and maintaining consistency
Proven tactics for omni-channel distribution to maximize reach and ROI
Practical ways to measure success and align your podcast with business objectives

The case for starting a podcast…

If your business doesn’t already have a podcast as part of its go-to market strategy, it should. The best content marketing strategies are rapidly evolving to include multiple formats and channels – including video, infographics and yes, podcasts. And B2B brands are increasingly turning to podcasts as part of their marketing outreach.

When you enter the podcast space, you need a podcast content strategy. The worldwide population of podcast listeners exceeds all but India and China in sheer numbers (546 million!), and 47% of the US population listen to podcasts at least once a month. That’s a huge opportunity for your brand.

In addition to raw audience numbers, worldwide podcast ad spending is projected to exceed $4 billion in 2024. And according to Influencer Marketing Hub, 60% of podcast listeners search for a product after it’s mentioned in a podcast.

Also, in B2B marketing, podcasts likely attract the kind of audience you want to connect with. According to a Edison Podcast Metrics study, 53% of weekly podcast listeners are part of the decision-making team when making purchases in their company, and 32% say they’re the primary decision maker.

… but it has to be done right

All that aside, there’s a minor caveat: 90% of podcasts don’t even make it past their third episode according to WebiCaster. That means the vast majority of podcasters are down and out before they even have a loyal audience.

But there’s good news. To get into the top 1% of podcasts, you just have to accomplish one simple goal: make it to episode 21. That’s not always easy, but if it means getting ahead of 99% of your podcast competition, the hard work you put into it will pay off.

Think of your podcast initiative as a business in itself. When you want to position your brand as a leading authority in your industry and engage audiences who may be interested in your product or service, you need to have a strategy. A podcast content strategy.

With this short guide, we’ll walk you through the basics and essentials of creating a B2B podcast content strategy to boost your brand’s visibility and ensure long-term success. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to evolve your current podcast, we’ll cover all the steps to podcasting success.

What is a Podcast Content Strategy?

First, let’s define what a podcast content strategy is. Think of it as a mini business plan that keeps your team honest and on track when producing a podcast. It’s an opportunity to think about the different elements of what your podcast might include, and get it all down on paper:

WHO: Who’s going to do it? Who will host? Who are the stakeholders? Who owns the strategy?

WHAT: What is the podcast about? What will you discuss? What is your unique selling point?

WHERE: Where will your podcast happen – in the office, a studio, a conference room? Where will this podcast be published? Where will you promote it?

WHEN: When will you start? When will new episodes be released?

WHY: This is the most important. Why are you doing it in the first place?

And finally, HOW: How will you go about it? How can you monetize it? How will you hit your KPIs and how does it support overall business goals?

When you have all of that, you’re putting down the foundation for a tangible plan for your podcast with clear goals, potential guests and overall themes and talking points.

The more thoroughly you plan out your podcast, the more likely you’re going to hit that magic number of 21 episodes and become a leader in your space.

Planning also helps you avoid scrambling for topics and losing track of the end goal – and more so, running out of steam after the initial excitement of the first few episodes. When you have a podcast schedule mapped out throughout the year with a steady flow of high-quality content, it becomes easier to hit your goals.

Moreover, your podcast content strategy helps you align your podcast with your broader business objectives. Whether your goal is to grow brand awareness, establish thought leadership or increase engagement with your business, a well-crafted strategy ensures that every episode contributes to these goals.

The further out you plan, the more time you have to refine or adapt your messaging, identify relevant podcast guests (including subject matter experts and even customers themselves), and ensure that your podcast is delivering real value to your target audience. It also enables you to approach your podcast with the mindset of kaizen, the Japanese business philosophy of incremental improvement through ongoing analysis and review. That’s the real value of a podcast content strategy.

Podcasting: An Increasingly Crowded Medium

Metaphor time: imagine you’re going to a concert with 20,000 others all screaming for the attention of the band. What can you do to get yourself noticed among all the others? That’s why it’s important to have a clear niche that attracts attention to you because you have something truly unique to share with your target listeners.

To do this, you need to zero in on all the little details that help you separate your podcast from the countless others. In addition to the unique value proposition, your podcast content strategy also includes details on content distribution, guest bookings, talking points, partners and brand direction. It sets you up for success by ensuring every episode is meaningful, engaging and unique, and in sync with your business goals – and ensures that you maximize visibility of your podcast especially for your target audience.

Why is a Podcast Content Strategy Important?

We’ve covered this to an extent in the previous section, but let’s now talk about why a podcast content strategy is important. Why should you even put in all that work to begin with? What’s the payoff, exactly?

A well-structured strategy helps podcasters not only align their content with overall business objectives, but also support them directly. These can include enhancing brand awareness, fostering engagement, establishing thought leadership, building community and anything else that shows you’re not just looking to hawk your product or service via yet another social media medium.

First, memory retention is a key facet in marketing principles. It even goes so far as to cover selective retention in a world that demands its people follow multiple streams of information at once – leading to the growth of the “attention economy”, according to Amazon. In plain language, this means you’re constantly competing with hundreds of others for the eyes and ears of your audience in hopes that they’ll remember you down the line.

In that mindset, a well-crafted podcast content strategy will actually improve memory retention among your listeners. Studies show that 72% of podcast listeners can recall ads from podcasts according to Buzzsprout, highlighting the impact of podcasts on brand awareness.

Podcasts can also establish your brand as a go-to authority in the space. Would you buy your running shoes from the local discount shoe warehouse, or would you go to the specialized running store that hosts running clubs, talks about running in their content and is staffed by runners who share your excitement for the upcoming 10K? You want to be the brand that actively engages the topic of interest for your audience – including via podcasts.

Awareness, memory recall and engagement. In short, a comprehensive podcast content strategy is not just beneficial; it's a necessity for anyone looking to succeed in the crowded podcasting arena.

How To Build Your Podcast Content Strategy in 6 Steps

Now you understand what a podcast content strategy is, and why you need one for your podcast to succeed. It’s time to start building that strategy.

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We’ll walk you through it through six easy steps:

1. Set Defined Goals

Clear goals are perhaps the most important thing you can include in a podcast content strategy. Without goals, you’re a ship in the night without a lighthouse or beacon to strive for.

Start by clarifying why you’re launching a podcast. “Because everyone’s doing it!” will not fly. Your goals may be to increase any or all of the following:

Brand Awareness: Expanding your brand reach and recognition in your industry.
Demand Generation: Attracting potential customers through engaging content.
Brand Affinity/Trust: Building a relationship with your audience that fosters loyalty and return visitors.
Revenue Generation: Monetize through sponsorships, ads, premium content or direct sales.
Thought Leadership: Position your brand as an industry expert and go-to authority on topics important to your target audience.

Corresponding KPIs to Track:

Once you have overall podcast goal(s) in place, you need to monitor your progress towards them. To do this, you must identify key performance indicators (KPIs) and then track them. Use the SMART goal guidelines (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound).

For example, you might include these KPIs:

Number of Listens: Monitor how many times episodes are listened to, both collectively and individually.
Average Duration of Listens: Look at how long listeners are staying for the podcast – are they listening to the end? Stepping out after the first few minutes?
Number/Percentage of Return Visitors: This one is crucial. Are your listeners coming back for more?
Number of Downloads: Track how many times your podcast episodes are downloaded.
Subscribers: Track the number of subscribers you gain (or lose) over time.
Reviews: Gather listener feedback through public podcast reviews and survey responses.
Audience Demographics and Psychographics: Use analytics tools to ensure you’re reaching your target audience.
Conversions to Business: Implement “How did you hear about us?” forms during the sales process to gauge podcast effectiveness in the funnel.

Action Items:

Write down 2-3 specific goals for your podcast.
Define 2-3 KPIs for each goal to measure success.
Set initial targets for those KPIs.

2. Identify Your Target Audience

Before you start your podcast, you must understand your target audience. What keeps them up at night? What makes them sit up and take notice? What topics do they like to digest? Why would they be interested in you? All of this can overlap with your ideal customer profile (ICP), and is crucial to inform content creation.

Create Buyer Personas: Identify your ideal listeners, including their demographics, interests and challenges. Again, be specific but don’t narrow it down too much.

Research Tools: Utilize platforms like Sparktoro for in-depth persona research to better understand their needs, habits and wants.

Engage with Your Audience: Host live Q&As, polls and open forums on social media to gain direct insight into their needs and what they consume online. They’re the experts on themselves, so it makes sense to engage them directly.

Action Items:

Develop at least two detailed audience personas.
Research where your target audience spends their time online.
Explore tools like Google Analytics or Sparktoro for further insights into audience behavior.

3. Survey the Competitive Landscape

Let’s get philosophical here, courtesy of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

First, to avoid the fallout of a ‘hundred battles’, you do need to know your enemy, or rather, your competition. Your competitors may either be competing in the same market as you, or they’re rival podcasts – or both.

You want to study their market appeal, their unique value proposition, their target audience (which likely overlaps with yours) and so on. Get a good idea of what they talk about, who they invite as guests, why they’re in the podcast biz themselves, etc.

This allows you to identify what’s already out there with a major goal in mind: how to differentiate your podcast from the rest.

Analyze Competitors: Look at similar podcasts in your niche and analyze their own content strategies. Look at their episode frequency, who the guests are, where episodes are showing up and all that stuff you’re already building out in your own strategy.

Identify Gaps: Focus on areas where you can provide unique insights or cover topics that haven’t been explored. Namely, what can you offer that your competition can’t shed light on or hasn’t done so?

Monitor Engagement Metrics: Check competitors' engagement levels by reviewing comments, social media shares, and audience reviews. This can give you insights into what type of content resonates most with their listeners and where they may be falling short.

Study Content Formats: Observe the structure, length and cadence of your competitors' episodes. For example, if they consistently produce 60-minute episodes, you might consider creating shorter, bite-sized episodes for listeners looking for quick, digestible insights.

Action Items:

Create a content audit spreadsheet with columns including episode topics, formats, guest appearances, publishing frequency, engagement metrics and anything else you might think of.
Find 3-5 competing podcasts and analyze their strengths and weaknesses.
Identify 2-3 gaps in their content that you can fill with unique insights.

4. Define Your Niche and Messaging

This is where the “know yourself” part from Sun Tzu’s quote comes in. Define your particular niche and branding message for your podcast that speaks clearly and directly to your audience.

You want your target audience to see your podcast in a list and immediately know exactly what it’s all about. Again, it’s a crowded landscape; you want your podcast to stand out.

Identify Your Niche: Determine the specific subject matter you will cover, ensuring it aligns with your goals and audience interests.

Establish Consistency: Maintain a consistent voice and messaging across episodes to build recognition and trust. This can be established via brand guidelines, the appointment of a regular host, and adherence to a specific umbrella theme throughout.

Refine Your Value Proposition: Clearly outline what sets your podcast apart from competitors. Whether it's unique expertise, a specific niche, or an innovative format, refine your messaging to ensure listeners immediately understand the value they’ll get from tuning in.

Action Items:

Develop a messaging guide that includes your podcast’s core themes, tone and language.
Adopt the kaizen mindset. Regularly review and adjust your messaging as needed, but strive for consistency, especially early on. Listen to your listeners!

5. Plan Your Content

A well-thought-out content plan ensures you’re ready to engage your audience consistently. Be comprehensive and plan well ahead. You don’t want scramble for fresh ideas – your audience is savvy and they can smell desperation.

Build a Content Calendar: Develop a schedule outlining episode topics, formats (solo, interviews, roundtables) and publication dates.

Look for SEO opportunities: Research keywords relevant to your niche to optimize episode titles and descriptions.

Plan Around Key Dates: Look at themed days/weeks/months (i.e. International Women’s Day on March 8, Small Business Month in May), relevant holidays, buyer calendars, seasonal purchasing trends, etc. that you can build content around.

Action Items:

Create a three-month content calendar with at least 10 planned episodes. Keep adding to it so you have a rolling three-month plan.
List 3-5 key topics that will likely be front of mind for your target audience in the coming months.
Include at least one guest interview or roundtable discussion each month.

6. Use an Omni-Channel Distribution Strategy

Great, now you have a podcast. Job well done, right? Not quite yet. Your audience isn’t going to come knocking at your door for it. You need to make your podcast as visible as possible across multiple platforms.

In other words, include omni-channel distribution in your podcast content strategy. The more places in which your podcast content appears, the more traffic you will drive back to your own podcast channel and even your brand itself.

Publish in Multiple Places: Share your podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube to reach diverse audience segments.
Repurpose Your Content: Transform episodes into blog posts, social media video snippets, newsletter features, and even video mash-ups to engage listeners across different channels and media. Link back to your original episode from all of them.
Establish Relationships: Guest speakers, other brands and industry publications are all opportunities for you to build long-standing relationships where they can share your podcast content in their own markets. This could be a mutually beneficial setup or as part of an arrangement you’ve established via contract. Media brands are especially valuable as they’re highly trusted sources for information.

Action Items:

Identify 3-4 platforms where you will publish your podcast.
Build a clear follow-up plan for each episodes that includes a specific number of social media posts, blog articles, email updates and video snippets – with assigned parties for every item.
List out what you can offer to others in exchange for access to their market.

Crafting a Podcast Content Strategy with Sweet Fish Media

Now you have the fundamentals to build out your very own B2B podcast content strategy that increases your chance of success in a crucial area of marketing. When executed well, your strategy will ensure your podcast resonates with your target audience and actively complements your business goals.

At Sweet Fish Media, we specialize in creating impactful media brands that elevate your podcasting efforts. With our expertise in content planning, distribution and marketing, we can help you navigate the competitive landscape and ensure your podcast stands out.

Let's talk about your podcast strategy. Book a call with our experts today.

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