Starting a B2B Podcast: 4 Tips You Must Know

August 20, 2021

Making a successful move cross-country takes planning and dedication. It's not for the faint of heart. (Or the unorganized.)

The same goes for starting a B2B podcast. You've got to strategize and be committed to the process in order to be successful.

And, like moving, it helps to have a tip or two from someone who's done it.

Casted CEO and former host of Marketer + Machine, Lindsay Tjepkema, gave B2B Growth listeners some tips on starting a B2B podcast. We take a close look at those insights in addition to answering a few more questions about launching a B2B podcast.

Here's what we're covering:

Dig in!

What is a B2B Podcast?

A B2B podcast is a show produced by a business-to-business company with the goal of building relationships with ideal customers. Other outcomes of a B2B podcast are greater brand awareness, audience growth, and thought leadership.

A business starts a B2B podcast to reach a larger, more engaged audience. In fact, 80% of podcast listeners listen to all or most of each episode. That means a podcaster can keep most of their audience's attention for 10, 20, even 50 minutes or more.

That's huge in the highly distracted world we live in. 🐿

But a larger audience isn't even the most important effect of a B2B podcast. It's the relationships.

The potential relationships are what Lindsay points out as one of the things B2B podcasters should prioritize.

4 Tips You Must Know Before You Start a B2B Podcast

You're on the right track if you're a B2B marketer starting a podcast. It will benefit your business more than you might expect.

However, make sure you study these four B2B podcasting tips before beginning.

1. Prioritize the Relationships

Lindsay emphasizes the value in the community you build with a podcast. Trusting relationships are forged because the show benefits you and your guests.

See, that's how content-based networking works. You build relationships with your ideal customers by...

Inviting your ideal buyer to be a guest on your show.
Making the content all about their expertise.
Shining the spotlight on them.
Asking thought-provoking questions that make the guest feel like a rockstar.
Building a relationship with the guest by creating killer content from their interview.
Continuing to engage the guest post-interview (send them the episode, links to other content that features them, engage with their posts on LinkedIn, etc.).
Nurturing the relationship — it might turn into something in the future!

And trust us -- it does turn into something. It's how Sweet Fish has driven over $4m in revenue with our flagship podcast, B2B Growth.

2. Use an Integrated Strategy

The next tip Lindsay wants new podcasters to understand is the importance of an integrated strategy.

You could have your podcast in one corner, your blog in another, and your videos in another. But it wouldn't be nearly as effective as unifying them.

"Anyone who's thinking about doing a podcast has to think about the whole picture."

Lindsay Tjepkema, CEO, Casted

Simply put, if you capture the video of your podcast interviews, there's a ton of content you can get out of it. Here are just a few examples:

Blog post
Full-length YouTube video
Micro videos
LinkedIn post
LinkedIn carousel
Instagram post
Tweet
Email
Quote graphics

When you take a step back before launching your B2B podcast, it's easier to plan how you can get the most valuable content out of one interview.

Wanna up your organic search? Plan your interviews around keywords to make it easier to write blog posts after.

Do you have an audience on YouTube? Do you want one? Then you should probably get video footage.

Are you trying to build up your LinkedIn influence? Turn your interviews into helpful written posts or carousels (Documents).

View your B2B podcast as the pillar content source for a ton of other valuable material.

3. It Takes A Lot of Work

This isn't to scare you away from starting a B2B podcast -- it's a truth that many new podcasters overlook.

They get four or five episodes deep and realize producing a quality podcast takes a lot of time. Scheduling guests, planning topics, editing, promotion -- it all adds up pretty quickly.

Lindsay reassures us that it's all worth it. But, you've got to be realistic about how much you can take on.

If intimate relationships with your ideal customers and audience growth are priorities to you, the time and effort is absolutely justified. Consider partnering with a podcast production agency to save time and headaches.

[READ: Hire the best podcast production/editing agencies for your needs. Here are 21 of them compared w/ prices.]

4. Make it Unique

The last tip that Lindsay leaves us with is to make your B2B podcast unique.

Think about what makes your show different. Maybe your host has a big personality. Maybe you have special segments throughout.

Set your show apart from other podcasts in your space. It'll make you more memorable and help you grow a dedicated audience.

Now that you have more insight from someone who's done it, you're ready to start planning your own B2B podcast.

How Do I Start a B2B Podcast?

To start a B2B podcast, you need to...

Set Clear Goals
Properly Brand Your Podcast
Interview Your Ideal Customers
Repurpose & Distribute the Content
Measure the ROI

Of course, there's more to these steps. We do an overview in this post, but if you want more details, check out The B2B Podcasting Course (it's free).

Set Clear Goals

First up: goals.

We recommend using the SMART goals framework for this. You know:

Specific
Measureable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-bound

Also, think about how a podcast supports your marketing objectives.

Do you want to...

Build relationships with your ideal customers?
Grow your audience?
Drive demand for your product/service?
Become a thought leader?

You probably want to achieve a mixture of those objectives. Just make sure you have realistic KPIs and timeframes for each thing you want to achieve with your podcast.

💡 Keep tip #2 in mind as you set your goals. Create an integrated approach for the best results.

Properly Brand Your Podcast

Your show's branding will depend heavily on your audience. Who's your audience?

Probably people working in the industry you serve.

So, when you think about the branding of your B2B podcast, consider your audience goals. Will they be interested in a show named after your company? Or, will they want to listen to a podcast that focuses on their industry and challenges?

And when you ask your ideal customer to be interviewed on your show, will they want to be on something named after your company? Or, will they want to be on a podcast named after their specialty?

In short, brand your show after your ideal customer. Otherwise, why should they care?

💡 Keep tip #1 in mind as you brand your podcast. Relationships drive revenue.

Interview Your Ideal Customers

In case you haven't heard that enough from us: Interview people you want to do business with.

Your podcast is the perfect platform to create meaningful relationships with potential customers. It's this strategy that generates the most ROI for your show too.

Repurpose & Distribute the Content

In addition to syndicating across all major podcast directories, you should also distribute to other channels.

We discussed an integrated strategy in tip #2. This is essential for your podcast's marketing plan and its overall success.

So, chop those interviews up into micro videos, LinkedIn posts, blog posts, and emails.

Measure the ROI

Keep track of how many guests become customers. This is your #1 metric if you start a B2B podcast.

All it takes is adding up the revenue you've generated from guests turning into customers and subtracting the cost of your podcast.

B2B Podcasting for the Win

You don't have to be a podcasting wizard to start a podcast for your business. You do, however, need to remember a few things:

Prioritize the relationships you make through your show.
Use an integrated strategy.
Know that it takes time and dedication to see results.
Use your uniqueness to your advantage.

For more information on starting a B2B podcast, check out this comprehensive guide or our podcasting course.