Using Your Podcast to Build Trust and Drive More Sales for Your Business
Are you feeling a little down about podcasting after this year? It’s been a rough season, and it makes sense if you're trying to determine if podcasting is still going to serve you and your business. That’s why I want to address this topic head on and reassure you that, not only is the future of podcasting bright, but a podcast can absolutely benefit your larger business goals — if you do it correctly!
Today, I’m sharing exactly what I mean by that, including how I use my podcast to establish authority, nurture warm leads at the top of my funnel, and ultimately drive more sales. Plus, I give you 2 of my best tips for truly optimizing your podcast and ensuring it works FOR your business, not as some standalone project. If you’re still on the fence about whether or not a podcast is right for you in 2024, you won’t want to miss this read!
The first reason why having a podcast is still a great driver of business going into 2024: Establishing authority
When it comes to building your business and establishing your authority in your niche, a podcast can be a powerful tool.
Why? The key strength of a podcast is its long-form content. Unlike short video snippets or social media posts, a podcast allows you to dive deep into your subject matter, sharing your expertise and personality over an extended period. It's not about quick glimpses but rather about nurturing the "know, like, and trust" factors with your audience.
Through a podcast, you're not just offering a glimpse of who you are and what you do; you're showcasing everything that sets you apart. This long-form content serves as a powerful building block in your marketing funnel, a critical aspect of your strategy for driving business success.
It's important to remember that a podcast isn't a shortcut to fame but rather a vehicle for building your authority. It's a place where you can take your Instagram posts or other content and multiply their impact. When someone stumbles upon your podcast, they get to hear your voice, understand your approach, and get a real sense of what you have to offer. This is where the "know, like, and trust" factors come into play.
So, the next time you're thinking about how to drive business and enhance your authority, remember that a podcast isn't just another promotional tool. It's a long-form content platform that can help you build lasting connections with your audience, foster trust, and stand out as an authority in your field.
The second reason why having a podcast is still a great driver of business going into 2024: Nurturing warm leads
The power of a podcast goes beyond just building trust and authority. It's also a unique tool for nurturing warm leads at the top of your marketing funnel.
When it comes to lead generation, we often hear about cold leads (people who've never heard from you) versus warm leads (those who already know and trust you to some extent). With a podcast, you're essentially surrounded by warm leads. Your listeners have already experienced your content, they understand your message, and they've bought into what you're offering. They're ready for that next step.
As a podcaster and business owner, your task is to figure out how to convert these warm leads into paying customers or clients. This is where the power of having a podcast as a part of your marketing funnel becomes evident. Your podcast is not just a stand-alone venture; it's a crucial step in your overall strategy.
When you're in a meeting or communicating with potential clients, for example, you can direct them to specific podcast episodes that address their questions or concerns. It's an incredible way to showcase your expertise and provide value to your prospects.
Many people, especially those looking to write books or get into public speaking, also love podcasts because they act as an audio résumé. Your podcast reflects how you would speak in person and in client meetings, making it a powerful tool for demonstrating your expertise and personality.
All that’s to say, your podcast is not just about broadcasting your knowledge. It's about building warm leads, nurturing a loyal audience, and showcasing your expertise. It's an essential part of your strategy for driving business growth and fostering connections with your audience.
How your podcast should function as an essential component of your sales, promotions, and launches
Now, if you want to harness the full potential of your podcast for business growth, there's a crucial step you can't afford to overlook. Your podcast should be seamlessly integrated into your sales and promotions schedule. This might sound like a no-brainer, but it's surprisingly often neglected.
It's common to treat your podcast as a separate entity from your business, but the reality is that they go hand in hand. To leverage your podcast for business success, you must incorporate it into your sales strategy, promotions, and product launches.
One way to achieve this is by creating content that aligns with your offers and ensuring that your podcast episodes discuss and support these promotions. Your podcast should complement all your business offerings, enhancing your overall sales strategy.
In essence, your podcast is not just about sharing information; it's a powerful tool to boost your business's sales and promotions, ultimately driving growth and success. Don't miss out on this valuable opportunity to make your podcast work for your business.
Using your podcast as your main piece of content on every platform
Let's talk about another strategy to optimize your podcast for business growth. It's all about making your podcast the centerpiece of your content strategy.
Here's the deal: Your podcast episode is a goldmine of valuable content. But its potential doesn't stop at the audio format. If you're not repurposing your podcast episodes to create content for other platforms, you're missing out, and it's a time-wasting practice we should leave behind.
The key to unlocking your podcast's full potential is to use it as your primary content source. Every week, you can take the insights, ideas, and expertise from your podcast episode and transform them into content that can be shared across various channels.
When you start incorporating your podcast into your overall content strategy and sales promotions schedule, you'll witness a significant difference in how your podcast functions for your business. Not only will it enhance your podcast's reach, but it will also change the way you show up in your podcast and business.
What's powerful about this approach is that you're not just using your podcast to sell; you're creating valuable marketing content derived from your podcast episodes. You're guiding your audience from these valuable insights to your podcast and, from there, to your business.
The result? A seamless, integrated approach that drives engagement, builds trust, and increases business growth. It's like hitting the sweet spot in your podcasting journey. So, if you're looking to maximize your podcast's impact, consider these two strategies: integrating it into your sales and promotion schedule and using it as your primary content source.
Podcasting is a potent driver of business growth, but it's crucial to understand that it's a long-term endeavor. Results won't materialize overnight, so patience and consistency are key. If you've been contemplating starting a podcast, there's no better time than now, as we head into the next year.
By applying the strategies discussed here and committing to your goals, you can make a significant impact on your business. Take action, stay the course, and let your podcast be a driving force for your business.
It's never too late to reinvigorate your podcast, refocus your strategy, and continue making the impact you set out to achieve. With persistence and adaptability, your podcast can thrive and help you reach your goals.
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The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
148: Using Your Podcast to Build Trust and Drive More Sales for Your Business
[00:00:00] Caroline Hull: Are you thinking about starting a podcast? Or maybe you want to rethink how your podcast supports your business goals. I have some good news for you. Podcasting is still such a powerful driver for your business. And today I'm going to be sharing all the details on why and how you can maximize your podcast to help grow your business for the rest of 2023 and into 2024. [00:00:23][23.5]
[00:00:29] Caroline Hull: Hi there and welcome to Share, Strategize and Shine. I'm your host, Caroline Hall, a podcast strategist and CEO of Wild Home Podcasting. I've built my entire career through podcasts by sharing my experience using strategic systems and shining a light on the power of podcasting. If you are looking to cultivate leads for your membership group, program or consulting services, I'm here to help you create a holistic and integrative podcast strategy that will let your business thrive. Let's dive in. [00:01:01][32.1]
[00:01:01] Caroline Hull: Welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for being here and listening to Share, Strategize and Shine. I am so excited to talk about this today because I feel like there's been a lot of talk about change in the industry and I know some of that can feel really negative. So today we're going to make it all positive about podcasting. And yeah, I have been totally embracing fall weather. I feel like I've said that on like 5 million podcast episodes. But y'all, I'm from Texas, so I can see y'all, y'all. I love Fall so much. The leaves are changing. I actually did some baking last weekend. We have been so busy. We're in this crazy season of life where our kids are getting older, they're in more activities and the last few weekends, I think for like two months we have had something every weekend solid and I do not thrive in that chaos environment. I start to feel really burned out. And so we actually last weekend had an entire weekend with nothing to do. And I was like, you know, I'm going to bake, I'm going to cook. We're going to like watch movies and watch football and hang out. It was so great and just totally like I read an entire book, I think I read two books. It just really rejuvenated me and made me feel so good to dive into this week and beyond, getting ready for, you know, some busy months coming up. And so I highly recommend if you're feeling that as the seasons are changing and we're getting into the holiday season, like if you can take a minute, like it's so, so worth it. [00:02:49][107.6]
[00:02:49] Caroline Hull: And you know, it's kind of relates to the problem that we solved this week. I don't know if you've noticed, but I have ramped up my content creation to the max. Now. I had a very specific reason for doing this, and this is because we are on a growth, what would I call this, like a. We're really pushing for growth right now. My business, Marathon run, run and growth run, I don't know. So we're trying to grow my email list, increase visibility, grow my podcast, all of the things. And so we have been, you know, really creating content. I mean, I say we I have been creating content everywhere. My team helps me get some of it out, but I'm the one who has to sit and record it, right? So I started thinking about a problem that we solved, and I really felt like it was kind of amazing how not stress about content creation I was feeling. And so I wanted to share why that is. And maybe this will help you as you're thinking about this. One of the main things is because I am releasing two podcast episodes a week right now. This is an experiment we're trying. I don't know if we're going to keep doing it. We'll see. But it's given me a ton of content to pull from. And so pretty much my entire week of content is planned out just from that. And that has been amazing. And I have like built in promotions and things like that. So it's really easy for me, like sell and also share my content at the same time. What's so great about that is having that baseline of content is that anything I create on top of that is gravy. And so any extra reels I create or a post really takes no time at all. And I guess it's the other part of it is just keeping them everything really simple. Like I'm not doing anything super fancy or complicated. It's all happening here in my office or whatever. And then, you know, cross posting, I am cross posting a lot. So we've been making video clips from the episodes, and I'm putting those on YouTube and and putting those on LinkedIn, Tik Tok on LinkedIn and posting some graphics. But I'm never like individually posting on these places. It's all happening all at once. Or I wake up in the morning and post on Tik Tok and YouTube at the same time. It takes me 2 seconds. So I really have created a system where I'm not spending a ton of time creating this content and posting the content. And what's crazy about it is we're seeing so much momentum because of it. And so really I would say how to solve the problem is coming up with a very easy system for myself and not putting pressure on myself. So because I already have my podcast content planned, if I don't get anything else posted that day, I don't stress too much about it and it's really great. And so I've been able to create more being able to show it more. And I'm not stressed about it. So that's the problem myself this week. [00:05:40][171.5]
[00:05:40] Caroline Hull: Okay, So let's talk about podcasting in 2023 and going into 2024, I realize we're towards the end of the year here, but I have seen an influx of people who are interested in launching a podcast for Q1. And so I think this is an important conversation to have about how podcasting is still a really great driver for business. And there's definitely a lot more to this than what I'm going to say. And this is kind of surface level of like why you should still have a podcast. But I really want to drive home just how amazing podcasts are. So like there's your thesis been teaching my daughter how to write papers. So there is your thesis. Let me let me dive in. Okay. So yes, the podcast industry has changed and that was inevitable, right? Like changed to an industry that is relatively young is inevitable and podcasting had to grow up and it really has grown up over the last couple of years. I really think the influx of people podcasting during the pandemic has really influenced this glow up that podcasting has had. Right. And, you know, honestly, it's really something that I didn't even imagine years ago, that this is what the podcast industry was going to look like. What's shocking to me is that even though we've had this glow up of podcasting and the podcast industry has changed, I'm going to talk about that a little bit. You know, I've heard a lot of business owners say they don't want to podcast anymore or they aren't sure if they should start one because they don't know if it's going to be worth it and it can definitely be worth it. But there are some things you have to put into place. But let's start with why it's still such a great business driver right now. [00:07:28][108.3]
[00:07:29] Caroline Hull: The first thing is, is that your podcast is long form content. This is my favorite thing about podcasting, and I think there's similar there's kind of a similar philosophy around like YouTube videos, but, you know, posting on a reel of me, like looking at the camera, smiling with music is not the same thing as me sitting down and recording an episode. You don't get a feel for, you know, who I am and what I do, right? But you do from a podcast. It really is that piece of my business that builds the know like and trust. This is the piece that showcases me right and showcases everything that I do. And this is where that funnel comes in. This is where, you know, we think about, okay, this is the thing that's building that know like and trust that it needs to be part of my funnel. And that's really where it becomes so, so valuable. I know for me, shifting how I think about my podcast really changes how I approach it and how I approach the marketing for my podcast. And so like that is an important piece that I want you to remember when you're thinking about how it's driving business, right, is by making sure that you are treating it as a piece of your funnel and you're not treating it as a thing that's going to make your you famous. Like there's a big difference there, right? And so that really is one of the things that I keep coming back to is no matter what, this is the place where I get to sit down and take whatever I've posted on Instagram or whatever and multiply it right. And so if somebody finds me and they want to hear me who I am, what I do, how I do it, this is the way to do it is to come and listen to my podcast. And I will say too, I am notorious for like finding somebody online and seeing if they have a podcast simply because I want to hear how they work and all the things. And if there's anybody that I'm interested in working in and they have a podcast, you know, I'm going to go listen, right? So it really is an important piece of, of building up my authority, but not just to new people. [00:09:42][133.4]
[00:09:42] Caroline Hull: And that brings me to my next point, and that is that with a podcast, you get warm leads. We talk about leads a lot when we're talking about like list building and things like that, you know, and you may have heard the cold versus warm leads thing. Cold leads are ones that have never heard from you before. So like you're not going to sit down and sell them your highest package usually, Right. Warm leads are ones who have experienced you. They they understand what you're about. They have already bought into some of what you have going on and they're ready for that next piece. And I really, truly feel and I've had a couple of guests on who also agreed with me that a podcast is just brimming with warm leads. And so your job, like as somebody who has a podcast and a business, is to figure out how you're going to get those warm leads to your business. And again, that just goes back to what I said previously about how it needs to be part of your funnel. But I do think that's what makes podcast so special? Because we are building that know like and trust because we are trying to get people to come back week after week after week. Now they've become warm, a warm audience, right? I mentioned that this is great for showcasing what you do and how you do it. If you've ever been in one of my trainings or if you're in my membership, I talk a lot about how it's just like Library of Knowledge. And one of the side benefits of having a podcast is whenever I'm in a meeting with somebody or I'm emailing back and forth with a potential client and they have questions, I can literally send them podcast episodes to listen to. And nine times out of ten, once they listen to that podcast episode, they're hooked. You know, especially because I have positioned my content to meet my listeners where they're at to help my ideal client with the stuff that they're struggling with, right? And so it really is this amazing way to showcase not only what I know, but like what I've been talking about for a while. A lot of people who have books they want to write or wanted to get into speaking. This is why they love podcasts, because it really does serve as a source like resumé. This audio resumé of of everything you've done and how you would speak in person and how you speak when you're in a client meeting. So it's important to make sure that all of that kind of matches, you know, how I show up on this podcast is how I show up pretty much everywhere, unless I'm having a bad day or whatever. But this is this is me. This is who I am. This is how I talk about podcasting all the time. And so it really does help. You know, tying it all together, build that know like and trust and create warm leads for my business. [00:12:30][167.9]
[00:12:30] Caroline Hull: One thing that is interesting that I've been thinking about a lot is how we when we're growing our podcast and we're focusing on that, you know, it does require a strategy for how we're going to grow it. Posting an episode and then sharing it once on social media is not a growth strategy for your podcast. But what's so fascinating is all the growth strategies that I use for my podcast helped me grow my business to a like man is an amazing thing to think about because my time is well spent doing both. But I don't have to do both. I just have to grow my audience, right? And that's going to help convert people and bring me into their world. I've been working really hard on my visibility and I've been talking to my membership a lot about this and how you've got to put yourself in front of potential audiences. Yes, I'm going to mention my podcast, but a byproduct of growing my podcast is that my business is going to grow along with it, and they really do grow together. As long as you are thinking about your content strategically, right? So that is something to think about. I hear people struggle with the fact that they have to work on growing their podcast and you know, that is just the nature of the podcast industry now. But keep in mind that anything you are doing to grow your podcast audience, to keep them engaged, is going to help grow your business as well. [00:13:59][88.5]
[00:13:59] Caroline Hull: Are your podcast episodes set up to help you sell your membership group programs and consulting services? And I'm not talking about selling it in a sleazy way. I'm talking about creating episodes that are engaging. Create connection between you and your listeners and highlight your expertise to start creating episodes for sales. Get my free guide by heading to WildHomePodcasting.com/sales. [00:14:22][22.9]
[00:14:22] Caroline Hull: The cool thing about podcasting is that the future is so, so bright. What's that? Isn't there a song or something in the future so bright you've got to wear shades. And I feel like that goes very well with the name of the podcast Share, Strategize and Shine. And we use a lot of like shine kind of sun imagery. I even rebranded Wild Home Podcasting. One of our logo variations has a sun. I think there's a sun behind the mountains in our main logo variation. I just love that. I love bringing in that shine into things because I think it's so important that that's what we want. And you know, tangent aside, but the future of podcasting is really, really bright. You know, the number of listeners is growing constantly for podcasts across the board. And so that's a lot of potential for us, right? As business owners, it really does come down to getting in front of the right audience and getting in front of the right people and then all goes back to strategy and and things that you can need to work on behind the scenes and things that you're constantly reevaluating and working on. But it's all easy and it can be done with just a little bit of effort, right? So to maximize your podcast, so let's say you're either thinking about launching or you already have a podcast. You're listening to this episode and you're like, Okay, but I want to make sure that I am from the start, from this moment forward, maximizing my podcast and how I use it. And there's a few things I really, really want you to think about. [00:15:58][96.3]
[00:15:58] Caroline Hull: One is it needs to be wrapped up in part of your sales and promotions schedule. Like hard stop. I could finish here, but I'm not going to. That is such an important piece of making your podcast work for your business, and it is one of the most overlooked things, ironically enough, I think because we have that as a podcast as being a separate thing and we always put it over here rightly, my business is over here and then I have this podcast, right? But what we need to do is remember that you cannot have one without the other. And if you're not using your podcast in your sales, promotions and launches, you're missing a huge opportunity. You know, and how we use it is by building content around those offers, right? Making sure that we're talking about them, making sure that we have offers that go with our podcast or vice versa. I mean, really, your podcast should support all your offers. And and then having a plan in place to do that. And if you need help with that, I do have a toolkit that I created. It was called the Podcasting for Black Friday Toolkit, and you can just go to WildHomePodcasting.com/toolkit. But I designed this. You can use it any time of year for any sales promotion or launch, but I designed this to help you do exactly this thing, to start thinking about your podcast as a tool that's going to help you sell more of your things and especially during your sales and promotions and launches. [00:17:29][90.9]
[00:17:29] Caroline Hull: The other really big thing, and I feel like I say this way more than I should, but we're going to keep talking about it until I start seeing everybody do it. But you need to use your podcast as your main piece of content. If you are not utilizing your podcast episode every week and then taking that and using it to create content that goes everywhere else, you are missing out and you are wasting time. Again, we want everything to work together. We want it to build that know like and trust and be a funnel. But it can't do that when it's over here by itself. If we start incorporating it into our sales and promotion schedule, using it as our main piece of content, every week, you're going to see a difference in how your podcast functions for your business. And you know, what's so powerful about that is it's going to make you show up differently in your podcast and in your business. I mean, it's such a like lightbulb game changer reframing. It changes everything when you are able to hit the sweet spot where you're not only selling on your podcast, but you're creating amazing marketing content from your podcast episode and directing people to your episode, and then from there to your business. I mean, it's just I'm doing like Chef's kiss. That's, that's what we want, right? So if I were to tell you anything, like if you're wanting to maximize your podcast, those are the two places I would start. And if you're listening and you're like, I don't know how to do this by myself, we have a lot of resources. I suggest joining the membership are like the tool kit I mentioned to get you started on that journey, and so don't ever feel like you have to go it alone. We definitely have things that can help you do that. [00:19:20][111.2]
[00:19:21] Caroline Hull: And then the other piece that I really want you to remember is that podcasting is a long game. This is not something that, you know, is going to serve you in a very short amount of time. This is something that we're building to last a long time to support our business for a long time. Right. And it really ties into everything I've talked about because none of these things usually happen overnight. Right. A lot of these things take time to see the fruits of all the things that you've built. But when you can have it all work cohesively together, you will start to see that. And it's important to remember that everybody grows at their own rate and everyone grows based on what audiences they're in front of and that kind of thing. And so you can't give up after a month. You can't give up after 20 episodes. You've got to give it time. And remember that even though it is a long game, why are you in it for the long haul and what are your ultimate goals? And just hold on to that and make sure that you're constantly reevaluating and measuring and deciding and all of those things. [00:20:26][65.1]
[00:20:26] Caroline Hull: And I want to leave you with this. If you are thinking about a podcast, I talked to so many people who have been thinking about a podcast for two years or, you know, they've had an idea forever, or they tried to start a podcast and didn't get anywhere. Like if you have a podcast idea, don't sit on it. Now is the time leading into next year. Like this is the time to start a podcast and start thinking about it strategically and if you can do. If you can say yes and dive in and apply some of these things that I've talked about, you're going to see your podcast really help make an impact for your business and be an amazing business driver because that's what we all want. And I can personally attest to this because I have booked clients directly from the podcast. I mean, they are clients that I worked with with big packages who still listen to the podcast and I will get messages from them to be like, Oh, I heard this episode was so great. You know, it has worked so well for my business and it can work for yours too. You just have to implement a strategy. All right. That's all I have for today. I'm going to leave you with that. And if you want to dive into, like I said, some more of those resources, be sure to go check out that toolkit and check out the membership. It just a side note, if you join the membership, you will get the toolkit. So you can either go buy the tool kit as a standalone or you can join the membership and get it plus tons of other masterclasses. And all of those masterclasses are designed to help you do this very thing, which is use your podcast to drive business. So I will be back soon with another episode and I hope you have an amazing week and happy podcasting. [00:22:09][102.7]
[00:22:09] Caroline Hull: Thank you for listening to Share, Strategize and Shine to give your own podcast some shine. Download my Free Podcast Guide to creating episodes for sales by heading to the link in the show notes. Be sure to leave a review and connect with me on Instagram for more podcast strategy insights. Until next time.
