090: Understanding Your Buyer’s Journey for Your Podcast
If you’ve listened to recent episodes of the podcast, you know how important it is to tie your podcast content back to your business goals. The next logical step is to understand your buyer’s journey and how your content aligns with their wants and needs.
In today’s episode, I’m explaining what the buyer’s journey is, how to align your content with where your listeners are on their buyer’s journey, and how this can lead them down a funnel to eventually becoming a client.
It’s important to know where your buyers are in their journey and to understand that, as with your business, that journey can change and evolve. When you regularly check in on how people are consuming your content, you will be able to always make sure what you’re putting out there is what your listeners want to hear.
What’s in this episode of Podcast Your Business:
[02:05] What a buyer’s journey is and how creating a graphic can help you identify where your listeners are on that journey
[06:38] How to plan episode content that aligns with your buyer’s journey
[09:00] How this path leads listeners down a funnel to consuming your content in new ways along the journey
If you’re looking for even more podcast information and inspiration, join my CLOSE FRIENDS list on instagram: http://wildhomepodcasting.com/instagram. Click on my CLOSE FRIENDS highlight to learn more.
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Episode #89: 5 Ways to Align Your Podcast Content with Your Business
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The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
090: Understanding Your Buyer’s Journey for Your Podcast
[00:00:00] Caroline Hull Last week, we talked about tying your content to your business. And then before that we talked about having business goals and when all of that ties together. And then we also think about our buyer's journey, it kind of creates this magical potion of having an aligned podcast that is going to not only share content, build authority, create a library of knowledge, all those things that I love, but also work for our business and help lead and direct people to the right places so that way they can interact with us in other ways.
[00:00:33] Ready to start a podcast for your business and share your message in a way that feels wildly authentic. Welcome to Podcast Your Business, where each week we share how to start a podcast and make sure it's working for you and your business. I'm Caroline Hull, podcast manager and consultant, and I've seen the power a podcast can have. Ready to share your voice. Let's get started.
[00:00:59] This is episode 90 of Podcast Your Business. And I can't believe I've done this many episodes. It's kind of crazy. I really love talking about podcast strategy and just have really been enjoying the topics this season. And so I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to everyone who's listening and definitely will have to do something special for Episode 100. Maybe a Q&A or something like that.
[00:01:26] Today, though, I wanted to build off of last week's episode, so if you have not listened to that episode, I highly recommend you go check it out. In that episode, we talked about ways to tie your content back to your business, and then even before that, we talked about business goals and podcasting. All of these episodes are kind of building on each other to give you a map or a framework for having a strategically aligned podcast. And so if you're new here and you're just now listening to Episode 90, I invite you to pause and go back and listen to those episodes.
[00:02:05] Today, we're going to talk specifically about the buyer's journey and how that can work with your podcast. If you don't know what your buyer's journey is, it's a really incredible tool to have. So a buyer's journey is basically the path that your buyer is on your client, your ideal client, right from the minute they find you, maybe even before they find you all the way to your most premium service. And we want to kind of think of this as a path with stops on it. What are the things that make them continue moving forward? What are the things that make them stop at the different things that you have? And it's important to understand your buyer's journey because someone who is ready to sign up for your most premium service is totally different than someone who is just joining your Facebook group.
[00:03:02] Right. So there's these these levels of awareness of not only you and your services but what they're dealing with the problems, the pain points they're experiencing. A few years ago, I actually created a graphic for myself in Canva that was a buyer's journey because I really wanted to kind of have a visual. I'm I like to see things to have them in front of me. And when I was creating content and things like that, it was really great to kind of have that in front of me to say, okay, who am I speaking to at this moment? Or Who should I be speaking to at this moment? And that's where a buyer's journey becomes really, really important. Because you need to understand how your podcast fits into this. At what stage of the journey are people listening to your podcast? And if you don't know what that is, there's some ways you can kind of figure that out. One is to just think about the content that you've been sharing so far, because you may have inadvertently been sharing content for a specific point in your buyer's journey, but also take a minute to get to know your listeners, do a survey, talk to them on social media. If you have a Facebook group, talk to them in there.
[00:04:10] Ask them where they are in the journey and that will give you kind of a really good gauge of like, okay, when people come to me they are at this point. And so that's when I should start speaking or what I should be speaking to, right? I find that podcasts tend to for businesses especially tend to fall somewhere, maybe not necessarily at the very beginning of the buyer's journey but a little bit after. I don't necessarily talk on this podcast to people who are ready to come and book monthly management or book launch. Sometimes I do, but not all the time.
[00:04:46] Where I'm really talking to people is let's say they're aware that they should have a podcast, they've thought about it or they have a podcast. And so now they're kind of at step two, which is realizing, Hey, I want to have a strategically aligned podcast in my business. How do I do that? And that's where my podcast comes in. So that typically is where I see a lot of podcasts falling into the buyer's journey is that kind of not quite at the beginning, but we're not quite into fully ready to book services, and I find that that allows for a lot of teaching and that allows for a lot of educational content which people really value.
[00:05:27] Now that doesn't mean that I'm putting my listeners in a box because I do have people who listen to my podcast who've worked with me before. I have people who listen to my podcast who are working with me now, and I have people who listen to my podcasts just because they think it's fun. So we're not necessarily putting them in a box, but what we're doing is using that to kind of inform the choices we make for our content. And so that's what a buyer's journey is and how you can incorporate it into your podcast.
[00:05:54] Hey, podcaster. If you feel like you're getting alot out of this podcast, but you want even more. I have the perfect thing for you. The WHP Insider Podcast is a private podcast for members Only, which features two episodes per month plus a monthly newsletter that takes a deeper dive into strategies and tips specifically for podcasters who are using their podcast to help grow their business. This is something that up until now has only been available for clients of Wild Home Podcasting but for a small monthly fee, you can join and be part of the club. So just head to WildHomePodcasting.com/Insider for more information and I can't wait to see you there.
[00:06:38] Again it's really important to know what content to share based on where they are. And so when you're planning your episodes and let's say you have a topic picked out, you know, thinking to yourself, okay, where does this topic come up as a pain point in the buyer's journey is not only going to help you frame the content for them, right, at that moment, but it's also going to help you decide what their next steps should be. So we talk a lot about having like one call to action and that being the main thing that you want people to do. And sometimes that call to action can change based on your sales and marketing calendar, and sometimes the content can also change based on that.
[00:07:21] And so when we're like looking at our promotional schedule and we say, okay, I'm going to be opening enrollment for my membership on this month, I kind of want the content to be around that. Now we know that we're talking to people and their buyer's journey, people who are either haven't heard of your membership, so maybe you do an episode where you talk about what are the main pain points that your membership addresses? And then you may be talking to people who are aware but not sure if they should sign up. And so then you bring in somebody from your membership to come on your podcast and talk about it. You see how that evolution is and how we're thinking about, okay where are they in their journey and how can I speak to them specifically?
[00:08:02] You really want to create a path for people to follow. And so this is important just in your business, not necessarily for podcasting, but like with your marketing, with your opt ins, everything you want to think about what the path is when they find you here. What's going to lead them to the next thing that's going to lead them to the next thing? And so knowing how your podcast is incorporated into that and knowing like which call to actions to share this week, what kind of content to share this week, all of that's going to be really important.
[00:08:31] It doesn't really make sense to be sharing an episode to someone who is at the beginning of their journey and then asking them to book a call with you as your call to action. Right. It would make more sense if they're at the beginning of the journey and they're really like they're they're getting a tease of your content. Maybe they want a little bit more to then asking them to come in to a Facebook group or to come in to a close friends list or to download this one freebie to join your email list. Right?
[00:09:00] So you really have to kind of think about how does it all work together, what is the path? And that path then leads you to having a funnel, right? So I've talked on here a lot about the podcast funnel, which is my my pyramid, where the podcast is the top and all the content flows down from it. But there's also the funnel is funneling people into your business, right? And so how do we do that? How do we get them from the podcast to our email newsletter or Facebook group, whatever it is? And then what do we share from there?
[00:09:32] And again, this all goes back to knowing that buyer's journey. The buyer's journey is really important to understand as you start developing your content for your podcast. And I think that you can kind of take a few approaches and one is saying like, okay, I'm going to start here and then I'm going to kind of work my way. I love seeing that kind of path through the content on people's podcast and then sometimes it makes sense to go back to the beginning, and sometimes it makes sense to do a series about one topic.
[00:10:04] I don't talk about launching very much on this podcast anymore. I felt like I was talking about launching too much, but I also just felt like it wasn't hitting the right people in their buyers journey for me and my business. Right? And so I did a launch series over the summer and that I feel like worked really well. It actually got really good downloads. And now I have like this series that I can refer people back to when they're thinking about starting a podcast. And so for me, like, I used to talk a lot about wanting to start a podcast. How do you know you need to start a podcast? Things to do before you start a podcast. And now I've really moved into strategy. Now that you have a podcast, how do you make sure it's aligned? What are the things we need to be doing to keep it consistent and having it work for your business?
[00:10:50] Because I realized that where I was speaking to people before wasn't necessarily putting them on the correct path to where I wanted them to go, right? And so sometimes when you take a look at your content and your buyers journey, it really can help you tweak and understand better what type of content to put out and what you want to say and what you want to convey. And let me tell you, like the buyer's journey graphic that I have, I have updated it several times. And so don't be afraid to go in and update it and change it as your business evolves. Because as you and your business and your podcast evolves, so too does your ideal client. Right? And they can change where they are. And maybe you're meeting people in a different place than you were before, because your business has evolved, and that's totally okay and that's totally normal.
[00:11:41] But I think it's really important. As you know, last week you talked about tying your content to your business. And then before that we talked about having business goals and when all of that ties together. And then we also think about our buyer's journey, it kind of creates this magical potion of having an aligned podcast that is going to not only share content, build authority, create a library of knowledge, all those things that I love, but also work for our business and help lead and direct people to the right places. So that way they can interact with us in other ways and be excited about what we're doing right, because that's the ultimate goal.
[00:12:21] So again, take the time to get to know your ideal client, take the time to get to know where they are on their journey and figure out how that is going to work with your content so you can get them on the path to your services. If you want to dive deeper into creating a buyer's journey for your podcast, or if you have any questions around what a buyer's journey for your podcast can look like, we're going to be diving deeper into this in my close friends list on Instagram and what close friends is. I don't know if you've ever noticed that green circle around people's profiles on Instagram. This is like an exclusive list on Instagram where people can only who are on your close friends can see certain stories that you've created. Right? And so I've started a close friends list on Instagram specifically for mentorship, discussions and trainings, and it's all free. And I would love for you to come join it.
[00:13:21] You can just head to my Instagram and DM me close friends and then let me know where you are in your podcast journey and I will add you to the list. And so podcast episodes come out on Mondays. The following Thursday, we're going to be doing some kind of mini training or discussion follow up on the podcast topic and dove a little bit deeper. And so this week we will be diving deeper into creating a buyer's journey, and it will be a little bit more actionable, but we'll dive into a specific topic. I'll be able to answer any questions. So it's a great place to come and connect and talk more about what we talked about today. So have a great week and I will be back next week with a new episode.
[00:14:04] Thank you for listening to Podcast Your Business. For more podcasting tips, follow us on Instagram @wildhomepodcasting if you are ready to launch, uplevel, or grow your podcast. Head to WildHomePodcasting.com to get started today.
