092: Is Your Podcast Bringing in Leads?
So, you have your podcast up and running, your episodes are in alignment with your business, and you know the goal of your podcast. But how do you know if all that strategy is actually paying off for you?
It’s time to start gathering data, asking questions from your leads and clients, and tracking intangibles, so you can see your podcast strategy in action!
In today’s episode, I’m sharing some easy ways to find out if your listeners are taking the next step from your podcast—whether it’s joining your Facebook group or downloading a freebie—to interact with your business, and ultimately, to become a promising lead. I’m also talking about some of my favorite tools for tracking these intangibles and how you can use this information to inform the growth of your podcast and your business.
What’s in this episode of Podcast Your Business:
[01:34] The importance of identifying and understanding the goal of your podcast
[04:07] Simple and effective ways to find out if people listening to your podcast and interacting with your business
[09:35] Why refining my podcast content and calls-to-action has helped my cut down on sales calls while still booking more clients
[13:00] Tools for tracking if leads are coming from your podcast, and what to do with the information that you gather
If you’re looking for even more podcast information and inspiration, join my CLOSE FRIENDS list on instagram. Click on my CLOSE FRIENDS highlight to learn more.
Links:
Episode #90: Understanding Your Buyer’s Journey for Your Podcast
Episode #59: Podcast Goals and Metrics
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The Transcript for Podcast Your Business:
092: Is Your Podcast Bringing in Leads?
[00:00:00] Caroline Hull It kind of started with overhauling podcast content and looking at my own strategy and saying, Okay, where do I need to be directing people? Am I being smart about my call to actions? Basically everything that I preach and like applying it. And wouldn't you know, this month we have had two clients sign on without having to sit down and do a strategy call. And both of them both of them said that they had listened to my podcast. And that is a huge, huge measurement that the podcast is doing what I need it to do.
[00:00:38] 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.
[00:01:04] We've talked a lot about the strategy behind setting up your podcast, so that way it works for your business. But one of the most frustrating things about having a podcast for your business and having it be one of the main things to bring in leads and that kind of thing is actually tracking leads. And so today I want to talk about and hopefully answer the question, is my podcast bringing in leads? But we have to start at the beginning. So we really need to talk about and reiterate, because I've talked about it a million times in this podcast, what is the ultimate goal of my podcast or what should the ultimate goal of your podcast be? It's a little different for businesses who are using their podcast as a huge piece of their marketing, as a place to build authority, as a place to drive leads and that kind of thing, than it is, say, a murder mystery podcast or a podcast for kids that tells stories like there is a very different goal.
[00:02:12] And when we start podcasting as business owners, a lot of times we get caught up in kind of the mainstream ideas about podcasting and what our goal should be. And you all know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about downloads. And so one of the first things that we have to do, and I've talked about this so many times, will link a couple of episodes where we talk about this in a little bit more depth. But one of the first things you have to do is kind of reframe how you look at downloads and so know that like, okay, the ultimate goal of my podcast, because I'm a business owner and I'm spending all this time on these episodes, on this content, the ultimate goal is to have people listen to the episodes and click the link, join the email list, grab the freebie, join the Facebook group. So that way I can continue to nurture them. So that way they can become clients. And even more so. You can also set the goal that somebody's going to listen to your podcast and they're going to book with you. They're going to sign up for your package. They're going to fill out the contract. And if you're really lucky, you won't have to have a sales call because your podcast has done a lot of the talking for you and we'll talk a little bit more about that.
[00:03:27] So as we start diving into this, I really just want you to shift your mindset. Go back to that reframing that I always talk about and make sure that you understand what the ultimate goal of your podcast should be. As we dive into basically tracking how we're bringing in leads and what that looks like, we're going to be talking about a little bit more technical things today, less strategy. So I may be talking about tools that I use or tools that I want to use and that kind of thing. So this is really going to be like a taking action kind of episode.
[00:04:07] And so when we talk about how do we know if people are listening besides download numbers? Okay, so what do I mean by that? Obviously, if we have download numbers, we know that people are listening, but how do we know that they're listening and then interacting with my business? Right. And so we have to set up a way to get that information, to find out what that is. And a couple of those are really simple and I think really overlooked. In fact, recently I was working on some of my own opt in forms and I was like, Why do I not ask if they listen to my podcast? That's super annoying that I haven't been doing that. So my first thing here is feedback forms or your inquiry forms, right? So any time somebody comes to your website and you're asking them, okay, where did you hear about us? Make sure you include your podcast. Step number one, make sure that you are actually asking people. And that's kind of the key here is we're not going to know unless we actually ask. There's not a lot of concrete ways to know now. We are going to talk about some concrete things you can try, but it's hard to know. So if you have a Facebook group and you're directing people to the Facebook group from your podcast, ask every once in a while be like, How many of you listen to the podcast episode this week? Find out if that's how people are coming to you or how they're interacting with you, and you'd be surprised.
[00:05:34] Honestly, I am constantly surprised by the people who find me simply because of my podcast, because, you know, it is a whole ecosystem that's all connected. But there are people who are just podcast listeners and not necessarily Instagram people, and there are people who are just on Instagram and don't necessarily listen to podcasts. Like, it's this whole thing. But we kind of forget that because we're busy trying to connect it. All right. So I always ask. I also ask in calls and emails. So if I am speaking with somebody who's interested in working with me, I'm going to ask like, Hey, where'd you hear about me? Or or did you hear about me? What's interesting, though, that I have really found, especially in sales calls or sales emails, is nine times out of ten they'll tell me, they will say, I've been listening to your podcast and you said this or I've been listening to your podcast and you said that, or I'll have a strategy call with somebody and I'll be talking about that something with them. And they're like, Oh yeah. Like in your podcast episode. And I'm like, Exactly. Let's expand on that. It's kind of amazing because, you know, this idea that your podcast is supposed to serve as a library of knowledge, I like to call it. It's like a place where you can send people so they can see everything that you know and hear you and get to know you and how you work. But it's really incredible when it works and you book clients because of it or you you have somebody like regurgitate back to you what you said in a podcast episode because they listened and really took it to heart. And that's kind of the most amazing thing ever.
[00:07:06] And so I want to tell a little story, I said I would talk about this. One of the things that I have been really trying to do with my podcast, obviously, is have super focused content that deals a lot more with podcast strategy and a little bit further up on my buyer's journey.
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[00:08:09] So a couple of weeks ago I talked about the buyer's journey in an episode and how important it was to know where your listeners are in your buyer's journey. And I mentioned that I had been kind of speaking for a long time and I almost have 100 episodes. So for a while I'd say about 50 of those. I was kind of speaking more towards the beginning of my buyer's journey and not so much in the middle. And I decided to kind of shift that because my goal. Right. So what is the ultimate goal of my podcast is to bring in new clients for my business. And so I realized that we really needed to shift the content and kind of how we approach the podcast. So that was one of the big things we did recently when I rebranded the podcast. And then the other thing too is we've made our sign on process a lot easier. There's less that I have to do. I used Dubsado. I know a lot of people use that or honey book, so I used Dubsado and I had a really sweet friend of my name, Kendra. She's amazing. I'm going to link to her in the show notes. She helped me overhaul all of my Dubsado proposals and everything. So basically what we wanted to have happen was somebody to come and be able to sign up and sign on and just roll right into working with us, make it super easy, right? But what I realized in that process was I wanted all of it to work together. And the ultimate goal for me was that I wouldn't have to have sales calls as much. And I know some people love sales calls. They're not my favorite thing. I do like them a lot. Don't get me wrong, I do love hopping on calls and meeting people, but my time is so limited because I homeschool my kids and you know, I have these short little stacks of time that I work during the day. It's becoming quite the challenge, actually. Lately my kids are in a lot of activities and so it's just really hard for me to do a bunch of sales calls. As I say that this week on my calendar, I literally have like three days where I have two calls. So it's kind of nuts this week doing some strategy calls and some podcast interviews. I'm going to make it work. But generally like week to week, it's it's just not good for me. It's really hard on me. I'm an INFJ, I get really tired after calls and podcast recordings. So anyways, that was a lot of information. The point is, is that we wanted to make the process from podcast episode to signing on a lot smoother, a lot easier, and hopefully without a sales call. This has been something that I have been working on and has been in process for a while. You know, it kind of started with overhauling podcast content and looking at my own strategy and saying, okay, where do I need to be directing people? Am I being smart about my call to actions? Basically everything that I preach and like applying it and wouldn't you know, this month we have had two clients sign on without having to sit down and do a strategy call. And both of them. Both of them. Said that they had listened to my podcast, and that is a huge, huge measurement that the podcast is doing what I need it to do. This is incorporating the strategy. This is incorporating content. This is incorporating, you know, knowing exactly where I want to send people and what I tell them to do after the episodes. This is like everything coming together and working in the way that it should. And so I wanted to share that with you because it can be done. Sometimes it feels like it can't be done or it's not working the way that you want because you're not getting 10 million leads every day, specifically from your podcast. But I wanted to share that real story because it really does work. And sometimes when you're recording these episodes and you're like, Is anybody listening? Just know that they are. And the thing is, is it may take them 20 to 30 episodes, maybe even 50, maybe even 100 before they decide to work with you. But what you've done in all of those episodes is build that trust, that authority, and shared who you are and what's important to you. And that's what's going to attract your ideal client, right? And that's what's going to make them take the next step. So it is really important to then ask and make sure that you are getting that information from people who you're talking to. Do they listen to the podcast? Because that's really going to help validate what you're doing, and it's also going to help you get some insight into what resonated with them. Right.
[00:12:49] So how can we track this in like more tangible ways? Well, obviously, you know, when you have people join like a Facebook group, you can have them fill out a questionnaire from in there or anything like that. But if you're using like opt ins or join my email list and you're wanting to know, okay, are these people coming specifically from my podcast? One of the best things you can do is to create special links for those opt ins. So whatever those opt ins are, whether it's like sending them to a sales page or having them join your email list directly, see if you can create a link just for that. Pro Tip. This is also a really good idea for when you're on other podcasts to create special links for those podcasts so you can track who came from that podcast as well. This is all really fun information to have and we've done this a couple of ways. If you have WordPress or Squarespace, you know Squarespace has a way that you can do it right in Squarespace and then WordPress, there are plug ins, you can add, you can use bit.ly or bit.ly links as well. We've done those before to know who was clicking through to show notes or who was downloading transcripts, that kind of thing. So those are all really great ways to do it. And I think to, you know, being really intentional about your call to actions, making sure that they're on point, you know, and making sure that it's something that they are going to want to do. And nine times out of ten, I find that asking people on your podcast to book a call isn't necessarily going to work as much as like join a Facebook group or come to this thing or get this thing. You know, I tend to direct people to my Instagram because I'm doing a lot over there and then I may also throw in ads for some offers that I have, but I've really found that kind of deepening that connection from podcast to Instagram seems to be the right kind of gel for me that that helps people decide, okay, we're going to work with them because there's kind of different content, right? On my podcast and my Instagram, it's all connected, of course, but it's a little bit different. And so that's that's what I do. I think just being really mindful about your call to actions and making sure that it's something that's going to add value, and then it makes sense for them because again, depending on where they are in your buyer's journey. And again, I talked about this in that episode, you really need to have a call to action that's going to make sure that it serves them at that stage in the buyer's journey.
[00:15:24] Okay, so I've mentioned how this works, ways to track it, but what do you do with all of this information? So one of the things I am starting with myself and my clients is to keep a spreadsheet and keep track of these mentions and places where people found you. And you can incorporate this. You know, you can also include like Instagram, TikTok, whatever. But this is going to help inform the type of content you're sharing. And if you need to be spending your time in other places, I think that's a really key piece of information as well. But what I really love to do, too, with this is, you know, when people mention specific episodes, write that down. If they mention an episode to me that means it was really special. It really resonated and I can build off of that. I can create more content around that idea. I can create more podcast episodes. I can break it down further. There's so much you can do with that. And so keeping track of that is a really, really good idea. I used to just keep like a notes app in my phone or on my computer. But now that I fall in love with spreadsheets, I'm moving into more of a spreadsheet zone with this tracking. I call it like intangibles or something. It's not like data that you can necessarily count, but it's like when somebody leaves you a good review or positive feedback, you know how you keep track of that so you can share it later. This is kind of the same thing. We want to keep track of this so we can share it later, so we can refer back to it, and so we can use it as validation that all of our hard work is paying off.
[00:17:06] So that's the episode on, is my podcast Bringing In Leads? So key takeaways here, making sure we know what the ultimate goal of your podcast is and focusing on that. And then also making sure that we're actually asking people if they listen to the podcast, just going out there and asking and finding out and using that to inform future content decisions and also using it to inform the types of call the actions that we include. I really hope this episode helps you. We are going to be talking more about this in my close friends list on Instagram, which is a special place for free trainings, discussions, mentorship all around podcast strategy and growing your business with a podcast. If that's something that you would be interested in, I do it every Thursday. You do have to join my list again it's free. So you just want to go to Instagram, DM me, close friends and then let me know where you are in your podcast journey because that's going to help inform the type of content that I create in my close friends. And it's a great place to come and continue the discussion. So if you've listened to this episode and you have more questions, that's where to dive deeper. So I would love to have you and I hope you have a great week. This is episode 92. We are getting close to Episode 100 and I may ask something special of my audience, so stay tuned for that.
[00:18:37] Thank you for listening and 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.
