Have you ever thought about starting a podcast for your business to get more clients or your brand influence?
If so – you’re in the right spot.
In this article, we’re going to cover:
- The Profit-Driven Podcasting Approach (For business owners)
- How to grow an audience for free (without a social media following)
- Which podcast platforms are the easiest and most cost effective for beginners
- How to edit your podcast episodes
- How to promote your podcast show
Alright, let’s get into it!
And if you’re looking for even more tips of growing your business using podcasting and other media plays check out Premier Influence.
First up, let’s dig into the simplest format to grow a profitable client-getting podcast, that’s easy to grow into a booming audience.
Profit Driven Podcasting
If you already own a business, then the podcast’s goals should be used to further your business’ goals.
With this as the case, we need to consider your goals.
I assume they’re to either land more customers, increase your brand reach or drive leads.
If any of those are true, then this approach will work.
First, let’s talk about the “Influence Ladder” technique that’ll help boost your customer and qualified leads quickly – but then also snowball into a big audience (without even needing to promote your podcast on social media.)
The Influence Ladder Technique To Get New Customers Fast with a Podcast
The Influence Ladder Technique is simple:
Start with the end in mind (Get more customers.)
Your new podcast will become a central marketing asset that drives leads and new business opportunities for you.
So, let’s focus on how to get results quickly – rather than slowly (which most people do.)
The show can be used as a way to directly connect with qualified prospects, potential talent and also strategic partnerships.
Focusing on direct qualified partners and strategic partners is the best path to go to start, because it means you get to talk to more people quickly.
And it also happens to be the easiest way to go!
All you have to do is start an interview based podcast, and then invite people that you want to do business with onto the show.
Okay, what’s the easiest way to book podcast guests?
Keeping the topic focused on the things your prospect cares about is an easy way to get them to come on – rather than your specific product.
For example, let’s say you sell websites to small businesses.
No small business owner that needs a website is going to want to come on and talk about that topic.
So the way to solve this problem is to pre-plan the topic to be relevant to them ahead of time.
Selling websites is a big market – so you may want to start a general “business” podcast, and bring people on to talk about their own stories.
Or, maybe you want to start a “niche” podcast – and just bring on a specific type of business owner. (such as dental practice owners or chiropractors)
And once you have a topic that your prospect wants to talk about?
You have a rinse-and-repeat way to build new relationships with high value prospects on demand. (Talk about making winning new customers easy!)
You also have an easy way to bring on potential strategic partners onto your show – because they’ll want to reach your podcast audience as well.
Which is a great segway into growing the audience.
Podcasting Equipment Needed to Start
Don’t over complicate this and go get fancy gear.
Most articles you read will suggest you buy lights, and cameras, and tripods, microphones, and all kinds of complicated things.
That’s because those articles are typically affiliate sites that profit each time someone clicks a link to buy the equipment.
Now, adding this gear over time is important. You will want to do that.
Just don’t start with it all until you’re sure the podcast is working as intended. (Getting you more business.)
To start all you need is the same gear you’d need to run a simple Zoom meeting.
Basically, a web cam and a microphone.
If you have a laptop, you probably already have both of these things!
How to Record Episodes
Let’s keep this section simple.
All you need to do is start a Zoom meeting, then in Zoom, click “Record Meeting.”
You can then access that audio and video file later to edit it, which we’ll get to.
You may want to use fancy tools or services later such as RiverSide, but start small and launch quickly by keeping things simple.
How to Edit Podcast Episodes
To keep it simple, all you need is a basic free audio editor like audacity (audacity tutorial for podcast editing) or garage band (mac users only).
You’re basically just going to trim the start and end of the audio clip you get from Zoom, and then export is as an MP4.
Seriously – start here, and you can get more fancy later.
Where to Host your Podcast
There are many options to hosting a podcast.
They’re all basically the same, with some differences in features and pricing.
Here’s some we’ve used over the years, or people we know have used and enjoy:
There’s tons more as well! If you know someone who runs a podcast, ask what they use.
We love podbean because it’s dead simple, and cost effective.
It offers all the basic features, and they have all the “getting started” materials needed right on their site. (And support is good.)
Growing the Podcast and Getting Listeners
If you follow the guide outlined above and bring on guests and influencers within your space – your show will grow naturally to start.
The reason it’ll grow naturally is because people that come on the show, will naturally share it on social media and also tell people about it.
Once you’re up and running, you cna also begin tot hink about posting on social media and repurposing video episodes. Don’t start here though – keep it simple to start.
Alright, that’s it! Get out there and start your minimum viable podcast.