How Podcasts Create Pipeline

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]I'm going to be covering three main topics. So, what is a podcast good at?

[00:00:05]How should you approach them? And how do they pay back? Those are the three key things to take away from today's presentation. So, a quick one about me.

[00:00:14]I've got 20 odd years experience in direct marketing, advertising, digital strategy, and content. And I've been operating as Wide Digital for 10 years helping expertise led businesses grow and exit focusing on bridging between what they do and what prospects and customers need. What they want, what they need, what's going to drive their business forward. So, that's about the pains, the challenges, and the aspirations that resonate with prospects. I also run the Curious Business Podcast which you can find at podcast.curiousbusiness.co.uk where I interview founders and leaders about their business journey, their business models, and how they got where they are. Firstly, what is a podcast? Well, I won't ask for a show of hands as to who's listened to a podcast as I'm guessing most of you have. However, I won't pass up the opportunity to do a little bit of research and you know, please drop into the chat where you listen to podcast most. That'll be really helpful. So, what is a podcast? Well, the younger people amongst us might think that a podcast is something they have open in YouTube in another tab whilst they're doing something else or looking at another screen.

[00:01:19]It Some people might see it as a bit like a radio program or an audio book, you know, maybe a business owner is using the audio books or you know, like an audio book to give themselves knowledge to skill up, to learn about how other people are doing things. Kind of an educational product.

[00:01:34]Marketers might see it as a content marketing channel. A pedantic would be right, but a pedantic person might see it as like audio content distributed by RSS.

[00:01:44]But increasingly, video is playing a big part of of of the podcast world as well.

[00:01:48]And you can see a lot of examples where effectively it's like a chat show that you watch online. And people in the television space might see it as kind of a cheap way to produce television, which is why a lot of there's a lot of investment going into video podcast production.

[00:02:02]It depends who you ask. I think the the bigger question is what is a successful podcast? And on the one hand, you know, you might find a start a podcast and find that, you know, it makes you famous. You can quit your job and do it full-time.

[00:02:16]It generates income, becomes a revenue stream, perhaps through advertising or sponsorship.

[00:02:21]Uh it attracts fans, makes enthusiastic fans, and makes you an influencer.

[00:02:25]Perhaps that's what's going to happen.

[00:02:27]All of those things there are possible outcomes when you start a podcast, but I think the real opportunity for businesses, especially initially, is how it works as a new business tool. Because a podcast is a way to get prospects and customers to spend time with your business's expertise, your passion, your mindset, your approach, and how you help.

[00:02:47]Ultimately, it's an opportunity to show how you think, what you do, rather than tell.

[00:02:55]So, you but it's about showing prospects and customers how you help.

[00:02:59]People see, you know, hundreds if not thousands of adverts and marketing messages every day. Spending 20 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour with your podcast means a lot. In the scheme of things, that's a lot of attention. So, that's a one good reason to start a podcast, to build that kind of attention.

[00:03:16]And I think building on that, I think the real benefit of a podcast is that it's a format that makes us think about how powerful marketing is when you create something that prospects and customers actually want to engage with.

[00:03:31]If you're selling expertise, uh you need to show people what you do and how you can help. You need to talk about what matters to them. Don't talk about your products and services. Talk about why they might need them, how they become successful, what they need to do.

[00:03:46]Those are the things that attract people into your world, and those are the reasons people need your business.

[00:03:51]So, you might be Steven Bartlett one day, but the real power is making the podcast part of your business development process.

[00:03:59]So, using it to create fresh content that builds authority and trust and importantly moves people towards your sales process. So, through the podcast itself and calls to action in the podcast, by posting about it in social media, by writing articles about the content, uh and you're using transcripts and those sorts of things things to get found in search and generative engine optimization, so AI-based search effectively, pushing it through your email marketing to bring people in and drive people toward, you know, expose them to it, driving people towards your calls to action and into your sales process.

[00:04:35]That's kind of where it fits best in my opinion. Before you start, you need to be clear about who it's for, what problems it solves for them, what those people care about, what what what what keeps them awake, what gets their attention, what they want to know, and also how they'll convert. So, what how can you get them from the podcast into your sales process? By offering them some kind of value. Doing that gives you the the starting point, which is what how do you work? What do you want to get from it? Because if you embed those things in the podcast, then you can find the themes, the topics, and the formats that allows you to demonstrate how you help address those things for for people.

[00:05:21]Then, you need to park that and focus on the listener and what will be interesting to them. So, I guess like most marketing, it's about holding those two ideas in your head at the same time. What do you want and then what do the what do the people you want to sell to and get and engage want? I always say that people don't buy what you do, they buy what they need. Even if even if they don't know what that need is yet, they buy the thing that helps them move their business forward, helps them grow, helps them fix something, helps them meet their aspirations.

[00:05:51]That's that's that's that's what you need to to address, and that's what people ultimately buy. So, what do you need to get started?

[00:05:58]Not a lot, actually. The beauty of podcasting is that you don't need much kit. You know, the cost of finding out if it works and how it works and what works is actually very low.

[00:06:09]You don't need a access to a plush West End podcast studio. You don't need to build your own podcast studio. You need somewhere quiet, a microphone, Zoom will do, maybe a guest, and some editing software.

[00:06:23]Don't underestimate the need to edit.

[00:06:25]Again, think about the listener. Think about, you know, do they want to wade through three or four minutes of intro that doesn't tell them anything?

[00:06:32]Value their time and cut the meandering or nice but ultimately not very interesting sections. Take out the pauses, the ums and the ahs, and there there's AI tools that can do that, but that's really important, but it's about respecting their time and getting to the point. Once you start listening to conversations, you'll see that they're not always that linear. And sometimes you take a detour into something that's interesting but not actually that valuable. So, editing is really important. Why do I suggest using Zoom?

[00:07:01]Well, there are other options like Riverside that are built for podcasting, but Zoom is something that lots of people use, lots of people have, and the key thing is it gives you the ability to capture the audio uh streams and video streams for each guest separately, which is really important, and I'll tell you why in a minute. So, the key is it doesn't cost much to find out if it works, doesn't cost much to find to get comfortable with the process, and to get going.

[00:07:28]Then thinking about what formats work.

[00:07:30]So, I listen to all kinds of different formats. I mean, you maybe don't think about the formats. I don't always think about them, but when you take a step back, there are different different ways. They do different jobs. What works for you will depend on on your goals, who's presenting, you know, the the talent you have in your business who are presenting the podcast and the audience of course.

[00:07:50]And it depends on the execution very much. You know, sometimes there's a list of 12 formats there. Having multiple hosts, you know, you listen to a podcast with multiple hosts, it can kind of come across a bit a bit indulgent, a bit in jokey. But then there were plenty of examples where it works really well.

[00:08:06]Again, it's really case by case.

[00:08:07]If you've got a strong moderator and the topics you deal with, the themes you deal with kind of have different perspectives or maybe they're emerging and new, having a panel of people talking about a topic can be really powerful. It can also be like herding cats and require a lot of editing and management, but if you've got a strong moderator, that can work really well.

[00:08:27]Other other podcasts, they kind of analyze the news and trends in the sector, which again can be helpful to to listeners.

[00:08:34]But, you know, there's not always enough news to sustain a regular podcast in that way. Again, case by case, but there's plenty where people start doing that and it kind of Peters out.

[00:08:44]Interviews tend to work really well because people like to hear what other people have done, how they did it, how they tackle the challenges, and what made them successful. We like stories, we like to hear how people have kind of tackled the same challenges we might be facing.

[00:08:59]So, you know, you can use all kinds of different formats. You can mix them through the kind of rotation of the podcast. So, one week or one fortnight or one month, you can have one type of interview or one type of podcast, then you can use a panel, then you can use an analysis, etc. If you want to delve into a bit more detail about those different formats, there's an article that goes through them, goes through the pros and cons of each one at curiousbusiness.co.uk/formats.

[00:09:25]So, how do you do it? What's the process and where should you focus?

[00:09:29]I've kind of used this to to show roughly the amount of attention and focus and effort that goes into each of the the Planning, the first step, is really something you do, you know, not every time, not every episode. You kind of do it at the start and then maybe revisit, maybe quarter every 6 months, every year.

[00:09:46]Who's the podcast for?

[00:09:48]What's it about? What problems, challenges, aspirations does it address? How is it going to engage listeners?

[00:09:55]What are the goals? You know, aside from business development, maybe there's an opportunity to get, depending on your business, you know, sponsorship or vendor funding or, you know, marketing funds from a vendor to to support it.

[00:10:07]You know, it could be ad funded depending again about the the reach of of the sector, etc. And as a quick tip, I would write the podcast intro. If you go on to any of the podcast platforms and go to look at a few podcasts, there's a there's a description of what the podcast is about. So, write that now and, you know, make it it makes it feel real for you.

[00:10:28]Yeah, and it's going to Does it sound interesting? What will listeners learn?

[00:10:32]Why should they tune in? That's what you need to write until you can describe the podcast and position it.

[00:10:37]Step two is is about preparing. So, identifying the ideal guests who have got, you know, either killer experience or killer content or significant following or all three.

[00:10:49]And pitch the benefits of joining.

[00:10:51]Recruit clients and partners, they're a good way to start and um demonstrate what you've done for, you know, real a real business.

[00:10:58]And, you know, for each episode, really do the research and identify the topics that you want to talk about. Prepare a question or running list that makes the guest comfortable. I always uh send a list of questions to guests beforehand, even people who say, "Oh, I don't need questions. I can I can handle this on off the cuff." Because it gives you some structure. And even if, you know, you've got dif- different types of people, even if someone just answers the the questions, you've got a podcast. What you'll find is the skill then is to is to begin to navigate the conversation to drill into what they tell you. So, if someone answers a question, follow up with a kind of, "Well, why was that? What did you learn? What did you try that didn't work?" So, that's often where the the the hooks come from for when you're promoting uh promoting the podcast. Also, that preparation means that you you give yourself the best chance of hitting on, you know, the most sometimes provocative, but just compelling themes, generating sound bites and snippets to use in the marketing of the podcast, in getting attention from social media to your content.

[00:12:05]And then think about how it ties back to your expertise, and also what conversion assets, so guides, webinars, other assets you've got, might relate to that topic, because the tighter the call to action is to the content of the podcast, the the better, because you're you're engaging with the things that people care about, and then offering them, maybe at the end or halfway through, a route to go and find out more about that to your your content.

[00:12:33]So, one of the last technical thing is to find out what the guest, if you are doing interview, what the guest setup is. Make sure they've got somewhere quiet for doing the recording. Make sure it's going to work. Next step is probably the you know, one of the smallest ones, is the the kind of technical part that's probably the lowest area of focus, apart from editing, which I'll come back to in a second.

[00:12:52]So, you make sure you record in a way that gives you the separate audio and video files. You'll thank me later when someone says something brilliant, but you talk over it, which I've done. But when you record the audio and video separately, that's not a problem. You can unpick that, and you don't lose any great content. Think about whether you're doing it face-to-face or remote. It it kind of doesn't matter. It's again similar. There's a bit more logistics going into it face-to-face. It probably costs a bit more, and the editing takes a bit more, and there's some practicalities.

[00:13:22]And then make sure you write the episode intro to record later, after you know what the topics are, what the meaty topics and the great quotes are in the interview if you're doing an interview.

[00:13:34]So, another tip, spend a lot of time on the title and the intro. You know, we're wanting to hook hook hook the listener and major on why they should listen. Why should they give their 20 minutes, half an hour, 60 minutes to listen to the the podcast.

[00:13:51]Another tip, get to the meat of the interview quickly. I always target under 60 seconds and in that 60 seconds I'm using cliffhangers from the interviewee and summarizing from my point of view, with my voice, to tell people why they should stick around and listen. What are they going to learn? What are the surprising things that the guest had to deal with?

[00:14:12]Um and then get to the point. Edit it for pace, keep it concise, think about the listener's time. Also then make sure to drop in act calls to action and and adverts for your business if you like. Short brief snippets that kind of position you and signpost people to to relevant calls to action.

[00:14:31]Something at the start, maybe a sign up to the email to make sure you don't miss future episodes, something about a third of the way through or at the end of a section that has some relevant so relevance and then at the end as well. So, there's like you got you you've listened through this, it taught you about these things.

[00:14:47]You if you want to know more, this is a great way to kind of carry on.

[00:14:50]And then finally, the the promotion side. You can't over promote your podcast. It is something that will each podcast will generate loads and loads of content.

[00:15:00]You know, it will last a long time. You can come back to it and use it. So, you know, social media posts, I mean LinkedIn primarily, LinkedIn posts, video clips, quotes, you know, quote graphics, tease people about who you've got coming up, you know, before they actually it drops.

[00:15:16]Use it in your email marketing. Write blogs and articles about it. Get the transcripts online so they can get indexed by the the the you know, Preseo and Geo and put the calls to action in there as well.

[00:15:29]You know, get people signed up for the email, encourage people to follow, like, and give you reviews.

[00:15:35]And get those conversion assets, especially if they're relevant to the topic. And then one final area is what I call comment jacking. I don't know if that's what anyone else calls it, but finding relevant discussions on LinkedIn and maybe other places where someone is either talking about the guest's company, the guest themselves, or the topics in the podcast.

[00:15:56]And add some add some nuggets of information from the podcast into a comment and say, you know, if you want to know more, listen to the full episode here. So, you're bringing more people in, you're also increasing your reach.

[00:16:09]And then feedback and improve. So, think about how it's done, what's worked, what did you enjoy about the format, you know, how did it work? Did it generate interesting responses? Think about how you can improve the questions, how can you get more uh more value.

[00:16:23]So, how do podcasts pay back? Well, they get they get paid back by getting found by people interested in the problem areas you cover.

[00:16:31]By offering insight into their challenges, pains, and aspirations, and getting them down your sales process.

[00:16:38]When you discuss and explore the topics that matter to listeners, prospects, you build your reputation by sharing your expertise.

[00:16:46]And it won't be long before you're being invited onto other podcasts, and your your visibility online is boosted as well.

[00:16:52]They pay back by, you know, when you create content that offers help and insight, and you don't sell, you don't tell people what you do, you show people what you do and how you think, you're you're selling why they need you, which again is very is it leads itself into the sales process.

[00:17:08]Um there's a I think it's a Daniel Priestley quote about people needing to meet someone in seven seven times in three different places before they trust them. This is a really rich way of meeting someone, of them meeting you, and then by using the the quotes and the assets in social media, again, it's another place, another time they're meeting you and building that trust. So, the podcast is is is rich, deep engagement with the audience you you want to talk to, moves people along the sales process from cold to warm, and it makes them want to keep in touch because you're offering insight, tips, and other value.

[00:17:41]And it should be building your contacts your contacts in email and social media as well.

[00:17:47]And it pays back by Excuse [clears throat] me.

[00:17:52]It pays back by creating fuel for all those different chances, social media, email marketing, online marketing, etc. All those quotes, you know, you publish one, this is an example from my one of my clients, you publish one episode and it becomes you know, you tease it before it goes live, you post about it, you know, with a with a nice image, and again, and then you do some video clips, some quotes.

[00:18:15]It you know, goes through your LinkedIn page for the podcast, goes through your personal LinkedIn page, goes through maybe your team's LinkedIn pages as well.

[00:18:23]It becomes part of your email marketing, so you alert people to the new episode, you tell them why they should listen to it, what they're going to learn, you plug what you do and how they can find out more about the topics that are relevant at the bottom of the email. You build the podcast website, so that's getting found in in search and and you know, LLMs as well.

[00:18:40]You build a presence on all the podcast platforms, so from Apple podcast, etc. so you're getting begin to get found on on those platforms as well, and can actually become a source of PR as well.

[00:18:50]So, here's an idea, if you're on an interview podcast, ask a couple of questions to all your guests, and then you can begin to compare the answers and use that as either articles within your your marketing, or even maybe it's PR-able depending on who the guests are.

[00:19:06]So, ultimately podcasts pay back by reaching and attracting the people you can help, demonstrating your expertise, and then directing them to engage with your conversion content. That's how you create opportunities.

[00:19:17]But, you also need to do the asking and the nudging. Occasionally, not all the time, reminding people that they have if they have this problem, they can find out more, discuss it with your team, read a guide, watch a webinar. So, podcasts are great fuel, but you still need to do the work of turning interest into opportunity.

[00:19:35]How do you measure success? Well, there's a podcast metrics on one level.

[00:19:38]So, downloads, repeat listeners, followers, and subscribers.

[00:19:43]There's marketing metrics, which are all about engagement with the content, email sign-ups, and most importantly, I'd say, traffic to your offer, inquiries, pipeline, and revenue, because that's that's what you want to be doing. That's the outcome you want from this, moving the needle on new business opportunities.

[00:19:59]And also, I don't know how this fits fits in with KPIs, but you might actually enjoy the process. So, is this right for your business?

[00:20:08]Podcasts are a chance to go deep if you sell expertise. I you know, it can take to people time to get to understand your mindset, your approach, how you operate, and the value and experience you and your business brings.

[00:20:19]Is it important that prospects and customers trust you? If it is, extended exposure to you and your business builds that trust through the podcast and the other content around it.

[00:20:29]And the reputation of your guests can confer that trust on you as well.

[00:20:33]Do you have an email list?

[00:20:34]It's the simplest way to capture interest and encourage people to sign up.

[00:20:39]If you don't have one, well, firstly, why?

[00:20:42]But, if you don't have one, create one and promote it in your podcast. Do you have assets? You know, case studies, guides, research. You know, like email, you need to harvest the interest a podcast creates with relevant next steps. That's really important.

[00:20:55]Do you have a bit of budget? Uh it doesn't have to be a fortune, but social media is pay-to-play, especially when you're trying to take traffic away to your podcast. So, promoting podcasts and paying to promote them overcomes this and gets relevant people, you know, their roles, their profiles looking at your podcast and the posts.

[00:21:14]Is it important to build a relationship?

[00:21:15]Well, podcast can still be useful for one-off sales, but there's real value in how you how the how good marketing kind of compounds and builds over time.

[00:21:24]So, if you are a relationship-based business, it really fits.

[00:21:28]And do you want to know people before they're in the sales process?

[00:21:31]For expertise-led businesses, in my experience, it's better to get to know a prospect ahead of the RFP, get known, and build your reputation. And if you if the answer to most of those questions is yes, then perhaps you should explore podcasts. And of course, I'm more than happy to talk to you about that. If it sounds right for you, get in touch via or scan the QR code or go to curiousbusiness.co.uk/en-contact.

[00:21:55]I'm more than happy to have a chat.

[00:21:57]Thank you very much.