Show notes
If you're a B2B company that thinks it is too late to launch a podcast, think again.
Sweet Fish Media's James Carbary says there are huge opportunities for B2B companies to leverage podcasts to drive marketing, sales, and relationships with prospects and customers.
“There are one million podcasts live now. There are 30 million YouTube channels and a ubiquitous number of blogs.
But no company is saying ‘no, we don’t want to do video or we don’t want to do written content’. So, there's so much opportunity left in podcasting”.
Sweet Media Media produces podcasts for B2B and SaaS companies and offers a growing library of business podcasts.
From the conversation
Why it is not too late to start a B2B podcast
James Carbary, founder of Sweet Fish Media, says the headline number of one million podcasts hides the real picture. Only a fraction of those shows have released an episode in the last ninety days. By comparison, there are 30 million active YouTube channels and a huge number of blogs, and no company says it does not want to do video or written content. James sees plenty of opportunity left in podcasting.
He also points out that a buyer can be sliced many ways. There are a lot of marketing podcasts, but far fewer serve a specific industry, company size or set of problems. A quick search in Apple Podcasts for a keyword shows how few shows are consistent or niche. James says that is where a new show can win.
Sweet Fish applies this to its own show, B2B Growth. It focuses on B2B marketing, which is one level deeper than marketing in general. The show runs daily, now with multiple episodes a day, and it ranks for the term B2B in Apple Podcasts.
Using the podcast to build relationships with buyers
James says Sweet Fish built its entire business on what it calls content-based networking. Interviews produce good content with practitioners, and they also create one-to-one relationships with potential decision makers. B2B Growth invites VPs of Marketing at B2B SaaS companies with 50+ employees to be guests, and those are the same people who buy Sweet Fish's podcasting service.
James describes the short-term benefit of B2B podcasting as business development. He warns that there is room to be slimy about it, so the effort has to come from a genuine wish to create great content with the guest. People want to buy from people they trust, and they do not want to be sold to, so James advises against pitching right after the interview.
He calls the content almost icing on the cake and says the relationship building is the main reason a podcast is a big part of Sweet Fish's strategy. Mark added that connecting with people is hard, and that more B2B brands are moving toward account-based marketing to build those relationships.
"So while we're creating great content, we're simultaneously building a genuine relationship with somebody that can potentially buy our service, our podcasting service, and it works."
Repurposing episodes and building original research
Mark noted that many of his B2B clients have invested in e-books and blog posts but have never considered a podcast. He sees a podcast as a source for blog posts, videos and e-books. James agreed and described a further step at B2B Growth.
Right after each interview, the team asks guests 11 rapid-fire questions that are not part of the episode. Examples include the biggest challenge the marketing team faces, which channels work best, and which KPIs the CEO watches. Sweet Fish plans to roll the answers up into original research.
Some of that research will be ungated for top-of-funnel use. Some will be turned into a product and sold, because James says people are hungry for this kind of data. Mark said he likes the idea and sees a big opportunity in business intelligence, noting that Orbit Media has done well with research of this kind.
"I can almost guarantee you that none of those shows are repurposing their podcast content on other platforms the way they should be."
Branding the show around the buyer and finding each guest's point of view
James says the first step is deciding which audience the show serves. He suggests asking who the most profitable buyer is. If a company sells to both finance and IT teams, it should pick the group whose relationships are most valuable and build a show that those people would want to appear on and learn from.
He sees most companies make one mistake in naming and branding the show. They build it around their own expertise. If a company sells a finance tool to entrepreneurs, James says the show should be branded around entrepreneurs, not finance. That lets the host interview ideal buyers, learn from them and create content other buyers want.
For content quality, Sweet Fish uses a method it calls POV discovery. Before each interview, James holds a call of about 15 minutes and asks the guest what commonly held belief in B2B marketing they passionately disagree with. Then he stops talking and lets the guest respond. When a topic fires the guest up, the interview is built around it using a What, Why and How framework. The guest explains the idea, why it is the right view, and how it was put into practice.
"The biggest mistake I see, Mark, that companies make with their podcast is they want to brand their show around themselves and around their expertise instead of branding the show around their ideal buyer."
Promoting the podcast
Mark said making a podcast is relatively easy and promotion is the hard part. James says the biggest growth channel for B2B Growth has been organic search within Apple Podcasts. He recommends a clear, concise show name rather than a cute one built around a core value.
Sweet Fish noticed the show ranked for B2B but not for B2B marketing or marketing. It added a tagline in Libsyn, its podcast host, so the title became B2B Growth: Your Daily B2B Marketing Podcast. The show then began ranking in Google for B2B marketing podcasts and in Apple Podcasts for B2B marketing.
James listed other tactics. These include being a guest on other podcasts and doing co-promotions, such as the month-long swap Sweet Fish did with the Marketing Book Podcast. They also include repurposing content into micro-videos on LinkedIn, creating a LinkedIn company page for the show, and paying for ad spots on larger shows whose listeners already listen to podcasts.
"So many people sleep on podcast SEO within the podcast channels. But when people search B2B in Apple Podcasts, they find our show."
What Sweet Fish Media does for clients
Sweet Fish produces podcasts for B2B brands. It handles guest outreach, helps customers plan episodes, does the audio engineering and repurposes content into videos. James says many brands that try to run a show in-house lack the bandwidth to stay consistent, so Sweet Fish takes on the day-to-day work.
The company currently helps launch and produce shows for about 80 customers, and many of them are B2B SaaS companies.