Posted on: March 19, 2019
When Nancy Marshall, The PR Maven,® started her podcast, she incorporated the expert advice from Stephen Woessner, author of Profitable Podcasting. Stephen was a guest on The PR Maven® Podcast and he and Nancy discussed ways to use a podcast for branding, business growth and SEO.
Podcasts are the latest method to reach your target audience; you are in complete control of the content and there are so many components that are fantastic for marketing your business. Nancy always says that you need to have both in-person and online relationships to be successful, and podcasts are a great way to merge both. When listening to a podcast, you feel like you’re hanging out with the host and the guest – this builds a real sense of familiarity with a person that isn’t easy to do online. This sense of familiarity leads to trust and that is the foundation for a thriving business. Authority marketing is a great way to grow your company. Word-of-mouth referrals are crucial for building any company and when people feel they know, like and trust you, they will do business with you. People are more likely to decide to buy from you more quickly and they are more likely to pay more if you are an acknowledged authority in the market.
Podcasts are all about sharing information. Whatever your podcast’s theme, you’re giving away helpful tips, sharing stories and creating a community of listeners, and this is quality engagement. Across all social media platforms, people too often make their posts all about themselves and come off as narcissistic – not an appealing characteristic of someone you could do business with. Podcasts can be a great way to get your voice out there in a way that provides a benefit to the listener at the same time. You can position yourself as an expert in whatever field you are in without seeming conceited.
All these aspects of podcasting are perfect for building your brand. It’s important to go into podcasting knowing what kind of host you want to be – humorous or stern, scripted or off the cuff – the way you present yourself in a podcast is total brand management.
Podcasts are also great for SEO – if you’re talking about your business, the script is 100% optimized already, you just need to get it written out online. You can do this by outlining what a listener will hear when they listen to each episode and all those keywords will then be searchable.
Stephen Woessner made an excellent point about how to get ratings and reviews on iTunes or Google for your podcast. It’s all part of authority marketing. Google won’t recognize you as an authority if the people who give you 5-star reviews aren’t credible people themselves. You need influencers whose social footprint has been evaluated by Google and recognized as authorities in a particular subject to write reviews and link to your podcast on social media platforms. If you have your favorite uncle write a review, that won’t carry nearly as much weight as an authority in your industry.
If you’re thinking of starting a podcast, be sure to check out Stephen’s book: Profitable Podcasting.
The PR Maven® Podcast is presented by Marshall Communications, creator of The Marshall Plan® strategic process. The Marshall Plan is a fully customized document using our 65 proprietary steps and leads to playbook for your success. If you think your business or organization would be a candidate for a Marshall Plan, you can take our Marshall Plan quiz to find out. Visit Marshallpr.com/quiz.
