Build traction on your podcast for a B2B tech marketing strategy

With the line between work and home blurring, more people are using their spare time to advance their skill sets and expand their careers. Through online classes, webinars and guides, there are many career-building resources people are turning to. One of the most popular resources, and one that you as a B2B tech marketer cannot ignore, is podcasts! 

You already know that podcasts are a lucrative inbound channel to include in your B2B tech marketing strategy. That’s why you have a podcast in the works. But do you know how to get traction on your podcast so that you gain more loyal, high-quality listeners and reach more of your target customers? 

Here’s 9 ideas to gain traction on your podcast: 

1. Choose strategic titles
2. Create a home for your podcast on your website 
3. Leverage your guests
4. Use a podcast platform
5. Convert to video
6. Get reviews
7. Build a community of listeners
8. Hold a competition
9. Feature on other podcasts

Remember, your podcast is a tool to position your business in front of its target customers, so keep your listenership focussed and specific. This is key to making sure your podcasting efforts align with wider marketing goals. 

Choose strategic titles

Like any good content marketing strategy, SEO should be accounted for in order to boost your reach. You can use free SEO tools such as Ubersuggest to find keyword ideas and questions that surround each episode topic.

Use your keyword research to help with choosing a title and writing the description for each episode. 

For example,  if your episode is about building traction on a podcast, then frame  the episode as a keyword driven question like ‘Can SEO help build traction for a podcast?’ Questions are becoming increasingly popular as podcast titles, and they can prepare your podcast for increased voice search usage in the future. 

Create a home for your podcast on your website 

The best way to use SEO to boost your podcast is to create an individual page on your website at the release of each episode. These should link to a pillar page with a listing of all of your episodes to date. 

For each episode, the target keyword you chose for the title should be included in the page URL, title tag and meta description. 

On the page you should include (in order):

1. A heading with the title of the podcast episode 
2. A keyword rich description that entices the reader to listen and tells them what they’ll gain if they do
3. A few bullet points that summarise the episode in more detail to further entice the reader to listen 
4. A transcription of the episode that will boost your keyword ranking with long content. 
5. A call to action at the end to guide your readers to another relevant page on your website such as a product page or landing page. 

Temi is a tool that quickly transcribes episodes with a high level of accuracy for a low cost. Many podcasting platforms have integrated transcription tools. They don’t have 100% accuracy because of accents and audio quality, so it’s a good idea to go through the transcription and edit it so that it reads well and makes sense. 

You should expect 2-3 minutes of editing the transcription per minute of recording. So, if your podcast is 40 minutes long, this might take anywhere between 1.5-2 hours to edit properly. While it may seem like a large chunk of time, this will result in at least a 7000 word transcription. Imagine how long it would take to write a 7000 word piece of content for your site from scratch! 

Split the transcription into sections with subtitles, and add these as chapter markers on the podcasting platform to help with SEO. 

Leverage your guests 

The guests on your podcast are your secret weapon. 

You have to be selective of who you invite onto your podcast for two reasons: 

1. Your content should be of consistent high quality. Guests who have plenty of experience to share will add valuable insights and advice to their episode. Your podcast will remain a reliable source of information that will keep listeners coming back for more. Regular listeners = high traction. 

2. An ideal guest can use their existing network to promote their episode within the industry. Guests with a high follower count on their own social media channels will get your podcast seen by more of your target audience. 

You might think that the more followers and experience a potential guest has, the more difficult they are to reach – but a lot of the time, this is not the case. 

Here is a tried and tested process to get ideal guests on board: 

1. Send an invitation to connect on LinkedIn with a short note that captures their interest. 
2. Once they express interest, tell them what your podcast is about, who it’s for and send them a link. Ask them what topic they are passionate about. 
3. Schedule a pre-recorded chat so you as the host can gain a deeper understanding of the topic. This also allows you to formulate specific questions that can guide the conversation. 
4. Send the guest their questions in advance so that they have time to prepare. 

Once you’ve released their episode, all you have to do to get the guest to promote it is to ask! Send them a link to their episode, thank them for being on the show and send them promotional materials such as an image or video. 

Headliner is a great tool for creating a visual snippet of the episode. These short clips should be transcribed so that people can receive value without audio. Choose the best, most engaging snippet and watch it spread over social media as people like and share it. Here’s an example for a podcast episode about community marketing:

Use a podcast platform 

Podcast platforms such as Buzzsprout can streamline the publishing process. For promotional efforts, they automatically distribute each episode to top podcast directories. 

Having your show on a range of directories like Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts means more people will find your show, and they’ll be more likely to listen to it if it’s on their preferred channel. 

Podcast platforms also let you track listener statistics so that you can measure the growth of your podcast. This is critical to understanding what works and what does not. Plus, when the audience statistics go up and up, you’ll be extra motivated to keep producing great content! 

Convert to video 

Your podcast platform will distribute each episode to many directories because the more channels your podcast is on, the better. Publishing your podcast on YouTube offers an additional way for listeners to find you. 

With your guest’s permission already obtained, you could record a video of the speakers as you record audio. You could have a still image with just the audio, but this is not as suitable for YouTube as it is less engaging for a YouTube user. 

Get reviews 

Podcast directories like Apple Podcasts allow you to receive reviews.  This helps your podcast show up in search results and gives you direct feedback from your audience. This way you’ll find out what’s working and what your audience wants more of. 

Receive more by asking your audience to review the podcast at the end of each episode. You can ask your own network to leave a review as you promote each episode, and you can ask your guests to leave a review too! 

Build a community of listeners 

When you ask your listeners to leave a review, why not ask them to engage with other listeners too! You can encourage them to ask questions or leave comments on your social media, or you can ask them a question that gets them thinking about the topic of the episode. 

You can create a Facebook community page for your podcast so that your audience can interact with you and other listeners in their own time. This gives your listeners a chance to talk to one another, dive deeper into topics and express their opinions on the topics to feel seen, heard, and part of something bigger. 

Within your podcast’s community, you can run surveys or create polls to ask your audience what they enjoy about your podcast. You can also ask your listeners where they found you so that you can focus your attention on those channels. Your audience can tell you topics they might want discussed as ideas for new episodes. 

If you choose to make a survey, be sure not to ask too many questions so the survey isn’t too much to ask of your listeners. Preffice the survey by mentioning the benefits gained, like more tailored content so that the podcast gets better. 

Hold a competition

Leverage your existing listeners by encouraging them to spread the word to their own network. They will be more likely to share your podcast if they’re incentivised with a voucher or product. 

In action, this could look like a social media post with a link to your podcast and promotional image. The post could say ‘like and share to be in to win one of three vouchers worth £50.’ Keeping it fun and exciting will create a buzz around your show and people will want to promote it. 

Feature on other podcasts 

You can utilise the listenership of other podcasts by appearing as a guest on their show. Make sure that the podcasts you feature on have a crossover of target audience so that you’re reaching the right people. 

In approaching other podcasts to feature on their show, you could suggest a cross-collaboration so that they can also feature on yours. This makes your approach mutually beneficial and they will be more inclined to accept your offer. 

Best of luck! 

Now that you have a few ideas on how to gain traction on your podcast, go forth! Build a strong, loyal listenership that puts you in front of your business’ target audience. 

If you’ve skipped ahead, and want to know how to start a podcast for your B2B tech company, head here!