3 Ways to Grow Your Business through Podcasting

Hey, you're listening to Innovators Can Laugh, the fun startup podcast. I'm your host, Eric Nelcher. On ICL, we interview an innovative entrepreneur in the European tech startup scene every week. My goal is to have my guests share their wisdom while having a little fun in the process. Now let's dive in.

Today, I'm going to share with you three ways to grow your brand with podcasting. So these are effective strategies to boost your brand, drive new leads and raise awareness for your brand. Number one, podcast guesting. Now what is podcast guesting? It's basically appearing as a guest on multiple podcasts in your niche to expand your reach and credibility.

Now, when you're in someone's ear for 30 minutes, they learn a lot about you and your product. When I was at Startup Bonjuro, podcasts became our company's central growth lever, pushing us to over 40, 000 users and drove an additional 300, 000 in ARR. I also did the same thing for OptiMonk. I appeared on more than 40 different podcasts and within six months, all new users indicated, well, not all of them, about 10 percent of them indicated that they first heard about us through podcasting.

So some of the benefits. Our number one, you gain exposure to you, build authority. Three, you create a new growth lever in four, you connect with new audiences. The second way that you can grow your business through podcasting is hosting your own podcasts. If you do this, you establish your brand as an industry leader and grow a dedicated following by consistently delivering valuable content and engaging with your listeners.

A few brands have done this brand such as Charles Schwab. Gong, IBM, and drift. They've created their own podcast marketing funnels. There are some challenges with this though. It requires commitment, consistency in content creation, and it's going to take probably two to three years to build an audience on average.

And weekly, it takes about 15 to 20 hours to produce an episode. That's right. 15 to 20 hours to produce one episode all the way from booking to editing to marketing. Number three, the third way to grow your brand through podcasting is through podcast advertising. You can reach your target audience effortlessly by investing in ad sponsorships on relevant podcasts.

You do this by selecting podcasts with audiences that align with your brand, ensuring your message resonates with potential customers. It's a cost efficient way to market your brand to a receptive audience. Podcast ads are a primary growth channel for brands like athletic greens. It went from 0 to 200 million in revenue, spending 1 million per month and sponsoring hundreds of podcasters.

HubSpot is another brand that grew through podcasting. They sponsor over 14 marketing and business related podcasts to reach new audiences. So in summary, the three effective ways to grow your brand through podcasting, number one, podcast guesting, number two, host a podcast, and number three, podcast advertising.

If you are a B2B brand trying to reach founders, B2B marketers, and people in the tech space and marketing space, then you can learn more about the Innovators Can Laugh B2B podcast media network at innovatorscanlaugh. com. And if you're not already, you can follow me for more podcasting tips. I'm on LinkedIn, just search for Eric Melcore on LinkedIn.

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