In my opinion nothing is more important than setting the right strategy and purpose for your podcast up front. Most business podcasts hope to reach a targeted audience – not the masses. So, I caution you to make sure that you are not promising your management team hundreds of thousands or millions of listeners.

You might be happy with 100 or 500 or 5,000 depending on your target audience. Bigger numbers don’t always mean better.  There is an ROI and podcasting can help drive sales. But back to strategy, here are some helpful concepts to think about when it comes to strategy.

#1 Use your podcast to establish yourself as the #1 authority in your niche (or industry).

What I love about this concept is that podcasting is still so new in the B2B world (and business world in general) that there really is a huge opportunity to pick your niche and own it. Some categories of consumer products and services, personal improvement and entrepreneurship might be hard to break into – but not most B2B categories.

#2 Develop stronger relationships with your customers, prospects, partners and industry influencers.

People love to talk about their companies and themselves. I think people bond and build relationships by being together on a podcast. The guests are appreciative of the opportunity and like the fact they are being seen as an industry influencer or expert. There is just something about being on a show. I promise you helps to build relationships – period.

#3 Promote your product and services

This seems like a no-brainer, but be careful when and how you do this. No one will listen or come back and listen again if all you talk about are the features of your product and that you have the best widget on the planet. They want to know how they solve a problem. Remember it is all about providing value for the listener. If you do, they will come back. It must be worth their time.

Ultimately these will:

  • Drive more people to your website (but make sure your website is ready to “receive them”)

All podcasts need a call-to-action. You can drive them to a landing page and collect contact information and/or drive them to your website. My point in mentioning this is that you need to make sure the user experience makes sense – don’t have a call-to-action on your podcast that drives them to your website where they don’t or can’t find any information on that specific topic. Common sense – but often overlooked.

  • Help you rank higher in Google search

I have mentioned this in several blog posts, but in case you missed it Google is starting to transcribe podcasts and is using that information in their search algorithm. I personally believe that Google has more up their sleeve and is working on something bigger around their podcast ecosystem, but I have no proof. Time will tell.

  • Generate leads

You should be able to help your sales organization by driving leads through podcasting. If nothing else, you should be able to help move someone through the sales funnel. Work with sales in the strategy phase. Have sales identify their top 50 prospects – what can you do to help influence those top 50?

Setting your strategy and goals upfront will no doubt help to make your podcast a success in the long run. Be authentic, be consistent, and you’ll be successful.