Good for you – you decided a podcast was the next thing in your business marketing arsenal. That, or you just love a topic so much you want to talk about it endlessly! Woohoo – go! It’s possible, you get downloads, people listen and you build an engaged and loyal audience.
But now what? Does it reach your target market? Exceptional? But does he sell your stuff? Are you making money? Don’t worry if it isn’t. Just know that it could. See how…
Use your Podcast as part of your sales funnel
If anything, I really hope you have a good modern Call To Action (CTA) where your listeners can find it. If not, make sure this is your next priority. Always signal the next step for your potential customer. be it a free thing, a paid thing, a mailing list thing, a social thing… whatever! Just be sure to include them (clickable links where you can) in your main written presentation, each episode blurb AND mention it in the write-up itself.
At this point you can get all strategic and think about where you ultimately want your customer to go. Putting people on your mailing list is a great way to attract that audience to yours. To attract them, consider giving away a bonus or exclusive episode to subscribers and build a sales funnel behind it. Ideally, your funnel wants to lead directly to a free product or service that’s perfect for your audience.
Create a free product
Add passive income to your business by creating a free digital product that you can make once and then sell over and over again. There are so many ideas for this (check out this post for help), but my top tip is to make sure it’s the next step your customers want to take. A digital library of downloads, courses, or content might just be perfect, but often, subscription and subscription models work nicely with the needs of the podcast audience. a sense of community around your subject.
Alternatively, you could sell aligned products or ‘merchandise’. Do it the old fashioned way by buying stock or the more passive print-on-demand, dropshipping or affiliate marketing routes.
Whatever you choose to sell to your audience, try to stick to one product or service consistently throughout your podcast episodes (trust me, it’s less confusing and psychologically gets into the minds of your customers). Be sure to talk about this before, during or after each episode and as your CTA.
Subscriptions and subscriptions
You can easily build a community around a podcast and charge for the privilege of being a member. You could share early access and bonus episodes, exclusive alternate versions/media of existing episodes, have curated or exclusive newsletters, or other content that only members can see. You could consider creating older episodes and charging members to access them, essentially creating limited listening time on the episodes and listeners then paying to access the back catalog.
You could consider a content upgrade specifically for each episode or simply create a paid community where your dedicated listeners can hang out and chat with you and each other.
Ask for direct support from your listeners or get a sponsor
Direct support asks listeners to pay to support you and your business. it is so simple. You can do this through a direct PayPal or Stripe button as your CTA, or an external platform like KoFi. Alternatively, you can get another company or business to sponsor your show. This can be done directly with the company or through an advertising agency. (here’s a great blog on how to get sponsors that are right for your audience)
Whatever you do, PLEASE reuse and reuse
Your podcast content is just one of the marketing gears you can have at any given time. To build a larger audience, it makes sense to reposition your podcasts in other mediums and new platforms that ensure you reach new people. This allows you to benefit from additional visibility, multiple options for reaching potential new customers in their preferred format AND opens you up to alternative monetization options as well.
For example:
When recording, use video equipment and upload the video to YouTube.
Split the video into smaller clips for Meta reels and TikTok.
Transcribe the main points and use it as a blog post (I love that Nick Loper does this for his Side Hustle Nation Podcast and blog!)
Use Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog and therefore your website.
Later in the process you can compare blog posts and create an eBook and, if the content matches, create a course.
Your possibilities are limitless – as good a monetization as the great podcast you have! And join us at Passive Business Academy to understand all the other money you might be leaving on the business table 🙂
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