I love podcasting. Seriously love it. There are a number of reasons why and I thought I would share why it’s so important to my personal brand and the different content verticals that I’ve created. I currently have four podcasts. Yes, I actually have four shows that I curate content for monthly. The Brand Building Lab is my newest show with 15 minute talking head episodes (just me) and longer episodes where I speak with other online content creators. When you’re building a brand the story behind the brand is so important to share. Your brand story will help connect your community to you, understand your motivations and to a certain degree what makes you tick.
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In my case, I landing on podcasting initially because I didn’t feel like doing video content. I also was already having these conversations behind the scenes and felt that they could be so helpful to share with others. It’s been said that I have the gift for gab and I truly do. I love to talk and connect with new people. Podcasting didn’t require me to dress up, to lose weight, to do my hair.
I just had to show up and be engaged in the conversation. But, the longer I ran my shows the more I discovered how important they were to sharing my brand story and serving my audience. I’m not the only person to do this. Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income has 3 shows that he hosts and an additional show on his site hosted by two other entrepreneurs. Let’s be clear: podcasting is a long game approach to building your business.
Get on the List
How to Make Podcasting Work for Your Brand
- Reason #1-Humanize your brand from day one. If for whatever reason you’re uncomfortable or unable to create video content-podcasting is a wonderful way to create a multi-dimensional experience with you. It’s almost like an email list but instead of giving an email address, listeners are giving 3 things that can’t be returned: time, trust and their attention. Audio as part of a brand has become a significant part of building many online brands. Here’s some examples how:
- Audio Books
- Audio snippets
- Audio to be played from audio devices
- Clubhouse app or Fireside by Mark Cuban
- Reason #2-You can literally tell people what you want them to do. There is no guessing. Want them to sign up for a useful toolkit? Tell your audience. Would you like to do some market research and need some feedback? You can tell you audience that you need their help. Would you like to get people to sign up for an upcoming webinar? You can! There’s no guessing.
- Reason #3-Your podcast attracts exactly who you would like to work with or serve (hopefully). Because The Brand Building Lab is specifically geared towards entrepreneurs, I’m making the assumption that any content you create would likely be to build your personal brand. You can teach something useful that may be adjacent to what you typically would in a coaching program. You don’t have to guess if the people listening to your show are the right fit for you. Basically, your podcast functions like a Facebook Pixel and targets the right audience for your and your brand.
- Reason #4-Commuting is happening again-COVID messed with a lot of people’s shows. Especially if their audience listened during their morning commute. With most people working from home some shows were negatively impacted by the lack of commuting and not pivoting their content for the times that we’re in. Well, businesses are calling their teams back into the office and people are going to need to do something during their commute. Why not listen to a show that will help get out of commuting hell? Or, makes them laugh, provides inspiration, etc.
- Reason #5 Monetize Your Brand-Podcasts can act as the entry point to not only your email list but to your products. The key is making sure that the positioning of your brand and products make sense. Part of why I added The Brand Building Lab vertical was that the products and services that I wanted to share and sell were a misaligned with my personal finance website. It just wasn’t working. Also, there were affiliates that I want to share but again felt that they didn’t make sense on my personal finance website. I can embed affiliate links throughout my show notes, share my products and direct people to my coaching services-without having people sign up for my email list. While it’s better to have people opt into your email list there’s no rules against getting people to engage with your content outside of your email list.
Related Podcast Episodes
Why Podcasting Should Be a Part of Building Your Brand
- Reason #6-To build your email list-There’s a couple of ways a podcast can direct listeners to your email list.
- Share a helpful tool
- Talk about how access to future webinars and other content will only be available via your list.
- Curate content that is only available via your list
- Don’t complicate this process
- Email list building should be involved in everything that you’re doing.
- Reason #7-Build influence via networking-When you have conversations with other hosts in adjacent content spaces you’re building your brand influence and you’re networking! During 2020 these conversations were like gold. We couldn’t (depending on where you live) meet each other in person so these conversations were incredibly important.
Final Thoughts on Podcasting
One last thing, podcasts are a great way to own and build your own platform. I host my shows and own the rights to that content as long as I pay for show hosting. I don’t have to worry about getting kicked off of a social media platform, violating terms of service or what I have to say. I own and produce this content so I have final say over how my brand shows up in audio. For anyone who is serious about building their brand nurturing their own brand eco-system is an important part of cultivating brand longevity. Podcasts can be shared for as long as your show is “live” Do you have a podcast as part of your brand? Have you thought about creating one?