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This blog post is part the series, which is based upon the book 'Top 21 Marketing channels for membership sites Written by the Subscription Coach Amanda Northcutt.
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Make your own show
Making your own podcast a significant undertaking and your capacity to go through with it week after week should be carefully considered before making a decision. A lot of owners of membership sites have a hard time deciding whether to launch a podcast or not since, like the SEO plan is a marathon not a sprint.
The market for podcasts is crowded currently, however when you narrow your focus and in-depth within your field then you'll likely build a significant number of followers who are qualified potential customers for your membership website in the future. Creating your own podcast is one of the best ways for you to connect with influencers as well as to be one of them!
However, you must take a commitment of 12-18 months and release at least 1-2 podcasts per week to provide this channel with the chance to be successful. This is akin to the opposite of running a quick Facebook campaign, which can be easily evaluated after a short period of time. Just like with other type of content, I would recommend recording in batch of 4-10 minutes in one session and not having to do it every week, or multiple times per week, to create episodes.
Podcasting is one of the most personal ways to connect to your customers on all levels - at times, even greater than writing the word. Take care of your listeners. Make sure to show empathy. you truly understand their pain and are able to help them: Your Membership!
Your topics in your podcast ought to attract people with the ability to grow into power users on your site for membership. There is no other consideration. Just like with your other efforts to market using a large field will bring in prospects that will clutter your list of email addresses, or worse, churn out very early. Also, staying narrow and deep within your area of expertise is essential to your the success of your campaign.
Do not fool yourself into believing that the number of episode downloads is the only measurement you must track, either. You should be asking yourself when determining whether your business is succeeding include: Are listeners following my CTA and getting into my sales funnel? Do new subscribers cite my podcast as the reason they signed up or how they learned about my brand? Is the authority I'm building by my show helping build connections and trust with influential people in my space? Am I effectively using my podcast to network with others by having relevant guests on my podcast?
Promote your podcast on your existing email lists, members via your social channels, and influencers. A podcast should be considered a key element of your content marketing plan however, because it's so big an enormous undertaking, it's worthy of a category of its own on my top 21 list.
The podcast you host can be a powerful way to market your business. However, don't begin until you're able to finish it. The next best way to host your own podcast is having continuous appearance as a guest on podcasts of other hosts.
Be a podcast guest
Similar principles to guest blogging could be used in this case quite seamlessly. Anyone who has decided to host their own podcasts are faced with the same content production burden like bloggers. If you reach out to the best hosts using the proper approach will likely result in the granting of a number of guest spots that are great and help ease the burden of hosts.
In addition, if you have your own show by being a guest host on other podcasts will amplify the outcomes you achieve from your podcast. For all we know, people who listen to podcasts, are listening to...podcasts.
However, regardless of whether you host an own show or you don't, make sure to include a CTA in the event of the opportunity of hosting a guest. CTAs can be to download an offer for leads, to offer a promotion for your membership, a quick consult, or any other thing that's relevant to your site. If you have an own podcast, you should invite listeners of the podcast(s) where you are a guest to subscribe to your own.
Begin by making the podcasts on which you can offer value and information to your listeners. They will be likely to be influential industry podcasts, whose audience probably resembles the target market. Guest podcasting can and should be part of your organic influencer marketing plan.
Don't make the mistake that you should reach out to hosts with 100,000 subscribers first. Beginning small, you can gain knowledge and build a CV, and start working your way up the ladder of influencers.
An email sent to an host should include some kudos to them, the credentials you've earned for yourself (in an honest manner) as well as an example of any other podcasts you've participated in and/or hyperlinks to blog articles on your site or YouTube channel. Maybe even the topics you'd love to discuss in an interview.
Do not quit in the event of rejection. If you're rejected by a key influencer within your field, the first, second, or third timearound, refer to the section on organic influencers here for a chance to create the social capital of these influencers before trying to do it again.