It’s no secret that we’re big fans of reusing, remixing, and repurposing our podcast into different types of content. So when the opportunity came about to release an exclusive episode of The Casted Podcast as a Podcast Partner at HubSpot’s INBOUND event, we were eager to present an episode that practiced what we are preaching to you each and every day.
We took a look at the amazing interviews and guests we’ve had on the show and we searched for the throughline. A common thread that could tie all of these amazing stories together. In doing that, something amazing happened. It was almost, dare we say, serendipitous?
As we discussed our launch plans for Season 4 of The Casted Podcast, our CEO and Host, Lindsay, mentioned that four of our guests had actually discussed their time at HubSpot. She believed that there was something there, a thread we could pull on, to tell a really compelling story about these marketing leaders and the effect they had on building the HubSpot brand.
The aha moment
As we worked through the production of Season 4, we listened and relistened to these episodes. And (you obviously know where this is going) Lindsay was right. There was an amazing story there. A story about how HubSpot used early live streaming (ahem, HubSpot TV) to forge a connection with their audience. But they didn’t stop there, they continued humanizing the HubSpot brand through their launch of The Growth Show.
Maybe even more amazing? How each of these marketing leaders have taken podcasts into their roles at so many amazing companies as a way to connect with their audience and give their brands a real voice.
We HAD to tell that story. One, it’s an amazing untold story of how HubSpot’s willingness to try new things and commitment to connection created the culture we know and love today. Second, each of these leaders has embraced podcasting as a tool to help their businesses grow through building connections and forging relationships. See. We HAD to tell this story.
How we wrung-out episodes of The Casted Podcast for this narrative episode
How did we pull it all together? Let’s break down and discuss each stage of the process.
Find the common thread
As I mentioned, the first step in our process was to find the common theme, the throughline that could connect multiple interviews to tell one cohesive story. We do this on a regular basis with our podcast already as a way to identify overlapping themes we can reuse and repurpose into different content pieces, email collateral, presentations, etc. (Ahem... case in point: Turning Conversations into Marketing Content: 3 Experts Tell How).
Because we use a tagging system within the Casted platform, it was easy to quickly identify and find topics that overlapped and themes we could pull on to see if there was a more substantial story there.
Once we identified that each of these interviews had overlapping topics and could potentially work together, I moved on to storyboarding the episode.
Create a high-level outline of the story
I’m a huge fan of content strategy and structure. OK, that is an understatement. Prior to my days at Casted, I spend years in various content marketing roles. So for me, the easiest way to see if a story will play-out is to create a quick outline or storyboard.
Using the information I had from the interviews, I pieced together a high-level outline of the story, so I could further think through the story’s potential strengths, weaknesses, and overall gaps.
Identify the gaps & schedule additional interviews
Gaps. What if you’re creating a story, an article, a podcast, and you realize there’s an important chunk missing? It could be a series of facts supporting your argument, a crucial example that would tie it all together, or in our case, a few important perspectives that could fill in some of the story.
We identified a few areas where we could use a deeper dive into the story we were chasing and created a plan for how we could make these areas of the story stronger.
We already had interviews with Dave Gerhardt, Mike Volpe, Jeanne Hopkins, and Meghan Keaney Anderson. Each of these marketing leaders had a pretty significant role in creating and evolving the HubSpot brand through HubSpot TV and the HubSpot network of podcasts. But it felt like we could get deeper in different parts of the story.
We connected with Ellie Mirman, who was one of the first marketing hires at HubSpot in 2007, and was there to see both of these initiatives come to fruition. (She also happens to be an important part of the Casted story, as she's one of the amazing marketing leaders on our board). We were able to have a brief conversation with her to talk about what she saw, the effect these initiatives had on HubSpot, and the effect they had on her in her career.
Sam Balter, who was the Senior Manager of HubSpot’s podcast strategy up until a few months ago, also had a unique perspective on the evolution of HubSpot’s podcast strategy. As a member of Meghan’s marketing team, one that had grown the podcast network, his perspective added color and more depth to the work Meghan and her team continue to do.
We, of course, recorded these conversations, uploaded them to Casted, transcribed them, and used them in the same way we use our podcasting content.
Highlight the best clips from each interview for the story
Once we had all the guests interviewed, recorded, and transcribed. We started the very fun process of telling this story.
Before we did anything else, we identified the full clips that best fit our original outline. Identifying the timestamps of the clips, the length, and the content gave me a more complete idea of how they would work into the story.
We had so much amazing content from these conversations, it was honestly hard to whittle it down to fit into our outline. But, we kept the mantra of who is this for, why are we doing it to identify which quotes were the best fit to tell this story.
This is also the moment where we took the time to reorder pieces of the story where it made sense. Having a more complete picture of the story, we found that some quotes and perspectives worked better over others.
After we had identified the clips that worked best, we inserted them into the outline. This gave us more of a “storyboard” than an outline. We carefully laid the clips into our outline to get a more complete picture.
Write the narrative
The meat of the story is in the conversations that we had, the perspectives that were given to us. So taking time to carefully identify the moments that worked together to tell this amazing story was the most crucial part of this process.
It’s cliche to say that the narrative wrote itself (and as a content creator, I refuse to simplify content creation in that way), but because we took the time to outline the story, identify the perspectives that worked best, and used transcripts to lay it all out before production, we already knew the story we wanted to write.
And because Lindsay conducted the original interviews, she was well-versed in the content and was able to give invaluable insights to make the narrative even better as we scripted it out.
Record it
It’s always important for us to be authentic in anything we’re creating. In order to do that, we needed Lindsay to be a huge part of the creation of the content of this podcast. Lindsay was already very familiar with the interviews and outline and was able to add her own personality and perspectives into the story. Once the story was pulled together, recording it might have been the easiest piece of the puzzle (ahem, for me anyways).
From there, we also created several other pieces of content that support this podcast. Some you can find here, others you’ll see in the future as we continue to promote this podcast in the coming months. The amazing thing about this process? We did so much work upfront, creating the supportive pieces of content was actually easy.
So if you’re thinking about creating a bigger story, video, narrative, whatever it might be, here’s a quick recap of how you can do it.
- Find the common thread in your existing interviews
- Create a high-level outline to work off
- Identify the gaps
- Do additional research, schedule additional interviews
- Transcribe, transcribe, transcribe! (I can’t recommend this enough. Listening is great, but listening and reading makes the information sink in that much more and makes it easier to grab the exact wording you’ll be using.
- Identify the best clips to use and insert them in the outline
- Write the narrative around the perspectives you’ve identified
- Record it!
Additional points to consider
A few notes to consider that can make this process easier and more rewarding for you!
Utilize podcast tagging
Tag your podcast content. I’m a big fan of content tagging, it gives me a way to quickly identify content that is related and it’s easy to do as part of your content process. It only takes me a minute or two to think about the tags that are right for each podcast (or content piece) and it’s a great way to have a running grouping and mapping of your content, so I highly recommend adding this very easy step to your process, regardless of if you plan to create a narrative podcast.
Educate yourself on your content
If this is something you’d like to do and you don’t have a hand in the everyday creation of the podcast, make it a priority to listen to your podcast and digest the information and insights that are stated in those conversations. It’s always easier to identify opportunities and create better content when you are ingrained in what conversations are happening and the topics that are regularly covered. And, I honestly believe you will actually enjoy it and learn something new!
Don’t be afraid to pull in outside interviews
We talk a lot about reusing and remixing your podcast content. But you don’t have to only rely on your podcast. We talk about podcasts because you likely already have some amazing expertise, insights, and perspectives sitting in every episode, so why wouldn’t you start there? But there’s nothing wrong with chasing down leads or stories through other interviews. In fact, it’s something I regularly do (and I’m not the host of any of our podcasts). But I’ve had the opportunity to get some amazing ideas, insights, and expertise through interviewing customers, partners, and even marketers in our target market.
There you have it! This is how we created a narrative podcast from our existing interviews. It’s not our first time doing this, and I promise it won’t be our last! If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the episode, you can check it out here!
Interested in learning more about Casted? We're happy to set up some time to discuss how podcasting fits into your marketing strategy and if Casted can help you harness the power of your podcast and amplify it into your marketing strategy. Schedule a demo today.
