Sometimes, running a B2B podcast can feel a bit like being a parent. You bring it to life, you nurture it, you want the best for it. It’s a lot of work, but it can be extremely rewarding, too.
Even though having a kid takes a massive commitment, many people don’t hesitate to do it all over again. What about having multiple podcast “babies”? More and more brands are creating podcast networks featuring multiple shows under one umbrella. Don’t worry — you don’t have to rush into a “Cheaper by the Dozen” situation just yet, but there are definite benefits to growing your podcast family.
Why Should You Build a Podcast Network?
There are a number of reasons a brand might choose to host more than one podcast. For the team at Drift, it was a no brainer to put out all the great content they wanted to share to multiple audiences.
“The need to have a network instead of just one show really evolved over time, and we just recognized as a company: we’re growing, we have a lot to share,” says Molly Sloan, Drift's Senior Manager of Marketing Communications and manager of the Hypergrowth Podcast Network. “Why only have one show when there [are] a lot of different people that we could speak to?”
For some, having a network of shows allows for:
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- Appealing to more audiences. With more topics covered (from lifestyle/culture to practitioning), you can appeal to more listeners within a particular industry, drawing in a larger audience as a whole.
- Lead nurturing. Brands can create a content funnel to pull listeners and prospective customers further into engagement by offering them supplemental content to something they already enjoyed.
- Niche content marketing. When you have shows with separate themes, you can drill down deeper on more topics, providing content to your listeners that’s relevant and unavailable anywhere else.
The Riches Are (Often) in the Niches
Why are brands beginning to focus more on niche audiences? The intimacy of conversations in podcasting allows for greater control of the message, allowing brands to better connect with smaller portions of their audience, including potential employees, customers focused on a particular product, and everyone in between.
Our good friend — author, speaker, and podcaster extraordinaire Jay Baer — knows the value of a niche audience, so much so that he’s willing to forfeit larger listener groups. While his show, Social Pros, could serve all social media practitioners, its main intent is to reach social media managers at large enterprises. (And it does a damn good job at it, we’d say!)
"One of the only smart things I think we've ever done is to say we're going to do a show that nobody else has done and then stick to our knitting, right?" Jay shares. "Not try and make it broader or acceptable to small businesses or everybody else. So what happens is that we have a lot of listeners, and we're grateful for each and every one of them, but we don't have as many as we could if we wanted to make a show for all people who do social media. But we don't. It's a show only for people who are in big companies who are doing social media at scale. We're perfectly okay with that. That sort of fundamental understanding of who you are and who your show serves is irreplaceable."
Expanding Your Network
Is a podcast network right for everyone? Not necessarily. Like any digital marketing digital marketing strategy, it depends on your brand.
A few things to consider:
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- What are your goals/reasons for adding another show?
- Does your team have the bandwidth to produce and promote another podcast?
- Do you have the available content, experts, and guest base to warrant a new show?
- Do you have enough listeners who would subscribe?
While important, these questions are meant to set you up for success, not scare you away. A podcast network can be extremely beneficial for your brand, allowing you to further segment and personalize audio content for your audiences. We’ve seen it happen time and time again.
Take it from these podcast networks who are killing it right now:
Hubspot
One of the best examples of show expansion is the HubSpot podcast network. From marketing skills to culture/lifestyle to professional development, Hubspot has an array of shows to pique the interest of any marketer.
Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab has four different shows, which they use to reach different audiences — or alternatively, to reach the same audience in different moments of receptivity. Now that’s some thoughtful marketing right there!
Drift
According to Molly Sloan, Drift’s team of passionate, talented subject matter experts have a lot to share with their respective audiences, prompting not two, not three, but five podcasts under the brand.
Salesforce
From storytelling to key trends, Salesforce has a podcast for just about every target market. With so many podcasts (and so many products) they can create content that pertains to their different audiences spanning across numerous industries and job titles.
Still Not Sure You're Ready for More?
If you’re hesitant to really consider creating a B2B podcast network, Molly suggests doing some research and floating the idea by your company’s influencers.
And most of all, do a quick gut check — are you really ready for another show?
“For us, podcasts are a really great way to connect with our audience and a lot of different people,” Molly says. “Podcasts [allow people to demonstrate] that they’re interested in your content. We want to give content to the people who want our content.”
Know it’s right for your brand, but think a podcast network would be just too much work on your plate? Casted makes it easy to cater to your audience with an all-in-one platform that lets you schedule episodes (for however many shows you run), transcribe and create clips for promotion and follow-up, and capture deep analytics that help you understand your listeners better than ever. Let’s get growing!
