Roughly half of all homes in America are fans of podcasts, and 24% are listening to podcasts on a weekly basis (an astounding 68 million people). Another 16 million are avid podcast fans.
This is all quite impressive and proves the value of having a B2B podcast. But (and that’s a big but), when you look at competitive numbers, you’ll see another side you can’t ignore. There are more than 1.7 million podcasts and over 43 million episodes. As Dan Misener from Pacific Content puts it: “The competition is everything else that somebody could choose to spend their time and attention on.”
That’s a ton of competition (aka noise) to try and shout through. Right now, you may be thinking—“ok, so how do I build an audience in a crowded podcast marketplace?”
What we recommend you do instead is simple: build a podcast for your audience by niching down. This is the answer to finding your corner in a highly saturated market and achieving your goals. So let’s dive into this a bit deeper to see how you can find a niche for your B2B podcast.
How Going Niche Can Help Your B2B Podcast Succeed
One of the most important questions to ask yourself about your podcast is who is it serving. If you answer that question by saying “everyone” then your show is bound to fail. I mean hey, even the most popular entertainment podcasts don’t appeal to everyone. I’m guessing that you’re starting to understand the point I’m hinting at.
You have a target audience for your business, so why wouldn’t you have a target audience for your podcast? Your product isn’t for everyone, and your show doesn’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) either.
If you want to create a show that really speaks to your audience and engages them, you need to find the content, pain points, topics, and questions that speak directly to those individuals you want to target. If you focus too high and broad, you risk losing your target audience to another show that covers the same topics.
If you take the time to dig deeper into a more niche area of your expertise, you’ll have a greater opportunity to serve your audience in a way that no one else is and really capture their attention.
Tap into Your Existing Audience
The good news is you can talk to your existing audience, find out what information they really want to hear from you, as an expert, and use that information to guide the creation of your podcast. It will allow you to create a niche for yourself, and really appeal to your target audience. This makes it easier for you to build visibility in the overall podcast sphere, and increase interest in yourself and your guests as experts.
With a niche podcast, you can separate and rise above what’s already out there, which means less competition for your audience’s attention. By giving your listeners content on topics they find intriguing and can’t find anywhere else, you can turn them from passive listeners to community members and avid fans.
And guess what avid fans do—they promote the heck out of the brands they love. Your podcast will be seen as a trusted authority, which will make it easier to grow your audience .
How to Find a Niche for Your B2B Podcast
So how do you go about niching your podcast channel? Well, it all starts with asking the right questions:
1. Who is the audience we want to serve?
2. How can we build a show specifically for them (that only we could)?
3. What stories can we tell that no one else can?
4. What will our perspective/point of view be that will be unique to us?
5. What guests can we have on our show that few (or no one) have access to?
6. What do we know about our audience and their desires?
7. How are they currently being served, and how can we create something highly differentiated?
With the answers to these questions, you can start to see areas of your field you can hone into. The idea is to put your audience first. As Dan Misener said, “I believe very, very strongly that before you can make a show, you really need to understand the who, who are you trying to reach with this show?” Creating a podcast idea and then trying to build an audience around it is backward thinking.
Your potential listeners can listen to whatever they want, whenever they want, especially with all the options available. So before you begin building your show, you want to conduct research and listen. See what it is they’re looking for that you could provide.
This is also the time to figure out your why. What is the purpose of your podcast? Is it to:
● Entertain, inform, or educate your audience (or a mix)?
● Cater to a particular age or gender group?
● Sell a product/service?
● Get support for a specific cause?
● Build exposure to other content or medium you own?
Having clear goals will ensure you target the right audience and content/topics. Plus, it’ll help to determine which metrics to monitor to determine the success of your podcast. And more importantly, it’ll define your podcast’s function to ensure it aligns with your creative process (and desired results).
You’ll also find it easier to identify the best format for your B2B podcast. For example, you can choose to do one-on-one interviews or have free-flowing conversations among a group of guests and co-hosts. There are different ways you can approach your podcast, depending on your audience, niche, and topics.
The Bottom Line
Creating a niche B2B podcast may initially shrink your audience reach, but it’ll ensure that you’ll be connecting with your target audience, the folks who are most likely to become advocates of your show and ultimately your brand. What’s the point of having hundreds of thousands of indifferent listeners when you can have thousands of fanatics?
You can achieve this using the above tips and the right tools. At Casted, we help B2B podcasters collaborate with teams, upload and publish episodes, and transform podcasts into other content forms, such as video (i.e., audiograms), blogs, and social posts.
If you’d like to amplify your niche B2B podcast (and attribute it to conversions), then Casted may be for you. But there’s only one way to find out—schedule a demo with us today!
