Quick — if you could invite anyone to dinner (dead or alive), who would it be? Seriously, ponder a bit.
You might have chosen a celebrity, historic figure, or maybe a loved one you lost. Either way, the choice you made isn’t just about who they are, is it? Rather, it’s the chance to sit down with that person … to get up close and personal and to connect, interact, and learn.
Conversations hold incredible power. They motivate, they ignite, they mitigate, they empower, they comfort, and they educate. (And that’s only the beginning!)
And through the magic of brand podcasts, we now have the opportunity to disseminate conversations like never before. To build that intimate connection that great conversations do — and to do it at scale. If only every marketer would harness this goodness, they could use conversations to fuel content to grow their brand and build loyal followers.
Where Does Your Content Come From?
Too often, content strategy is developed in a vacuum — in the fluorescence of a conference room with a small group of people scrambling to plan next quarter’s content. (I can hear the whiteboard markers squeaking already!) Brainstorming has its time and place, for sure, but let’s take a look at how a few other companies choose to leverage conversations to fill content calendars instead.
Bayley Dietz: Create an Expert Network
The team at OpenView knows the value of great relationships. In fact, they’ve made it a point to have at least one expert contact at nearly every software company you can think of. And not just the kind of lukewarm contact you email when you need something. Nope, these are real relationships they’ve spent time cultivating, building, and nurturing, establishing a vast network of thought leaders across the industry to share with and gather expertise from.
But as you probably know, getting people to sit down and write a guest blog or partner for a webinar is easier said than done. So, what do they have time for? A good conversation.
Enter brand podcasts for the win.
“We were able to easily grab those interviewees...and from there, we were able to create content pieces,” says Bayley Dietz, Senior Marketing Manager at OpenView. “It’s not just putting things on our blog, but taking people from our network and giving our community an access point to these [contacts] we already had.”
Sangram Vajre: Cultivate Return on Relationships
Sangram Vajre, co-founder and chief evangelist at Terminus, first launched the FlipMyFunnel brand podcast in 2018 when he realized the conversations he was naturally having with peers held nuggets of pure gold for marketers. With a strategy as simple as pushing record at the start of his chats, Sangram began one of the most organic (and successful) podcasts to date.
Sure, launching a full-blown podcast sometimes takes a backseat to other initiatives with more immediate ROI. But as a long-term medium, podcasting is more about what Sangram calls ROR—“return on relationships.”
Since starting FlipMyFunnel, he has interviewed hundreds of guests, including big industry players like Seth Godin, Daniel Pink, and Nancy Duarte. In addition to sparking new relationships, the podcast has also lent career lessons, speaking invitations, and professional growth Sangram wouldn’t have gained otherwise.
“[ROR is] greater than any amount of ROI you could create from any marketing or company campaign,” he says.
Zachary Ballenger: Bring Thought Leaders to the Table
In a previous life, our fearless Casted co-founder, Zachary Ballenger, was an enterprise sales rep for a small company. As powerful as it was to have the company’s brilliant founder at his side to help close deals, it was simply unrealistic to expect a single individual to be present across the entire team’s deals.
Now at Casted, Zachary knows there’s an easier way. With podcasts, brands can share the most poignant pieces from conversations with dynamic thought leaders to prospects and existing customers with ease.
“Imagine a growing sales team leveraging their founders, thinkers, and entertainers AT SCALE,” he says. “This ability to broadcast innovative brilliance en masse is exactly how you spread knowledge and allow your account execs and SDRs to speed up sales cycles and increase close rates.”
Turning Conversations into Content
Once you capture the voice of a thought leader, there’s no limit to how you can repurpose its message. Through transcription, audio clips, and embedding, conversations can be turned into:
- Numerous blog posts
- Social posts
- Creative campaigns
- Clips for email
- Videos
- Audiograms
- Ebooks
Instead of brainstorming yet another list of potential new deliverables out of thin air, start with what your audience wants. Consider the topics your customers and prospects care about most. What’s keeping them up at night? What can’t they get enough of? What do they desperately need to know? Now, map those topics to the network of thought leaders your team has built. Then, set up the conversation — and press record.
Where there’s a conversation, there’s magic...and an endless stream of content. So, what are you waiting for? Start cooking up the conversations your audience is hungry for … then watch the ROI (or ROR, rather) roll in.
______
Can you tell we’re a little obsessed with conversations? At Casted, we help you bring the brilliance of industry thought leaders straight to your audience through our brand podcasting platform. When you record rich dialogue, it opens doors to a whole world of marketing content that you can use to attract prospects, keep customers engaged, and develop new relationships with other industry experts. Let us show you how! Chat with us to schedule a free demo today.
Read more from Casted:
