5 Departments in Your Company That Will Benefit from Podcasting
Hey everyone, I’m Jason Gillikin, CEO of Earfluence, and I’ll be giving a Tech Tuesday talk on January 21, 2020 on How to Start a Podcast.
I’m so excited to share with you how it can be done, but before we get to that, you’re probably wondering if podcasting is something you should be investing your time in. With so much on your plate already, you’re concerned that it’s just one more thing you have to do.
However, I’m here to tell you that not only is podcasting fun, if done the right way, it is a powerful strategic advantage over your competitors who haven’t taken the time yet to press the record button!
So let’s look at the 5 departments who will benefit from podcasting. If you’re a solopreneur or a small business, these departments are more like hats that you wear every day that will benefit!
- Public Relations. Our motto at Earfluence is “Amplify Your Expertise”, and PR is all about spreading the expertise that YOU have to the rest of the world. Podcasting makes it easy to show that you have the industry knowledge to make current clients realize they made the right decision, and make potential clients wonder why they haven’t been working with you already. Plus, if you’re looking to expand your personal or company brand into teaching, speaking, or consulting opportunities, podcasting provides a means for that path as well.
- Business Development. Sales become easier to make when a prospect already knows who you are and has become familiar with your expertise. They know your story, they know your career path, and they know what problems you’ve solved for similar clients.
If they haven’t listened to any of your podcast yet, you can send them specific episodes in the sales process! For example, we’re working on a podcast series for a marketing agency that hasn’t been released yet. Some of the episodes are already produced, and that agency is sending them to prospects so they can get a better sense of who they’re working with. And they can do it at their convenience!
Plus the secret part of podcasting is that it’s an amazing opportunity to have conversations with prospects (or even current clients) that you wouldn’t get to have on a normal day. To ask a prospect for an hour of their time for a sales meeting feels much more obtrusive than asking them to be on your podcast. All of a sudden you have the same type of conversation, but now they’re much more comfortable in having the future next steps in the sales process.
- Human Resources. Yes, Human Resources. Podcasting is an amazing opportunity to recruit talent to your company. If you’re hiring, you have a platform to let people know! And the recruits who are listening already know your personality and are much more comfortable working with you. Plus you know that if they are interested in your company, and they’ve listened to the podcast, they’ve done their homework.
Also, podcasting is a great way to involve employees. They are likely experts at what they do as well, and bringing them on to share that expertise is an easy way to build loyalty and camaraderie. Or, if you’re a larger company, you could even create an entire podcast that’s devoted to profiling your employees. Each week, a new employee is profiled so the whole company learns more about that person. Employees would listen, learn something about their colleagues, and all of a sudden you will have created a huge potential recruiting tool.
- Research and Development. When podcasting, your listeners will tell you what they want. What stories do they want you to tell? What problems do they have, and how have you solved those problems before? This information is not only great for coming up with podcast content, you now have an understanding of what your clients want from you.
- Marketing. One of the best reasons to podcast is it’s an easy way to create evergreen content. The podcast episodes that you create will be around for years, and your clients will seek out topics covered from old episodes. Plus, podcast content can be re-purposed into blog posts, pull-quotes, video content, and social media posts. Getting your podcast out there on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Google Podcasts, and all of the podcast apps is great, but there are so many more opportunities to use that content to get in front of your audience.
Also, with your podcasting platform, you have another way to let everyone know about a new product you have coming out, or that you’re hiring, or that you’re putting together an event that the listeners can attend. With podcasting, you already have the audience to easily get the word out, and you don’t necessarily have to pay other channels to let your clients know what’s going on in your business.
So that’s 5 departments (5!) that can benefit from building just one podcast. From here, I hope you’re ready to take advantage of a rapidly expanding medium that your competitors are not.
As far as how to do it, I hope to see you at the Shop Local Raleigh Tech Tuesday on January 21, 2020 at Gateway Plaza Raleigh.
