Marketing expert Tom Denford says that the appeal of creating a B2B podcast is the ability for it to act as a marketing and business development rather than a revenue generating activity.
The CEO and co-founder of global growth consultancy ID Comms - who also co-hosts the live weekly business podcast #MediaSnack - discussed the marketing benefits of podcasting and its role in building brand awareness in the latest episode of PodPod.
“We don't run ads, we don't take sponsors, and frankly, we don't have the size of the audience in it in order to do that anyway because it's pretty niche,” said Denford. “But I know that I can fly across the world into a conference somewhere, walk into a conference room, and somebody will come up and say, ‘Oh, you're the guy off that #MediaSnack show’.”
Denford also emphasised the benefits of B2B podcasts in building familiarity and trust with an audience as well as convincing senior and executive guests in the same space to come on the show. According to Denford, the easier the format is to understand, the more likely they will say yes to making an appearance.
“People who would normally never give you the time of day, suddenly, when it comes to a podcast are much more willing to actually sit down and chat much more than they would be for another project or a written interview,” said Denford. “They will come on, because they see previous guests, and they know the format so we use the podcast to get access to some people that might not normally take a meeting.”
For example, the standard format of a #MediaSnack Meets episode - in which Denford speaks to industry leaders that are driving growth in the global media and marketing industry - is to ask the six same questions, which takes 15 minutes and creates a safe and trustworthy environment. This is similar to other podcasts with stricter formats such as Daft Doris Productions’ daily current affairs podcast The Smart 7 with Jamie East - who appeared on a previous PodPod episode - which reports seven news stories, in seven minutes at 7am.
Denford also spoke about the show’s transition from a pre-recorded YouTube podcast to streaming live weekly across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch. As a way to be more efficient with time management, live streaming only takes half an hour out of the day without the need to be edited and thoroughly pre-planned - plus it has the benefit of being more authentic and inclusive of the audience.
“Our driven mission as a business is to help serve brands by encouraging us all to better kind of collective understanding and collective action,” said Denford. “Instead of it being Tom and David on a pre-recorded YouTube show just preaching about some trend, why don't we have more people just participate in this, because if we hear each other's voices more, and if we hear different sides of the argument or different perspectives, maybe we get a better understanding, maybe we can be a better industry.”
