Podcast Marketing Tactics

Promoting your podcast on social media doesn't work. At least not in the traditional sense. But still, it seems like we all go through the same stages when it comes to trying to drive listenership to our shows: Stage 1: Post a link and episode summary Stage 2: Post a clip from the show Stage 3: Realize stages 1 and 2 don't actually drive scaleable listenership Stage 4: ??? You see, the issue is that for most people we're not compelling enough to have a 60-second clip from a 60-minute episode do well on social without any additional context. Put Shaq or Elon Musk and a clip and people are instantly intrigued, but two guys talking about sports business (sorry Jake Kranz), there's no appeal without additional context. That's why I've been focusing a lot on this "Stage 4" for our show, Sportonomics, and I've quickly realized it should probably be the first thing people try. That is: When trying to promote your show, create a piece of content that INCLUDES a clip from the episode but doesn't exclusively feature it. Let me give you an example. Last week, I interviewed Brian Davison, MBA, former Nike and Milwaukee Bucks Executive. Instead of just clipping out 30 seconds from our hour-long conversation, I made a TikTok that talked about a broader topic and included that 30-second clip as supporting evidence for the video. If you were just scrolling through TikTok you might think it was just a regular video on basketball shoes, but towards the end you realize that it's actually a single topic from a much longer conversation about sports marketing, starting a career in sports, and experiences working in the NBA. All embedded into a video with much more context than just "Here's some random guy talking about basketball shoes." If you're curious, here's the video: https://lnkd.in/g3V5GH3F And here's the full episode on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g9EFKskr And Apple Podcast: https://lnkd.in/gXxDXjVE #sportsbusiness #sportsmarketing #linkedinsports #sportspodcast

Free game for anyone who wants it… especially B2B brands and solopreneurs struggling to get noticed. There’s a massive opportunity in audio content that most people are sleeping on: dropping a podcast the same way a hip-hop artist releases an album. Here’s how one play helped a SaaS brand go from invisible to everywhere… I had a B2B SaaS client who was struggling with reach… low organic traffic, poor SEO, and content that wasn’t landing. Every quarter, I pitched the same play: stop overthinking it. Don’t start a never-ending podcast. Just drop a content album. One audio series. 12 to 15 interviews or solo episodes, recorded in a week, then released all at once across Spotify, Apple, Google… every major platform (think Drake or Kendrick when they drop a surprise album). Free distribution that keeps working long after launch. They pushed back. “It doesn’t meet the immediate needs of the business.” Fair… no single piece of content fixes years of inconsistent marketing. But here’s what it did do: it created a ripple effect that shifted their entire organic presence. Every episode had backlinks, keywords, and CTAs baked into the show notes. And because platforms like Spotify and Apple index episodes publicly, their brand started showing up in places it never had before. Guests shared the episodes. Their sales team used the content in outbound. Newsletter click-throughs jumped. Most importantly… their site started ranking. No paid traffic. No endless blog grind. Just an audio album dropped like a mixtape… and suddenly they had momentum again. Here’s the kicker: B2B decision-makers are 3x more likely to listen to podcasts weekly than the average internet user. Why? Because audio fits into their day… commutes, workouts, flights. While others chase social reach, your voice is in their ears when they’re actually paying attention. And you don’t even need to be the star. Interview thought leaders… they’ll likely share it with their audience. That’s built-in distribution. Clip it for social. Drop it in your newsletter. Use it in sales. Interview clients, prospects… even customers of your competitors. People love talking about themselves. Give them the mic, and they’ll do the marketing for you. If you’re a solopreneur, this is a no-brainer. You don’t need to spend months or tens of thousands writing a book. Just record an audio series… 12 episodes, 12 chapters. Same impact. Faster to produce. Built to last. Most people overcomplicate content. They think if it’s not weekly, it’s not worth doing. But ask yourself… if you were writing a book, would you release one chapter a week for two years? Of course not. You’d drop the whole thing. That’s what this is. A digital book, in audio form. A moment… not a marathon. If it works in music, it can work in B2B. Whoever does it first will look like the leader. If you’re ready to run this play, let’s talk.

One thing I will never understand is why brands think recording a podcast at their booth is a content strategy. Walk any HR or TA conference floor right now. Every. Single. Booth. Has. A. Podcast. Setup. Same branded backdrop. Same uncomfortable bar stools. Same forced 20-minute interviews that nobody asked for. Congrats. You're now booth #47 doing the exact same thing as everyone else. Here's what kills me: You spent an extra $30K to stand out. Then copied what everyone else is doing. Recording a podcast at your booth isn't a content strategy. It's a checkbox. And don't get me wrong - I absolutely record podcasts at booths. Love them. Do them all the time. But here's the difference: I don't let those interviews die as 12 podcast episodes you post once and forget. One 20-minute conversation becomes: → 6-12 short-form video clips → 8-10 LinkedIn posts → 3 newsletter stories → 2 case study angles → Content that serves every stage of your funnel All aligned to your content goals. All interesting to your ICP. All working while you sleep. Meanwhile, the content goldmine is walking right past your podcast setup: BEFORE: Build anticipation. Give people a reason to find you. DURING: Capture the moments between the interviews. AFTER: Turn those conversations into content that closes deals. I turn 3 conference days into 3 months of content. Not 3 forgotten podcast episodes. Your booth podcast should be the beginning of your content strategy, not the end of it. The brands that get it? They hire me to turn 3 days into 3 months of content. The math isn't hard. 💖

Here’s how our new Director of Content Marketing 100x’s our podcast audience. When we were interviewing people for our Director of Content Marketing role at Databox, I had one thing on my criteria list that was non-negotiable. Someone who eats, sleeps, drinks and dreams about processes! As I've written about a million times now, I believe content marketing needs to be multi-format, multi-perspective & multi-channel in order to be effective these days. (Read here to fully grok my argument and framework: https://lnkd.in/ekgYcxEH) To pull off “multi-3x” content consistently and efficiently, I knew we needed a really tight process. We've always prioritized processes on the marketing team at Databox. When John Bonini led all of marketing here at Databox, he nicknamed our process "Content flow" because our process has always involved repurposing content. Before Jeremiah Rizzo moved over to lead our product marketing function, he implemented a solid process for turning podcasts into playbooks and blog posts. But when we hired Ali Orlando Wert for the aforementioned role, I knew we were getting someone who would bring us up a few levels. Here’s what Ali has done to take our podcast repurposing to the next level here at Databox 👇 🎙️ 𝟭 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 becomes... • 1 video podcast episode on YouTube • 2-3 short video clips (YouTube Shorts + LinkedIn-native video) • 1 long-form newsletter sent to 15k+ subscribers • 1 long-form 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 blog post (that includes how to do something in our product) • 1 guest blog post on the guest’s website (if willing) • 5-10 social assets (quotes, audiograms, clips, images) • 1 toolkit for the guest to share across their channels    To make this process efficient, she built a CustomGPT that prompts her (and her team) through the full content flow and auto-generates a first draft of the content (to be human edited, of course).  Because we're starting with original thoughts, AI is amazing for repurposing it while keeping that originality. But, the real reason to do all of this: increased reach. By leveraging our podcast across 6+ channels, it gets significantly more reach than the podcast recording alone. Here’s some stats from a recent podcast 👇 • Our podcast-derived content got 𝟭𝟯𝟬𝘅 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 than our podcast downloads • My Linkedin posts alone drove 𝟯𝟯𝘅 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲  • Our newsletter routinely achieves 𝟱𝟬%+ 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 with thousands of readers All from one conversation. If you’re not doing a podcast because “it’s hard to get reach” on the podcast platform, you’re thinking about it wrong. The podcast is the basis for content across all platforms. You just need to build a 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 that 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵. If you need an example, check the comments.

A podcast might get 1,000 views on the full-length episode. But if you can get one clip that goes viral and gets millions of views… All of a sudden everyone's seeing their face, their name, and they check out the long-form content. That's exactly what happened when I started making clips for the All-in Podcast back in 2021. I would find the best moments from their two-hour episodes and turn them into short-form videos. People weren't doing this back then. Now it's the game, you need short-form content to get people to the long-form content. I started a TikTok account without asking permission. Within one month, this fan account grew to 30,000 followers. All of a sudden, the hosts were messaging me asking "who are you? Are you human?" The strategy works because one viral clip can reach a massive audience that would never sit through a full two-hour podcast. But when they see that 30-second clip, they get curious about who these people are and want more. My friend and I turned this into a media agency where we do this for other podcasters. We find the best moments, make great clips, and get people to check out their long-form content. It's the difference between hoping 1,000 people find your full episode versus guaranteeing millions see your best ideas in bite-sized form.

If you’re repurposing podcast clips for TikTok, Reels, Shorts....stop wasting time on graphics. We’ve edited 1,000 repurposed clips from podcasts, youtube videos, etc. We’ve tried all kinds of fancy stuff—adding motion graphics, custom animation, b-roll, subtitling, etc… All in an effort to help the video perform. But when we look at the data, adding graphics only has a minor impact on the performance of a clip on TikTok/Reels/Shorts, if any. By far the most important factor is *clip selection* A well-selected clip with no graphics will outperform a poorly selected clip loaded with graphics every time. Clip selection means... - Choosing the best soundbite - Militantly cutting out fluff + filler - Curating the right opening moment Prioritize these tasks in your workflow. Also, add subtitles (they're the one critical graphic). Everything else is lower priority. This is not to say don’t add graphics—they can absolutely enhance the video and help your content stand out in a field of sameness. But they also can suck up 90%+ of editing time… Just remember the higher ROI activity is choosing the right clip to begin with.