When I started Forward Launch Digital, I had no intention of offering podcast creation and marketing services. Initially, all I wanted to do was to help SaaS businesses handle the strategy side of their content marketing engine.
So, I would develop their content strategy in an excel sheet and provide extra guidance on the type of content to create, where, and when to publish.
But most of my clients weren’t satisfied and wanted more. Rather than handling the strategy part, they wanted a holistic approach to content marketing.
That means handling everything from content strategy, content creation, content distribution, and measurement.
Since this was a full stretch beyond my initial offering, I had to decide:
Is a content marketing agency the next leap for me?
I deliberated heavily for months and decided to look at what’s lacking in the industry rather than becoming another “me-too” content marketing agency with no unique value proposition.
And that led me to uncover some of the core areas B2B SaaS companies were struggling with and some gaps that I could fill:
Here are some of the key gaps that I identified.
Gap 1: B2B SaaS Startups Want Guaranteed Meetings with Key Decision Makers
It’s challenging to connect with key decision makers in most companies. Connect requests or DMs on LinkedIn rarely work. While cold emails hardly generate responses.
B2B SaaS companies are yet to crack the code regarding networking with decision makers. This leads to a longer sales cycle and contract breakdowns.
Gap 2: SaaS Startups Struggle to Create Expert-level Content
How many B2B decision makers book demo calls after reading a blog post? Not many. When done well, thought leadership content could drive signups for B2B SaaS companies.
But most so-called “thought-leadership content” ranking on the first page of Google doesn’t meet the expectation of readers.
And that’s enforced by Edelman, which reported in 2021 that 71% of decision makers claimed that less than half of the thought leadership content they read offered valuable insights.
While Google has waged a war on low-quality content with the helpful content update, we still cross paths with more poor-quality content than high-quality ones.
Why is that so?
The reason is simple.
It’s difficult and expensive to create expert-level content. Not only that, finding expert writers who have industry expertise and can speak to your target niche is hard.
An excellent example of such a mismatch could happen if a company like Hotjar decided to outsource its content creation to freelance writers.
For context, Hotjar is a web analytics tool that provides visual insights into how readers interact with the pages on your website. Hotjar’s users are expert content marketers. They have advanced questions about heatmaps and how to uncover optimization opportunities.
Therefore, it would be a disaster for them to hire writers who have no content marketing experience nor understand how heatmaps work.
Unfortunately, this is the path most B2B SaaS companies take.
The result…
They create regurgitated content pieces that fail to offer readers any unique insight.
Gap 3: B2B Companies Want to Shorten their Sales Cycle
According to Hubspot, it takes an average of 84 days for customers to go from leads to closed deals. Unfortunately, most businesses aren’t willing to wait for that long anymore.
The pressure is on sales teams to double down on outreach efforts as they attempt to shorten the sales cycle.
While the marketing team is continuously creating content to generate traffic that leads to conversions.
With these discoveries, it didn’t make sense to go ahead with building another content marketing agency. Hence, I had to think of an alternative content format that could help B2B SaaS startups close all 3 gaps:
- Book guaranteed meetings
- Create expert-level content
- Shorten sales cycle
From my analysis, an interview-based podcast was the only option that provided these three-fold benefits. So, I decided to pivot into an interview-based B2B SaaS Podcast Agency.
To offer an excellent service to my clients, I had to research more about the nuances of the industry, and here was what I found:
My Discovery: Why B2B SaaS Startups Struggle with Podcasting
Podcast creation remains a viable revenue source for B2B SaaS startups, yet, only a few companies are utilizing it to its fullest.
After interviewing several SaaS founders, here are some of the reasons why podcasting isn’t their favorite content marketing channel:
1. Time-consuming and labor-intensive
Launching a Podcast is similar to starting a blog. It involves a lot of moving parts such as:
- Podcast channel design: To customize the podcast to suit your branding, you’ll create the cover art, professional image, and webpage mockup.
- Scheduling setup: To add guests seamlessly to your calendar, you must create a scheduling system.
- Copywriting assets: You need voice overs, episode intros and outros, podcast trailers, and ad copy to promote each episode
And lots more.
Putting all of this together will take months if you decide to create them in-house.
2. Inconsistency: Starts but doesn’t record enough episodes to keep going
Launching a Podcast is easy but keeping it going is hard.
According to Podcast Industry Insights, only 39.73% of Podcasts on Apple Podcasts have 10+ episodes.
This shows that most companies that launch podcasts, don’t ever record up to 10 episodes, before calling it quits.
This happens because most marketing teams launch podcasts without a clear goal, while others cease production once they struggle to attract listeners.
3. Failure to attract the right guests
Your Podcast is as good as the guests you interview. If your goal is to drive revenue from podcasting, having the right guests helps you add qualified prospects to your sales pipeline, which increases your chances of conversion.
SaaS companies often miss the mark in terms of attracting the right prospects. As a result, they fill their podcast pipeline with guests who have zero buying intent.
4. Podcasting effort doesn’t drive revenue growth
If done right, you can go from a podcast guest to a closed deal in a few hours or days. Yet, most B2B brands find it difficult to see the impact of podcasting on their revenue.
These and many more are some of the reasons B2B SaaS startups fail to successfully launch a podcast or abandon it midway, even if they actually get started.
Our Process for Creating ROI-driven Podcasts for B2B SaaS Startups
Podcast creation is a time-consuming task. So, we developed a holistic approach to it.
That way, we take the stress of creation off your shoulders.
All you need to do is show up and interview the guests.
Here’s the 8-step process that we use to make this possible:
Step 1: Strategy call
Every Podcast creation process starts with understanding the ICP. Our initial strategy call helps us know your target audience and pain points. We also brainstorm content and branding ideas to ensure that your podcast is appealing to listeners.
Step 2: Define show concept
We dive deep into the why behind the podcast and its unique identity. At this stage, we help you to nail down the show name, episode length and publishing cadence.
Step 3: Create show collaterals
This is where the real work begins. The goal here is to set up and launch your podcast. This includes developing the key components like cover art, music selection, and hosting account setup.
Step 4: Copywriting
We generate a benefit-driven copy that highlights the value proposition of your podcast and differentiates it from competitors.
This includes creating the show description, intro copy, outro copy, Ad copy, and the introduction episode.
Step 5: Scheduling setup
We will also help you set up a scheduling system on Calendly that adds meetings to your calendar whenever guests make a booking. We’ll also draft the questions that the guests will answer before scheduling an interview with you.
Step 6: Reminders and follow-up
We set up an email follow-up system that sends reminders plus meeting briefs to inform the guests of key talking points, so they are prepared for the interview.
Step 7: Interview Scripts
We generate scripts to help you come up with insightful questions before, during, and after the interview. That way, you’ll engage the guest and never run out of questions to ask them.
Step 8: Distribute Podcast Content
Every podcast is as good as the listens it gets. Our distribution strategy includes repurposing podcast content into SEO blog posts, and sharing it as a newsletter to your audience.
Let’s Help You Create an Interview-based Podcast for Your B2B SaaS Startup
As you can see, creating podcasts is a tedious and time-consuming task. However, with the right strategy and processes in place, you can reduce the sales cycle of your B2B startup and generate leads from them in no time.
If you want to launch an ROI-driven podcast, we’d love to help you.
My agency offers a 6-step process that simplifies the podcast creation process and drives remarkable growth for B2B SaaS startups. If you’d like to work with us, click here to book a free discovery call, and I’ll get in touch with more details.