As someone who values privacy and social responsibility, I understand that cold outreach may not be the most ideal marketing channel for everyone. While it can be effective in certain situations, it can also be intrusive and potentially disruptive, and it puts the personal information of decision makers at risk.
However, I also recognize that cold outreach is a commonly used tactic, and it can be an effective way for startups to reach B2B decision makers.
That being said, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get the attention of B2B decision makers through cold outreach and other marketing channels such as SEO and organic social.
Therefore, if you’re looking for alternative ways to connect with decision makers in B2B companies, one option to consider is podcasting.
After reading this article, you’ll learn:
- The common tactics that startups use to reach B2B decision makers, and why they can be ineffective.
- Why podcasting is a more targeted and responsible approach to reaching B2B decision makers.
- How to use podcasting to effectively connect with B2B decision makers
What Most Startups do to Reach B2B Decision Makers and Why They’re Ineffective
If you’re like most startups, you might have tried reaching B2B decision makers through cold outreach, organic social and SEO, with no success.
Here is a brief overview of these channels and why this is the case.
Cold Outreach
Cold outreach is the most recommended way of reaching B2B decision makers.
To do this effectively, most companies hire dozens of SDRs and BDRs for cold calling and cold pitching.
And despite the time and resources spent on them, it rarely produces the desired result.
The screenshot below is proof.
As you can see, this co-founder says he has only responded to two out of over 5000 sales emails he has received in the last few years.
This means that if your email lands in his inbox, there’s only a 0.04% chance of him responding to it.
This shows why the cold emails you send to B2B decision makers haven’t led to the results you desire.
Here are some reasons for this:
- Decision makers are often busy. The last thing they want to do is read an unsolicited email.
- They’re the target of other B2B sellers. This means there’s a high possibility that they get tons of similar emails in their inbox. This further reduces the chances of yours being seen.
- Cold emails have a bad rep. This is not a factor of whether you can write the best cold email or not. They’re tagged as self-serving; hence, the thought of them sets people’s hormones raging. Yet, there’s almost nothing you can do about it.
- Even if you get into the 0.04% range, it can be further reduced by their readiness to purchase. Such that, when they become ready they forget that they once got an offer from you.
Organic Social
LinkedIn and Twitter are great places to find B2B decision makers. While seeing their posts and comments on your feed makes them seem easily accessible, it isn’t usually the case.
Here are some reasons:
- For LinkedIn, most decision makers don’t accept connection requests. You can only follow them. This reduces the chances of your post showing up on their feed or building a personal connection with them in the DM.
- Even when you connect with them, your chances of building a relationship are slim. Like emails, they most likely have several people trying to sell to them.
SEO
Investing in SEO is another option to explore when trying to reach B2B decision makers. That said, the downsides make it a strategy you should think twice about before going all in with it.
These include:
- SEO takes time and it’s uncertain. A quick Google search shows that it takes about 2- 6 months for a page to rank on Google.
This is a long time to wait if you’re a startup that wants to keep its revenue engine rolling.
What’s worse is that the time frame is mere speculation. Ranking on Google is determined by several factors that you have no control over. This is not the level of uncertainty to hinge your business on.
- SEO is expensive. To increase your chances of getting results from SEO you need to invest lots of money. The best SaaS SEO agencies charge around $5,000 monthly.
While this is similar to what it costs to hire a B2B Podcast agency, there’s a higher chance of reaching B2B decision makers faster with the latter.
As you can see, you shouldn’t depend solely on cold outreach, organic social, and SEO if your goal is to reach B2B decision makers.
Let’s dive into why podcasting is a viable alternative and why you should consider it.
Why it Makes Sense to Reach B2B Decision Makers Through Podcasts
If you’re like most startups, you might have tried reaching B2B decision makers through cold outreach, organic social, and SEO, with limited success.
While these marketing channels can be effective in some cases, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get the attention of B2B decision makers through them.
As someone who values privacy and social responsibility, I understand the drawbacks of using cold outreach as a marketing channel. Not only is it intrusive and potentially disruptive, it also puts the personal information of decision makers at risk.
That’s why I prefer to use alternative methods, such as inviting potential customers to be interviewed on my company’s podcast. Podcast interviews offer a more targeted and personal approach to reaching B2B decision makers, and have a higher response rate than cold emails. This allows me to build relationships with potential customers and better understand their needs and challenges, while also preserving their privacy.
In addition, inviting potential customers to be interviewed on my company’s podcast allows me to use other networking methods, such as social media direct messaging, more effectively. By establishing a relationship through a podcast interview, I can reach out to potential customers through social media while preserving their privacy and avoiding the negative reputation of cold outreach.
Overall, inviting potential customers to be interviewed on my company’s podcast is a more targeted, personalized, and responsible approach to reaching B2B decision makers, and allows me to build relationships and better understand the needs of my target audience.
A recent HubSpot report shows that marketers are not backing down from investing in Podcasts.
What does this mean?
Podcasting most likely has a direct impact on the bottom line.
The interview-based nature of most podcasts make it most desirable for reaching B2B decision makers, as it fosters value sharing and relationship building.
Here are other benefits of investing in podcasts as a B2B SaaS startup:
1. Higher Chance of Conversion
According to the Elderman B2B thought leadership report, 61% of decision makers believe that a company’s thought leadership is the most effective way to demonstrate value.
This shows how much decision makers appreciate thought leadership content. The direct and original nature of podcasts makes them the best form of content for showcasing thought leadership.
So, if you can show up consistently with this type of content, there’s a higher chance of influencing their buying decision.
2. Decision Making Doesn’t Feel Like a Transaction
Lots of times, demos are a sales death sentence. Asking a decision maker to request a demo at their first contact with your brand is outright salesy and can turn them off.
So, rather than sending an email and asking them to book a sales call or request for a demo, invite them as guests on your podcast and pitch the benefits to them.
This will most likely pique their interest and increase your chances of getting a yes because it’s a win-win situation.
This is because they get to showcase their knowledge and possibly talk about their brand. In turn, you’ll grow a deeper relationship that can lead to an organic demo request or signup.
3. Most Original and Impactful Type of Thought Leadership Content
Thought leadership content can come in the form of social, SEO, and podcast content.
However, podcasts are the most original form of them all. This is because, most times, SEO thought leadership content involves a middleman—the writer.
The writer collects the information and edits/formats it for grammar and/or SEO purposes. While there’s nothing wrong with this, I believe it takes away from the originality of the message.
Podcasts, on the contrary, skip the middleman step and give the thought leader the opportunity to pass the message in its rawest form.
Also, social content comes in bits and pieces. This makes it less impactful than long-form content like podcasts.
This, therefore, makes podcasts the most original and impactful medium for delivering thought leadership content.
4. Easy to Predict the Outcome of Your Outreach
Podcasts are more predictable. This is unlike SEO where you publish your content, wait for it to rank, and start praying that your target audience finds it valuable enough to make a decision.
Or social content where the reach is determined by an algorithm.
If you successfully invite a decision maker in your ICP to your show, there’s a higher chance of converting him/her to a customer.
5. Build Rapport with Your Target Audience Faster
As opposed to other ways of reaching B2B decision makers, podcasts make it possible to grow an instant connection between you and the listener. Here are the reasons why this is possible:
- No matter how engaging written words are, they can never sound as authentic as spoken words.
- SEO content puts you in a fix between pleasing a robot and a human. But with podcasts, your audience alone is top of mind.
- The way you sound conveys a message about your personality to the audience, and if it resonates with them, they’ll grow a likeness for you that can extend to your brand.
6. Most Convenient Form of Content Consumption for Decision Makers
The busy schedule of decision makers makes podcasts most convenient for them. Unlike written content where they have to dedicate some time and give full attention, they can juggle listening to podcasts with other tasks like driving.
This also makes it possible for them to listen to the podcast from start to finish and most likely take your call to action.
7. Easier to Build Authority
Most blog content pieces are ghostwritten. But for podcasts, ghostwriting is impossible.
Your listeners are certain that whoever is talking about the subject matter is the expert.
When your team and guests consistently show a high level of expertise, listeners begin to view your brand as an authority.
And once that happens, they’ll trust you more and be willing to take action.
With all this said, there’s no better time than now to join the 82% of marketers to reap the benefits of podcasting, especially if you desire to reach B2B decision makers.
So, how exactly do you go about it?
Here you go…
How to Reach Decision Makers With Podcasts: Forward Launch’s Interview-based Content System
At Forward Launch, we developed a 6-step framework for building ROI-driven podcasts for B2B startups.
Here is what they entail, plus a brief explanation of how we approach each one.
Step 1: Identify potential customers that would be highly beneficial for your company to target
This is an important step because it sets the groundwork for the type of content you will create and the types of guests you will invite to your show.
Step 2: Invite ideal customers to discuss topics related to their roles and industry
We pitch the unique benefits that your podcast offers to them and what you’d like them to share during the interview. We use our extensive network of contacts to make sure we get the best guests for your podcast.
Step 3: Interview target customers in a recorded format
This helps you to show credibility and authority in your niche, which will help you stand out in the competitive market.
Step 4: Build a relationship with your guests
If someone appears on your podcast, it gives you an opportunity to know more about them.
Our team shows you how to foster relationships in a very natural way, which could bring them into your sales cycle. You can as well use the content as an outreach tool to reach more people like them.
Step 5: Publish the interview content
We take care of editing, mixing, mastering, and other post-production processes to ensure that your podcast is of the highest quality.
We also handle the launch, hosting, and distribution of your podcast to your streaming channels.
Step 6: Repurpose the interview content into multiple formats
After launching the podcast, we help you repurpose and distribute it into different formats such as blog posts, social media posts, and video highlights.
This ensures that it reaches more people, increases visibility, and creates an aura of authority about your brand.
The Days of Struggling to Reach B2B Decision Makers are Over
I’m not asking you to ditch other ways of reaching B2B decision makers to focus solely on podcasts.
But, as you may have experienced, the results derived from these channels are low, slow, and unpredictable.
Podcasts, however, have shown to be the most promising. And if you don’t know, you only need to create a podcast once, and with a solid structure and template in place, inviting decision makers and getting them to close a sales cycle will be easy-peasy.
Sounds great but seems like too much work?
I get it!
Setting up an ROI-driven podcast can be overwhelming, and that’s why at Forward Launch, we take on all the hassle and use our highly-specialized process to create and present you with a fully-formed podcast in 3 weeks.
So, if you need help setting up a podcast designed to attract B2B decision makers from day one, or you want to optimize your existing podcast to attract decision-makers, click this link to schedule a discovery session.