Let's Hear it For the Boy

Welcome to The Beat by Rockstar CMO. I’m Ian Truscott, a CMO, trusted advisor, strategy consultant and Chief Bottle Washer at Rockstar CMO. In this newsletter, I’d like to share a mix of what’s caught my eye from our community, our podcast and our street knowledge blog.

Hello there!

This week, I want to talk about podcasts and, specifically, an interview with a friend of Rockstar CMO, Keith Smith, and the boss of the Marketing Podcast Network (and author, podcast, my go-to bourbon aficionado, and speaker), Jason Falls.

You’ll find a link to the full episode on Keith’s The Fuel Podcast below, and both Rockstar CMO and The Fuel Podcast are part of the Marketing Podcast Network.

And, if you open this regularly, firstly, thank you, and secondly, you’ll know that the subject line comes from a song, best email practice be damned, and what could be more fitting than the 80’s classic from Deniece Williams, “Let’s Hear it for the Boy.”

Maybe a track for remote marketing workers, as getting your marketing mojo working to this might be a private guilty pleasure, judging by the look my wife just gave me. :-)

Anyhow… back to the topic.

Yes…. we’ve reached peak podcast…. and god knows topping the charts of marketing suggestions other executives make, aside from “make the logo bigger,” “do more videos,” and “get on Tikface” is……..

“we need a podcast”

But do we?

I was asked that once on a podcast, and I’ll include a link to that conversation in the links section below. But to get back to these gents, Jason corals over 70 marketing podcasts for the Marketing Podcast network, so he knows a bit about the game, and Keith is no mug as a long-time podcaster, so he asks the right questions and here are 5 points I took away from their chat:

1. Minimum Viable Audience

OK, so maybe Jason didn’t say the words “minimum viable audience”, a favorite of mine from Seth Godin, but made a great point about the ability to reach niche audiences.

There are millions of podcasts, but business podcasts, in particular, are vertical-focused, meaning they target a smaller, more specific audience. As Jason shares, "Business podcasts don't need hundreds of thousands of listeners; they need the right listeners."

Yes! B2B marketing words to live by.s

2. ’Audio only’ still has a place

As I am a bit of hold out when it comes to video (although Rockstar CMO is available on YouTube, audio only), and yeah, the advice from the chaps is nudging in the video direction; after all video has the powerful discovery algorithms behind it, still the intimacy of audio is special, as Jasons shares "Audio is still very powerful...it's one of the best mediums for building thought leadership."

Especially as many of us consume podcasts while multitasking. I was on a walk when I heard that.

3. Cash money

Very, very, very, very, very few podcasts make enough money to cover the labor that goes into making them; it’s very much a medium that’s part of a content strategy that supports a different revenue stream, like consulting or training (or it’s a labor of love!).

But you can take the edge off with some advertising revenue if you align your niche with the advertisers, as Jason shares with his experience of selling advertising for MPN."You don't need hundreds of thousands of downloads, but when you find the right client, like LinkedIn Marketing Solutions [sponsors of MPN], it's a great, efficient spend for them".

To me, that sounds like a great deal for the advertiser.

Maybe a topic for another day, the opportunity of podcasts as a marketer, either advertising, sponsoring or as part of your PR strategy - it’s good value attention.

4. The future of podcasting in hybrid work and learning

One of the fascinating turns the conversation took was when the chaps discussed where podcasts sit in employee education and enablement, especially as many of us are spending a considerable time working remotely.

Podcasts are definitely part of my informal marketing self home-schooling curriculum, but I’d not heard this point before, as Jason shared "Podcasts are going to become more of an internal tool for businesses... It’s an easy way to deliver rich content".

5. It’s all about me/you

If you listen to my podcast, then you’ll know I like 5 f’in things, so closing with five points, and the last word goes to Keith:

"Sometimes producing your own podcast can be a right pain in the arse... But promoting your business on a podcast, being a sponsor or participating in helping a podcaster to reach a wider audience is also an amazing way to build your own brand."

I’d like to encourage you to listen to the whole thing, I’ll be publishing an edited version in the Rockstar CMO stream at some point soon, but don’t wait for that.

Thanks for reading this far, I’ve also included some other related links below, and it’s not just hearing it for the boys, some good advice from Caroline Kay there too.

Have a great week.

Cheers!

Ian

Ian Truscott | Chief Bottle Washer Rockstar CMO

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