7 Reasons a Podcast Can Help Your Business Grow

Photo by neil godding on Unsplash

How many podcasts do you follow? One, several, none? However many you follow, they have quickly become a great way to grow businesses. I currently run one for my company (and am starting one for my non-profit as well). Honestly, they don’t take much time to prepare, yet in the last 24 hours I’ve had 3 people fill out a form to be interviewed (yet my small podcast started this year). Now that I have setup a form on my website, I send a link to someone wanting an interview, they fill out the form, and if they’re a match for my show, I send them a link to schedule the interview. Do you want to start one as well? Here are 7 reasons you should:

1. It doesn’t take too much time. They mainly take the interview time from you (especially if you outsource the editing to someone on Fiverr.com). You may edit yourself if you want (all but one episode so far I edited, but then I started outsourcing editing). You could also outsource the promotion materials, if you want (or do them yourself).
2. It puts you as the authority. Whether you interview guests or talk the entire podcast, you’re heard by your listeners, which puts you as an authority in your field.
3. It’s good for personal branding. Similar to number 2, it helps promote you as a personal brand, which can help you also if you have more businesses or endeavors.
4. You create your CTA (call-to-action) at the end. You should promote your guest as well, but if you are promoting your business to your audience, it will help you by keeping your company at the top-of-mind of your listeners.
5. You can monetize your podcast. While I’m not doing this, you can monetize your podcast by putting in commercials (Anchor.fm is a great podcast hosting platform that helps with this, but I’m sure others are great for that as well). Even with a small audience, you’d get something, but your revenue could grow as your podcast grows.
6. You can get your podcast nearly everywhere. Again, more podcast hosts also do this, but Anchor.fm really makes it easy to put your podcast on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. Plus, you can add your audio (or even video if you want) on YouTube.
7. Guests are easy to find. This tip has saved my podcast, so you’ll want it as well. You can use the platform Find Radio Guests to help you get podcast guests (there’s a free version and a paid version). My first (and so far only) time to use them, I had around 25–30 people respond by email, a few that didn’t fit my podcast requirements, and I had around 20–25 that fit the requirements (not all of them responded to my reply). I ended up with 8 podcast interviews from it (and two from connections made with those guests). Ever since, I’ve received occasional email requests from other potential guests as a result of those guests.

I hope you’ve found a few tips that resonate with you and your business. It’s a challenge to grow a podcast, but it can be worth it in the long-run. Plus, the great part about it is, even if you have a small podcast, it can still be very helpful for you (so a large audience may not even be necessary).

There are several things you’d need to do the podcast interview.

1. The microphone. My first interview, I used headphones with a mic, but after that, I got a professional podcast microphone (many people suggest that you try the Blue Yeti microphone if you’re just getting started, as it’s an inexpensive professional podcasting microphone).
2. Editing software. Some people use Audacity. I prefer using Windows Move Maker (but Audacity is better for editing).
3. Recording the interview. I use a Zoom call (and record it). I also want to soon start using Fireflies.ai for recording and transcribing my interviews.
4. Patience. Okay, so this isn’t a tool, but your podcast won’t likely grow as quickly as you’d expect (or want). Many give up after a few episodes because of this, but just keep having patience, as it can take a while to grow a podcast.