Today on the Podcast Therapist, how listeners find your podcast, why email marketing drives results and how to turn your podcast website into a lead machine and much more on this episode of the Podcast Therapist for December 10th of 2024. When you're one unbalanced piece of audio from losing your. This is the Podcast Therapist.
That is right. Welcome to another episode of the Podcast Therapist. I'm your host, Shannon Hernandez, also known as the Shan Man Radio Broadcaster, Podcaster and Podcast Producer.
Thank you so much for tuning in. I really appreciate it. Of course, this is the podcast.
Let me start that over, OK? I want to welcome you to the Podcast Therapist, the podcast that is all about podcast growth and marketing for entrepreneurs. And of course, today we're going to be talking about growing your podcast, of course, inbound marketing and how listeners are finding your podcast, because there's likely a chance that listeners aren't finding your podcast or maybe there's this chance that your podcast just isn't getting discovered the way that you think it should be getting discovered. And this has been a problem for for many, many years.
I mean, I would say over a decade and really the rules haven't changed all that much. So we will dive into that. And of course, the topic that we're really kind of talking about and what I've written down is how to use inbound marketing to drive podcast discoverability and warm leads.
So we'll get into that now, if you haven't noticed just a couple of housekeeping items that I want to kind of make you aware of. If you have not noticed that the podcast name, the Podcast Therapist, it has changed just a little bit inside of Apple Podcasts, Spotify and I believe on YouTube podcasts. And so I'm really focusing and trying to make a pivot towards helping entrepreneurs.
Now, this doesn't mean that I'm not helping out podcasters. It does mean that I am helping out people who are who have a podcast. But maybe you are a podcaster who has a side business or maybe you are using your podcast as a business.
I really want to lean more towards into helping the marketing aspect or helping the entrepreneurs in the marketing aspect. If you have a podcast and you're trying to make it into a business, you're an entrepreneur. That's just as simple as it's going to get.
So that's really where I'm trying to pivot. And the reason why I made this pivot was because, you know, you jump into Spotify or Apple Podcasts and you see that there are a number of people who have a podcast about podcasting and it's all about the launch. It's all about the startup.
It's all about the tech and the equipment. And quite honestly, there are a dime a dozen whenever you look inside of inside of those platforms. And I really want to pivot more towards the marketing aspect because that is what makes me feel alive.
That is what I that is where I know podcasters need the help. And that's why I want to focus on that area specifically so that I can help drive results and help podcasters drive their own results for themselves. So that's why I've gone ahead and I've changed the name just a little bit.
And it's all part of a strategy that I am implementing on my own so that you can, you in action. All right. So with that being said, today we're going to be talking about inbound marketing and inbound marketing is like one of my favorite things that I love about podcast growth.
All right. Especially the growth when it comes down to you implementing these pieces of advice into your program and seeing it come to fruition. And the reason why this is so exciting for me and why it really lights me on fire is because during COVID in 2020, I started implementing a lot of these strategies into my YouTube strategy, my YouTube channel.
Now, it's not to say that the strategies that I share with you work from YouTube on over into Apple podcast, Spotify, but they will work somewhat into YouTube podcast as well. So with that being said, I got very excited when I started seeing my number starting to grow on YouTube and they grew over time, gave it about three months in order for me to see any type of valid growth that started happening. But I think that is a part of what it is to be a content creator, especially if you're someone who is an entrepreneur, a small business owner, a solopreneur, whoever you want to dice it right or cut it.
You are someone who is not only building content, but you're also running a business. So you're utilizing these platforms as a means to market your business so you can get people in the door. All right.
So this is what we're going to be talking about today. This podcast is going to be jam packed of value. So I hope it's filled with value.
So let me know in the comments section if you're watching this live on YouTube and you have a question, I'll try to answer it near the end of the podcast and we'll try to get to that for you so that we can address the issue. All right. So today podcast obviously going to be jam packed, but let's talk about whether or not you're using a podcast to attract leads to your website.
I know this seems kind of like a dirty word to some people. Oh, I don't want to get leads. I don't want to hear about this marketing thing.
The way we look at it, any way that you slice it, you are going to have to gather some type of lead, whether that be lead to a service or whether that be a lead to a product. A lot of people that I have talked with, they say they like leading to a product, but some like to lead to a service and it all depends. So however you want to look at that, it's going to be up to you.
Are you using your podcast to attract leads to your website? And more importantly, are you converting these leads into warm leads or engaged podcast listeners, engaged prospects? That's something that you really need to think about. So today we're going to discuss about how podcast listeners, they discover the shows and what we can use as far as inbound strategies to help you boost the discoverability of your own podcast and how you can drive these listeners to become prospects or even customers, how you drive them to be leads, customers, all these on the back end of your own podcast. All right.
So that's just something that I want to cover a little bit. Now, let's talk first about how do listeners discover podcasts. Now, there's no different from you or me or anyone else that looks for a podcast.
You go into a search bar on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and you type in a specific keyword, phrase, or term. And that specific keyword or phrase or term is going to lead you to a specific episode or a specific show itself. And that show is going to hopefully have a lot of value that you can go ahead and you can consume underneath that search query.
All right. So understanding where your listeners are finding you, it really sets the stage for effective inbound strategies. People are coming to you, people you are attracting.
All right. So people you're attracting through search engines and the directories, as I mentioned, those platforms that I had mentioned. So listeners, this is how they're doing it.
They've been doing this since the dawn of podcasting, right? We look for something and we find it and that's how we go ahead and we start consuming that content. All right. Now, as a business owner, what we want to do is we want to start implementing some tips, some SEO tips.
And SEO, I know doesn't get the love that it should deserve from podcasters because podcasters say that sounds like a lot of work. It seems like it's almost impossible to do. But I will say this.
If you start implementing strategies in the realms of search engine optimization, you can start seeing that there is going to be a return on that investment over time as long as you are maintaining consistency. All right. Consistency in a regular publishing schedule and consistency in building in search engine optimization into your podcast itself.
All right. So what you want to do is you want to optimize your podcast titles, the descriptions. You want to use the descriptions that have the specific keywords about your specific topic so that your audience can actively search for that inside of podcatchers all over.
All right. So whether that be even if you're using something, say, like podcast addict, or maybe you're using overcast, you're still putting those words inside of your descriptions that can make for easier discovery down the line. So the examples that I'm going to use today in the episode, we're going to talk about two different types of businesses.
All right. The businesses are going to be a pull installation company. And we'll talk about something completely on the opposite side of the end.
I'm sorry, on the opposite side of the spectrum, which would be a hair salon. Okay. So if we are someone who is in these niches, all right, and we're building a podcast, say, about pull installation.
All right. We want to do our keyword research based on how people are searching for information. So a smart business owner or a smart podcaster who has a business, you might want to think about how people are searching for specific solutions to their problem.
This idea or this philosophy is not new, but it was really reinforced to me when I read the book Utility by Jay Baer. I'll leave a link for that in the description of this podcast. So you can go ahead and check it out for yourself.
If you're watching this live, I'll eventually update the show notes so that you can see what book it is. But this was the book that did it for me. It talked about building out self -serve information, whether it be a podcast, whether that be a YouTube video, whether that be a blog post.
And now we can incorporate short form content into those areas or those categories of building out content. So as a business owner, you're doing this research on finding the solution or finding the problems and you want to be the solution for them. So as a pool installation company, maybe you want to start creating episodes that are titled around, you know, they could be say like how to choose the best pool for your backyard, or maybe another episode title could be the top pool trends for 2024.
Now, keep in mind, these are topics that can be researched. I don't know about these topics. I just kind of came up with them in the top of my head, but you would want to do keyword research.
And I'll tell you where you can find that keyword research eventually at some point. All right. So just keep in mind, that's what you're doing.
If you're a pool installation company. Now, if you're in the hair salon niche, maybe you want to start creating episodes that are like this. You've done your research and you say how to keep your hair healthy between salon visits.
I mean, that's actually pretty smart. When you think about it, if someone is going in for that self-serve information. All right.
Now, it doesn't necessarily mean it's bringing them into your business, but it is leading them down to a path where they can trust you. Right. Or maybe you're doing top hair color trends for 2024.
So that's one way that we are trying to get people to consume content, to find your content is through these SEO tips. The titles of your podcast episodes will really make an impact when it comes down to people searching you out. We'll talk about YouTube podcasts briefly, but you know, because that's a whole other ball of wax that is actually a lot of fun.
I really enjoy optimizing inside of YouTube. So again, first, first way people are finding you through SEO strategies. The second way this is probably the one that we know about.
It's gone on for many, many years is the word of mouth strategy. All right. Or referrals.
All right. Someone says, oh, I know this great podcast that is about and we'll use an example from someone who is in the audience from George. George is a fisherman.
And so, you know, I have this great podcast that I listen to about angling and you might want to check it out. And so they refer you that podcast and word of mouth is a great way to go ahead and get that out to other people. I have friends who do this come comedians who do this.
They say in their podcast, if you like this podcast, share it with five of your friends. So you have to remember that listeners as listeners, we have to be directed. If you're a listener as a listener, you have to be directed to do something.
Share it with five friends. Make sure you hit the follow button. There are all these calls to actions that you must as a podcast host as a business owner, as an entrepreneur.
You have to lead people down the pathway because I like to say, I mean, maybe this is a bad way of saying it. Maybe I shouldn't say it, but, you know, I like to say, you know, people generally are and I don't mean this in a mean way. Just they're dumb.
They don't know. They don't understand. They don't know to click the button.
They don't know to enter the email address. They don't know to download. So you have to walk them through these steps in order to get them to subscribe, to go get a download, to leave a review, things like that.
And the constant reminder is something that you have to go ahead and implement. So what you can do with your episodes, with word of mouth episodes, is you can do a simple, simple call to action by just saying, hey, share this with five of your friends and we would really appreciate it. It's low barrier to entry.
It allows them to share it out. It allows them to tell people, oh yeah, this is real simple. You know, I don't have to do anything more than just share a link.
And that's something that is very simple. So we've talked about SEO strategies. So building in the SEO strategy to get discovered, word of mouth.
The next one would be social media and short form content. Now we have platforms like Instagram Reels where you see this constantly. If you're on Instagram, you're sharing a reel or you're just swiping constantly, right? You swipe shorts on YouTube.
That's another way that, you know, everyone's kind of stealing from everyone. Then you got TikTok, of course. So if you're creating this content, this short form content that delivers in within a minute, and I would say a minute is about the max, right? The minute is what you're going to try to convey to get them to come in and discover your podcast.
I know that within YouTube shorts, you can create these shorts and leave a link or leave a button to direct to either the podcast itself or the long form piece of content. Maybe that is a YouTube video. All right.
So that's just something that you have to think about when you're building out ways for people to discover you. All right. So what you can do is you can repurpose this amazing content, compelling content into short form videos if you're recording a video.
All right. And it's got to have a strong hook. It's got to have a strong call to action, directing viewers where they need to go.
And typically what I would like you to do is I would like you to build this short form content from your podcast, have it built out so that you're driving them to your website. Now, I'll give you the reasons why we drive them to the website, because in podcasts that I've listened to in the past or even recent podcasts, I've heard people say drive them to the website. But there's it's almost like the gatekeep.
They don't give you the reason why you want to drive them to the website. So we'll cover that here very, very shortly. All right.
So as a I guess an action tip or whatever it may be, make sure you're driving them to your website or to the full episode of the podcast, depending on what your objective may be. The objective may be to go listen to the podcast, or maybe the objective is to go directly to the website to sign up for the email newsletter. OK, so that's just something that you should think about.
Now, let's talk about your website and why your website is another way that your listener is going to discover you. Your website that you may have heard in the past is the central hub of all of your podcast content. It is going to be the discovery tool where listeners, they can access more content from you.
They can learn all about your products. They can learn about your services and they can join your email list. This is going to be something that is key for you.
It is a practice. It is something that I practice. And of course, I continue to practice.
I work on my email list all the time. And of course, it's something that I think you should do as well. So why is email and an email list so important? Now, we're not talking about collecting emails through Gmail.
We're talking about collecting them through a service provider such as MailChimp. I know there was Aweber, ConvertKit. They're all out there, right? And you need to have some type of service that will allow you to collect this data.
All right. And there is good reason why we want to collect this data because the data is going to keep us not only connected to the person, but it's going to prevent us from losing access to whatever we see on our social platforms. All right.
So when we look at the social platforms, we look at things like algorithm changes. We look at social networks disappearing. We look at algorithm changes.
Did we talk about that? I can't remember. But either way, you're looking at a number of changes that can happen. And I think one of the most important ones that we look at is we got to consider the fact that there are platforms that shut down or there are platforms that go away.
Perfect example is TikTok right now in the United States. It is coming to the end of the road for TikTok in the United States as it will possibly be banned in the United States. This is something that is really... I just talked with my friend's daughter.
She's an influencer on TikTok. And she's like, this is going to go away. I can't believe this is where I make most of my money.
And I've tried to encourage her. You need to start building out an email list so that you can stay connected with those fans. Where the difficulty lies with a platform like TikTok is that they make their money on TikTok, right? They do the live streams and people can leave coins or whatever it is.
I've done this before. You leave coins and you can earn a significant income utilizing TikTok. However, that's one line of income.
It's only one line of income. And you have to consider the fact that you have to have multiple lines of income to keep the train rolling and moving. So, remember that when you build out your platforms, you're trying to get them on an email list where you can stay connected with them for the moment when they discover that, hey, there is no more TikTok, all right? Now, email lists are very important.
Statistics show, according to Forbes in June of this year, studies showed that email marketing has an average return on investment of $36 for every $1 spent making email one of the most effective tools for nurturing your audience. So, you can earn significant cash depending on what the price point is of your service or your product. And your service or product can be just about anything.
It could be products such as PDF downloads. It could be products such as PDF downloads or digital products. You could do merchandise itself.
But let's also say that we look at services. You could be a service provider. Maybe you build websites.
Maybe you do consultations. Maybe you, I don't know, whatever it may be. Maybe you have a podcast that has a private RSS feed.
That is another way. That's considered a product. If you tell me otherwise, I mean, I'd like to see why you would think it's not a product, but it is.
Having a private RSS feed where people can access that product and access more of you, bonus episodes, whatever it may be, exclusive interviews, that can be a product. And by having that product, it allows you to utilize that email marketing list to push those emails to your super fans. Let them know, hey, I've got a podcast that's a private RSS feed.
You can join. So think about that. Whenever it comes down to your content that you're developing on these platforms and where they discover you, get them onto an email list through your website.
That is going to be the way. Your email list allows you to update your audiences with just new episodes, content changes, a way they can engage with your business. I just talked about that.
So even if the platform goes down or trend shift, you still have those emails. That's important, right? Now let's talk briefly about YouTube podcast, because this is something that I think we need to pay attention to. There is a whole event that is going to be happening this Thursday.
I think it's 12 noon Pacific on YouTube. And I believe I will have a link for that in the description of this podcast if you want to attend, but it is going to be talking specifically about YouTube. And it's from, I think the head of product and from YouTube.
And you're going to learn a lot about YouTube podcast. So if we focus on Spotify and we focus on Apple podcast as engines in order to get discovery on our podcast, we need to start thinking about YouTube podcast because it is becoming very fast, a major discovery tool for podcasts because you can optimize the content. If it's going to work the same way as YouTube, you're going to be able to optimize that content the same way you do video.
So if you do a video podcast, you can still optimize that content using tools like a two buddy or, um, you know, uh, vid IQ, things like that. But here's the thing. Is it going to work the same way for audio podcasts as well? And that's a huge thing we need to take into consideration.
All right. So you still need to upload full episodes. You still need to optimize the titles for SEO, and you still need to repurpose that content for YouTube shorts to increase the visibility of your podcast.
So just think about that when you are developing your content. All right. Now, as far as, uh, content repurposing for other social platforms and how we are finding or getting discovered.
All right. We want to talk about transforming impactful podcast moments into content that is suitable for different platforms. All right.
So what do I mean by this? What I'm talking about is that when you do a podcast, like I do for this podcast, I typically, I create a transcript from it. So I'll either create it inside of Descript or I'll just, I'll create it inside of Turbo Scribe and I create show notes based out of this. Now where podcasters miss the mark on this is that they think that these are just shown us as a show up in Apple podcasts and whatever.
What they don't realize is that these can be placed onto your blog. And if it is optimized the right way, if it's placed onto your blog, it allows it to be discovered inside of Google. I've always been a proponent of someone who uses their podcast, creates a blog post out of it.
And then like a blog post, not just copying and pasting the transcript, creating an actual blog post out of it. And then it is now indexed inside of Google. That's just another way that you are finding, people are finding you through that discovery channel.
Now you can bring in the argument that AI is going to change everything, but I will tell you this right now. AI is still, whether or not you were doing the query inside of AI, like a chat GPT, especially chat GPT, chat GPT is still cross -referencing websites and you can see it right inside of chat GPT. It is still cross -referencing where it found its sources and those sources come from the internet, the web.
And so it's still pulling from the web. So your SEO is still very important for you to go ahead and implement into your podcast so that you can figure out how to get that person to come in and into your funnel. That's important.
That's very important. So keep that in mind. If there's one point in this podcast where like, I don't know if it's a value bomb, but I mean, it's something that we think about as far as AI is concerned, it's still pulling from the internet.
It's still something you got to consider. It's still something you have to optimize on your end. All right.
So let's take our examples of our imaginary pool company. You would not only create blog posts about this, but you create short form videos with five questions to ask before installing a pool or the top three hacks for busy professionals, or I'm sorry, let me take that back. The top three hair care hacks for busy professionals.
So keep that in mind. Now, one thing that I do want to really drive home here is that newsletters, email marketing newsletters, they are great for content linking back to your own content. After all, you are the business owner, right? And you are promoting, you're proud of your own brand.
You want to promote your own stuff. You want to be pushing people to old podcast episodes. You want to be pushing people to your lead magnets.
You want to be pushing people to your podcast, your YouTube videos. These are all things you have to think about. All right.
So this is why it's important that when you do this and you drive traffic back to your website, whether you are guesting on another podcast or whatnot, you have those things available so people can go ahead and become a part of your community. All right. Now, one thing that you should be doing when you are building out your website and you're building out blog posts or whatever is that you should be building out things like backlinks to your website.
What do I mean by backlinks? This is no different than what I've been talking about for the past 13 years while I've been in the podcasting industries. You build out backlinks and backlinks really are a way or a means to build authority in the Google search engine. So let's say you show up on a podcast and they link your website to their show notes and their website.
You would want to do the same on your end. You want to link their website. Say, hey, you know, I've been on George's podcast and George has a really great podcast about, you know, angling or whatever.
And then, of course, he links back to me. It just helps build authority. Anytime you can build backlinks, multiple backlinks to other websites and they can do the same.
It just helps you become higher. It helps you show up higher in search results. All right.
Now, one thing that I think you should have inside of your website is an email capture form. We can talk about that here very shortly. We are going to talk about optimizing all that.
But that I think is one of the things that you should really be considering as far as, you know, gaining a listener that is inside of your platform. All right. So email capture forms, they're going to offer resources in exchange for the email address.
All right. And you want to convert those listeners into types of leads. All right.
So again, going back to our imaginary pool company, you want to have a pool company that has a website with a lead magnet and an opt-in form. It might be the Ultimate Pool Buyer's Guide. Checklist.
10 questions to ask before you install. Still giving that DIY information, right? Giving that DIY information. But they may not want to do it all by themselves.
They may call you as the pool installer to do it. Take a hair salon. Five hair care secrets for salon worthy results at home.
They may get this DIY stuff at home for their hair, but they may not realize it takes up too much time. So they'd rather go to the salon itself. So these are ways people are discovering your podcast and what you can do to bring them into your fold.
So coming up here after the break, we're going to be talking about how you optimize your website for lead conversions, what you can do to create a landing page. And then, of course, how we connect it all together. That's all coming up next on The Podcast Therapist.
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How's it going? It's Shannon. And when I started using TubeBuddy back in 2019, I realized that if I wanted my videos to actually get views, I needed to focus on YouTube SEO. But figuring out what topics would work, which keywords to target, and how to optimize my videos, honestly, it felt completely overwhelming.
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Hey, what's up, guys? It's Shannon. And I want to take a moment to share one of my favorite tools for podcasting and live streaming. It's called Ecamm.
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That means if you decide to give it a try, I might earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. But honestly, I wouldn't recommend it if I didn't use it myself. When I first started using Ecamm for my video podcasts, everything felt like a juggling act.
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And of course, that all changed for me when my friend Jeff introduced me to the Elgato Stream Deck. I started with the Stream Deck MK.2, which has 15 customizable macro keys, and it has completely revolutionized my production workflow. With the Stream Deck, I can seamlessly control Ecamm for live streams, video podcasts, and so much more.
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That's my affiliate link, so I may earn a small commission if you decide to try it. Seriously, it's one of the best tools I've ever used, and I think you're going to like it too. Are you a small online business owner looking to get a head start in growing your email list and attracting new customers? You've got no time for guesswork.
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No more confusion. Just practical steps to elevate your lead generation strategy. Welcome back to the Podcast Therapist.
And we are continuing our episode today on how podcasts are discovered and what you can do as far as building out a strategy, an inbound marketing strategy for yourself so that you can start putting these people into your fold, not relying on platforms to stick around. I mean, we talked about in the last segment about how TikTok, man, that thing's going to go away, I think. In my opinion, I think it's going to go away.
I mean, I don't see any reason why it will stay. And there are a lot of content creators that are freaking out about this one. I've seen this similar freak out inside of Instagram.
Moments when Instagram has gone down. And I've seen my friends who are influencers, they just freak out and they go, oh my God, don't they realize that we run our business on Instagram? And then I just think to myself, well, don't you realize that you shouldn't be running your business directly all on Instagram? Even though I know that Instagram has built -in tools to help you build a business around that, you can't rely on it completely. Things happen, all right? Things happen.
So as long as you own that data, that allows you the opportunity to stay in contact with your audience so that you can push them to the areas in which you need, whether it be another social network or, excuse me, or keeping them on your own platform. That's important. And that's why some of these platforms are very important.
I hear a lot of people giving flack about platforms like, say, Kajabi, because they say, I don't need all that, I don't need everything that is involved in that, or it doesn't function the right way. And quite honestly, when I hear that, I wonder to myself, do people really go in and examine and learn these platforms for their benefit? Because anytime I've ever used a platform for myself, I've either gone to the help section, I've read the help menu, and I've allowed myself to learn that software so that it benefits me. So that's why I'm saying you have to learn or at least bring yourself, as an entrepreneur, you need to be honest with yourself.
You need to say to yourself, I'm going to learn this and I'm going to make it work towards my benefit. If you just sit around and you blame the software for not doing the job, maybe you need to rethink about why you want to do this as a business. I'm not saying that Kajabi is the only one.
There's many, many different platforms out there that will work for you, whether that be SamCart, ThriveCart, whether that be Squarespace, but it's got to be the one that works for you. So keep that in mind when you're starting to build out these elements. What is the objective? What is the goal? Is the goal to build them into a subscription model where they're listening to a podcast every week that's private? Or maybe it's having them as a client, a regular client, a high paying client that pays you out every three months at a high ticket offer.
So think about those things. Now in segment two, I want to talk to you about optimizing your website for lead conversions. We'll get into that here in a second.
Well, no, we'll get into it right now. We'll get into it right now because I kind of wanted to give a call to action, but I just really want to get into the content because I think that is what is important for you. So how do we optimize our website for lead conversions? Now, this is what you can do.
Now I talk about these tools that exist out there and there's a number of tools, whether they be Kajabi, whether they be OptinMonster, whether they be ConvertKit, whether it is, there's just a million of them out there. And you got to find the ones that are going to work for you, for your purpose, for your workflow. All right.
So how the workflow works for you. All right. But what you definitely do need as a business owners, you need to have this landing page, a podcast landing page.
All right. So you need to have or develop a dedicated podcast page featuring embedded episodes, maybe detailed show notes and links to related content. Now, what you can do is you can include an opt-in form for your lead magnet directly on that page.
That would be very, very useful for you to get people to come in and be a part of your community. Make sure you're adding clear calls to action, guide visitors to take the next step. They got to get into the next step, whether that be subscribing, whether that be downloading a free resource, booking a consultation.
I could tell you during COVID when I was doing a lot more with YouTube, I had a book a consultation button on my front page of my website that would get hit. I was getting all these consultations from people and I couldn't believe it because at the time, everyone wanted to start a podcast at that time. And I couldn't believe it.
And they're all trying to start a podcast. And even though I had guides on my website that would lead them to those paths, they still wanted me to sit down with them and consult with them. And that to me is like the easiest way to sit down and earn money is that you're really kind of just holding their hand and guiding them down the pathway that is going to be best for them.
So you should have a create a podcast landing page and make sure you have clear calls to actions. And make sure you're guiding them down a specific pathway to maybe booking a consultation. Going back to our examples of our pool company, they would maybe have the clear call to action, download the ultimate pool buyers checklist or the hair salon, grab your free hair care guide today.
So those are ways that you can do that. Now, I touched on this a little bit in the last segment and I talked about repurposing show notes into blog posts. Let's get into that just a little bit.
Now you can turn every podcast episode into an SEO optimized blog post that includes keywords, timestamps, links back to your lead magnet. The reason why I like my platform Kajabi is that I'm able to include timestamps. You can do the same thing inside of Buzzsprout.
You can include timestamps, but what we're talking specifically about here is a website. A website where you can repurpose the show notes into blog posts, all right? And when I say show notes, I'm not just talking, yeah, you create the show notes, but think about the transcriptions that you're using. Those can easily, easily become blog posts.
I'm utilizing Descript and TurboScribe to do this for me. And it's starting to become easier as I use it more and more, okay? Things you can implement onto your website would be pop-ups including banners that lead to your lead magnets. I have these on my own website.
When you go into the blog post section, you can see that I have on the sidebar, I have banners that show up that say, hey, you wanna start a podcast? Download my essential equipment guide for my podcast. What can you come up with? And how can you implement that into your own website? So strategically, and here's what I would do. Pop-ups, I'm not a big fan of pop-ups.
I've heard people say like, oh, I get the majority of my leads from my pop-ups. So they come from your podcast onto your website and there's a pop-up that comes up. People hate, I hate pop-ups, but I've heard where people say they work.
So strategically use pop-ups on your website. Banners are good and promote your lead magnets. Always, always tie the lead magnet maybe to the content of the episode.
Like, so let's say for instance, we're talking about, in my instance, we're talking about a podcast episode where I talk about how to develop better show notes, right? Well, I have, and I have, I've created a guide for creating better show notes using AI. Haven't published it yet. It will be coming out here soon, but I have it.
It's available. And I would more than likely have that on the sidebar of my podcast show that is directly related to that. Or I'd put it in the text somewhere.
And where I would put it in the text is probably above the fold. And I would probably say, you know, links mentioned in this episode. And I would have a link that goes directly to that lead magnet so I can get someone to download that guide and become a part of my community.
So think about that, all right? Now, when it comes down to connecting this all together, we start talking about the inbound marketing funnel. How does this all connect together? Let's do our best to try to make this sound a little easier for you, all right? So what we're talking about first, are we talking about these things, discoverability, lead generation, lead nurturing, and most importantly, I think what a lot of podcast entrepreneurs are really leaning into is the monetization aspect. So let's dive in and describe briefly what these are about, okay? So each one of these strategies have something important that lead to eventually the monetization, right? So discoverability, we'll start with number one.
Discoverability, so when you look at platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, social media, now YouTube podcasts, these platforms bring the content to the listeners, all right? Your listeners will consume that content if you're publishing regularly. Within that content that you are developing, you wanna be able to develop a lead or build a lead off of your podcast. So number two, lead generation.
Your podcast directs listeners to your website where the lead magnets capture the email address, all right? So utilize the platform to drive the lead back to your website. Number three, lead nurturing. Lead nurturing is something that, it's kind of an art form, if you ask me, it is kind of an art form, but this is what I've written down.
Lead nurturing is the follow -up in the email sequence, all right, the follow-up with valuable emails to build trust and drive conversions. So in other words, like so when someone comes into my email marketing list and they download my essential equipment guide to starting a podcast and they get all that equipment, they are placed on an email marketing sequence and you likely have gotten these in the past before and you go, oh my God, this person is sending way too many emails. There are different philosophies and strategies that different business owners use.
Some will email two times a day. Some will just email once every other day. I tend to be in the camp of like emailing every other day, but if I'm gonna email them consistently, it's gotta be something valuable.
And I'm typically answering the common questions that this person might have about starting a podcast in that email to help build trust. So if you've been on my email marketing list, you see that that is in practice, all right? And hopefully at some point in time, that nurture sequence allows them to go ahead and purchase something like say, my podcast launch checklist or my mastering podcast interviews, audio book, whatever that may be. If they don't buy it, doesn't matter, it's okay.
Now I just continue to develop and build great content to them and say, here's a new podcast episode that I talked about where we talked about growing a podcast or whatever. If they're all about the free content, that's fine. Eventually they may want to get in on something.
Now, when it comes to number, let me see here, one, two, three, four, five, number five, monetization and growth. What we're trying to do is we're trying to convert leads into customers through services, consultations, and product sales. So that's how it works.
You're getting them to discover your podcast on a platform. You wanna drive them to your website to capture the lead. You wanna nurture them in an email sequence on your back end.
Then you wanna try to convert them into buying something on your end. And when I say buying something, it can be merch. It could be merch, hats, it could be cups, it could be mugs, whatever it may be.
Or it could be a private RSS feed or it could be a private community. Whatever that may be, you can push them into those very things. So let's go ahead and talk about some takeaways, all right? So the takeaways here was that we wanna optimize podcast titles, descriptions, and show notes for SEO.
This is gonna be the big thing that you really need to be focusing on. We'll talk about more of this. I mean, there are podcast episodes from other people who do this that talk about SEO, but it is very important that you as a business owner are optimizing.
One of the things that my sister, we'll use it as an example. My sister has her own website and she doesn't do a podcast, but she has a website where she optimizes her YouTube videos so that they can go onto her website so people can download guides. This is something that is very important.
If you had a podcast, you would do the exact same thing. If it's not YouTube, you're doing it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube Podcasts. So optimize the podcast titles.
That's gonna be the thing that I will drive home. And if someone comes to me and says, I don't know how I'm not getting the growth that I deserve, I will say, well, did you optimize your podcast? And if they say, I don't know what you mean, or I don't know how to do that, then we will walk through that to help you get through that point, right? Another takeaway is that make sure that you repurpose old episodes into blogs, short form videos. Basically, you're repurposing it into lead generating content.
Use your website as a discovery and conversion tool because you remember your website is indexed onto Google. And if it is indexed on Google with appropriate keywords, it will get discovered. Your podcast will get discovered, all right? And then lastly, you're gonna wanna nurture the leads through email follow-ups and build long-term trust.
So what are we talking about here? We are talking about here, podcasting, it's powerful. It's a powerful tool. Podcasting, YouTubing is a powerful tool, but podcasting is equally as powerful as an inbound marketing strategy, okay? It's an inbound marketing strategy.
So optimize for discoverability, your websites. And then of course, the question I wanna ask to you, and I'll ask it as an open-ended question, whether you wanna respond back to me in a chat or you wanna reach out to me on threads, is what lead generation strategies are you using for your podcast? I am interested in learning about this because if you don't, tell me where you are right now at this point and tell me where you feel you can improve. So what lead generation strategies are you using for your podcast to get more people to come in and listen and bring them into your fold through your email marketing list? That's something I think that I can help you with.
I can answer for you. Reach out to me on threads. The link for my threads is in the show notes or if you wanna just go to the podcast therapist, you can send me an email.
I believe there's an email form there or just hit me up at info at theShan Man.com and that would be great. I'd be happy to help you out there, all right? So last, we'll cover it one more time. What lead generation strategies are you using for your podcast? Let me know.
Coming up next, we are gonna go over some events, a few housekeeping items and things that you need to be aware of in the podcasting space. It's all coming up next on the Podcast Therapist. The Podcast Therapist.
20 years of experience in the radio industry, Shannon Hernandez shares his insights on building rapport, maintaining conversation flow and ensuring a smooth post-production process. This ebook also includes essential checklists and reflective prompts to help you continuously improve. Don't leave your interviews to chance.
Use Mastering Podcast Interviews to elevate your podcasting game and create compelling content that stands out. Get your copy today and it will be delivered to your inbox immediately. Visit thepodcasttherapist.com slash interviews to get your copy now and start mastering your podcast interviews.
Hey guys, it's Shannon. And when I decided I wanted to go ahead and start creating content all those years ago, I knew I needed a trusted website platform. I was managing multiple services, setting up API keys and tracking all the costs became super overwhelming.
Then I discovered Kajabi. Kajabi started helping out content creators like me and you sell courses, but they've grown into so much more than that. They're an all-in-one platform that lets you build a website, manage your email marketing, set up sales funnels, and of course host all of your courses in one place.
But they also allow you to host your podcasts, including paid or hidden ones for members who want to be a part of your own community. Plus, Kajabi offers an integrated community just like Facebook groups, but within your own website. They give you detailed analytics and even a branded app.
Using Kajabi has simplified my workflow and it's boosted my own productivity. If you want to learn more, you can use my affiliate link at thepodcasttherapist.com slash Kajabi or you can find the link in the show notes of your podcast player for this episode to go ahead and get started. Kajabi, it's the perfect tool to elevate your content creation and reach more people who are passionate about your work.
Hey, what's up? It's Shannon. And if you're tired of spending too much time and money on podcast transcriptions, let me tell you about Descript. Now, before Descript, I spent a fortune on other services to transcribe my 40-minute to hour-long podcast and even some of my YouTube videos.
But now I just upload my audio to Descript and it handles the rest. The transcriptions are super accurate and they capture every word. The app even lets me remove the filler words so my transcriptions can look clean and professional on my website for the transcription section.
And Descript is also a game changer for video content. After recording, Descript provides a transcript of your audio and then you can edit your audio just by editing the text. Simple cut, copy and paste just to make precise edits.
I'll take it. You don't even need advanced audio editing skills for this. Plus, Descript has all kinds of other amazing features like eye correction for video, creating audio grounds for social media, the overdub feature for making corrections and real -time collaboration if you have a team.
So stop wasting time and money on other services. Check out Descript at my affiliate link at thepodcasttherapist.com slash getdescript. Or if you can't remember the address, check the link in the show notes of your podcast player for this episode.
Give it a try. You'll see how Descript will change the way you create podcasts and videos. Hey there, podcast lovers.
Do you ever find yourself at a crossroad struggling with life's big decisions? I'm Adam and I know exactly how you feel. I've been there, faced with overwhelming choices and uncertainty. Not knowing where to turn or who to trust.
That's why I created The Decision Hour, a podcast designed to guide you through life's toughest choices. In The Decision Hour, we dive deep into real life stories, offering expert advice and practical tips to help you make those tough choices with confidence. But that's not all.
We also feature interviews with inspiring individuals who have faced similar challenges and have come out stronger. Plus, you get to access our exclusive community where you can share your experiences, get support and connect with like-minded people. So if you're ready to take control of your life and make decisions that truly matter, tune in to The Decision Hour.
Visit our website at thedecisionhour.com to start your journey today. Remember, the power to make great decisions is just one click away. A few years ago, I got a gift from my sister that honestly, I wasn't sure I'd ever use.
It was called a Rocketbook. And at first I thought, it's just a notebook, right? But once I started using it, I realized how wrong I was. Now, as a podcaster, staying organized is everything.
You know this. And Rocketbook, it's been the game changer for me. It's a reusable notebook that works with special friction pens.
You write in it like you would with regular paper, but here's where it gets really cool. With the Rocketbook app, you can scan your notes and send them straight to your cloud storage, Google Drive or Dropbox and share them with people that you trust. I've used the Rocketbook to map out podcast episodes, organize meeting notes and even keep track of tasks.
And thanks to the icons at the bottom of each page, I can instantly send my notes to the right folder without lifting a finger, just using the app. And I know you might be asking yourself, what happens when the notebook is full? Well, you're able to just go ahead and wipe it clean and start fresh. Rocketbook has been a huge part of rebooting The Podcast Therapist and it keeps me organized without wasting paper or losing track of ideas.
So if you want to stay on top of your projects and keep everything in one place, check out Rocketbook at thepodcasttherapist.com slash Rocketbook. Or you can find the link in the show notes of this particular episode today. And just to note, that is my affiliate link.
So I may earn a small commission if you go ahead and decide to try it. All right. Hitting the last segment of The Podcast Therapist today.
I want to thank those who joined in on the episode today. It means a lot to me if you were watching live on YouTube. Those of you who are listening to this actually after the fact, after the live video appears on YouTube, it'll show up probably on Thursday or you're watching this right now.
So I guess this is really more of an announcement for people who are watching this live. The audio portion will be released on Thursday. Thursday, I would guess, sometime in the morning.
So just be aware. I'm going to try and stick to that schedule, Thursday mornings. And keep that, keep the information at least, I guess, I don't know.
I don't know what I'm trying to say. I say we just move into the next segment. Trying to manage multiple buttons here.
I'm still doing my best. Still doing my best. But either way, yeah.
That podcast episode will be released or this episode will be released on Thursday. All right. But you're always welcome to join live.
Always. And to ask questions and I'll try to answer them near the end. Of course, I record this podcast right before I have to go into work at my normal job at the radio station.
And I go in at like 6, 37 o 'clock. And so I try to do all this work after the fact. I try to get the episode up.
I have the episode commercial-free on an ad-free private feed that I have not shared out yet. But if you are interested in learning about that, that episode releases almost immediately within 12 hours. And then it is available for people to go ahead and listen to.
So I'll let you know all about that if you want to reach out to me. But if you are, say, like an entrepreneur or a small business that is looking to start getting into podcasting because you want to use it as a marketing tool, you can try and check out my Essential Equipment Guide to Podcasting at thepodcasttherapist.com slash quickstart. And it's got a list of all the equipment that is available for you right there that you can go ahead and peruse and find on Amazon.
And it should be able to walk you at least through those first steps if you're trying to get started with your own podcast. And of course, lastly, I want you guys to follow the podcast. If you've not done so in your podcast app player right now, go ahead and hit that follow button.
And if you're so inclined to do so, make sure you leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. That really does help out. So I want to just go ahead and dive into last few things.
As far as podcasting is concerned, I want to transition into just a little bit of news. Today Podcasts or Apple Podcasts, they launched an Android version of their app. So for the longest time, Apple Podcasts has not been available on Android, but it is available now.
But it's not available in the Google Play App Store. So the way that you got to do this and the way you got to work around it, and I think it's similar to how you would do it on iPhone because I was doing this for many, many years where I was basically creating an icon for a website that I went to regularly and frequently, and I would just install that onto the desktop of my iPhone. I think this is the same thing.
I don't have an Android. I don't know, but I think this is what it is. So if you're trying to get Apple Podcasts and the app on your Android phone, what you can do is you can visit podcast.apple.com from your phone and do it in Google Chrome, okay? So you got to do it from Google Chrome and then you're going to want to press the three dots that are vertical in the Chrome menu and choose Add to Home Screen and then it should pop up and say Install.
So once you do that, it will install that, or I'm air quoting right now, it will install the Apple Podcasts app on your Android device. So that can be very useful. I know people use many different types of podcasting apps that exist out there, especially for Android.
I know, you know, I haven't had an Android in years, so really all I'm using right now, and I go back and forth between Spotify and I go between Apple Podcasts itself, but I like to see what the other apps are doing. So I have other apps on my phone. I just don't really play with them as much as I probably should.
So again, the Apple Podcasts app available on Android. Go ahead and check that out for yourself. All right.
I want to dive into some research though that came through Edison Research and I talked about this last week when we were talking about marketing trends for podcasting. And I think it's something important when we talk about data that we are gathering from agencies that are doing the research and we have to understand when we're extrapolating that data. When we think about the data and we read the data, we have to understand how they ask the questions and how that data is being, I guess, given to the average person who is, say, a podcast owner of their own podcast or their own RSS feed.
And this particular study that Edison Research had done was specified or was really focusing on in-car listening on mobile phones. And so we live in such a society right now where we focus all of our attention on our phones that now we're just Bluetoothing things into our phone, right? And so once we Bluetooth into the phone, or I'm sorry, Bluetooth the phone into the car, then that now starts coming up in research, right? It comes up in the research. People are like, oh, yeah, well, if more people are listening to Spotify, then how do I get them to listen to my podcast? You got to take this all with a grain of salt.
And one of the things I wanted to point out in this email that I got from Edison Research is that they mentioned for in-car listening, they say the majority of time listening in-car on a phone is 53%. Let me read that again. The majority of, I can't read today.
The majority of time listening in-car on a phone, 53 % is spent listening to streaming music services. And the key phrase we need to look at there is streaming music services. So this can be Spotify.
It could be Apple podcast. It could be YouTube podcast. But it can also include radio stations that have a streaming service, right? The streaming service of their actual signal that is distributed on FM airwaves is also digital as well.
So when we look at streaming, streaming music services, I'm assuming, I'm assuming that this is also radio stations, all right? So something else I highlighted here says, listeners can opt for the linear nature of streamed playlists or full control of on-demand selections. So that's what we're looking at is we're looking at streamed playlists is what a radio station would be. The next most listened type of audio is podcasts at 17%.
So we're looking at Spotify music. We're looking at Apple music, YouTube music, and we're looking at radio stations streaming as the primary 53%, you know, the lion's share, I would say, of how people are consuming the content. But again, I want you to be aware that when you read some of these statistics, just you have to understand the nature and you have to understand the demographics.
I think the demographics for this, I think it was for 13, ages 13 plus. So when you're looking at ages 13 plus, think of it from your business standpoint. All right.
Think of it from a business standpoint. Are 13 plus people going to be listening to your podcast? Likely not. So when you should be focusing, who you should be focusing on should be within the demographic of your niche, right? So if you are focusing on people who are anglers, maybe those anglers are male.
They range from the ages of 35 to 55. You know, you have to really kind of dive into the demographics. Don't worry about what some study says.
Focus on who you are trying to reach and you'll have better results when you do that. And lastly, I mentioned this earlier in the podcast. I talked about YouTube having a podcasting events coming up on December 12th.
So that's going to be coming up this Thursday for those of you who are watching live right now. If you're listening to this on the audio version of this podcast, it may have already happened or maybe you're listening in the morning. You might still be able to catch it, but it is happening at 12 noon Mountain Standard time.
That's what I have written here. And of course, I'll have the link for that event in the show notes, but it's going to be with the global head of podcasting and podcasting product lead. And they're going to be speaking about leveling up your podcasting game and maybe give you some updates on YouTube podcasting.
I think YouTube podcasting is going to be the thing that is really going to make a difference as far as getting your podcast out there. Spotify has a pretty solid search engine for finding podcasts, but I think YouTube and Google, they've got it dialed in. They got that thing locked in.
So I really am interested in seeing this event. I will be attending on Thursday myself, so I might see you in the chat. And if you're there, say hello to me.
I'd be more than happy to say hello back. Of course, you can always reach out to me on The Podcast Therapist at thepodcasttherapist.com. Let's use a different music bed here. How about this one? There we go.
Yeah, you can always reach out to me at thepodcasttherapist.com if you have any questions about anything in particular about podcasting. I'm more than happy. We are going to be really focusing more on the marketing aspect, like I said at the top of the show.
And I think that is really going to make the impact for most podcasters because it's something that I'm passionate about. You know, I like helping people start their podcasts, but I really love seeing podcasters grow. That's where I tend to find my own fire.
So again, I appreciate you guys watching on YouTube live this week to The Podcast Therapist, and I appreciate you listening to The Podcast Therapist. Again, make sure you hit that follow button and leave a review if you want to. You don't have to, but it definitely does make me feel good on this end.
Until next time, my name is Shannon Hernandez. You've been listening to The Podcast Therapist.
