Podcasting for Business: Top Podcasters Share Success Tips

Are you thinking of starting a podcast for your business?

Wondering how top podcasters use their podcasts to grow their businesses?

To learn how podcasting can help build your business, I interview Michael Hyatt and Chris Brogan for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

This episode is a panel discussion from Social Media Success Summit. It includes myself, Michael Hyatt from the This Is Your Life podcast and Chris Brogan from the Human Business Way podcast.

The panel shares an inside look at some of the podcast secrets you can use to enhance your sales.

You'll learn about podcast frequency, how to promote your offers and ways to get your audience to take action.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Podcasting for Business
How podcasting can help your business

Michael shares that the most obvious way it has helped his business is with reach. He gets as many podcast downloads a month for This Is Your Life as he gets unique visitors to his blog. His audience has doubled because of it.

He believes that you get a different kind of follower with your podcast. Many people have said that they have never read his blog; instead they've connected with him through his podcast.

You'll discover why podcasting is more intimate and why this type of connection has benefited Michael's business.

Chris shares his story of how he got into podcasting in 2005, when it was still the early days for this type of platform. He started an event called Podcamp with Christopher Penn.

Back then it wasn't easy for people to consume a podcast, so it wasn't a great time for the independent podcaster.

A year or so ago, Chris decided to jump back in again and started The Human Business Way. You'll find out why Chris puts in a lot of effort to make sure his show is a very personal experience.

Listen to the show to find out why a podcast is a great platform to build a community around.

Podcast frequency

Chris has tried all different schedules for his podcast. He originally put his show out weekly, then more frequently than that and has also gone weeks between shows.

He originally told everybody that he would close the show at 100 episodes. This wasn't to hurt his relationship with his community, but to carry out tests as a marketer on the flexibility, expansion and depth of his show.

You'll hear how these results helped him with the new show format.

Michael's podcast is a weekly show. He tries to deliver it on a Wednesday morning because people count on it.

You'll hear the type of content schedule Michael has and what he did last summer when he had a month off to write his book that resulted in only a 10% traffic hit.

The take-home lesson is to figure out what your audience expects. You'll hear Chris share the formula that works for his audience and how he gets around people's unwillingness to commit.

Listen to the show to find out one of the downsides to having too many podcasts in a short period of time.

How to advertise and promote what you offer with your podcast

Michael explains how he originally started with ads on the front end, where he knew he had the maximum number of people listening for him to connect with.

However, someone graciously suggested to him that he should give before he expects to receive. The listeners who don't know you will want to get straight to the juice.

You'll find out what technique works best for Michael and the types of ads he uses.