Hi everyone,
I hope Q3 is treating you well, and for those gearing up for Black Friday, I hope you're ready for the madness! Today, we have a follow-up piece from Tom Hunt with a practical case study of how a podcast drives growth. If you and your team are thinking about launching a podcast, here are the numbers you need to convince the board. |
From Podcast to Pipeline:
How Audio Content Fuels Growth
by Tom Hunt |
|
|
Let me take you back to 2019. I’m sitting in my office at a B2B SaaS company, banging my head against the wall, trying to break through to sales ops professionals. Cold emails? Flatlined. LinkedIn messages? Buried in the digital ether. Frustration mounted. Then, a thought hit me like a lightning bolt—why not start a podcast?
What began as a side project—Confessions of a B2B Marketer—soon took on a life of its own, and as my role as CEO became more defined and I transitioned from scrappy founder to a more focused leader, the podcast evolved with me. Confessions of a B2B Marketer was rebranded as Confessions of a B2B Entrepreneur. The name change reflected the reality of my journey and the lessons I wanted to share—less marketing hacks, more entrepreneurial insights from the trenches.
Fast forward to today, that little experiment in podcasting didn’t just solve a marketing problem for me. It became the foundation of my company, and is now one of our biggest growth drivers. Today we are going to unpack this. How does a podcast drive demand?
Simple: it does the heavy lifting of building trust, creating relationships, and delivering value, all while making our phones ring with new business.
|
How a Podcast Can Feed Client Acquisition Confessions of a B2B Entrepreneur isn’t just another podcast where I ramble on about marketing strategies. This show is a calculated, demand-generating machine—and it works wonders. Here’s how. 1. Trust is Built, One Episode at a Time
Every episode is another brick in the wall of trust. It’s my voice, my experiences, and the insights I share that create a connection with listeners. These aren’t just vague ideas floating around; they’re real-world tactics from someone with his feet in the mud. Something people can relate to. People don’t buy from strangers—they buy from people they trust. And this podcast turns me from a stranger into someone they feel like they know. 2. Guests: From Conversations to Conversions
Here’s a little secret—many of my podcast guests have become clients. When you’re sitting across (virtually, of course) from someone for 30 minutes or more, the rapport is built naturally. We dig deep into their business, their struggles, and their successes. By the end of it, more often than not, the conversation moves beyond the episode into, “Hey, maybe we should talk about how Fame can help us.” The guest becomes a prospect with first-hand service experience. The prospect becomes a client. This happens more often than you’d expect, and it’s because the podcast breaks down the usual barriers, making the transition from conversation to conversion smooth and organic. It’s relationship-building 2.0.
Statistically speaking, we’ve found that 2-3 out of every 12 guests on a biweekly show will eventually move into a sales conversation. And, on average, at least one guest becomes a paying client. These are real numbers, real results.
3. Audience: Pre-Qualified Leads on a Platter
The audience? These aren’t casual listeners who stumbled upon the show. They’re growth-focused B2B marketers, founders, and decision-makers—the exact people I want to work with. They’re already looking for ways to amplify their reach, and as they listen, they’re subconsciously thinking, “This guy gets it.” By the time they click over to our website or hit me up on LinkedIn, they’re practically asking where to sign.
4. Generating Demand from Listeners
The audience for the podcast is primarily composed of decision-makers at growth-stage B2B companies—our target market. As listeners engage with each episode, they’re consuming valuable content, but more importantly, they’re developing trust. By the time they reach out, these leads are warm. They already know our service and approach, have heard our success stories, and feel connected to the brand and me as the founder. Within six months, assuming steady growth, the listener base could climb from 2,000 to over 5,700 downloads per month. More listeners mean more inbound inquiries, with conversion rates climbing as our credibility builds over time.
|
Where Does the Podcast Sit in Our Sales Funnel? Let’s zoom out a bit. Where does a podcast fit into the overall sales funnel? Simple: it’s both a gateway drug and a nurturing engine.
Top of the Funnel: Awareness Galore
First things first, the podcast gets the company on the map. It’s our front door, our warm handshake, our opening act. People discover our business through the podcast, whether it's shared on LinkedIn or pops up in their podcast feed. They listen, they like, and suddenly, Fame is in their orbit. That’s the top-of-the-funnel magic—it makes us visible to people who didn’t even know we existed. And with every episode shared, the ripple effect just grows.
Middle of the Funnel: Deepening the Hook
Once listeners are in, they usually stick around. Confessions of a B2B Entrepreneur isn’t just a one-off hit; it’s a long game. Episode after episode, listeners build a deeper connection with the brand, without feeling like they’re being sold to. By the time they’re thinking, “Maybe we need a podcast for our business,” who do you think is at the top of their list? Exactly. And when they reach out, they’re already halfway convinced.
Sales Support: Smoother, Warmer, Faster
By the time a prospect lands in our sales funnel, they’ve likely listened to a few episodes. They know our philosophy, our approach, our capabilities. So, those sales calls? They’re a breeze. It’s not about convincing them anymore—it’s about working out the details. They’ve already made up their minds.
|
Numbers Don’t Lie: The Stats Behind the Success
Numbers matter. So, here’s the lowdown on what Confessions of a B2B Entrepreneur has done for Fame: -
Guest-to-Client Conversion Rate: A solid 15% of podcast guests have become clients. That’s right—nearly one in six guests turns into a paying customer. It’s not magic, it’s method.
-
Audience Growth and Client Acquisition: The podcast has fueled a 20% increase in our client base over the last year alone. That’s not just listeners—it’s leads converting into paying customers.
-
LinkedIn Engagement: Sharing episodes and insights from the podcast on LinkedIn has snowballed my audience, pushing my following from 25,000 to over 125,000 in a matter of months. And, spoiler alert—those followers? They eventually convert into business inquiries.
-
Inbound Leads from the Podcast: 70% of inbound leads who reference the podcast during initial sales calls end up signing up for our service. These aren’t just warm leads—they’re preheated.
Real ROI: Proof that Podcasting Pays Off Here’s how a podcast translates to actual business:
-
Guest-to-Client ROI: As mentioned earlier, 2-3 guests on a biweekly podcast often lead to sales conversations, with at least one becoming a client. If a client’s annual contract value (ACV) is $60,000, and the podcast costs roughly $18,000 to produce over six months, that’s a 3.3x return on investment just from guest conversions.
-
Listener-Side ROI: With consistent growth, by month nine of a new podcast, we expect to hit over 4,000 downloads per month. At a conservative conversion rate of 0.4% from downloads to requests and then 5% of those requests turning into customers, we’re looking at one new customer every month. Over time, this compounds into a steady stream of revenue that justifies the initial investment many times over.
What We’ve Learned Along the Way
We’ve come a long way since I first hit the record button. Here’s what I know now that I wish I’d known then: - Consistency Isn’t Optional, It’s Essential
You can’t pop in and out of podcasting like it’s a hobby. You’ve got to commit. Regular episodes with relevant, high-quality content—that’s what builds trust. Show up every time, on time, with good stuff, and your audience will stick around and look forward to the next episode.
- Relationships Over Transactions
The podcast is a tool, yes, but it’s also an opportunity to build real relationships. Whether with guests or listeners, the connections you make on a podcast can outlast and outweigh any ad spend.
- Social Proof is a Game-Changer
Your podcast isn’t just content—it’s a signal. When people see you talking to big names in your industry, they sit up and take notice. Social proof is real, and it’s powerful.
Ready to Launch Your Own Podcast? If you’re an SMB struggling to get noticed or looking for a cost effective way to build sustainable pipeline, start a podcast.
Build relationships, deliver value, and watch as the listeners you nurture turn into clients. Trust me, it works. It worked for us and and works for our clients, every time.
To help you get started— Here’s the simple, but effective email template we use when reaching out to potential guests.
Get them on board, and who knows? They might just become your next big client. |
As businesses increasingly rely on data-driven decision-making, understanding and working with data warehouses like BigQuery is becoming crucial. Streaming data from Google Analytics 4 to BigQuery has numerous benefits, but also comes with challenges. This course dives into how BigQuery can enhance your Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) efforts, allowing you to analyze A/B test data with greater accuracy. It will guide you from the setup process to integrating data into dashboards, enabling you to fully leverage BigQuery’s capabilities for improving your CRO program.
In this course, you will learn how to: Connect GA4 to BigQuery for fast, accurate data analysis. Write queries to extract and structure data for CRO. Integrate BigQuery with Google Sheets and Looker Studio for reporting. Build automated dashboards for enhanced insights.
Use BigQuery to improve CRO strategies with reliable data.
Dive in now > |
B2B Growth Playbook: Inbound Strategies for Early-Stage Startups
I’m Steve Armenti, founder of twelfth — a boutique growth agency for B2B SaaS companies. Over the past 16 years, I’ve led growth marketing and demand generation programs for both startups and big names like Google and DigitalOcean. In that time, I’ve worked with dozens of early-stage startups facing the same challenge: how to drive significant growth with limited budgets. Through trial and error, and with my extensive experience, I’ve developed a playbook of inbound strategies that help resource-constrained startups punch above their weight. I’m excited to share these insights with you.
|
✔ Unlimited team seats – big team, big savings. ✔ 120+ highly practical and detailed marketing courses. ✔ 10 deep skill-building programs. ✔ Learn from vetted top 1% marketing practitioners.
If you have a team of 10, that’d be only $672/yr per team member. $336/yr per member for a team of 20.
Start a 7-day free trial.
|
|
|
CXL, 901 S Mo Pac Expy, Suite 150, Barton Oaks Plaza One, Austin TX 78746.
Follow us on LinkedIn.
Unsubscribe from future emails like these. |
|
|
|
_01J6F818V120SCW82ZB4M0CV3X.png)
_01J5D87MY6E2WJRNBDEEHEQWRM.png)