How To Design A Profitable Branded Podcast That Doesn’t Sound Like A Branded Podcast
“If you do not pay for a service, you are the product they sell. So it ever has been”
- Tom Webster, Edison Research
The Branded Podcast Promise
It is such an attractive promise: Build a podcast entirely around your product and your service, and use it as a vehicle to sell more of your product. Surely millions would want to listen to a show about your product.
All the cool kids are doing it, so why shouldn’t you?
But, the problem is…that branded podcasts sound like, well, a branded podcast…and nobody is really interested. A few minutes in and they realize that they are being sold an ad in a very ineffective wrapper. There are so many other options in our podcatchers, so they move along.
Meh.
That type of branded podcast is not suitable for podcasting in general and certainly not good for our clients. We weren’t going to let them go down this path.
The Client
Early in the game of developing the Fastmail podcast (Apple | Spotify | Audible | Google), we noticed their corporate value “we are good internet citizens.” We have this in common with them — and we know a nice little chunk of the Internet does as well.
Match that with our corporate mindset of “impact, not downloads,” and things get interesting.
As cool as we think Fastmail is, we know that not every person interested in being a good digital citizen has a Fastmail account. The number of people looking to do the internet “right” is considerably larger than their client base.
Let’s make that impact …
The Reality
When done well, a branded podcast can be a fantastic vehicle to increase your audience. You do this by podcasting about what is actually important to, and connecting with, your audience first. Then, you can introduce your audience to your product or service. The introduction is so much less “salesy” once that connection is made, not because you somehow got your listeners to click “play.”
They want to, or will want to, hire you or pay for your services because what your services represent is near and dear to them (that’s why they clicked on the episode content in the first place). We call this Podcast Gold and are thrilled with the results it brings our clients.
It was time to create some Podcast Gold for Fastmail.
In the graphic below, you can see that Podcast Gold is the intersection of three key things. Although the model is true for any podcast, it is especially true in the branded podcast space.
Let’s take a look at each of these individually:
The first is the easiest. It is the business goal. What do you actually want to get out of your podcast? Funnily enough, many podcasts don’t consider this element (and I know that you’ve listened to a lot of them). In the case of the branded podcast, the business goal is, simply, the purchase of your product or service. Not that hard, but this is only the first step.
The second is avatar interest, which is the element of Podcast Gold that is perhaps the most difficult. What is it that your show could speak to that would be of interest to your avatar? Sure, there is a happy, shiny world where just introducing your avatar to your product is a fantastic gift, but let’s admit it, that is not reality. You need to have content that inspires the avatar to take part in your business goals.
And this might seem obvious, but the final element of this trinity is simply engaging content. You may have a clear business goal and content that your avatar might be interested in, but they will run away if the content is not engaging. You’ve heard plenty of podcasts with exciting content, or at least the first few minutes of them, and you’ve subscribed to none of them.
You need all three of these elements, together, to be successful.
The business goal mixed with the avatar interest but without engaging content is what we call “looks good on paper.” An interesting avatar with engaging content but not matching a business goal is called around here the “why are we doing this?” and, of course, the business goal with engaging content but not of interest to your avatar in any way, shape, or form is the “money suck.”
The Implementation
The business goal of the Digital Citizen podcast is straightforward: Sign up for a trial account with Fastmail. They’ll be tracking this (ethically, but that’s the topic of another article) and will know how well this works in the future…But, as I said, that is the easy part.
Free email services offer email in exchange for your personal information. We could have done a series about the issue of privacy and discuss the problems created when companies treat customers as products, not people. But we also wanted a show that would empower people to keep using and enjoying the Internet.
Instead of promoting Fastmail the product, or focusing on creepy digital surveillance or corporate privacy scandals, we went with a topic that genuinely made us feel good — digital citizenship. With this topic, Fastmail could talk about the people and behaviors that make the Internet a better place, as well as their work to make a positive impact.
Fastmail’s CTO, Ricardo “Rik” Signes, is a fascinatingly interesting character. To be honest, more so than many of the “interesting people talking about interesting things” podcast hosts now. The geek in me would enjoy listening to him rant about tech issues. But, as cool as Rik is, that avatar base is pretty small.
In the theme of engaging content designed for Fastmail’s avatar, we decided to take on the overwhelming task of becoming a digital citizen with a conversation about making the small changes needed to do just that. We got BJ Fogg from the Stanford Behavioral Institute, author of the fantastic book Tiny Habits, to be our first guest. BJ is an extremely engaging character and professor by nature, who wants to teach the very steps that Fastmail’s avatar is interested in.
We didn’t want BJ to talk about our product because the nature of our show doesn’t depend on his endorsement. We wanted him to teach our listeners about how they could make the tiny changes that would lead to becoming a better digital citizen. So, when Rik chats about Fastmail later, and the connection is obvious but seamless. BJ does what BJ does best, and Rik does the same.
In Episode 2, the amazing Tom Webster (Edison Research and “I Hear Things”) talks about social media and discusses whether it “makes us sad.” Answering this question is key to becoming a good digital citizen, and Tom is the most fascinating guy I know to talk about the topic. Again, Tom doesn’t need to promote or even talk about Fastmail because it’s Fastmail introducing Tom to their audience. A true win-win.
The show was constructed to reach its audience where they are and has interesting content that will resonate with them. In doing so, Fastmail becomes part of the larger conversation, but not the reason for the conversation in the first place.
I don’t want to spoil the rest of season 1, but everyone falls into that category. These are people with the authority to talk about becoming a digital citizen, and a good one at that. Fastmail suggests that their service might be a good first step. The rest is up to the audience.
What’s Next?
As I’ve written about previously, a good look at your podcast numbers should cause you to change your show. Fastmail is doing a short and simple first season so that we can look at the numbers and adjust from there. Whereas the fundamentals of Podcast Gold will always be true, we’ll probably need to modify the show, as needed, to maximize the opportunities.
How far did the audience consume? How many took Fastmail up on the offer of a free trial? How does that compare with downloads? What is the delta (in consumption and downloads) between guests? We surveyed the Fastmail audience early in the process, and they’re excited for what the podcast will be bringing, but if we just make them happy, we haven’t met our Business Goal.
We’ll track everything we can and adjust the show properly, still keeping our eyes on the intersection of business goal, avatar interest, and engaging content.
As other branded podcasts face the realities of attempting to sell a product in a lame wrapper, it is a joy to leverage the best podcasting has to offer and match it with a really cool service.
If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, email me at paulsmediumarticles@fastmail.com.
