James Carbary is the founder of Sweet Fish Media, a podcast production service for B2B companies. He writes for the Huffington Post and Business Insider, and he co-hosts the B2B Growth Show, a podcast aimed at helping B2B leaders achieve rapid growth. In this episode, James and I talk about three reasons why B2B brands should start podcasting.

Four years ago James started his first podcast, Inspiring Awesome. It was all about the creation of content for people in general, not limited to entrepreneurs. Sweet Fish Media launched in January 2015. One of their best clients were church planters, and the work was so enjoyable for the team that they started a Plant Better podcast to develop one to one relationships with others in the church planting world. After 45 podcast episodes that created strategic relationships in a market segment with limited budget, Sweet Fish Media pivoted their business model to produce podcasts focused on B2B brands in January of 2016. With the shift came the start of their current podcast, The B2B Growth Show which I had the privilege of appearing on in episode 256.

Why Should B2B Brands Consider Podcasting?

James believes the most strategic benefit to podcasting as a B2B brand is the ability to “break through the noise.” For brands using account-based marketing, podcasting allows for differentiation among the competition. Once an account is targeted most brands are sending cold emails that read similar to those sent by their competitors. Podcasting gives brands an edge and a way to amicably connect with decision makers by inviting them to be featured on their show. It provides a foot in the door and a way for B2B brands to reach their buyers.

“The most strategic benefit of a podcast for B2B brands is that it breaks through the noise.” @jamescarbary #sbeshow

Three Reasons for B2B Brands to Podcast

Thought leadership is a significant use case for podcasting. By hosting experts on a show, as Sweet Fish Media does with The B2B Growth Show, they absorb that knowledge and educate their listeners at the same time.

Content creation…Many marketers struggle to come up with new content ideas. By leaving the topic each guest will discuss up to them, it saves a lot of headache for marketers and allows for consistent content creation. Since the guests on his show are also his audience and target buyer, the topic they chose will be highly relevant. Another way podcasting assists with content marketing is through repurposing of episodes. This can be in the form of inspired blog posts, social messages, images, transcriptions, etc.

Align Marketing and Sales. B2B brands recording podcasts will find it advantageous to align marketing and sales. Sales will be able to support marketing in finding guests by revealing who they’ve identified as likely buyers. And marketing will help sales by aggressively targeting decision makers from those organizations to be podcast guests. A podcast can support an account based marketing (ABM) strategy.

Tune into this episode to hear an example of a software company Sweet Fish Media helped to launch a podcast. The show helped the company to connect with brands like Sears and General Mills.

Content_Summit17

Sweet Fish Media is holding a free virtual event for B2B marketers February 6-10 called Content Summit 17. I will be a guest along with more than 50 other speakers covering content marketing strategy, distribution, promotion, processes, sales and marketing alignment, and more. Sign up to save your place at ContentSummit17.com.

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P.S. On episode 146 I’ll cover the reasons Microsoft and LinkedIn integration will impact you.