Podcast Influencer Marketing Strategy
Simon Thompson is a digital media expert and the founder of PodSeeker.co. He joins the show to discuss the differences and similarities between influencer marketing strategy and PR, his 5-step framework to implement a podcast influencer marketing strategy, and how PodSeeker can help you with that.
Understanding Podcast Influencer Marketing
Simon sees influencer marketing as similar to PR in many ways, because it’s about trying to leverage someone else’s audience to get your offer in front of people.
Podcast influencer marketing has a similar approach but much more flexibility than a simple 30-second ad slot here and there.
For example, a podcast host may mention a specific product or service throughout the podcast, and in places that make it the most helpful to the audience.
Who Can Leverage Podcast Influencer Marketing as a Strategy?
Tapping into podcast influencer marketing is something that anybody could try to do.
Simon, however, has noticed that health podcasts is a niche where this is leveraged quite often.
It can work for anyone, but Simon has noticed that Health podcasts seem to be leveraging this the most.
One of the reasons for this might be that the health and wellness space tends to have a more marketing-minded audience compared to other niches. Podcasters and creators there seem to be thinking about how to join forces and put offers in front of their audiences in a way that makes them the most relevant they can be.
The 5-Step Framework to Leveraging Podcast Influencer Marketing
There are 5 key steps Simon believes those looking promote their offer by collaborating with podcasters should follow:
- Understand your goal(s): this may be raising awareness, boosting sales, building credibility or similar. It’s important to start with this as it’s the step that will have a big impact on the types of shows you’re podcast influencer marketing efforts will focus on
- Find podcasts to reach out to: Simon built PodSeeker as there was a lack of relevant data on podcasts. PodSeeker can help you identify the right podcasts to put your attention toward – and provides you data to help you with that decision-making step
- Think about the offer for the podcaster: how are you going to “sweeten the pot” for podcast hosts? This could be something like giving them free access to your products, offering cross-promotion opportunities or cash, among other things.
- Consider your spot formats: unlike traditional podcast advertising, podcast influencer marketing gives you several spot options to pick from, including scripted, unscripted, and a sort of commentary that’s shared throughout the podcast episode.
- Craft the offer for the audience: the final piece of the puzzle – how are podcast listeners going to be incentivized to take the step you’d like them to take. Think discounts and entry to a giveaway, for example.
PodSeeker: 2 Million Podcasts and Contact Emails (and Counting!)
Simon sees the easiest way to think of PodSeeker as ‘a granular search engine for podcasts’.
The platform, which comes with a 7-day free trial, provides you with relevant data on aspects such as how long a podcast has been running for, how many episodes – and downloads – it has, and it even lets you find shows on a more granular level.
For example, you can use the platform to easily find relevant podcasts that revolve around a particular topic. You can then organize the podcasts you’ve found or are targeting into different lists, which data can be exported as a .csv file.
It’s important to keep in mind that the listenership numbers PodSeeker gives its users are estimates but good estimated ballpark figures.
Simon uses PodSeeker himself. When doing so, he often excludes very popular shows like NPR’s How I Built This to focus on niche podcasts instead. This, for the fact that niche podcasts are more receptive and flexible when it comes to collaboration and podcast influencer marketing.
PodSeeker & Podcast Guesting
For the time being, PodSeeker focuses on podcasts but, as Simon shared during the interview, there are future plans to also add the guesting element to the platform.
This way, it will be possible not only to find relevant shows but even specific guests to partner up with.
An Unexpected Thing About Podcasters
In his journey, Simon came across something he hadn’t anticipated: many podcasters using PodSeeker to connect with other podcasters.
Podcasters don’t tend to mix in the same circles only to socialize and discuss the latest microphones and accessories…they want to do so to find collaboration opportunities as well!
Remember: being a podcast guest is an excellent way to promote your show.
What’s Next for PodSeeker
Building the other side of the marketplace, which will focus on podcast guests, is the big project for Simon and his team going into this year.
They won’t only be focusing on refining current features PodSeeker offers but they’ll work on developing new features too. Simon gave us a “scoop”: one of the things PodSeeker will focus on is data on a podcast and host’s social media presence.
This will allow your efforts to look not only at more info related to the podcast but also related to other channels audience members may be spending time on.
And if all of this wasn’t enough, Simon shared that the team is working on refining podcast listenership data even further.
About Simon
Simon Thompson is a digital media expert and the founder of Podseeker.co. After a career in digital media at companies like Microsoft and Meltwater, he went out on his own to start his own series of entrepreneurial projects which he is working on today.
https://linkedin.com/in/simoncthompson
Resources mentioned:
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