Getting a successful branded podcast off the ground requires internal buy-in. Learn how to sell your podcast idea to your organisation and secure the budget you need to get started.
Podcasts can make a huge impact to your content strategy, adding value to your business and helping you deliver against specific communications, sales and marketing goals. But for those who have never made a podcast, they can seem like a huge unknown. Overcoming any scepticism might be essential to getting the budget and support required to make your podcast happen. So, how can you make a compelling case for your podcast and generate buy-in internally?
It’s important to prove your podcast is a valuable part of the marketing mix. For this reason, we want to share with you how you can establish the value of your podcast, track this value, and build the case for a company podcast.
Make the link between your podcast and your organisation’s goals
First thing’s first: What is the north star for your business? Make sure you’re aware of the key goals within your organisation, and plans for the short and long term. Placing your podcast in context is important to show that you understand the way this will further corporate goals.
Alongside your goals, it is also worth paying attention to the key challenges to overcome as an organisation. Do you have challenges or obstacles in your current communications strategy? How will a podcast help plug the gaps, or shift the way your company communicates its key messages? How, specifically, can your podcast make a difference? These are the questions you will have to answer.
For example, when we pitched our Twenty Twenty podcast internally, we focused on how the show would broaden out our audiences and diversify our portfolio — two things that help us live up to our aim of being a genre agonistic company. By focusing our pitch this way, we were able to align our larger business goals with our podcast idea.
Use statistics to illustrate your point
There are a lot of useful resources out there about the podcast market and the typical audiences they attract, which you can use to build your case. We particularly recommend using Ofcom for the statistics to back up your presentation, where it’s been stated that as of September 2019, around 7.1 million people in the UK listened to podcasts each week, a rise of 24% over the year before. You can find key information about genre and demographics.
Another great resource is Statista, where you can find information about listener behaviour, ad spending, and lots of other key facts. For instance:
Driving is the most popular activity while listening to podcasts.
79% of listening happens on smartphones.
The main reason for listeners to choose a podcast is said to be the sound of the description given.
While some of these facts seem random in isolation, you might consider how it informs the way you reach out to an audience, the way you present your podcast, where and how you publish it, or the types of stories you decide to tell.
With more data-based information, you can get more specific about the nature of your podcast and how it can support your business goals. As well, you can support the ideas that you’re proposing for your podcast so that they make sense in accordance with your desired customer base.
Select key metrics in order to measure the success of your podcast
One of the biggest selling points of podcasts is the level of data you can get, compared to traditional media. This makes setting metrics very important to both support your podcast idea and measure its success for future buy-in.
Unlike more traditional media, podcasts can give you enough detailed data to
help you learn more about your audience and the performance of your content. You will have access to data such as:
Demographic information
Amount of downloads
Consumption rates (i.e. how much of an episode people listen to)
When we worked with Buffer, their Head of Editorial, Ash Read, told us:
When it comes to budgeting, I also like to think about the end results we're after. With a podcast series, the number one goal is usually listeners/engagement — how many people can we get spending quality time with Buffer? But there are a number of ways you can "win" with podcasting and I like to build that into any pitch to make the case for a show. For example, Breaking Brand enabled our whole 90-person team to learn exactly how a business in one of our key customer segments operates and is incredibly valuable.
Consider your metrics carefully, and read more of our advice about how to measure the success of your podcast here.
Research the market
Like with any new item of content, it’s vital to know more about the market you are in. look out at what other shows already exist, and where there might be an opportunity for you brand to add something new or different to the mix.
A simple positioning exercise will help people understand your proposal in the context of familiar touch points eg. a show they have heard, or your competitors activity.
In our pitches, for instance, we try to bring an idea to life with sentences like, ‘It’s X meets Y.” Giving clear reference points makes it easier to imagine what you’re going for, and helps to understand the placement of the podcast in the market. For example, a podcast about a rigged baking contest might be ‘The Great British Bake Off meets Serial”.
Present a realistic budget
Recently, we shared a blog about budgeting, and the key questions you need to answer in order to get a handle on your costs. Namely, questions around format, episode length and number, hosting, production, and promotion.
Keep your budget as realistic as possible - it’s important to make sure you aren’t caught short, or unable to execute the quality you hope to achieve. Equally, it’s important to show how the podcast will realistically create value at the costs you plan to spend. Read more about this subject in depth here.
Gather examples and inspiration
Once you’ve won over heads, it’s time to win over hearts.
When you’re comparing your idea to the market, you might want to come up with a list of similar podcasts or other media that are reminiscent of what you hope to achieve. This is your chance to really show off your creativity!
In essence, it’s important to create a sense of what your idea really feels like. Put together a playlist of inspirational shows to bring the idea to life. It’s possible that the people who you most need to convince haven’t really listened to many podcasts in the past - here’s your chance to make an introduction. One approach here could be building a podcast playlist to share with the decision makers in the team, you can use Spotify Premium or ListenNotes to do this.
How to present your pitch?
We hope this template gets you started on the buy-in you need to make your podcast a reality. You can find the template here - just copy it for your own use and edit that new version.
In addition to these tips, we’ve prepared a slide deck for you to download that you can use to present your idea to your team. Personalise the pitch deck according to your needs. Good luck!
Want to learn more? At Message Heard, we make podcasts that help your brand reach new audiences. Find out how we can help by getting in touch.