How to Grow a B2B Marketing Podcast
Who doesn’t love a good podcast?
Whether it’s on our favourite TV shows, true crime, or even food. There’s something for all of us.
And the B2B marketing podcast space has been no exception. It’s really taken off over the last year or so 🚀
There’s one podcast that’s on our radar. One that’s done incredibly well - Ungated by Landbot.
Fernando Amaral, the VP of Marketing at Landbot shared his secrets behind the success with our CMO Alice de Courcy.
Plus, he gave some fab advice for any aspiring marketers looking to break into the podcasting space for themselves.
Scroll 👇 or use the menu on the left to navigate around the article.
What do you love the most about marketing?
This is the same question that Fernando asks his guests at the start of the podcast.
So Alice wanted to do the same.
And for Fernando, “it’s always a combination of things that makes it exciting.”
He said:
“I love the possibility of working on new problems. There is a new set of customers to understand, with new challenges…as opposed to being in a boring job where you’re repeating the same tasks every day.”
But Fernando’s motivation to be in marketing isn’t just because he loves to embrace challenges:
“The day-to-day work involves working in a cross-functional team. For example, the brand and design team, content team, copywriting, developers, community managers, analytics, and data. It’s also about engaging with the sales team, product team, and customer success.”
For Fernando, marketing is the perfect balance between enjoying who you’re working with, and what you’re working on. And we totally agree 👌
It’s fair to say that this is a loaded question. So Alice wanted to know why the Ungated Podcast always opens with this question.
Fernando said:
“We’re trying to run away from the typical introduction. It’s an opportunity for the guests to introduce themselves but in a different way. It’s a bit more engaging. And I find it a bit boring when someone goes on and on about their previous jobs.”
So, there you go. Fair to say we’re all going to be stealing this amazing conversation starter for our own B2B marketing podcasts! 👍
The growth of the Ungated Marketing Podcast
The Ungated Podcast achieved 10,000 listeners in just 30 days 😱
Insane, right?!
So, how did Fernando pull it off?
Firstly, it was down to “the internal marketing team at Landbot, who had a big role to play, especially when it came to the amazing guests we had in the first month of the podcast.”
But, Fernando also said it was because of the way the team approached the branding of Ungated:
“We moved completely away from the Landbot brand and purely focused on the content. It was completely separate from Landbot - visually we created a new brand.”
And finally, the growth can be explained through the way the podcast was promoted:
“We decided to do 3 micro-videos for social media, for each episode. We wanted to maximise the opportunity to get some hits both on our own social media profiles, and also on our guest’s own social media profiles.” 📹
The role of an agency in the Ungated Marketing Podcast
We briefly touched on the role of an agency.
But Alice wanted to dig deeper. She asked:
“Why did you decide to use an agency and what role did it play in the podcast?”
And for Fernando and the rest of the podcast team, it was because the agency specialised in the world of B2B:
“The secret with the agency [Sweet Fish Media] is that they have their offering that’s very specific to B2B tech companies. And they have their own way of podcasting.”
This made sense to Fernando as it meant the podcast team and the agency were on the same page.
And it doesn’t mean that Fernando lost control over how Ungated would be run. All it meant was he could cherry-pick from Sweet Fish Media’s expertise 🍒
“We chose the ideas we liked, and then didn’t pay as much attention to the ideas that weren’t necessarily a good fit for us.”
Also, Fernando mentioned how it really does take an army to run a podcast:
“We also still needed a team for the technical aspects of the podcast. For example, the audio engineers, because there’s a lot of time-consuming work there. And we didn’t have anyone in-house, so the agency was really important for us.”
But when it came to podcast branding, Fernando stuck to the team at Landbot. Even though the agency offered its own design team.
Podcasting and the wider marketing plan
Typically, you might have a core focus on revenue in a marketing plan.
But Ungated have approached things a little differently:
“Whilst Revenue is the ultimate objective, the podcast is more of a brand awareness play.”
Because the concept of “marketing companies selling marketing technology to marketers is a very crowded space.” So it can be hard for awareness to come through more mainstream content mediums like blogs.
Fernando really believes in the power of podcasts, saying that it’s “the best way to create awareness and trust.” He has nicknamed it the “sweet spot”.
But the team hasn't just stopped at creating brand awareness.
Fernando has hopped on board the content repurposing train:
“We repurpose for SEO through the blog; it’s a matter of writing the article with a few editors and writers.”
He also mentioned that this article goes into the newsletter too, so readers don’t miss out on the podcast 💡
Metrics to track in podcasting
Numbers never lie.
And they’re one of the easiest ways to assess if your marketing efforts are paying off.
So Alice wanted to get to grips with how Fernando uses B2B marketing metrics to track the success of Ungated.
Fernando said:
“To begin, we were only making sure we were consistent with our publishing of the podcast. 8 episodes in 8 weeks was the only goal.”
For Fernando, in those early stages of the podcast, consistency was key.
But as time has gone on, the metric that’s being tracked has changed:
“The metric right now is downloads. Because the main objective is creating an audience. And not just [an audience] of any people. We look at the country and the type of people that are engaging with the content.”
And it’s safe to say that Ungated are doing something right because their number one audience group are marketing specialists.
But here’s the bottom line: Fernando’s all about keeping things simple. He stressed that he’s not obsessing over every single little complex metric that’s out there.
Sometimes it is just best to look at the bigger picture, rather than the nitty-gritty stuff.
Planning the podcast: episodes, guests, and more
So you’ve taken the leap of faith into starting a podcast.
Where to begin?
It can all seem overwhelming. But Fernando’s experience has shown us that it’s all about having a process in place:
- Choose the topic.
- Choose the guest.
- Research the guest and prepare your questions.
There’s more detail on each one below 👇
Choose the topic
What comes first - the topic or the guest? 🤷♀️
Naturally, you might be inclined to get a big celebrity voice on your B2B marketing and sales podcast.
But Fernando says it’s not always the best way:
“For us, it started with the guests…Because we did have some people we knew we wanted to have on the podcast, via networks. It was easy to reach out.”
But the approach has changed, both for now and in the foreseeable future. Fernando believes that focusing on one topic helps to add value for the listener:
“It’s good to focus on a specific topic for the podcast. Because for the listener it’s what they’re going to learn from the episode. And then once you’ve chosen the topic, choose the relevant guest.”
Fernando says it’s also important for the team writing up the article. Because when you choose the topic first, “you’ve created a clear pipeline of what the process looks like.”
There’s nothing worse than being left in the dark!
Choose the guest
It’s all about that magic marketing phrase again:
“Add value.”
Fernando said:
“When I reach out to guests I show them the podcast. There’s 8 podcasts that have been published so the guests can see the topic and the other guests that have been on.”
But that’s only the first step. The value part comes in because you’ve chosen the topic first. Fernando said it’s important to indicate the following:
“I’m inviting you because you’re known and I like you. But you’re also an expert in the topic for the episode, so I think there's a lot to learn from you.”
That’s how you can secure the guests.
Don’t just send a LinkedIn message and hope for the best.
Go the extra mile.
Research the guest and prepare your questions
This is another area where Sweet Fish Media was super helpful for Ungated. Fernando said:
“There’s a cheat code on the website of the agency. They have a guide that’s available online that tells you how to research the questions. And the main takeaway from it is to identify the guest’s unique point of view.”
Fernando also stressed that “an amazing conversation starter will help the guest to be passionate.”
And you can make sure you open with a bang by researching the guests. Here’s how it works at Ungated:
“We listen to other podcasts that the guest has been on, read their articles, stalk their social media accounts and see what they’re currently talking about.”
Bottom line: align with the interest of your guest.
Listen to the podcast
There were plenty more insights into the world of B2B podcasting. This blog has only scratched the surface.
You can check out the full conversation with Fernando below.
Just press ▶️ to get started 👇
You can check out other episodes of the Revenue Champions podcast here.
