How to Get More Leads from Your Branded Podcast

If you're running a branded podcast, you know that it's not just about creating great content - it's about leveraging that content to achieve your business goals.

For many brands, their goals are based on awareness, thought leadership, brand perception, and trust. These are all valuable goals but don’t provide tangible results on how podcasts are impacting your bottom line.

So the question becomes, how can you make sure that your podcast is actually driving conversions and bringing in new leads in order to measure podcast ROI?

In this article, we'll cover all the tips and tricks and in no time, you will be successfully generating leads that help you grow and reach more people. So, let's dive in!

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1. Get to know your target audience

Deeply understanding your audience is a key step in learning how to generate leads. You need to know who’s listening.

By understanding your target audience, you can tailor your content so that it speaks to their values and interests, making it more likely for them to become repeat listeners and fans of your brand with the goal of turning them into leads.

Things to consider when determining your target audience are their overall demographics:

Age
Gender
Location
Occupation

You can dig even deeper to understand:

What are the things they struggle with?
What brings them value?
What brings them joy?
What are their blind spots?

You can learn more by conducting research, polls & surveys and digging deeper into your social media analysis. You should also create listener personas to understand your listeners better and uncover their needs.

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2. Build a relationship with your listeners

Building relationships with your listeners is a crucial aspect of generating leads through podcasting. When your listeners feel connected to you and your brand, they are more likely to become loyal followers and eventually leads.

Here are a few ways to build strong relationships with your listeners.

Engage with your audience: Make sure to respond to callouts, emails, and social media comments from your listeners. This will show that you value their input and are invested in building a relationship with them.

Create with your listeners: Consider inviting your listeners to participate in your podcast as guests, co-hosts, or even as part of a Q&A segment. Even give them a shout-out on your next episode. When you collaborate with your listeners or make them feel special but allow them to share their experiences, this will strengthen your relationship with them.

Build a strong community: Encourage your listeners to connect with each other through social media or a dedicated forum. This will create a sense of community among your listeners and will make them feel like they are part of a larger community.

By building strong relationships and trust with your listeners, you'll create a loyal following that is more likely to become future leads for your business.

So, invest time and effort into building these relationships, and you'll be rewarded with an ever-growing list of leads.

3. Add value via your episodes

If you don’t produce valuable content, you won’t stand a chance against other podcasts in the same niche. New listeners have no loyalty to your show – you have to give them a reason to be loyal. Otherwise, it is easy for them to take their attention elsewhere.

The most reliable way to get listeners' attention is to publish content that is genuinely interesting and helpful. To put it another way, to start a podcast and turn it into a lead generation tool, you need each episode to provide its target audience with tangible value.

For example, if your business sells software to small businesses it would make sense to run a podcast that helps business owners better manage things like accounting, onboarding, grant applications, etc.

In other words, provide information that would make a small business owner’s life easier. But remember, your podcast is the product, don’t turn your show into a sales pitch or people will quickly tune out.

Insider Tip: Publishing great episodes with detailed and helpful shownotes gives people a reason to visit your site, even when they have no immediate need for your product.

4. Leverage lead magnets

Next on the list of ways to get more leads for your branded podcast is to create a podcast email list.

But don’t expect your listeners to hand over their contact information on request. Put yourself in their shoes – would you do that? Absolutely not…unless you know that you’ll be getting real value for that exchange.

Create an incentive or piece of content that will help your podcast lead generation efforts. This strategy is often called gated content. Gated content refers to online resources that require information like your name and email before you can download the content. Marketers leverage this tool to gather the contact information of audiences that show intent or interest in a topic that their brand serves.

One common way marketers present gated content to audiences is through lead magnets. You can feature various resources in your lead magnets such as:

A whitepaper or eBook
Running a contest or giveaway
Offering free downloads or a free trial period
Winning a free consultation
Getting access to bonus / extended / behind-the-scenes content

It's up to you to decide which form of lead magnet will work best for your business. If you’re unsure, you might want to experiment to see which brings in more leads and leads to conversions.

Testing is your best friend!

5. Create an optimized landing page

As you continue to drive users to your site through promoting the content surrounding your lead magnet, shownotes, or other promotional tactics, you’ll want to make sure you have a landing page with a clear CTA (call-to-action) and seamless usability.

Creating valuable, high-converting landing pages is a challenging but effective task. Here are a few landing page best practices that you should adhere to:

Have a clear value proposition: Your landing page should clearly communicate the value that your product or service offers to the user. Be clear about what problem you're solving and how your product/service can help.
Use attention-grabbing headlines: Your headline is the first thing a user sees when they land on your page. Make sure it's attention-grabbing and clearly communicates what your offer is.
Keep the design simple: A cluttered landing page can be overwhelming and distract the user from your offer. Keep your design simple and focused on the key message you want to convey.
Use visuals: Use high-quality images or videos to showcase your product or service. Visuals can help communicate your message more effectively and make your landing page more engaging.
Use social proof: Including testimonials, case studies, or customer reviews can help build trust and credibility with your audience. Social proof can be a powerful tool for persuading users to convert.
Keep the form short: The form on your landing page should only ask for essential information. The more fields you include, the less likely users are to complete the form. This also includes the form fields for your lead magnet.
Make your call-to-action (CTA) clear: Your CTA should be clearly visible and communicate the action you want the user to take. Use action-oriented language and make it easy for users to complete the desired action.
Test and optimize: Use A/B testing to test different versions of your landing page to see which one performs better. Continuously optimize your landing pages based on user feedback and conversion data.
Personalize the experience: Use data to personalize the landing page experience for each user. This could include displaying content based on their location, past behavior, or other demographic information.
Keep mobile in mind: Make sure your landing pages are optimized for mobile devices. Many users will be accessing your landing page on their mobile devices, so it's important to ensure a seamless experience across all devices.

6. Direct people to your landing page

Whoever listens to your podcast won’t stumble upon your landing page by accident. Instead, you have to tell them to go there explicitly. This means embedding CTAs in your podcast episodes.

Ideally, you should place up to 3 CTAs in each of your episodes:

Pre-roll: Short and snappy CTA at the start before the episode officially starts.
Mid-roll: Placed in the middle of the podcast breaking up the content.
Post-roll: Repeat the CTA again at the very end of the show.
Remember, you must decide on a single action you want listeners to take and focus on that. Don’t bombard listeners with several different CTAs in the same episode. It dilutes your message, confuses listeners, and results in fewer conversions.

But once you decide on what that CTA is, then make sure it is weaved in throughout your episode.

7. Repurpose your podcast content

Repurposing your podcast content can be a great way to generate leads for your brand. One way to do this is to take snippets of your podcast and turn them into shorter video or audio clips that can be shared on social media. These clips should highlight the most important points of your podcast and include a call-to-action that directs viewers or listeners to your landing page or website.

Another option is to turn your podcast into written content such as blog posts or articles. This can help you reach a wider audience, including those who may prefer reading to listening. Additionally, written content can be optimized for SEO, making it easier for potential leads to find you through search engines.

By repurposing your podcast content in these ways, you can reach a larger audience and provide them with valuable content that can help them solve their problems. This will help to establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry, and attract more leads to your business.

8. Leverage social media marketing

When promoting your latest episodes on social media, you can’t simply post a link and leave it at that because this doesn’t lead to engagement.

Remember on social media, you have to be…well, social! Your podcast content has to compete with funny memes and cute cat videos, so if it doesn’t grab attention, it’s going to get lost in the shuffle.

Podcasters can use social media to generate leads in a number of ways:

Promote the Podcast on Social Media: Share each new episode on social media platforms, and use relevant hashtags to help people discover the podcast. Additionally, encourage listeners to share the podcast with their network on social media.
Host Q&A Sessions on Social Media: Use social media to host Q&A sessions with listeners or industry experts. This can help build a community around the podcast and generate leads.
Create Social Media Ads: Create targeted social media ads for the podcast. These ads can be used to drive traffic to landing pages, subscription pages, or other call-to-actions.
Use Influencers: Work with influencers in the industry or niche to promote the podcast. This can help to reach a wider audience and generate leads.
Utilize User-Generated Content: Encourage listeners to share their own content related to the podcast on social media using a branded hashtag. This can help to build a community around the podcast and generate user-generated content.
Measure Your Social Media Analytics: Use social media analytics to track engagement and see which social media channels are driving the most traffic and leads to the podcast. Use this data to optimize social media marketing efforts and adjust the strategy as needed.
Engage with the Audience: Engage with the audience on social media by responding to comments, asking questions, and sharing relevant content. This can help to build a relationship with the audience and generate leads.

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9. Use link tracing to measure performance

Whenever you post an asset related to your podcast on social media, you include a link to the full episode. But that’s not enough – you want to know how many people actually clicked on that link across different social media platforms and which of those clicks resulted in episode downloads.

With tools like CoHost Tracking Links, you can attribute marketing channels to episode downloads. This makes it easy to observe which channels your audience lives on, where to focus marketing budgets, and the type of content your audience prefers.

Remember, when it comes to understanding which channels are optimal for your podcast’s growth, testing is your best friend!

10. Use emails to drive sales

To get started on leveraging email for podcast lead generation, you first have to create a dedicated email list for your show. This list should be composed of listeners who have opted-in to receive emails from you. This can come through your lead magnet, landing page, social channels, shownotes, etc.

Once you have your email list, you can start sending out regular newsletters to keep your listeners engaged and build brand awareness. You can also include CTAs (calls-to-action) in your newsletters to drive traffic back to your website or landing pages. These CTAs can be used to promote upcoming episodes, events, or other content that may be of interest to your audience.

Another way to use email marketing for lead generation is by sending targeted email campaigns to specific segments of your email list.

For example, you could send a campaign promoting a product or service to listeners who have engaged with previous episodes related to that product or service. You can also use email marketing to nurture leads through the sales funnel by sending personalized content and CTAs based on where they are in the buying process.

Overall, email marketing can be a highly effective way for podcasters to generate leads and build relationships with their audience. By creating a dedicated email list, sending regular newsletters, and using targeted email campaigns, you can drive traffic, build brand awareness, and ultimately convert more leads into customers.

11. Collaborate with other content creators

Collaborating with other podcast hosts, content creators, or guests is a great way to generate leads through podcasting. By working with others in your niche, you can reach new audiences, build relationships, and increase your credibility.

Here are a few ways to collaborate with others in the industry:

Guest appearances: Consider inviting other podcasters or experts in your niche to be a guest on your show. This will give you the opportunity to reach their audience and provide value to your own listeners.
Cross-promotion: Consider cross-promoting each other's podcasts on your websites, social media channels, and in your episodes. This will increase visibility for both of you and reach new audiences.
Joint episodes: Consider working with another podcast host to create a joint episode. This will allow you to reach each other's audiences and provide valuable content to your listeners.
Affiliate marketing: If you both have products or services that complement each other, consider partnering up for an affiliate marketing program. Let’s say you are both in the wellness space and one has a signature candle and the other has a meditation App, this could work beautifully. This will allow you to generate leads and earn commissions from each other's products or services.

12. Bonus: Select the right podcasting platform

When it comes to generating leads through podcasting, selecting the right platform is just as important as understanding your target audience.

Consider the features and tools offered by each platform. Do they have the tools you need to create, host, and distribute your podcast effectively? Do they offer data and reporting to help you track your success? Are they easy to use?

Make sure you think about all the different elements before you decide which platform you want to go all in on. Paid-for platforms provide more analytics, which ultimately drives your understanding of your listeners and can help generate leads.