Ultimate B2B Podcast Guide

I’ve gone from super cheap webcam and mic…to industry standard kit and learnt everything the hard way.

In this B2B podcast guide you’ll learn:

• How to pick a niche
• The strategy
• Tools and kit to use 
• How to drive generate b2b leads and revenue 
• How to get your podcast found

So you can build your company/personal brand, drive super warm inbound leads, grow revenue and foster relationships with ideal clients from a B2B podcast.

I have a video guide too that you can check that out below. Without further ado then, let's get going with your ultimate B2B podcast guide!

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Let's begin my B2B podcast guide by sharing an early mistake I made, so that you don't then make the same one!

When I first started my show I named it; ‘Sam’s Business Growth Show’ and had no real strategy for guest interviews.

I was interviewing all sorts of people e.g. sales leaders, marketers, entrepreneurs and more.

It was great fun and I learnt a tonne from guests but it didn’t drive any business results.

I also spent too long on guest background stories and the beginning of shows instead of getting straight to the point and focus of the episode.

Some time later we renamed to: Breaking B2B - B2B Marketing & Demand Generation Podcast and got more intentional with the focus of episodes…I started to see an impact over time on show growth, feedback from listeners and inbound leads.

As your ultimate B2B podcast guide I strongly encourage you to be specific with your show title and include the sector category so it can be easily found on apple podcasts and other searchable podcast tools. Go as narrow as you can.

E.g. if your show is about sales but you’re a sales training co who focuses on discovery calls as a specialism - your show might be:

‘Discovery Call Success - B2B Sales & Selling Tips’

(Covering key focus plus adding relevant keywords to be found for).

A few big contenders:

• Not picking a relevant niche
• Stopping after a couple episodes
• Thinking downloads or views are the only sign of success

In B2B unless you’re a huge brand or celebrity…Your focus should be to ensure you are getting the RIGHT type of prospects consuming your podcast. Rather than worrying about max downloads. I’ll explain more shortly.

There are two common types of podcast episodes:

1. Guest episodes
2. Solo episodes

You can pick one or do a mix of both as I do on Breaking B2B - B2B Marketing & Demand Generation Podcast

Let’s break both down…

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Guest Episodes

There’s a few ways you can play this, when you start out you likely want to get some warm contacts in your network onto the show to get a couple episodes under your belt.

Option 1: A popular strategy is ABM (Account Based Marketing)

The idea is you invite guests from target accounts e.g. if your ideal client profile was VPs of Marketing from cyber-security companies. You might make a list of all of them in linkedin sales navigator or a prospecting tool then reach out - you’ll get some ideas on outreach techniques in a sec.

You run a great show with them around their area of expertise, you have some conversation before and after the show and build rapport and a relationship with them - I often ask after a recording if there’s anything further I can help them with or anyone I can introduce them to. I’ll sometimes ask how they are handling the [problem] we fix to see if there’s any opportunity to do some work together.

Then go on to promote the episode which we get into further soon. 

Now this person trusts you and you will be in-mind if they have any requirements you might be able to help with. 

And you can stay in their network on LinkedIn, add them to your email list to stay top of mind and send them a note from time to time.

This can also work well for prospects already in your sales teams pipeline.

Option 2: Interview well known people in your niche. 

Find the famous prospects in your niche and invite them onto your show. With the goal of building authority from their clout and attracting part of their audience to your show (who should be relevant to your focus clients too).

This is also solid social proof to name drop when prospecting for new guests and to get traction when promoting on LinkedIn and socials.

Solo Episodes

These are solid to dive deep into an area of your expertise and can make for great evergreen, searchable content on youtube/podcast players/Google. 

Plus, you can make blog articles from the episodes after recording (by using a transcript tool and then manually making relevant updates) and get that found by target prospects. I’d recommend embedding youtube vid and audio player on the page. A great way to get extra targeted traffic to your website. 

These are great to build trust directly with your audience. 

For me these episodes can be anywhere from 10 mins to 25 mins.

I’ll typically get inspiration for topics from sales calls, customer conversations, listening to other podcasts in my sector, audio books and more.

Usually I build episodes around:

• Common problems raised on calls
• Questions I get asked a lot
• Industry trends
• New ideas
• Stories
• And more

If you want to drive inbound opportunities directly from your podcast - its worth trying this in your episode mix and having a clear call to action for people to check out your site / email list etc both in the episode and in the show description.

Frustrated your website isn’t driving a steady flow of qualified leads? Let’s fix that

When you’ve got your list of target prospects or niche famous guests…

My favourite way to reach out is to send painfully short personalised linkedin messages as we are b2b.

Something to the point and relevant. Here’s mine: “Hey [name], enjoyed your recent post on [topic] especially [this part]. Would love to have you share insights on my top [your niche] podcast. Against a convo?”

You can also name drop relevant guests in the outreach.

This has a solid response rate and approval rate - if they dont reply I normally link the show in the next message “PS. check the show here [URL]”

I mean, who doesn’t like talking about themselves/passions on a show that you will promote for them :)

Once they are in - I send them a calendly invite so they can grab a time that works and send them a simple 2 page doc that shares the podcast format, process and asks a couple Qs on their ideal focus areas, so we can pick an actionable topic for our audience.

My doc shares that interviews are not pre-scripted or rehearsed, that they need a microphone, webcam and headset and info on the tools we use to record + process + timings along with links to past episodes to check out.

This means we can easily prep show beforehand and I can draft a few Qs/thoughts on the show flow.

There’s a bunch of ways you can go about recording and producing podcasts with audio and video both live and offline.

Here’s the process I use for Business Growth Show. Steal what you see fit:

Solo episodes - write a rough script, try make episode title searchable to help with SEO and get it found. Record with Zoom (lots of other video recording tool options here). Add files to Google drive. Then our producer edits video using veed/final cut. And uses Audacity to edit the audio podcast versions.

Guest eps - So the guest has already filled in our guest form so we can ensure the episode is actionable on their focus area of expertise. We record the interviews with Streamyard on LinekdIn live for extra exposure (There’s plenty of other live streaming tools such as riverside)

After the interview we add the files to Google drive.Then producer edits video using veed/final cut. And uses Audacity to edit audio versions

For guest interviews I always have a pen and paper ready to note down any time-stamps that might make for good shorts promo video clips for socials.

(after episodes are produced)

• Upload to audio podcast - we use simplecast to send the audio episodes to Apple, Spotify and all the other major podcast audio players. Plenty of options here e.g. bcast buzzsprout etc.
• Upload video version to YouTube
• Make some shorts from the long form video - Upload to YouTube #shorts and LinkedIn personal and podcast page 
• Send guests a promo kit when episode goes live with apple/spotify/youtube/episode page links, episode artwork, video clips, recommended ways to promo on LinkedIn e.g. with video clips or artwork and episode links in comments and ask for a review on podcast players. 
• Make it Insanely easy for your guest to promote the episode on their socials and email lists
• Promote episodes your own email list
• Use story-telling posts on socials to hook people in (rather than a simple image or video post) and then link to show in comments
• You can also run sponsored ads to posts e.g. LinkedIn ads to your clips get show to target prospects who may enjoy your show

Another idea for podcast promo is to go onto a site called Chartable.

You can view the top charted podcasts in target countries and target industries e.g. marketing, business, sports etc.

Check who hosts the shows and reach out to them to swap interviews on shows and cross-promote your shows to attract new audiences. 

I won’t bore you too much here. I started off with a cheap $30 logitech c920 webcam and $99 Blue Yeti Mic. After 2 years I upgraded to SM7B shure mic and a sony a5100 dslr camera plus a sigma wide angle lens. 

This isn’t a must especially when you start I recommend going with an MVP solution. Then upgrade slowly over time.

Just like my background if you’re watching the video, the first few episodes were me against a plan wall in my spare box sized room :)

Sponsorships/shout-outs

Great to promote/partner with relevant brands your audience would be interested in.

These can come inbound once your show becomes recognised.

You can also reach out to potential sponsors e.g. I have done this with marketing/demand gen leaders as martech companies to sponsor our show.

To re-cap: go super niche into your focus offer and target market as possible with your show name.

Build relationships with ideal clients on actionable guest episodes that you promote super well

Or interview niche famous guests to grow audience and gain social proof

And consider solo episodes to showcase your own expertise in the area, educate and entertain and drive inbound leads over time that already know and trust you after consuming your content.

If you’re gonna start a podcast, to ensure it lasts I recommend doing it on a topic you both enjoy and see a future in. In an industry you want to drive business + revenue for. This way you can look forward to recording guest or solo episodes. And this will shine through in your content.



Cheers for reading

We consult a fair few b2b service, tech and SaaS companies on their marketing strategy including podcasting launch and on-going podcast production with our b2b podcast agency

All focused on driving qualified leads, making you known in your niche, driving revenue and building brand.

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