It’s tempting to want to reach as many people as possible with your brand’s podcast. A bigger podcast audience means more success and better results for your business, right?
In reality, even though it seems like more listeners equals more sales, it doesn’t really work that way in podcasting. Especially not for B2B companies that are looking to build trust with their audience to generate quality leads, brand credibility, and, ultimately, more conversions.
In B2B podcasting, a small, highly engaged audience can be much more impactful than a large one.
In this article, I’ll break down why niche podcasts are so effective for B2B companies, questions you can ask yourself to find the right niche for your brand and give some examples of niche B2B podcasts that work.
The myth of large audiences.
When you’re starting a podcast, the idea of broad appeal is, well, appealing. But the irony in podcasting is that going after a large audience can diffuse your message and make it take longer for you to reach your goals in the long run.
This is especially true for B2B companies, whose success relies on reaching the right people, not just more people and high download numbers don’t necessarily reflect podcasting success.
For example, when we produced The Sharpest Tool for Scorpion, one of the main goals was to create content to educate the home service professionals they worked with. This was a case where engagement was a more relevant success metric rather than the number of downloads. The data we gathered for this podcast showed that episodes had a 78% or better consumption rate, and several episodes surpassed 110% consumption, which means those episodes were being listened to more than once.
In the case of our client Coach Factory, it didn’t really matter if they had wide appeal. Their goal was to forge the right connections in the industry and build a network.
A few years ago, we helped them launch the first season of their Coach Factory podcast. Their company offers a personality assessment tool for coaches and trainers, and they wanted to raise awareness about it. We helped them plan and produce their podcast, which quickly began attracting guest requests from prominent coaches and industry experts.
This information helped guide our decisions so we could continue to create a podcast that achieved one of its main goals: engagement. Some companies might have other goals, like strengthening their network or building relationships. But in all those cases, tailoring to a niche audience will yield the best results.
Why niche podcasts drive better results (3 reasons).
As we’ve seen, when you prioritize the number of listeners, your business can miss the benefits of targeted exposure, which is where podcasting really shines.
Now that we’ve established the myth of measuring success in large numbers, let’s look at what your business stands to gain by tailoring your content to a small, highly engaged group.
1. Stronger connections & community building.
According to an Edison Research study, 61% of people who listen to podcasts feel a personal connection with the host or brand behind the show. And with a niche podcast, you have the opportunity to build that connection faster than you can with more generalized content.
The connections grow more quickly with niche content because your episodes are tailored to address the specific pain points and challenges of your target audience. Zeroing in on a small group of people lets you offer a level of expertise you can’t when you cast your net too wide.
2. The potential for higher conversion rates.
When you make niche episodes, you turn average listeners into highly engaged ones who are more likely to take action on your content by exploring your services, sharing the episode, or making a purchase.
Because you’ve established trust through high-value content, your listeners are more likely to click on a link to learn more about your services, and more likely to actually make the purchase.
3. Building authority & industry influence.
Thought leadership isn’t just about building influence with your listeners, it can also lead to business opportunities within the industry. When you establish your brand as an authority within a specialized market, your influence grows.
And with greater influence, comes more opportunities for collaborations that can help solidify your reputation as a leader in your industry. It’s this kind of credibility building that grows your business over time and unlocks new potential for growth like strategic partnerships, opportunities for speaking engagements, etc.
Getting (and keeping) a listener’s attention is difficult, but creating niche content is a powerful strategy for standing out among all the noise. Now let’s break down how to decide on an effective niche for your brand’s podcast.
How to pick the right niche for your company’s podcast.
One of the most important parts of starting a B2B podcast is deciding on the best niche for your brand. The right niche is a foundational part of building content that will resonate with your listeners and give you the best return for your efforts. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help narrow it down.
What are your business goals?
The goals you have for your podcast matter when choosing your niche. Do you want to generate more leads, educate listeners, or increase awareness of your brand?
If you primarily want to generate more quality leads, it’s important that your content helps solve challenges for your listeners. If you want to primarily build brand authority, you could focus more on content that highlights your company’s expertise within an area of your industry.
Who is your target audience?
Once you know your goals, you can narrow down the specifics of your target audience. Knowing who your ideal listener is helps you create highly relevant and tailored content. You can also ask yourself:
- Who exactly is my ideal listener/customer?
- What issues do they face, and what can my business and our podcast do to help solve them?
- What topics resonate most with them? What things are they most interested in?
If your audience feels seen, heard, and helped by your content, they’re more likely to take action on what you share and want to know more about your products or services.
What is your unique angle?
Your unique angle lives at the intersection of your expertise, interests, and your listener’s needs. How can you help your listeners with insights that you have, that others don’t?
Where does your brand have a competitive advantage? Do you offer more skill or proficiency in a particular market? Do you offer something better, or different, than other brands within your industry?
What’s the market demand?
Once you have a good idea of all the three questions above, it’s time to see whether or not there’s demand for your podcast idea. You can check in several ways:
- Look at tools like Google Trends and industry reports to see what your ideal listener is searching for.
- Try to find a space in your industry that has plenty of demand, and aligns with your strengths, but doesn’t have much quality content yet.
- Search podcast apps for your shows within your niche idea to see where you can fill the gaps and offer the genre something new.
As you gain more insights, you can adjust your show further. By examining reviews, subscribers, and other engagement metrics, you’ll get a feel for how your audience is responding to your episodes.
You don’t have to get it perfect right away. You can test and refine your content over time to determine exactly what kind of content performs best with your audience.
3 Examples of niche B2B podcasts that work.
The best kind of branded, niche podcasts address the challenges of a specified audience and drive real results for their company in the process. Here are three examples of niche B2B podcasts you can use as inspiration for your own branded content.
#1. The Growth Show by HubSpot
HubSpot is a well-known inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies and entrepreneurs develop strong growth strategies to meet their business goals.
Their podcast, The Growth Show, explores stories of business leaders and innovators growing their companies and the obstacles on their way to success. They offer real-world value in their episodes by giving advice that listeners can turn into powerful growth strategies for their own companies.
The show focuses on the stories of diverse guests whose business experience can be applied across lots of industries. But the podcast keeps its focus on its target B2B audience: business professionals who want to learn how to grow their brand.
HubSpot’s podcast content consistently engages its audience and serves to position its brand as a thought leader in the space of business strategy and growth.
#2. The Product Marketing Show by Content Beta
This show is produced by Content Beta, a business that offers creative content services on demand to help brands boost customer engagement.
The content is geared toward product marketers and business leaders who want to improve their marketing by learning from professionals in the industry. The episodes offer generous, high-value, actionable advice to listeners, helping them solve challenges relating to product marketing.
By doing this, Content Beta builds trust with listeners and its reputation as a valuable resource in the industry.
#3. The Manufacturing Executive by Gorilla 76
This niche podcast helps professionals in the B2B manufacturing industry generate demand and grow their businesses. The brand behind the content, Gorilla 76, offers services like content marketing and lead generation specifically for the industry.
They keep their content valuable by exploring strategies that can help mid sized manufacturers achieve success. Episodes feature interviews with industry leaders and B2B marketing experts who share their business development strategies.
By focusing on the specific challenges in the manufacturing industry, Gorilla 76 positions itself as a trusted voice for industry professionals, increasing the likelihood that listeners will want to use their content marketing services to boost their brand’s online presence.
Key takeaways.
A targeted, niche approach is what makes podcasting such a powerful resource for B2B companies, and a lot of value is lost when you try to cast too wide a net.
The reality is, when you create tailored content, it will not appeal to the masses–but if you do it strategically, you’ll be left with the right audience and content that works. You’ll develop more meaningful relationships with prospective clients, increase trust in your brand, and likely, get more conversions along the way.
Want to learn more about starting a podcast for your business? Book a free discovery call with me–I’d love to learn more about your company and how a niche, branded podcast can help you reach your goals.