B2B Podcasting Insights - B2B sales & audience engagement strategies for founders and brands

Free one-page post-mortem for an empty email list: https://podknows.co.uk/listYou're 40 episodes in, and your email list would fit inside a Fiat Panda.Mine would. 19,300 downloads in 90 days. Signups from this show's freebies in the same 90 days? Two.This was supposed to be a victory lap. Every freebie I built for the show this year, what each one was for, and which ones worked. Then I opened my Kit account, and the 'which ones worked' section got a lot shorter.I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights, I'm reading out the receipts on a whole season of lead magnets, Top 40 countdown style, and working out why a B2B podcast with real downloads can still leave you with nobody to talk to.We look at why a website address said out loud at the end of an episode is a message in a bottle, why a freebie built around a topic attracts other people in your trade rather than buyers (buying triggers, not topics), why an email address with no follow-up isn't a lead, and how Kit's own recommendations feature outsold my lovingly designed PDFs by more than three to one.There's also a simple sum you can run on your own show: signups per thousand downloads. It's a horrible number the first time you see it. But it tells you whether listening is turning into people you can actually talk to, which a download never will.Plus a Founder FAQ from Lorna in Inverness, whose podcast name has just been pinched by a competitor, and a quick tip on why every comma in your script is a suspect.Useful linksEmpty List Post-Mortem (one sum, four checks, my own numbers as the worked example) https://podknows.co.uk/listB2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnosticPodcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/auditsPodknows Website https://podknows.co.ukLeave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail Or email [email protected]:00.000 Your email list would fit inside a Fiat Panda01:35.000 The receipts: a whole season of freebies, Top 40 style04:44.000 Why nobody signed up: no tap, wrong people, no follow-up08:17.500 What I'm changing, and signups per thousand downloads10:21.300 Founder FAQ: a competitor has pinched my podcast's name12:55.000 Quick tip: if a sentence needs a comma, cut it in half14:04.000 Final thoughts and the Empty List Post-Mortem

If you've got a budget review coming up and someone with a spreadsheet is about to ask what your B2B podcast actually does for the business, downloads won't answer it.Downloads tell you people are listening. That does matter. But a download doesn't sit next to a cost. And that's the only kind of number a CFO can do anything with.I'm Neal Veglio, and this week on B2B Podcasting Insights, I'm showing founders, CMOs and business owners exactly what to bring into that room instead: a fully loaded cost number of your own, and the three counts that show what your podcast has changed in the business, not just what it produced.We look at why bringing your download chart turns your podcast into a media buy judged on cost per thousand, why founders either overclaim or shrug and say "brand awareness", why your own hours belong on the cost sheet, and the three counts that work as genuine buying-trigger evidence: deals where a prospect mentioned an episode unprompted, episodes your sales team sent instead of booking a call, and inbound that names the show.There's also a simple rule for when you go looking and find nothing at all: say zero, then say how you'll measure it next quarter. Plus a Founder FAQ from Tamsin in London, who wants to re-record her cringe-worthy episode six, and a quick tip on checking your show at 1.5x speed.Useful linksPodcast Value Scorecard (where you stand out of five, plus the three numbers on one page) https://podknows.co.uk/numberB2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnosticPodcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/auditsPodknows Website https://podknows.co.ukIs Your Podcast Doing Its Job? (the one this picks up from) [LINK]Leave a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemail Or email [email protected] summary00:27 The question someone with a spreadsheet is about to ask00:55 Why downloads are the one number a CFO can't use01:43 How downloads turn your podcast into a media buy02:12 Overclaiming, underclaiming and Janet the CMO02:49 First: bring your own fully loaded cost number04:30 Yes, your own hours go on the sheet05:06 Second: a number your podcast changed, not produced05:44 Count one: deals where a prospect mentioned an episode06:11 Count two: episodes sales sent instead of booking a call06:52 Count three: inbound that names the show07:11 Why you don't need an attribution model for this07:52 Third: if the number is zero, say zero08:29 What to measure next quarter09:04 Why a CFO trusts a zero with a method09:46 Would your sales conversations get longer without it?10:25 Founder FAQ: should Tamsin re-record episode six?12:48 Quick tip: check your show at 1.5x speed13:49 Final thoughts: line item or asset?14:12 The scorecard and the Podcast Growth Diagnostic

The person you most want as a client is going to ignore your next three emails.Ask that same person onto your podcast, and they'll give you 45 minutes of undivided attention, on the record, and thank you for it afterwards.There's a version of that which isn't a trap.Back in January I put out an episode called "Why Guest Interview Based B2B Podcasts Don't Work." I'm not taking a word of it back. But I did leave a door open.Interviews should support your strategy rather than be your strategy and there is exactly one use of a guest that genuinely does that.Almost nobody does it, because a load of people tried it in 2020 and did it so appallingly that the whole idea now smells.I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights I take the Trojan Horse apart — the move from Stephen Woessner's Profitable Podcasting that B2B LinkedIn spent five years ruining — and show you what's left when you remove the one thing that made it rot.We look at the three questions that decide who to ask, why most people approach the wrong stakeholder, the five rules that stop a recording turning into a sales ambush, and where the deal actually gets raised. Because it isn't where you think, and it isn't by you.There's also a simple test you can run on any name on your guest list right now.Plus a Founder FAQ from Yusuf in Sheffield on whether transcripts are actually worth publishing, and a quick tip about the dead logo sitting in your email signature.Useful linksPodknows Website https://podknows.co.ukThe invitation email + the three questions, on one page https://podknows.co.uk/inviteB2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnosticPodcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/auditsLeave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemailOr email me directly: [email protected] summary00:00 The prospect who ignores your emails01:02 The January episode — why guest interviews don't work02:07 All of that still stands, but I left a door open02:52 Profitable Podcasting and the Trojan Horse03:29 The bit everybody skipped04:20 How the Dream 25 became the Dream 2,50005:09 A flat-pack horse from IKEA05:31 It isn't the invitation, it's the deception06:06 The three questions before anybody gets an invite07:18 Don't book Janet, book Janet's head of content08:33 Three or four a quarter, chosen deliberately09:41 The case study I haven't got10:03 Three hosts who invited me on, and became clients11:28 The five rules, starting with disclosure13:30 Publish it like it actually matters14:35 If a deal comes, it comes from them15:11 Open the door and tell them what's inside15:57 Founder FAQ: is a transcript actually worth it?17:52 Quick tip: the podcast badge in your email signature18:40 The invitation email link.

That's Spotify's page for my podcast. And that's my company's website, sitting underneath it.Not Spotify's page for the show, either. One episode. A single episode of mine, on somebody else's platform, ranking above the website I actually pay for.I run a podcast agency. This is my own show. And in more than 45 episodes of telling founders to go and look at their own numbers, I had never once typed my own show name into a search bar.It took 45 seconds.I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights I walk down the whole results page top to bottom — what Google has already answered before anyone can click anything, who's bidding against your show's name, and why the thing representing your podcast to complete strangers is almost certainly a page you've never opened.I'm also going to be honest about which bits of this I actually understand, and that matters more than it sounds like it does. There's a point in here where I stop, because I can feel myself about to become a man with opinions about Google — and the reason most podcast advice is useless is that nobody will say the words "I don't know that."What I can talk about is the podcast bit. So there are five things you can go and fix today, none of which require an SEO expert, and one of which takes 45 seconds.Plus a Founder FAQ from Struan in Glasgow whose guest wants to hear the edit before it goes out, and a quick tip about the one-click button in your editing software that's quietly turning your guests into robots.Useful linksPodknows Website https://podknows.co.ukB2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnosticPodcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/auditsNikki Pilkington — SEO (mentioned in this episode) https://seofuckingwhatpodcast.co.uk/Leave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemailOr email me directly: [email protected] summary00:00 Spotify is outranking my own website 00:37 45 episodes of "go and check your numbers" — and I never had 00:57 Conversion needs supply: episodes don't bring strangers in 01:57 Result one: Google answered before anyone can click 02:26 Credited like a photographer on a stock image 02:46 Result two: who's bidding against your show's name 03:10 Result three: the first thing a human can actually click 03:59 Results four and five: Spotify's episode above my company site 04:11 Don't get cross with Spotify — this is an ownership problem 04:45 The dates: stamped June versus published every Friday 05:04 Where I stop, and why "I don't know" matters 05:59 What producing an SEO podcast taught me 06:22 My theory: freshness is doing something 06:53 What's Nikki's department and what's mine 07:23 Five things you can actually fix 09:03 These results won't change on their own 10:00 Founder FAQ: a guest wants to hear the edit first 12:21 Quick tip: stop deleting every breath 14:44 How to send me a question

If you've been told to niche down your B2B podcast, you've probably never been told what it costs — or who exactly you'd be saying goodbye to.Pick a lane. Speak to one audience. If you're speaking to everybody, you're speaking to nobody.Nobody disagrees with that in the abstract. Almost nobody does it. And the reason is simple: the advice arrives without a price tag attached, which makes it a sacrifice with no stated return.I'm Neal Veglio, and in this episode of B2B Podcasting Insights, I'm putting an actual price tag on niching down — naming the four groups of listeners you genuinely lose, and then asking the only question that matters about each one: were they ever going to become a client?We look at why a tighter focus means being closer to 10,000 listeners than 100,000 and why that's the right outcome, what happened when I compared my own two shows side by side (one gets more downloads and makes almost nothing), why the subscriber count in your dashboard has never paid an invoice, and why conversion goes up precisely because reach went down.There's also the homework: sort your audience into two piles and work out which one you're actually protecting.Plus a Founder FAQ from Denny in Manchester, who has been staring at his show description for three weeks wondering whether he's allowed to call himself a visionary. And a quick tip that will make you delete a line from your outro today.Useful linksPodknows Website https://podknows.co.ukB2B Podcast Growth Diagnostic https://podknows.co.uk/diagnosticPodcast Audits https://podknows.co.uk/auditsLeave me a voicemail question https://podknows.co.uk/voicemailOr email me directly: [email protected] summary00:41 "Pick a lane" — and why almost nobody does01:32 Putting a price tag on your ignored customers02:07 Cost one: the adjacent industry listener02:33 Cost two: the browser03:14 Cost three: the network you built on breadth03:45 Cost four: the numbers, and this one stings04:59 Say it out loud: 10,000, not 100,00005:28 My two shows compared, honestly06:47 Names in a CRM beat numbers in a dashboard07:16 One question to ask about every name on the list08:22 The loss is real. It was never a client list08:56 What's left: people who recognise themselves09:58 Conversion goes up because reach went down10:25 Your homework: two piles11:37 The only version of niching that genuinely hurts12:29 Yes, downloads will drop. Here's why that's fine13:00 Founder FAQ: Denny in Manchester on the "visionary" problem14:43 Quick tip: "rate and review" needs to die15:52 Final thoughts and next steps