Case study

Generating leads for a new business podcast

Project management and marketing for Decoder.ro

Brief and goals

A freshly launched podcast, Decoder.ro, needed a strategy to generate listeners and keep them coming back for new episodes. The topics were best fit for managers and entrepreneurs looking to grow, professionally and personally. The target was Romania, since this is the language spoken in the podcast. The podcast format was primarily audio, complemented by transcripts of the discussions in an article format. Plus, sponsor agreements included 2-3 events per season, with a season typically lasting 4-5 months.

The objective was to reach 2,000 listeners per episode, with an episode coming out once every 2 weeks. The events, which were free to attend, were expected to generate 80 – 100 on-site attendees.

The scope of the project was partially project management (in managing internal resources to create the assets necessary to launch each episode) and partially marketing (in promoting the podcast to reach old and new listeners). The team had the technical resources, but lacked the skills of management and marketing.

eMarketing Stars (EMS) served as an externalised resources that handled both, engaging a team of 3 people – an account manager, a content marketer and a designer.

Setting the context

The podcasts hosts had networks established from previous projects, but required a comprehensive strategy for outreach, sponsor management, and content production. Plus, there was a need to reach new targets, that they haven’t engaged through other projects in the past.

The events were set in different large cities of Romania, to attract new audiences from them. The sponsors were also interested in generating business leads from across the country. For this, events were considered a good way to generate leads, get fresh contact information and engage with business contacts in a new way.

With the budget already set for the first year, there was limited space for new developments or for ads campaigns. These would be rediscussed before a new season start, where budgets were re-established.

It is important to note that results were possible despite not having and ads budget thanks to the existing network of the 2 hosts. One had a different podcast for the past 7+ years and a reach of over 25,000 people, while the other was a business consultant and lecturer, with over 5,000 people having attended the courses and workshops he had hosted. They could already reach a network of thousands of people from the target audience organically.

Solution

Given the needs of the project, there were 2 areas in which EMS intervened:

Project management

Here, the EMS Account Manager took charge of coordinating providers, establishing deadlines, and ensuring adherence to them. This included managing the sound editor, the transcript creator, the website management team and other providers for physical events.

All providers and assets were coordinated to ensure timely delivery of each episodes. Plus, the project manager established timelines for event assets, such as landing pages, event forms, confirmation emails and on-the-day activity for events (check in, promotional materials at the venue and post event follow-up).

Lead gen strategy

The lead gen strategy had 2 parts:

Promoting the podcast to new audiences from the target market
Ensuring loyalty of these audiences, so they continue listening to future episodes

To better understand the audience and explore new ways to promote the podcast, the Account Manager conducted initial meetings with key contacts. These helped in the research phase and provided input that was useful in putting together the strategy (in terms of channels, messages, engagement strategies).

The strategy then included:

Organic social media strategy, for the podcast pages, which were further enhanced in reach through the social media profiles of the 2 hosts and those of the sponsors
Website management to ensure there were points of interaction for listeners to engage with the hosts and for them to leave their contact details (in events and newsletter sign ups)
Email marketing, to create a communication calendar with leads when there were new updates – new episodes, events
Content pieces extracted from podcasts, including quotes, ideas to be discussed and creation of video using imagery of hosts + voiceover from the podcast (snippets of the podcast)
Developing partnerships with established communities within the target market
Starting from season 2, a small budget for ads for both attracting new leads and retain existing ones

Implementation

The first area of action was the website, in which:

The content was updated to be relevant for a new person discovering the podcast and to ease navigation for them
The podcast page was refreshed to include both the audio player and the transcript
Sponsors were promoted on each podcast page
A chat function, contact forms and newsletter sign up form were added to the pages to increase engagement opportunities for visitors

When a new episode was posted, the EMS Account Manager ensured that:

This was posted on the Decoder’s social media accounts
It was sent for cross promotion to the 2 hosts and sponsors
It was included in partner’s communications
An email went out to subscribers to announce the new podcast
Content pieces were later developed from the episode to ensure continuous promotion to new and existing leads

Then, the social media plan included a mix of:

New episodes launched and reposting of old episodes
Ideas and quotes from the podcast reshared, with link to the full episode for the entire discussion
External articles and resources from the 2 hosts

The plan had a combination of links, images and videos, to test different formats for the audience.

Plus, events in major Romanian cities were key for generating new leads, despite Decoder lacking local contacts. To promote these events, the EMS Account Manager set partnerships using the already available resources: hosts’ established reputations and networks.

These attracted a majority of new listeners (with 80-90% of attendees having never listened to the podcast).

The event format was a Q&A on the topics from the podcast, with questions being collected both in the registration form and during the live event. The discussion was recorded and became the next episode of the podcast. The evening concluded with a networking session, in which attendees continue to ask questions to the hosts and got to know them better.

Results

“We have been working with the EMS team since the beginnings of Decoder and have grown alongside them. From supplier management to episode promotion and event development, the organization has been exemplary.

They came up with new ideas for approaching and engaging audiences, thus allowing us, the hosts, to focus solely on the quality of the content. It’s comforting to have a communication partner you can trust.”

Adrian Stanciu, Host, Decoder.ro

The podcast episodes

After three seasons, new episodes have reached the 1,500-listener mark within the first ten days of posting. Episodes from season 1, that have had more time to be promoted and listened, have surpassed 3,000 listeners.

Plus, listeners are engaged – on social media channels and the website, they ask questions. Some have attended more than 1 Decoder event, even travelling to join them, coming from a different city. They also contributed to spread the word about future events, convincing new people to join them.

The network

Within 15 months of EMS taking over the podcast’s promotion and project management, the podcast has gained 1,200 followers on Facebook (with an average post reach of 5,000 people and average engagement of 900 reactions, comments, shares and clicks) and 800 followers on LinkedIn (with an average post reach of 300 people and 160 monthly interactions with the content).

1,500 unique contacts are signed up for the newsletter.

The events

All 5 free to attend events in the 15 months of projects were fully booked, with audiences ranging from 100 to 280 attendees. They generated 950 new leads for the podcast and the sponsors.