In this episode, Liz interviews Alisa Manjarrez, Managing Director of Stories Bureau and an expert on B2B podcasts. If you’re exploring including podcasts in your marketing strategy, tune in!
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Pocket casts, RadioPublic, or Anchor, or read the transcript below.
SHOW NOTES
Alissa as an expert on B2B podcasts
What is a “branded” podcast? Why is it important for companies to create branded podcasts?
Why can’t companies just stick to writing blogs or creating landing pages to showcase case studies?
How does having a podcast increase brand awareness for companies? How does having a podcast help establish thought leadership?
How does someone get started creating a podcast for their business?
Other tips & tricks on hosting your B2B podcast
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Transcript
Liz Lemarchand: How is it that innovative software solutions have the ability to change the world yet they don’t sell themselves? How is it that I know my target market but I’m not able to generate enough sales opportunities? How do I even get started to create visibility for my brand when I’m not an expert in marketing? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answer. Welcome to SMplified: Software Marketing Made Simple!
Hey everybody this is Liz from Media Dev and today I am joined by Alissa Manjarrez.
Alisa Manjarrez: Hi, Liz. Thanks for having me.
Liz Lemarchand
Yeah, I’m super excited to welcome you to the show. Our topic today is why branded podcasts should be at the forefront of your thought leadership. And Alissa is a B2B podcast expert. Alisa, could you give a little short introduction to our audience to explain who you are and why you’re an expert at B2B podcasts.
Alisa Manjarrez
Sure. I’ve been in the B2B and B2C marketing space for a little over 15 years and it’s really funny how sometimes when something on the B2C side happens, it feels like B2B is the younger brother that wants to be cool and for so long podcast for B2B wasn’t even in the conversation. I was previously VP of Marketing at a market research technology company and I remember when probably like around 2015 ish, a lot of people are talking more about podcasts. I mean, podcasts have been around for over 20 years. But in a business case, people started talking about podcasts. And I remember my CMO saying, well, what if we just ours once a month. What if we just turn those into a podcast and I think we ended up doing that, but it was a terrible idea because it wasn’t. We didn’t package it up at all. There you can repurpose some your content, but over the years since then, I’ve worked on a variety of B2B. The podcast, specifically in the tech space a little bit in CPG as well, and it’s been a really interesting experiment to see how podcasts can reach your customers and how podcasts can also build relationships with your customer. So I know we can get into a little bit more, but I’m just over here experimenting, having fun producing podcasts and taking all my learnings along the way.
Liz Lemarchand
That’s great. Thank you. So maybe, we should start off I do think in the B2B space, you’re right, I mean, podcasts, people understand what they are, but they’re maybe not quite as popular, let’s say in the B2B space. Could you explain like what is a branded podcast? Why is it important for companies to create Branded podcast why is it something that you recommend as an outreach strategy? You talked about relationship building like, how is it going to do that?
Alisa Manjarrez
A branded podcast is a podcast that is sponsored, powered by your company, so it really covers a wide gamut of podcast. You have a couple of different format styles, there’s panel interview styles, one-on-one conversations. We call them chat casts and then there’s also narrative storytelling. And one of the podcasts I produced right now is called Trace route, and that’s by a company called Equinix. And if you’re in the tech space, you might have heard of them. They created a digital infrastructure, hardware and infrastructure of the Internet. And what they decided to do is they acquired a a company called Packet about three or four years ago, and they noticed that their developer audience wasn’t really excited about becoming a part of this big Fortune 500 and so they wanted to share a side of them that said, hey, look, we’re still here for you. We’re still in this community. We care about you. And so they decided to create a podcast to show the more I guess you could say the personal side of who they are and they started peeling back, we call it peeling back the layers of the stack and they start talking about who are the people behind the hardware and where do they come from? What are their stories? How can we really bring this personal piece of hardware to the conversation and talk about things that are important to our audience, and it’s just been a great way to build relationships digitally, you know you when you’re on a, when you have a podcast, people maybe I don’t know where your listeners are listening today, but a lot of people listen to podcasts when they’re cooking, when they’re running, they’re doing all these different things. So it’s a way for your company to get into the personal lives outside of work of your customers or your partners other, anyone you want to build relationships with so branded podcast is really a space to have those conversations, but branded with your company name.
Liz Lemarchand
Sure. Yeah, I love I. Love what you just said about, you know, kind of entering into the personal lives of of people when they listen to podcasts. Because it’s so true. You know, I either listen to podcasts when I’m at the gym or when I’m cleaning the house. So yeah, it can be a very kind of intimate space, so to speak for the people who are listening so, but why can’t companies just stick to writing blogs or creating landing pages to showcase case studies or other types of assets like why is that not enough?
Alisa Manjarrez
You know, blogs, case studies, landing pages. I’m sure you know this. Doing all the B2B marketing that you do, but they are all great channels of getting your information out there, repurposing other information so. I would say if you had a blog series, you might want it create a landing page. Well, maybe not, but you might want to link out to other pieces of your website, other pieces of your marketing podcasts are just another channel for you, so if you want again, if you want to get reached the personal side of your customers podcast is another way to do it, but it’s not a stand-alone channel though. So if you have a podcast you can broadcast it on YouTube for example, you can integrate it into your blogs you can write about the episodes, you can repurpose your content for social media. It is another space outside of your website to communicate with your audience.
Liz Lemarchand
And how does having a podcast help establish thought leadership?
Alisa Manjarrez
Well, I actually, I want to bring this back to you, Liz, because you have a podcast and I know you also have a book and you have a lot of channels, so I’m curious for you. why did you decide to start a podcast?
Liz Lemarchand
Honestly, we decided to create a podcast first of all because it it’s fun. It’s a way for us to really have that kind of informal contact with other people. I really like the interview podcasts the best I’ve done ones where it’s just me talking about a topic as well, but I find that the more interesting ones are when we can engage with people and have that, you know, interview process, provide value to our audience, but really the initial thought was that it was fun. But I do agree that you know it’s really important to create so much different type types of content in different formats, because not everyone is going to take the time to read A blog and you know, certainly videos are more complicated to put together in terms of time. You know, I love that I guess I don’t have to wear makeup and I don’t have to put on clothes. We could just kind of go with it and it’s very informal. But yeah, I’m curious to hear your thoughts about thought leadership in the B2B space with having a branded podcast.
Alisa Manjarrez
You know, I like to say that having a podcast is the new way of having a book. So when you are out there communicating your message over and over and over in integrating different voices, it really and especially it right now in the B2B space it’s a wide open playground for B2B and tech. Because if you they say if you have 10 episodes, you’re considered an official podcaster, a lot of people don’t make it past 10 because even though you’re doing, you’re doing it really we’re all Microsoft Teams right now. We’re not on camera. You send it to an editor. It’s very easy to do. You can, you can produce a podcast in high fidelity or low fidelity. You can, you know, have a whole studio if you want. There’s so many different ranges of podcasting, but the fact that you can actually record a podcast from your phone is pretty amazing. But the fact that also the idea that you’re out there speaking about what’s important to you and what’s important to your company. It’s, you know, it’s a way to get your message to thousands, hundreds of thousands of people potentially. You know, when you’re first starting out, your audience is actually depending on your marketing efforts around it, it can be really small, but your potential of scale is huge. I remember we did a a live podcast for a company that we produce a podcast. for called Calibra, their podcast is called the data download, and every year they have an event called data citizens and we decided let’s change it up a little bit. Let’s have our host and a couple of guests on stage and people can listen to them chat as they’re, you know, walking around, visiting the booths and all that, and it was interesting because behind the scenes I heard other customers saying, oh, I hope I get on their podcast one day and it was really it was cool. I mean, how often do you have your customer saying, I want to talk to you in this format? There’s still a novelty around podcasting and and so this is really like a window to be still an early adopter in this space.
Liz Lemarchand
So how does someone get started creating a podcast for their business.
Alisa Manjarrez
They start by figuring out why they want to do it. And I actually think your reason you know you wanted to start it because it was fun I think that’s an excellent reason. Podcasts can be so much work so time intensive. So much of A commitment if you have people who love what they do. And it’s we’ve seen how some just completely come alive and get addicted to this format. They kind of get runners high after their episodes. But if you have someone who loves to talk and loves to be with people and loves to interview especially, you’re going to have a lot of fun. So I think that’s a great place to start. The other place to start is to figure out, OK, that is fun. But what are our goals? Who do we want to talk to and why? And what do we want our listener to get out of this? And as you brainstorm those goals, your podcast kind of starts to come together. You decide do I want it 5 minutes. Do I want it two hours? What is the experience that I want my audience to have? And so I would say the first place to get started is figuring out why.
Liz Lemarchand
Yeah, start with why, that’s a very good piece of advice for sure. What are some other tips and tricks that you would give our listeners about hosting a B2B podcast?
Alisa Manjarrez
I you know, you and I talked about this before we started having an editor is a game changer. Having a really good editor. Editing expertise ranges from someone who’s just kind of like cutting conversations to someone who’s really listening and thinking about key moments. Maybe you have a sound designer who’s adding some music, different parts, but having a good editor, I would say is my #1. And then #2 is as a podcast host, really taking the time to think about who you’re interviewing and what message you want them to help you tell to your audience, and that could be something like finding an article that your guest has written or seeing what they’re talking about and kind of diving in deep. Finding out like what’s actually interesting to them, and what are the crossovers between? What’s interesting to you to them and your audience? It’s just like getting to know someone and you’re finding those places to connect. And when you do that over a podcast, people can really hear that chemistry and it it’s like pleasing to the ear when your podcast host and the guest or when the conversation is just flowing. And a huge part of it is being prepared. So for example, you sent me questions, I thought about it. We’re not fumbling over this conversation. It’s very easy for us to talk and for someone when you’ve just met someone to have an easy conversation, I think that’s really golden.
Liz Lemarchand
Completely agree. So how can people find you, Alisa if they want to help creating a B2B podcast or they’re looking to get more expertise from you directly, how can people reach out and find more about your services?
Alisa Manjarrez
You can go to storiesbureau.com. And I really love brainstorming podcast stuff, so if you just want to chat about what your podcast can be like, how we can market it, how you can spread the word of stories bureau.com, we also have a full production team depending on the level of production you want to work with for your podcast, so stories bureau.com.
Liz Lemarchand
Excellent. Do you have anything else that you’d like to add for our listeners today.
Alisa Manjarrez
I would say if you want to do something fun and different for your marketing efforts, definitely take the time to explore what a podcast could do for you.
Liz Lemarchand
Excellent. Well, thank you so much, Alisa. It was really a pleasure talking to you today. And of course, for those of you listening, you can also find other great resources on our resource library at mediadev.com. Thanks so much everyone. Have a great day and have a great day, Alisa.
Alisa Manjarrez
Thank you.
Liz Lemarchand
You just listened to SMplified brought to you by MediaDev. If you have software marketing questions or need help marketing your software solution, reach out to us at contact@mediadev.com and check out other amazing assets for you on our resource library at mediadev.com.
