When it comes to monetizing your podcast, the all-important first step is to put together a compelling offer.
This can be either a product or service you create, other people’s products or services that you earn an affiliate commission on, or advertising that you run on your show and/or other platforms.
Once you have a truly compelling offer in place, however, it’s essential to understand how to pitch it to your audience in an effective way.
A big part of pitching your offer effectively is understanding the different channels at your disposal and how to use each effectively.
One of the biggest mistakes that I see podcasters making when it comes to pitching their offers–even when they are truly compelling–is using their podcast as their primary sales channel.
Podcasts Are Not Effective Sales Channels
Over the course of the past four years, I’ve seen the inner workings of dozens of podcasts, sales funnels, and marketing strategies. Some of them are extremely high converting and some of them not so much.
Time and again, I’ve seen podcasters who use their shows as the primary channel for pitching their offers run into difficulties converting their listeners into clients and customers.
There are a few reasons for podcasts being such poor sales channels, the first being that people are often on the go when listening to podcasts and unable or unwilling to stop what they’re doing, find their way to your website and make a purchase.
Even if they are interested and intend to go back and find the offer later, they often forget. This friction makes it difficult to move people from your podcast over to another platform where they can complete the sale.
The second, and bigger reason that podcasts are not effective sales channels is that people aren’t in a buying mentality when listening to podcasts.
When they tap play on a new episode, they’re looking to learn or be entertained, not sold to.
This means that even if you present them with an extremely compelling offer, they may not be in the right frame of mind to take you up on it.
This doesn’t mean you can’t use your show to drive sales to your offers, however.
How to Sell Your Offers Using Your Podcast
While podcasts may not be the most effective sales channels, they are fantastic for building trust and generating leads.
While you might not pitch your offer directly on your show, you can build up trust and hype around it in a more subtle way, and then make a hard pitch elsewhere, likely via email.
Some of my favourite options include solo episodes where you tell a personal story of what problems you were facing that lead to the creation of the offer, or an interview with a guest that has used your product or service themself and seen results.
These episodes should be undertaken with tact and shouldn’t come across as commercials. You want these episodes to be as generous and valuable to your audience as any other episode you release.
If you’re doing a launch or limited time offer, I would typically lead up to the pitch with a few weeks of episodes themed around the topic without any mention of the offer, subtly building up interest and queuing your listeners up before mentioning the offer on the show and pushing it hard through email marketing.
Email Collection Is Essential for Podcasters
Of course, for this strategy to work effectively you need to be collecting email addresses.
Email is the very best platform to pitch your offers to your audience and the one on which you’ll get the highest conversion rate, other than an actual sales call perhaps.
This means that you need to always be focusing on building your list. Every episode, give your listeners a compelling reason to sign up to your list.
The best way I know is to offer them something for free that they would typically actually pay for in exchange for their email address.
If it feels like you’re giving too much away by making the offer for free, remember that you’re playing a long game and that by getting them on the list now, you’re opening up the potential for repeat sales over the coming weeks, months, and years.
A small amount of short term profit (if you could even get it) is worth passing up for a larger sum over the long haul.
Use the Right Channel for the Job
Once you have a system for consistently getting people onto your list, you can focus entirely on using each channel for what they’re best at. Your podcast for educating, entertaining, and building trust, and email for shorter pieces of value, two-way communication, and yes, sales.
Remember that if selling is all you do on email, people will ignore it. You need to be providing them additional content other than pure sales, content that is of actual value to your subscribers.
Some of the best advice I’ve heard about email is that when you’re selling, be 100% clear about it, and when you’re not selling, be 100% clear about that.
Give generously when you’re not selling and don’t muddy that generosity with veiled sales.
When you are selling, don’t be cute or sneaky or subtle about it. If you believe that your offer will help your audience and it’s truly compelling, they might just thank you for bringing it to their attention.
The trust you’ve built up with them through the podcast isn’t going to be diminished by the occasional pitch. Your audience wants to support you, and will be excited to do so, if presented with the right offer at the right time through the right channel.
Every Sunday I send out an exclusive article on how to use podcasting to build an audience and grow your business.
No opt-in, no freebie no bribe. But hopefully a new perspective, encouragement, and maybe even some occasional wisdom. It’s something I’m proud to create and I’d be honoured to share it with you.
Jeremy travels full-time, loves long-distance cycle touring, and will always look back on the day he finally saved up enough money to buy the Millennium Falcon Lego set as one of his proudest achievements. He believes that the way to grow sustainable businesses is by leading with heart, vulnerability, and helping your people be and become their best selves.
- Why Wouldn’t They Just Google It? - March 14, 2021
- Before You Can Market Your Podcast, You Need To Create A Marketable Podcast - March 11, 2021
- Podcast Promotion & Marketing Are Different (Here’s How to Use Each Effectively) - March 10, 2021
