How to Use a Private Podcast to Boost Your Next Launch

Private podcasts can be a game-changer for your next launch—if you know how to use them strategically. Too often, business owners treat private podcasts like public shows, missing out on their full potential to engage a warmer audience and drive conversions.

In this episode of The More Profitable Podcast, I’m breaking down exactly how to make private podcasts work for your launches. From the mindset shifts that set the tone for success to the structure and calls to action that guide listeners toward your offer, we’re covering it all.

Whether you’re in pre-launch mode or looking for a fresh way to connect with your audience, this episode will help you craft a private podcast strategy that supports your sales goals without adding extra complexity to your plate.

00:30– Why private podcasts are the ultimate launch asset.

02:45 – Understanding the role of warmer audiences in private podcast strategies.

06:15 – The tech tools Stacey recommends: Hello Audio and Just Cast.

08:50 – Avoiding the biggest mistake creators make with private podcast calls to action.

13:30 – How to structure your episodes for maximum impact and conversion.

17:00 – Tips for embedding dynamic calls to action into every episode.

Mentioned In How to Use a Private Podcast to Boost Your Next Launch

Hello Audio

Just Cast

Lindsay Padilla on Private Podcasting

3 Ways to Use a Private Podcast to Grow Your Business

Subscribe to The Podcast Newsroom.

Take the Next Step

Ready to turn your podcast into a strategic business asset? Book a Podcast Strategy Intensive today and create a tailored plan to leverage private podcasts in your next launch.

Chapters

• 0:30 Why private podcasts are the ultimate launch asset.
• 2:45 Understanding the role of warmer audiences in private podcast strategies.
• 6:15 The tech tools I recommend: Hello Audio and JustCast.
• 8:50 Avoiding the biggest mistake creators make with private podcast calls to action.
• 13:30 How to structure your episodes for maximum impact and conversion.
• 17:00 Tips for embedding dynamic calls to action into every episode.

Transcript

If you have a private podcast on your launch plan to-do list for your next launch, you're going to want to listen today. This is actually something that comes up in Podcast Strategy Intensives quite a bit. It's something we do with our production clients quite a bit. So I thought I'd take you a little bit behind the scenes today and we would talk through three of the things that I want you to be keeping in mind as you are building your strategy.

These are some of the things we look at as we build our strategies because a private podcast, specifically as part of a launch, is a different animal, is a specific animal. So I want to get into some details today. Let's go.

Welcome to The More Profitable Podcast with Stacey Harris. I'm Stacey. This is the spot to learn more about the strategies, tactics, and tools you need to build your more profitable podcast. My team and I work every day with podcasters like you to shift shows from frustrating time sucks to productive members of your sales team, because your show should be built to generate and convert leads. So let's get into it.

As we get started, let's first set the table and create some clarity. When I'm talking about private podcasts today, I am talking about them in the context of a launch cycle. Either pre-launch or as your active launch content. This is private content, meaning they have raised their hand to receive it. It is set up through a private feed on something like Hello Audio or JustCast. Those are the two we have used the most frequently.

You know, before we jump in, from a tech perspective, just because this is a question that comes up a lot, those are the two platforms I recommend. We actually had Lindsay Padilla on the show who's one of the co-founders of Hello Audio. I will make sure that her and I's conversation is in the show notes. We talk about lots of different ways that course creators and coaches can be using a private podcast.

If you like this conversation, but you're like, “I don't do launches, or I don't want to do this for my next launch, but I like the idea of a private podcast,” that's a great next episode because we dig into some ideas. The other episode worth listening to, in addition to this one, is the Three Ways To Use Your Private Podcast To Grow Your Business, I will include it in the show notes as well. Because again, it is really going to speak to some of the other ways you can use it.

What we're talking about today is a very specific use case. I wanted to give you that context upfront because some of the strategic decisions we're going to make, some of the strategic conversations we're going to have today are benefited by the understanding, the narrowing, the context of knowing the job of this particular container that we're building.

Before we get into this, in the spirit of private podcasts, don't forget you can subscribe to my private podcast, The Podcast Newsroom. The Podcast Newsroom is not something we use as part of launch content. It is a great example of an evergreen, opt-in lead-gen focused private podcast. What we do over there is twice a month, we release new episodes answering listener questions.

Listeners submit questions over at uncommonlymore.com/ama. I'd love to have one from you. Then I answer them on that private podcast. To subscribe to get your custom feed, head over to podcastnewsroom.com. That'll take you all through signing up, adding it to your player, and being ready to roll so that you make sure that you get those episodes updated into your feed, whenever they come out, easy breezy. Cool, podcastnewsroom.com is where you go for that.

Now, let's shift gears and talk about your private podcast for your upcoming launch. I'm super stoked. Here are some things I want you to keep in mind. First and foremost, and this is when we have our strategy sessions of when we build these out either with our production clients or inside of an intensive, one of the reminders I always, always, always give them is that this audience is warmer so when we're thinking strategically about the content we want to put in this container, we need to keep that in mind.

We need to be mindful that this is probably not the first they've ever heard of you. Even if they're a referral and they were sent to you via someone else, they likely looked at something else. They've checked out your Instagram, they followed you on threads, they've scrolled your LinkedIn page, they've skimmed your public content, they've reviewed your website, they're probably moving in the direction of interested in your offer, it’s entirely possible that they know what your offer is even, like this is a warmer audience.

I'm not going to tell you that everyone who subscribes to your launch content private podcast is going to be just a buyer waiting to buy. No, this will not convert 100%, nothing does, but they are much warmer than what's happening on your public podcast. Although not an apples-to-apples example, because again, my private podcast is not a launch asset, it is a sales asset, it is a sales tool, just like this show is, however, the people who listen to this show and the people who listen to the private podcast are not always in the same place when they start listening.

I have people who find this show who have found episodes via Google. One of the things we do, and it's one of the things I want to really make sure you're doing for this show and for our production clients is we're making sure that our show notes on the website are SEO optimized to allow us to be there to answer the questions people are asking are asking the internet.

Frequently, I will have leads come in from an old podcast episode. That's often the only bit of content they've consumed from me, because they had a question, I answered their question, and they proceeded into either an application process, booking an intensive, or sometimes they're just reaching out via email and they want to know more about working with me because they just liked the show.

That is not going to happen with a private podcast because there is not that search discoverability, there's not the same level of “I don't know who you are or what you do” because they had to be someplace and give us something to get here. Be really aware that these leads are warmer. Now, that not only means we need to construct our content in a way that is speaking to people who are likely further down the funnel than somebody who's finding us via our public podcast, but also it means we need to be making calls to action at every point, meaning in each episode.

This is a huge mistake I see people make with their private podcasts when they're using them as a launch tool. They'll have a six episode container and they won't make a peep about their offer until episode six. Doing that is similar to only having your call to action in an episode be the pre-recorded generic outro at the end of your episode. It's the same equivalency.

It might work but not as well as it could. It might do the job, but not efficiently. It might flag someone's attention, but not consistently and so what I want you to be mindful of is that we need to have these exit ramps, I'm going to call them, these off ramps from the content into your container at every episode, or if you want to put it another way, at every touch point.

Does that mean that you should just record one outro and let it roll across all episodes? Not necessarily. I think this is an opportunity for you to be strategic about—and this is one of the things we go through when we build these content plans out with our clients—to be strategic about understanding your clients and where they are in different parts of the journey.

For me as an example, I often look at, I know a lot of my buyers, my clients are high fact finder, meaning they want to know everything. They want all the details and generally, mostly out of a desire to make sure that they're going to show up the way they need to show up to get results, which is one of the reasons I love my clients. I love the people that we work with at Uncommonly More because they're that way.

That also often lengthens the sales cycle because they're not only looking for answers to questions, but they're checking in with themselves about whatever questions they haven't yet thought of. They're looking for their own blind spots pretty actively. So when I go through again, let's say a six-episode cycle, one of the things I want to make sure I'm doing is offering them two things: questions they hadn't thought of yet, so kind of FAQ content but also opportunities to ask me their questions.

Oftentimes in the early episodes, I will have a direct call-to-action “Go here and buy,” because yes, some of my clients are those high fact fighters but some of my clients are also jump off the cliff and then build the plane which is more how I go. High quick start. They're moving into action before they necessarily have all the answers because they trust themselves to figure out the answers and respond to them once they're in it.

I will have, in those early episodes, direct calls to go click to buy, go book whatever, like go do the thing, go purchase. But in those lighter episodes, in that like 345, I'm really looking at “Here's ways to get your questions answered.” Maybe that's a group call where I'm answering questions like a roundtable kind of thing or maybe it is a bonus training or a bonus Q&A call.

Most of all, especially for me, it's a sales call. It's an invitation to get on the phone with me and see if it's a right fit for you because I know that that works for my audience. That's something I want you to be thinking about. Yes, they're warmer but how do we need to frame those calls-to-action so that this is impactful for them? So that we're giving them the right call, the right action depending on where they are and what their needs are in the course of this content.

Moving into our second piece that I want to flag as a thing that comes up a lot, again in intensives when we build these out for our production clients, they don't need to know how to do it. I see often the strategic approach to this is “Let me give them a preview of what's in the program, let me give them a preview of what I'm going to teach them,” and where we've actually seen this be most effective is as a, “What do they need to know before?”

We talk a lot about this on this podcast when it comes to how-to content. This episode is a great example of how-to content that is pretty, “Here's how we do what we do” because I'm building an asset that I'm going to be able to send to a client. When we're talking about this, I'm going to be able to send this out or repurpose this into email sequences, email content.

I'm going to have the opportunity to do a lot with this episode and have it live as a real resource for people who are going to do this work with me. If I had somebody who reached out and said, “Hey, I'd love to do a private podcast. I'm thinking about doing it for my launch in July, whatever month. Is this something you work on? Is this something you talk about? Is this something you help people with?” I'd have the option to pull out this episode and say, “Yeah, in fact, in this episode, I talked about some of the things that we consider when we're building these strategies for clients. Here you go.”

It's not going to tell you how to do everything. There's a lot we're not talking about today. But what it does it demonstrates for you, A, some of the things you need to be considering because these are the questions and these are the conversations I am going to have for you when we get on the call. So getting you thinking about these things now is hugely beneficial for you to really leverage that time together on the call. 

Yes, this will help you do the thing that I'm going to help you do. And when you decide that you want me to help you do it, you're going to be better primed for that work. That's the kind of content I want you to be creating for that private podcast. What is the thing that you can teach them, the thing that you can walk them through that helps them get an early win, that helps them feel like they have moved in a direction? An early win does not have to be solving the problem. It has to be making a step. Give them something that helps them feel like they made that step because that helps them know that solving the problem is possible.

Oftentimes, our clients are coming from, “I have no idea. I don't know how I get from A to B. There's no path that makes sense to me.” It's not our job to show them what the path is from A to B, it's largely our job to show them that there is a path from A to B. That doesn't mean walking them down the whole trail. That doesn't mean kicking out the whole set of Google Maps.

In my brain, by the way, I'm thinking of do you remember—I'm going to age myself here—do you remember in the 90s when we would print out directions from MapQuest and you'd have a stapled six pages printed out with like maps you can't read. Do you remember that?

That's what's in my mind right now as I'm thinking about this but it is not your job to give them a messy MapQuest bundle, it is your job to give them the book of maps so they know that these paths exist, and if they want to dig through this book and figure this out, sure, go right at it but know that I'm GPS. I've already been there. I know the route. I know what the traffic is. I know what obstacles we need to avoid. I'm getting updates because I'm staying current and educated.

This is actually a metaphor that came together way better than I thought it was going to be. So I want you to be structuring your content in a similar way. Give them what they need to understand that there is a path forward and give them that first step. Give them the opportunity to be like, "Oh, okay, I understand that this is a real path and I'm not going to end up lost on the side of the road."

The third piece I want to wrap us up with here is something we've touched on in these first two points. But If you're somebody who right now is actively avoiding sales calls, this last piece is going to be hard and that's why I wanted to talk about it today. 

Again, we've talked a little bit about this, but this is about giving them the answers to the questions they have before they purchase. If you don't know what those questions are, it is your job to start interviewing your clients. It is your job to start hopping into sales calls again if you're somebody who doesn't do sales calls right now.

It is your purpose, your primary function, and your whole job to learn that. Because of this piece, when I ask you what questions they have before they buy from you, your inability to answer that question is going to make it harder for us to build the strategy.

You've gotta know what their questions are before they buy. Again, maybe this is a program you've never launched before. Maybe this is a program you've never delivered before so you're not totally sure. You don't have clients who have been through it.

I'm guessing you do have some clients. Look at the clients who have worked with you in other programs and other ways and ask them “Where were you before we started working together? What were you looking for? How did you language the problem you were trying to solve? What about my solution helped you know that that change was possible?” Be asking those kinds of questions. If you're somebody who's got sales calls on your calendar, whether for this offer or other offers, start looking at those, and start thinking about the questions they're asking.

This is one of the reasons I love using Fathom. It is an AI note taker that sits in on all of my calls and I get a full transcript. I love this because one of the things I do—this is going to sound nerdy—but one of the things I do, if not quarterly, twice a year, is go through and review those calls. This is one of my favorite ways to use AI, to be honest with you, because I will go in and I will take transcripts from the calls, and I will export them into a PDF doc, and I will upload maybe three of those, or six of them, and have ChatGPT summarize and give me the recurring questions or the recurring themes.

That's often how I build my content plan. It's certainly what I'm doing when I'm looking at sales page copy. That is more than once how we have fleshed out the specifics of what client education we needed to do in a launch, a pre-launch private podcast because it was the second time they were running the program.

They had the sales calls and the group calls from the beta round. We collected all of that information. We went through all that information, we reviewed those transcripts, we leveraged AI to summarize some things for us, and then we used that as a jumping-off point for digging into those conversations more deeply, for listening to those clips from each show, so that we could then build out content that answered those questions.

What I love about this is it's not just now about asking questions before somebody even realizes they need to ask them, but it also helped build so much of that launch content, not just the podcast content, but the email sequences. Having a tool that this client could send people when they hopped into their DMs because a primary way that this particular client sells is through DMs.

They're having conversations in DMs on Instagram. We started building assets that they could just send people with their FAQs, and with their frequently asked questions. Now they have saved in their responses and they're really easily sending these assets and moving people through their funnel more quickly.

That's what happens when you really understand the questions they have before the purchase. Again, if that's something you don't currently know, then that's your work. That's where I want you to be spending some time over the next couple of weeks, pulling together this data so that when you and I sit down and we build out your private podcast strategy as a part of your launch content plan, which is something we do in a Podcast Strategy Intensive, we're ready to go.

We have those answers and we can start looking at prioritizing them. We can start looking at how we can start pulling themes of those questions together and we can really build something that speaks to exactly where they are as they move through that content.

I do have some space this quarter to sit down and do these kinds of intensives with you. For these private podcasts ones, I highly recommend looking at the new podcaster option because that's what we're going to be doing, we're going to be putting together a show that doesn't currently exist.

If you are somebody who wants to leverage this kind of strategy alongside the content plan for your current podcast, make sure you're choosing the existing podcast option. You will see both options over at uncommonlymore.com. If you do have an existing public podcast, I would really recommend that you choose that existing option and we look at not just the content plan for the private podcast, but how we are feeding people and driving people to that private podcast via your public podcast.

That's going to be a big piece. When we do this with our production clients, we're always looking at that private podcast content alongside the public one so that we're making sure we're integrating those, that we make sure we are reaffirming things where we need to reaffirm things and also giving a really nice clean path from public podcast to private podcast and moving them down that funnel.

Cool? I'm excited. I can't wait to sit down with you. Uncommonlymore.com/intensive is the place to go to get yours booked. I cannot wait. I will see you right back here next week.

Thanks so much for listening to this show. Remember that content consumption does not make changes, so commit to doing something from today's episode. Maybe it's taking action on what we talked about. Maybe it's reaching out to me and learning more about Podcast Strategy Intensives or what podcast production looks like with our team. All of that is over at uncommonlymore.com.

If you haven't yet signed up for The Podcast Newsroom, I want to remind you that is a great next step. If you're not really sure what comes next, hang out over there. Get those exclusive private episodes. That's over at podcastnewsroom.com. The last favor I will ask, because social proof is endlessly important for sure, is to leave a rating and review for the show. If you go to ratethispodcast.com/more, that's the easiest way to do it. But I would love to hear what you thought of the show, what you think of the show, and if the show has been helpful for you. I can't wait to chat with you. This is just the start of the conversation. Reach out so we can keep it going. Talk soon.