The Power of the Podcast: Unlock Your Brand's Marketing Potential
Are you looking to leverage the power of podcasting to elevate your brand and connect with your audience? Welcome to The Power of the Podcast, brought to you by Pedal Stomper Productions where we understand the unique potential of branded podcasts.
We delve into the essentials of creating effective branded podcasts that help you connect with people by going beyond the hard sell. You don't want to be one of those podcasts that sound like one giant sales pitch or offer bad information. Instead, we focus on helping you to deliver the right message and achieve your marketing goals without sounding like, well...marketing.
Here’s what you can expect to learn:
- Building a Strong Foundation: We cover the basics of branded podcasting, including defining your brand's educational niche and developing consistent content pillars that will keep your audience coming back for more. We emphasize the importance of defining where you excel in educating your audience.
- Strategic Planning: Discover how to build out a strategy to make your branded podcast successful. We guide you through conducting a brand audit by looking at your podcast purpose, brand values, mission, and target audience.
- Audience Connection: Learn how to identify your ideal listener, who often aligns with your ideal customer, and understand their pain points and informational needs. We believe in addressing those needs and providing value to ensure your podcast resonates.
- Content that Converts: We explore how to develop content that aligns with your marketing goals and maps to your sales funnel. We discuss strategic calls to action that are more of a soft sell, like offering free resources or inviting listeners to your online community.
- Standing Out in a Crowded Space: We provide insights on how to differentiate your podcast by focusing on your unique value proposition and ensuring high-quality production. Learn the importance of engaging storytelling to connect with your audience.
- Building Know, Like, and Trust: Understand how podcasting is particularly effective at developing that crucial "know, like, and trust" factor with your audience. By offering consistent value and educating your listeners, you can build deeper connections than other ad formats.
- Leveraging Podcast News and Trends: Stay informed with our take on podcast news, particularly how advertising works with smaller podcasts and the effectiveness of branded podcasts as a marketing tool. We discuss how smaller, targeted podcasts often have a more engaged audience.
- Measuring Your Success: We touch upon the importance of understanding your podcast analytics and determining the return on investment for your branded podcast. Learn how to look at listener retention and website click-throughs.
- Community Building: Discover how to use your podcast to build a community around your brand, encouraging interaction and fostering a sense of belonging among your listeners.
Whether you're just starting your podcast journey or looking to refine your existing branded podcast strategy, we offer valuable insights and practical advice drawn from our experience in podcast production. We believe that a well-executed branded podcast is a powerful marketing asset that can help you reach a targeted audience, build brand awareness, and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
Tune in to learn how to make your branded podcast a successful and effective marketing tool for your business!
If you want to connect with us, sign up for our No-Pitch Podcast Consultation
The Power of the Podcast: Unlock Your Brand's Marketing Potential
Marketing ROI: Stop Chasing Likes & Start Generating Revenue!
In this episode, Jay Kozar from Frontburner Marketing shares his no-nonsense approach to marketing. He reveals why focusing solely on vanity metrics like likes and followers is a recipe for disaster and how to tie your efforts directly to revenue generation.
Discover how to:
- Create scroll-stopping content that grabs attention and drives results.
- Develop a clear call to action and guide your audience towards your desired outcome.
- Understand the importance of measuring your marketing ROI and making data-driven decisions.
- Leverage short-form video and mobile-first strategies for maximum impact.
- Utilize AI tools to streamline your workflow and boost creativity.
Stop wasting time and resources on ineffective tactics—start generating real revenue today!
If you're looking to talk podcasting and get more information on how to make your podcast shine, our 30-minute "no pitch" podcast consultation is right for you! Click the link to sign up for a time.
https://pedalstomperproductions.as.me/no-pitch
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Some people do fluffy marketing. Some people cut the crap and get just straight to it. I'm assuming you've probably figured out this week's guest is the latter of those two. Jake Holzer has a history of helping companies get that visibility that they want. And currently he's doing that front burner marketing. If you want to learn more about getting that visibility, you're going to want to stay tuned. Jay, thanks for coming on. So you emphasized the importance of creating scroll stopping content is what you like because we all get caught doom scrolling. So I like to say doom scrolling down the toilet, right? It's closed caption because bathroom fans are loud. So you actually take your phone in the bathroom? Yes. Oh my gosh, it's a huge no, no, I can't do it. Yeah. No, I don't want to borrow your phone. No you don't. You definitely don't. What what are some key elements that you guys look for with someone when you're looking to to stop that scroll and be like, ooh, I want to watch this. Yeah. I grab my attention right away. We have a saying at Frontburner, and a lot of it is like clients to know if you're bullshit. We talked about that before. When people are scrolling, they want to know what's the hook? What, am I going to get out of this? Give me that information right away. Up front. Then you'll have my attention. I like that that's. It's funny because, I mean, there's a number of people that I've been talking to recently. You. And everyone's like the when someone starts out with like, hey, guys, I'm out. Yeah. No, it's too much. Gone. Gone gone gone gone. You know the other one. So I'm I love I'm a foodie. I'm a cook. Okay. I smoke a lot of barbecue. This and that. If you have a recipe page or you have a recipe blog, don't give me all of the reasons of how you came to this recipe. What it means to your family and whatnot. Maybe put that on the end and lead with the recipe. Get me to the recipe. And if you don't have a button that says take me the recipe, I'm leaving. It could be the best that I could be missing out, but I can't deal with it. It's funny, when we when we talk video to people, we make that reference all the time. We're like, how many times have you just said, screw it? I'm going to wing it. I'm going to risk burning whatever I'm making, because I'm not scrolling through the story about how your Aunt Martha Wright figured this recipe out when she know I took 100%. Get it? Can't do it. No. Definitely not. So, I mean, I know just the creative side of things. You've got a graphic background. Yeah. Yeah. That creative side of things is your passion. Video is a big piece of that, and it's becoming more so. A lot of places are still hesitant on that. Yeah. What's an argument that you have? What's the the thing that you say? Duh. Right. I could offer a video to people for free, and they still won't do it. They don't want to get in front of the camera. They don't want to put the effort in. They don't understand that video. Now, moving forward and has been, content. You just say content is king, right? Video. People want to. It used to be you could only, get, content certain ways. Right? So we had, you know, we had newspapers. Remember those papers? You read the sports page, you look at your stocks the next day. Then the internet came. Then it was blogging, and people were hesitant to blog. But on the video side, some people are just they can't picture themselves getting in front of a camera and doing this. Exactly what we're doing right now. And it. I've seen brands and personal brands crumble because they're not accessible. Nobody's able to understand their genius and their see their content or their personality. I want to see someone's personality, right? We talk about value propositions, like what makes you different in the marketplace if you're selling the same thing? Take cost out of the equation. Something resonates with somebody, and usually it's the person behind it. And if you can't get that to show, you can't show your audience that, then why wouldn't they pick your competitor? Yeah, I mean, it makes 100% sense. I mean, everyone that listens is heard. The story that I have. I mean, when I used to do the truck sales, had someone walk in my office, sit down like he was my best friend. And I'm like, who is this guy? Right? But he knew me, watched all the videos. Knew exactly who I was. Right. Kind of scary. A lot of them, but definitely did it when one of the things that is always a concern for businesses when it comes to their marketing. It's always that return on investment. Because if I have, let's say it's a manufacturing company. I can take a machine, stick it out on the factory floor. And be like, look, I have another widget maker. I can go out, I can touch it, I can pet it. It's going to get done. Whatever. Right? If I don't do the marketing, it's just going to sit there and not do anything. But I can still go out there and look at it right. What's a way to kind of justify that return on investment? What's your cause? You deal with growth mainly. Yeah. Which I love. Yeah. What is your thought on like, how are you going to see this? Yeah. I mean, ROI is huge. There are plenty of agencies, plenty of people who make great pictures, pretty pictures. And they're like, hey, this is creative and this is marketing. If this is who you're working with, you should. What's the ROI on that? Is it just brand awareness? What's the call to action? Where are you driving people? How are they interacting with your brand after they see whatever the tactic, whatever the effort is? The reality is we have to be able to tie these efforts to an ROI. You can have a marketing director at a company who once knows they need to do these things. But behind that marketing director is a CFO who says, what am I spending money on? Yeah. Is this is this just a black hole? What's the objective? What's the goal? Right. So performance marketing is totally different. We have to come prepared with analytics reports to measure success. And not not everything is going to be successful. But in today's world, especially with AI, you have to be trying. You have to be pushing the envelope. You have to be pushing something and be afraid to fail to a certain extent, so that you can find what does work for you and that clients, you know, your company. And then double down there, but be able to pivot. It's funny you say that because when you mention the AI stuff that leads well into the next thing, I was kind of look at, marketing is a complex world. Yeah. It's it's it's real out there. It really is. And it's funny because, I had someone else mention that. I mean, there's so many of these young people that they've got Instagram followers. And they think that's marketing. And we're like, okay, you got a follower. Yeah. Who cares? Right? Did they actually do something besides, like, your post? Did they somehow deposit money in your checking account? Right. And so often that's not the case. Social media is a part of marketing 100%. Right. And it's a it's a wonderful part of marketing, but it's a tool. Yeah. You can use pliers as a hammer. Probably not a great idea, but. Right, right. They can kind of work. Somebody is at touch points, right? Well, with your blog along with your. Yeah, there are many, many tools in the toolbox. What's I mean, what's a trend that you see that's kind of emerging? That's like one of the stronger tools right now that if used correctly, can can, can be a big hammer. Wow. That is okay. I'm going to say a little broad, but I'm going to try to outside this now. There's so many ways to go because there are so many tools out there right now. Sure. As far as trends that we see right now, everybody's heard of this company in China called TikTok. So there's that one. If you've heard of them before, then you know about short form video that you'll probably take this podcast and boil that down into as well. Right. Correct. So obviously short form video is huge I would say. So there's one I would say another is the ability SERPs Google. Right. The ability to answer questions quickly and have everything served up quickly on Google to answer people's questions for authority, for ranking. You know, another one is just really utilizing tools for teams or for, from the client side as well. To free up time for people to be creative. So to utilize AI as a tool to kind of get rid of the mundane so that you can you can really look at an analysis of your efforts, and then you can then be creative and strategy and implement new tactics. So rather than someone just stamping out repeated things. Right. Let I do some of that. Yeah absolutely. They can paint finish the painting. But much like video we're talking about, you know, there's also same people who don't want to, you know, put themselves, be vulnerable, be in a video. AI scares the hell out of them. It's going to take their job. It's taking over the world. And it might, I don't know. This is still. This is still kind of new. Not this week. Maybe next week, maybe next week. But right now, you know, the ability to utilize these tools to free up and let people be creative and be strategic. That's the that's the hot topic. That's the trend, is obviously finding what AI tools are right for you and for your business. So one and this one I'm going to put you on the spot a little with for us, we always encourage people to bring value to the table. As long as you are bringing value to the people that are seeing your content. You're doing the right thing. There's, there's pieces to that. There's calls to action. There's other pieces to that. Is that something that you agree with or is that something you think. Well it's an I mean I realize it is just the start of something. But is or is that something where you think, no, it needs to have a sharper message than just that. So I think when you're looking at any content, you know, there has to be value, right? Somebody found your content because they were trying to solve a problem or educate themselves. There was a reason that they found where you or what you were doing. So I would say, yeah, there has to be value. The content has to be strong. But from there, what are you trying to get them to do? Right, I know, I hear you. I don't feel put on the spot, but I would say it's a kind of add to that kind of piggyback, as you know. So there's value if people are viewing and engaging with your content. But what's the next step? How have you set them up? Are they is your call to action to be a subscriber? Is it to purchase a product? Is it to get Ahold of us for a free consultation? Like what is that? So yes, have value, have people there and engaging. But then have a next step. Where are they in the life cycle. Right. So this is the first time engaging with your brand. But then they come back three more times. What do you have in place to recognize that? I've gone to your page and looked at motorcycle parts at a certain one three different times. Well, there's some things. There should be a bell alarm going off somewhere where you're like, I need to contact Jay because he needs a gas tank for an Indian motorcycle, right? So. So what are you trying to do next? Does that answer 100%? 100? And I and I wholeheartedly agree with that. That's I love that add on to that because it, it is something that I feel that so many people miss is so many people put content out and they're like content and you're like, great, who cares? Kind of like your social media example earlier. Yeah, great. Somebody liked it. Okay. But if you're a business and you're trying to grow revenue, what did you have them do next? And I understand brand awareness. I totally get that. But if you're selling a product or service in your social media, well, what's the next step? What do you want them to do right? Are you selling online? Are you selling through Instagram? Have you set up a shop? I don't know, it's funny. I heard someone make a speech the one time they asked what someone's favorite type of social media engagement was. Yeah. What was it? I'm curious. And I mean, most of the answers in the room where I love it when I get a comment or I love it when I get a like on this one. The speaker then looks and goes. My favorite form of engagement is checks. Checks? Yes. Something that deposits into a bank account. Correct. And I thought hard direct and I thought, oh, yeah, we we need to keep that in mind. And a lot of people have lost that. Right? It's always interesting. Everything gets going in the brain. They get likes right? Right. It's the vanity metrics. It's. Oh, I feel super good about this. People like me, right? I don't get to say that often, but people like it, right? Right like me. Right? Right, right. I'm like, something else that we're finding is it is more and more. And just when you think it hasn't, just when you think it can't go further, it does. Mobile marketing. Oh, yes. We talked about the short form videos. Those are huge for that mobile marketing. Is there another piece that you think is a second behind or do you think something's in front of the short form videos for mobile marketing. You know, I think I don't know if it's in front. Maybe it's one A, one B, but I think that people forget sometimes about the mobile experience in general. I think that when people design sites or they're working in a legacy platform and have a website that they're not mobile friendly, and when we start to really and this isn't I'm not Neil Patel, this isn't a Ted talk. I don't have all the minutes here, but I can tell you from experience that mobile first, unless you're selling something super complicated that takes spreadsheets to figure out people are going to find you on a mobile device. Yeah. And if you. If I can't find your phone number or if I can't engage or click on things on your on your mobile experience, if the images don't load, if I have to doomscrolling like we talked about earlier to get to a call to action, you've lost somebody. So I think that is like just having the mobile experience top of mind to serve, you know, your content to somebody who wants to be there. Don't make it hard. So don't forget about the mobile experience because you're just losing. You're just losing people. You're losing visitors. They're bouncing. They're getting the hell out of there. Yeah, and I can't blame them. I can't if I. If I get some and I can't see it in a couple of seconds, I'm out. I'm out. Yeah. If this is the type of service I'm going to get. No, thanks. Right. Didn't real. It's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun. Yeah, right. I get that real fun. Exactly. What is the biggest marketing challenge that you see for businesses coming up? Yeah. I would say, the pull, the trigger, like I need to do marketing, right? Sure. People come out of a lot of different groups and networking groups, and there are new business owners, and they get really scared and nervous about spending marketing dollars because they don't see an ROI right away. Hey, I just launched a new website. Okay, okay. Well, it's not, it's not. I'm not ranking number one. Where is everyone? Like, we have ten pages and it launched a month ago. There's it's not going to be found. So. So what are we going to do. We need to spend money. We're going to balance your organic search with your pay per click. There's different things we can do to get you found. But I would say like with new business owners, understanding that marketing cost money and it costs time and resources, but when done correctly, they're going to grow, they're going to get where they want to be without it. I mean, it's a it's a, it's a slow it's death by a, you know, million papercuts. Like they're going to sit there waiting waiting for someone to find them. They don't have a Google my I mean, there's just like, be active and do marketing, and it's not like you don't have to go partner with an agency and spend a ton of money right away. There's things that you can do yourself. You know, there's you know what I can tell you that front burner. We're a marketing academy as well. So if you don't have the budget to be able to hire us on a, you know, on a retainer basis, but we can help you get educated, get certified so that you can go create your social media channels. You can start to understand, at least strategically, what is SEO, how does it balance with pay per click. So there's there's different ways. So I would say take that first step, educate yourself and then meet people who you like to work with. And from there when you invest into your marketing budget, you know have those things in mind. Be educated, come to the table, but know that it takes time. I love that education piece that to me is a huge thing and it to me it's what I like about it. And it's one of the reasons why we do this podcast too. It's it's to educate people because an educated person is so much better to work with. Absolutely. If you guys give someone that base education on, hey, here's where you need to start with your marketing. Here's, here's the base foundation. Here's the right questions to ask. Right. They have that experience. So when they show up and ask you, hey, that we've got our Google My Business page up and we've got a couple of reviews and what can we do to make this better, right. And you say you can do this, this and this. They have an idea and they no longer are waiting for you to pull a rabbit out of a hat. The old magic trick. Yeah. I don't have to say. Yeah, I have a, Yeah, I have a money tree in my backyard. Do you really? Yeah. It's amazing. I haven't watered mine. We're sitting here talking. I don't have a monetary. My, my favorite saying about that is I am never disappointed with the numbers in my checking account. The decimal point. It's in the wrong place. That is that that is is in the wrong place. That is very much the wrong piece to bear. Yeah. To me, I thank you for spending the time with me today. Yeah. For everyone out there, make sure that you check out the Frontburner marketing podcast. It's called the spark, correct? It is correct. It has been they've they've just starting out on this journey and so far it has been really, really good. They're building on some great things to come. I'm excited for. We're helping them produce that from the corporate college studios up here at Tri-C. That's why there's the different backgrounds. So do me a favor. Make sure you like, share, subscribe, all the other things that every other person on the planet is going to ask you to do. And if you can leave us a podcast review on your favorite podcast platform. And as always, make sure you take care of yourself. And if you can, take care of someone else too, I will see you soon.
