The Power of the Podcast: Unlock Your Brand's Marketing Potential

No More Scattered Content! Let's Build a Strong Foundation with Content Pillars

• Pedal Stomper Productions - Josh Troche • Season 2 • Episode 5

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Are you struggling to keep your branded podcast focused and engaging? Do your topics feel disconnected, making it harder to build a loyal audience? You're not alone! One of the biggest challenges podcasters face is staying on track—and that’s exactly what we’ll help you solve in this episode.  

We help you build a step-by-step guide that will walk you through the process of defining your content pillars. These are the core themes that shape your branded podcast, keeping your message clear, your episodes relevant, and your audience engaged. Whether you're a beginner looking to start strong or an experienced podcaster reassessing your direction, this episode is packed with actionable insights.  

Here’s what we’ll cover:  
✅ How to identify the 3-5 key content pillars that define your branded podcast  
✅ Why content pillars help establish authority, consistency, and trust  
✅ How to align your content with both your expertise and your audience’s needs  
✅ Strategies to ensure every episode fits within your brand’s messaging  
✅ How to refine and adjust your pillars over time without losing focus  

By the end of this episode, you’ll have a clear, structured framework for your podcast’s content, helping you attract the right listeners, stay consistent, and grow your brand’s impact. So grab a notebook, follow along, and let’s get to work!  

🔥 By the end of this episode, you’ll have the foundation to create a compelling, purpose-driven branded podcast that keeps your audience coming back for more!

PLUS: We’re diving into new research on branded podcasts—how they drive listener engagement and build long-term brand loyalty. You’ll discover why more businesses are turning to podcasts as a powerful marketing tool! 🚀  

🎧 Follow, subscribe, and take your branded podcast to the next level!  

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Stop your content from wandering all over the place. You need content pillars. How do you get them? That is what we're going to talk about this week. Stay tuned. For so. When we think of pillars I typically think of like old Roman construction where it's holding up like the front of a facade or the roof or something like that. And that's what content pillars really do for your podcast. They are the the five, six, seven, three whatever columns that are holding up your podcast. And that is what I'm so excited about today, because we're going to go back to talking about some of those to make sure that your branded podcast is on track and headed in the right direction. We want to make sure that we're we're covering these right things. Before we dive into that. I just want to ask a quick, quick, quick favor. Jump in. Hit a review. Hit. Hit the subscribe button. Hit the follow button. Make sure that I mean, we want to have the chance to talk to you about this stuff in the weeks to come, and anything you do like that really helps support us. Additionally, I really want to know what topics you guys want to hear about when it comes to talking about your branded podcast. So leave that. Like I said in the comments, leave us a review. Would love to get all that. With that being said, content pillars are I mean, we're talking about building up the foundation and I think of this more as like a stilt house is like what you see on a beach in terms of the pillars, instead of it just holding the roof up or holding whatever up on the side of a building. Because these content pillars are really the mainstays of what your podcast should be built on top of as a whole podcast. Not each episode, but as a whole podcast. Each episode should be climbing one of these pillars. When we build these types of pillars, I always say. I mean, this is something that I help people do in the class that I teach. I always suggest put a Google doc, put a Microsoft, word document together. You want something that's going to be living and breathing to a certain extent, and I can tell you every quarter you're going to want to review this. Are we headed first off, are we headed in the right direction? You should look at it before every episode. But are we headed in the right direction? Is this concurrent with our industry? Is this. I mean, things change over time. If you look at what marketing like what we've done over the past 20 years has done, Holy cow, has it changed? So we want to make sure that you've got that ability to kind of tweak this and move this along as you go. Now, if you're going to make big changes, I'm going to tell you probably do a save as and have the original. So that way you can look back to and say, okay, look, we've evolved rather than had these big changes. Big changes are sometimes a little bit rough to do. So like I said, set it up. So that way you can see that. The other thing I'm going to suggest set it up with bullet points. When you do it in bullet points, it's easy to follow. You're like, look, these are the these are the content pillars. These 3 to 5 things are what we're going to typically talk about. And there's a branch of topics underneath that. So that to me is is a really good way to do it. The other thing that I think is going to suggest with that is if you do like bullet points or an outline format, whatever topics you talk about, like whatever specific episodes you do after you've done one, either highlight it or put an asterisk next to it. Put parentheses around it, strikethrough, underline, bold, whatever you want to do, but leave it on the sheet. So that way you can see what topics you've already done. And when you look back, you can be like, oh, you know what? We did this. But there's something adjacent to that that I know that we should be covering. Those are all helpful tools that can really jog your memory. And especially, you know, exactly what content pillar fits under. So you can start building up from there. How do you start this process? Well, that's that's a big key in this. You want to start with your core expertise. What's your fundamental knowledge. What are you an expert at and what does your brand do really. Well. The those are the that is the the overarching thing. So I'm going to tell you put that down in your in your Google doc or whatever. Put that down on that document. What is it you guys do really, really well? What is it your brand does really, really well? Additionally under it maybe off a little bit with it. But what is your unique value proposition for that? What is the what? What is it that makes you different than others in your industry? That may not always be the thing that we talk about, or may not be the thing that you refer to in your podcast when you're doing this, but in this, because there's going to be times you're going to be talking about the same thing that probably other brands are talking about just because it's relevant. But in the same sense, you want to make sure that you always have that front of mind so you can keep that unique value proposition like front and center. You want to find a way to be able to to talk about that. For us, it's our I mean, our ability to help the branded podcasts work through these problems and get out there and get in front of people and stay on task. That's what our unique value proposition is. Plus, we offer the services that are front to back. You can do just what you want. You can do the social posting if you want. We can do it. We can take care of the descriptions. You can do it. That's our unique ability is to work with people for whatever fits for them. Now in that we've got our unique value proposition. We've talked about your, core expertise. Here comes the tough part. What problems are your audience trying to solve? Not you. What problem is your audience trying to solve? That's a tough one to think about in many, many cases, because your audience, I mean, let's face it, you need to get out of your head and into theirs. There's a saying that I love to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. First, you must take off your own. Do that. Take off your shoes. Walk a mile in your customer's shoes or your target audience has shoes. Figure out what problem are they trying to solve. From there, you want to see what information do they need to solve that problem. That's a big one. Let's say it's a let's say it's farming and you're talking about grains storage. Well, there's all sorts of problems that can happen with grain storage. There's rocks. There's it can get too dry. It can be too wet. You can get insects. You can get I mean, there's all sorts of these problems. So figure out what problems they're trying to solve and then figure out how to talk to them about it. So if it's a moisture problem, you're going to talk to them about fans. If it is a rock problem. Once again, probably going to talk about fans, maybe temperature control, maybe heat, things of that nature. So it's it's educating people on the problems that they are trying to solve. And you're giving them the information that they need to solve those problems. Now, when I when I mentioned some of the some of like the agriculture stuff, like let's talk about that for a second. Fans will help that problem. But it's not just fans. I'm not just going to say, hey, today's podcast is fans. Thank you. Good night. That is not how that's going to work. What we want to talk about with stuff like that is the how and the why, and we want to get I mean, if that's your area of expertise, we want to really get into that as how the the fans moving air through the bins changes the moisture of things, where it changes the moisture. If things like if it's corn, it's just going to change it through the tip, not through the the whole kernel of corn. So it's one of those things it's, it's presenting. I say that not as an expert thing, but I say that as you're educating people as to why the fan is the solution, that's the education piece, and that's the information they need to say, oh, okay. That's why I need the fan in order to fix my moisture problem in my grain bin. It's that edge. It's that education piece. It's that information that they need in order to move forward, rather than just saying, oh, you have this problem, you need a fan that that doesn't help them. So when you educate them on the problems that they are trying to solve, when you give them the information that they need to make those educated decisions, that is what they were looking for it. So what I want you to do is I want you to spend some time and go through and figure out what problems they're trying to solve and what information they need to solve that. From there. I know we're, we're it's, we're getting we're getting to that point where it's kind of tough. It's getting a little antsy. You've got ideas, you're putting them down in the in the notes and you're like, okay, I'm I think I'm headed in the right direction here. But it doesn't seem cohesive yet. Right. So I want you to take that list. Once you've got that, take some time to do it, come back to it, let it sit for a little bit, marinate. That's what some people say. And that let it marinate for a little bit. It's not a steak, it's not chicken. But let the list marinate. I guess that's the the entertaining way to say it. You know, when you've looked at that list, refine it. I want you to go back and look and say, oh, these topics are similar or really close. Let's combine them. Let's put those together. If there's redundancy with stuff like that, you need to eliminate that. You need to make sure that each pillar is its own distinct piece. What we really want to end up with is probably 3 to 5 at these distinct pillars. These are the main areas of your topic that you want to talk about. So once again, like let's use a coaching example. Someone may talk about physical wellness. Someone may talk about mental wellness, someone may talk about financial wellness. Like those are three pillars that someone may work on as a coach. So those are the types of topics that we need to narrow into. Does it mean you can't ever go outside of those? No, but I'm always going to caution you on doing that to say, look, make sure you're staying in your track. When you get these broad pillars, this is when you're going to start to say, okay, there's some depth to this. I can go into these items pretty deep because what we need to do is we need to talk about these specific areas. We focus on branded podcasts. We initially started out talking about just podcasts as a marketing tool initially, but really we realized that we needed to narrow it down and do branded podcasts. Who's doing something for their brand? These are really big key moments in this because that once again, we think when we do something like that, when we niche in, we're going to run out of stuff to talk about. If you run out of stuff to talk about, are you really an expert in that area? Do you need to do more research? Something else to look at with that? Once we've got each pillar? Like I said, those 3 to 5 define them very clearly. Make sure. And I say look those should usually be 2 to 3 words. Matt, Max, we talk about x or y or Z once again physical wellness, mental wellness, financial wellness. Those would be like three pillars that we would suggest for a coach. Because once again, those are the things that they're talking about. And probably when you look at it out there, a lot of coaches should be like if they're talking physical wellness, what are the pillars they're talking about in there? Or should they be talking about cardiovascular? Should they be talking about strength? Should they talking about supplements so that they should probably niching even further on those to make sure that they're talking about their specific area. And there, once again, it's unique value proposition. As we've got these pillars, start thinking those subtopics. Now once again we've got we've got these 3 to 5 ginormous things that you are the expert in that your business does differently than someone else. That's what we need to be talking about. And we need to look for topics underneath those. This is why I tell you don't throw away topics that you've already done. Because once again, I will oftentimes look at something and be like, oh yeah, we talked about content pillars a few weeks ago, but it was a mentioning thing. Let's go deeper into that. Or let's talk about the, the, a certain aspect of that. We are going to do that. So once again I save those topics because they'll be able to give you more and more. And once again, living breathing document I know it's an overused cliche to say, look, it's a living, breathing document. This needs to be because this is what's going to be basically a list for you to work with for your podcast. Here comes the tricky part when it comes time to hit the button that I always like to say, we have hit the button that says record when. When you hit that button. As you're putting the content together, you need to make sure that you are fitting in to those pillars. Too often, people get an idea for an episode and they're like, oh, this is going to be great, or someone suggest something. I've had it happen to me countless times. I've had guests be like, hey, I would love to come on your show. And I'm like, awesome. We'll talk about stuff. And they come on and I'm like, Holy cow, that was a good conversation, but it wasn't anywhere near where we needed to be in order to fit directly in with our podcast. So with that, you need to go back. And every episode that you're doing, make sure that it stems from this sheet. That is where the that's where the topics are going to come from. That is where the items that you're going to talk about are going to come from, because that is what your audience is looking for. See, once again, we've tied it back up to what I started talking about in the beginning there. We need to look for what your audience. What what what problem are they trying to solve and what education do they need for that? Those are the things that are going to be in those pillars, because we built those into those pillars. Those are, I almost would say, the foundation of the pillars. So the the pillars hold up the the structure of your podcast. The thing that holds those up are the problems that your customers are facing. That is what's going to make for a great branded podcast for you. Now, the other thing with that, like I said, make sure all of them work together and make sure that they all have a similar theme to them. They need to fit within your business. If your business never to. Once again, I'm going to use the coaching example. If your business never talks about physical, mental or financial wellness and that's what you talk about in your podcast, well, you're way off the mark. So you need to make sure that those fit in with that. I've said this before in this and this is once again living breathing document. Can I hammer on that enough? Probably. You're probably sick of hearing that. But really, your audience need their needs and their interests. And what your business does may evolve over time. We've all seen it with businesses where areas change, times change. You see neighborhoods change, and when the neighborhood changes or restaurants start to go away or start to change, the businesses that are there start to change. Podcasts are the same way. As your business starts to change, you need to change. With that, be prepared to review and adapt your pillars. I mean your topics. Everything is needed now. What I don't want you to do is, like I said, I don't want you to have someone call you up and say, hey, I think I'd like to be a guest and be like, yeah, I'm going to throw the pillars out for one week. Try not to do that. You want to stick within the pillars and you want to let them evolve, but I will. I will warn you against knocking them down and starting to rebuild again. That is always a tough operation and that's what we've just gone through. Now. We're on a much better track. But don't just go willy nilly out there carrying around a wrecking ball and start swinging it around like a toddler. Not the best thing to do with that. All being said, I would love to hear your questions about branded podcasts. Now, there was recently a study that came out. That is what we were going to talk about. The news section right after this. Show. There was a very cool study that came out this week about branded podcasts, and there's some really cool stuff with this. So sounds profitable with signal Hill Insights. There was a large scale study that they recently did, and it was it was really it was geared 100% towards branded podcast. They found that brand fans, meaning ones that listened to branded podcasts, are very likely to consume the podcasts and the the items from those brands. 59% of people listening to podcasts weekly are consuming some sort of branded content, which I found very interesting. 43% of brand fans are using YouTube for podcasts. Spotify is at 20%. What I find very, very interesting about that is that go that really lends towards the importance of video. When we went back and we looked at the building, the know, like and trust a few episodes ago, when we look at those types of things, a podcast does a great job of building that. A video does so much better of a job. When someone picks up the phone or sends the email, they know the person on the other end that's responding to them. They have a they've established a relationship with that person. To me, that is absolutely huge. Now, this study was done August of 2024. So this is very shortly after Spotify started doing their video. I'm assuming that 20% number is bigger now because once again, Spotify has that ability for you for video in their 69% of brand fans or are more likely to try podcast with company involvement. And 36% of brand fans are much more likely. So if you're looking to try and build those fans of your brand, the people that will, I mean, we all know them. I mean, it's the people that will buy Nike shoes no matter what, and they will collect them and all that other stuff. If you're looking to build that type of brand, that type of like, we love everything that this brand does. This to me, shows that a podcast is another great way to connect with those people. It's that additional touch point they want to hear from your brand. The other thing that I found that was interesting with this is 74% of brand fans have social circles that are recommending podcasts, and 88% of people that get a recommendation like that are likely to try that recommendation. If you have someone that tells one of their friends, hey, go check out this podcast. 88% of those brand fans are going to go ahead and try and give it a listen. To me, that is huge. One of the things that that tells me with this is that we talk about how the podcast is such a great additional, touch point when we're creating some of the clips to help you, like, reach out to audiences. It's not that you're going to get this rapid growth, but as you know from the basic marketing, you need eight, ten, 12 touch points with people before they're finally going to say, yep, I'm going to click on that, or yep, I'm going to go through with this. This helps you build that. These are those additional touch points that help you build that. If you get someone to recommend you Holy cow. This goes back to that. I mean, we all remember, I mean, times before when word of mouth was such a great advertising tool. This is the same exact thing, except they're bringing them into your ecosystem with the podcast. To me, what a great way to do that. Additionally, what the the the main thing that I read into this to was really you want to work on building community with your podcast. It's a big thing with that. We've set up a discord channel for everyone to come in and talk. If they want to ask post a question in discord. The link will be in the show notes here for the discord channel, make sure that you sign up for it. That way, if you've got a question about your branded podcast, we can start that discussion. Whether I mean, you and I started, whether we started with someone else that's involved, whatever. We can make sure that we get that discussion going. So that way we can get everyone's question answered. When you build that type of community, it's that type of community building exercise that is going to help you in building that, that marketing, like push that's really going to push you over the edge and push you out to more people because once again, you're building community. You're going to build those recommendations that do that. With all that, to me, this this news is one of those things that I think bodes so well for Branded Podcast that it's not just I it's funny, someone approached me the other day saying, hey, look, we, we we want to do an infomercial. You can guess that this was not a young person that said this, but I'm like, why do an infomercial when you can do a podcast? And that to me was I mean, it can be an infomercial. Don't make it that salesy. But it it can be that educational piece that you want to present to people. And that's what I suggest with the podcast, Educate Your clients. We talked about not the first piece. Educate them on the issues that they need to know in order to solve the problems that they are trying to solve. If you build on those pillars, when you look at these numbers, you've got a pretty good path to success. There. That all being said, I would love to hear from you. Got the discord channel set up? Make sure that you click on the show notes and go to that. Additionally, we'd love to hear any comments that you have if you want to see something in the future, by all means put that in the comments. We will make sure that we address that for you. As always, take care of yourself and if you can, take care of someone else too, I will see you very soon. In oh oh hey everybody go! Oh!

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Josh Troche

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