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

How to Build a Branded Podcast That Grows Your Business (Step-by-Step Strategy)

• Pedal Stomper Productions - Josh Troche • Season 2 • Episode 7

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Are you just talking into a mic—or are you building a brand?
If you want your business podcast to actually move the needle, this episode is your ultimate strategy session.

In this value-packed episode from Pedal Stomper Productions, we walk you through the essentials of building a branded podcast that does more than just sound good—it serves your audience, reinforces your brand, and supports your overall marketing strategy.

🎯 You’ll learn:

  • Why a brand audit is the essential first step
  • How to identify and speak to your true target audience
  • The importance of defining your podcast’s mission
  • How to create audience personas and content pillars
  • Choosing the right host, tone, and podcast format
  • Strategically integrating calls to action that convert
  • Mapping podcast content to your sales funnel
  • How to use analytics to sharpen your show's impact

💡 We also dig into 2025 Edison Research data that proves why now is the perfect time to get into branded podcasting—and why you’re not too late.

🎙️ Want your podcast to become your top-of-funnel secret weapon? This episode will show you how.
And if you’re ready to start or level-up your podcast, our No-Pitch Podcast Consultation is the perfect next step. (Link below.)

👉 Sign up for your No-Pitch Podcast Consultation

If you want to listen to the episode that we mention about building your content pillars, it's right here! 

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

Staying up to date on the latest podcasting news and trends doesn't have to be difficult. We can deliver them right to your inbox. 
https://www.pedalstomperproductions.com/

Want to start your own podcast? https://www.pedalstomperproductions.com/contact-bedford

Book your time in our state of the art studios: https://www.pedalstomperproductions.com/podcast

Join our Discord Server and let's chat about your podcast https://discord.gg/CWk9aUuNtM

Want to read about this? Check the blog!
https://www.pedalstomperproductions.com/blog


Without a strategy. You're just talking. And frankly, no one cares. This is why we're going to tell you how to build out the strategy that you need to make your business. Branded. Podcast successful. You do not want to miss this, so stay tuned. Oh, I am diving right into it this week and you. Need to start with a brand. Audit. What do I mean by this? Well let's take let's take a couple. Let's take stock of a couple of things I guess I'm going to say. First off we're going to look at your podcast purpose. What's your brand's existing values. Let's take a look at that. I mean what's the mission. What's the target audience like for us? I always say success is a shared thing. That is our core value. So how do I let that dictate. The direction of the. Podcast? That's the question. That we're going to start answering. With this. The target audience. Who who are we talking to? Well, according to like YouTube and all the other stats that we get, our target target audience is. Anywhere from like 25 to 40 year old. Men. Great. That's information we know. That's information. That we can use. To direct our. Podcast. What I see too many people is they start chasing an audience, or they start chasing items and they think, oh, well, there's this group. Over here, or there's this group over there. And that may not necessarily fit. Who their target audience is for their product or their service or whatever. Like that. Unless you're looking to just build the podcast for the sake of the building the podcast, figure out who your target audience is and aim it towards them. Now, there's one thing that I've got to tell you that's kind of a key in this. When I'm talking with people about this, in a lot of cases, I'm I'm telling people like, look. Figure out your target audience. Figure out who you can speak to. In many cases, that is, you. I was just talking with someone last week who's. In the very beginning. Stages of building. Their. Podcast. And this woman was like, look, she goes, I want to talk to, like. A broad range of. People. And I'm like, you're going to be talking to mid 50s women. That's who you are. That's who you. Speak very well. To. It's tough to speak to people that are outside of. Your area, your realm. I'm not going to speak well to to 20 somethings to. To early 20 somethings. Or teens. It's just not a group that I'm probably going to have an easy time resonating with. So keep that in mind. Look at who your target. Audience is, and make sure. That your target person. Can speak to that target audience. If my target audience, like I said, was early something 20 somethings, I probably wouldn't be the best host. I would need to find someone else to to host that podcast. Tough pill to swallow, I know, but it's something that we need to need to look at because you need to authentically. Amplify your brand's. Message. What's authentic to your brand? Who does your brand go after? Who are. The. Who are the people that you're looking for? Once again, find the person that fits. That or find. The the items that fit that. The other thing that I really want you to look at is I want you to look at what unique value. Can your podcast provide to your audience. Is this going to be informational? Is this going to help them fill in some of the. Blanks on your product? Is this going to help them use. The product better? If you have a let's say you have a widget that's maybe difficult to use, here's lessons on how to use that. That podcast typically does amazing. For. Brands, and it also. Helps bring people. In. So what I want you to do with this is. Once we're done with the podcast, here is I want you to write a. Mission statement. For the. Podcast. Now you have to make sure that this is going to align with the mission statement, the core values of your business. But you need to write a mission statement for the podcast. Now there's one piece to that that we're going to talk about a little bit later. And that's going to help you kind of finish off how that statement is going to be. But once again, write that down right now. That is your homework assignment. That I'm going to be given to you guys. The next piece on that is we want to do this audience persona deep dive. Who is your ideal listener? Now in most. Cases, your ideal listeners are. Probably going to be your ideal customer. We need to. Make sure. That we are aligned with that. If you don't know their pain points, their interests, and this is the key where the podcast comes in. Their informational needs, those those are the. Three big. Things I know I just held up four fingers. Those are the three main things that you really need to have in line there. And even if it's not for the podcast, it's things that you need to have in line for your business. What's their pain point? What's their environment, what's their interest, and what's their informational need? These are blanks that you need to fill in. For your. Audience as you start to develop the podcast. Why are we asking that? Well. We need to address those needs. We need to address that pain point. We need to address where they. Need the information. That's why we do the podcast here. We want to help you build. Your podcasts or addressing that informational. Need. I go out and do. Tons of research. And it plus it's the knowledge that I've. Acquired working. With a lot of podcast guests over. The years or podcast. Host over the years. It's that type of knowledge. It's that. Information. That I'm going to try and feed you. What helps with this, and an exercise that I go through with, with some people on. This that are that. Maybe stuck is create a day in the life. For your. Ideal. Listener. It's one of the things that we also do this in the class that I teach is who is your ideal listener? What do they do and when are they going to be listening to you? The when to me is a big key because if it's someone that's listening to you, like maybe you think most of the time they're going to listen to. You before bed. Do you want to be this amped up? Hey loud, let's go podcast probably not. You want to be the the smoother, quieter. Let's give them. More information. This way. Now, once again, if. It's first thing in the. Morning and I come on the podcast and I'm talking like this and I'm just giving you this smooth, easy, delightful information. If I hear something like that. First thing in. The morning, I'm going straight back to sleep. I don't know about you, but I think most. People are probably going to share in that. To me, it's those couple of things that you want to keep in mind, like when are they going? Are they going to be listening in the car? Are they going to be listening. While they're working out? Think of who your ideal. Listener. Is. Once again, that typically aligns with your ideal customer. Think about who that is and gear the podcast. For that person. Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this next section, which it's because it's content pillars. We talked about setting up your content pillars before. You need. 3 to 5 core content pillars that. They're. Going to reflect your expertise and resonate with. Your audience. Just simple enough. That episode I will make sure that we have in the show notes. If you want to go rewatch. Or. Relisten to that episode. If you're worried about. Missing episodes like this, I. Yes, I am going to hit you with the please do subscribe. Please make sure that you follow us. Please, if you can, I would love a review and. Or a comment from you. Would love to know what you'd like to see next in this. Same thing that we said with the podcast. About the pillars. Go back list those. 3 to 5 pillars. Now what I'm going to have you do after that is if you think you're going to have a podcast with guests, once you've listed those. 3 to 5 pillars, I. Want you to list 7 or 8 guests that fill in that fit in with those pillars, or who speaks exactly to those items. That is huge because I see in so many cases, and we've done this ourselves. Before, is you just. Call in a guest, you're like, oh, this. Person's great. I love talking with them. You might, but do they fit in with your content pillars? We called in a. Lot of marketing. People and it was great. A lot of them didn't have podcasts. And I'm like, why are we talking to them? They're great marketing. It, awesome marketing information, but it didn't fit within our content pillars. So we kind of had to back that up and get to. Those right spaces. Again. We figured out. Who we're talking. To. We've figured out like. The core values and what we're trying to do with. The podcast. Now we got to figure out the format and tone. I mentioned a little bit of this. The tone is going to be that are we upbeat? Are we, are we the are we the slower smoother? I've done both. I've hosted. Both. I've worked with. Both. It takes a. Lot of work. It's not to say that I can't slow down and still. Be very thoughtful. And authentic, but I'm a heck of a lot more comfortable being, I guess I would say the amped up guy that I am that's sitting here all, like. Moving around in the chair behind the microphone right now. Pick the pick the tone that fits. And once again, this is where. You have to. Realize you may not be. The right person to market your brand. You may not be the right host for your brand. But pick. A person. Pick a persona. That's going to match. Your brand for the. Tone. Big piece with that. In terms of format. I want you to look at, is this going to be interviews? Is this going to be solo shows? Is this going to be storytelling? There's different ways to go with this. You can tell. Customer success stories. I don't know how many people are going to listen to that. If you give interviews that talk about like, let's say. If you're a. Coach, I know a lot of people. That are. Coaches, and I would once again, I would equate them to be a general practitioner, like like your doctor, you. Go to your doctor. He knows a lot about the human body as a whole. He says, look, you've. Got a heart. Problem. You want a cardiovascular specialist. You don't want. Your general practitioner. Typically opening your chest up to. Operate on your heart. That's not how that's done. So that's what I the the analogy that I make there is. If you're like. A coach, a business coach, a life coach. Whatever, you're the. Generalist, you are helping people with those things. Find someone that is a specialist in an area that you. Want to learn more. Of that your clients want to. Learn more about. Find someone. That's in that area. That you can bring in as that expert, because now you're going to learn from them. Once again, it's. The general practitioner. That's you calling in the specialist. To get more information. That is how. Great interview podcasts work. It's the gen. It's the generalist getting more information from the specialist. Think of it that way. If it is a solo show like this, once again realize it's all on you. It's all on whoever the host is. If they've got to be amped up, if they've got to be nice, cool, calm, collected, make. Sure that whatever it is. It's going to fit with. Your brand, with your branding. The way we do things. Well, it's kind of I mean, me being the owner, it's kind of molded after me. So guess what? I think it fits pretty well. What we want is we want that consistent tone. We want that consistent voice. We want that consistent personality. People love podcast because of the authenticity behind them. They want to get to know. The person. That they. Are hearing from. They feel that they know. The person that they're hearing. From. Once again, episode we did before builds that know. Like, and trust. It allows whoever's there to build that know, like and trust. Make sure that that is consistent. Make sure it's not. All over the place. Make sure it's not amped up one day. And super sad. The next day. You don't want to have that happen. Here comes the big toughie. The strategic calls to action. Once again, I know a lot of people throw in just the hey like, share and subscribe. They do that at the beginning, or they do that at. The end or whatever. Yeah, that can work. The thing that is the best is when you have. Worked. On something and you, you put it in subtly or you build to it, or if once again, you've, you've done the whole podcast and you get to the end and you say, hey, if you want. More information on. This, go to our blog, sign up for our email list or let's talk about it. In the discord. Those are all great. Calls to. Action that are subtle. Because once again, you are asking. To help the person. You are asking to give. Them more information. Hey, if you'd like more information, I'm giving you. It's really tough to ask. People for stuff in. A podcast. Always Be Giving is really the thing with that. So make sure. That your calls. To action do that in the same sense. Make sure that your calls to action align with your marketing goals. Are you looking for people to sign up for newsletters? Sure. Then great. Make sure that the call to action aligns for that. What I what I hate is when we see the call to action is just. This. Randomness. Make. It be directed. If if you're talking about a specific item. Boy, that it's really tough not to say. Check out this. Item on our website for more information. That's a that's a perfectly fine call to action. Just make. Sure that you're putting it. In there and that it fits with what you're talking about. For me to spend the entire episode talking about building a. Branded podcast strategy. And then to not say at the end of it, hey, by the way. It's. Not about strategy, but to start a podcast. Just do the thing. Well, it doesn't make sense. You know that if I'm going to tell you to sign up for the email newsletter intent. Here it comes. Sign up for the email newsletter. Guess what's coming out this week? We're going. To be talking. About strategy. We're going to be given a. Couple of tips about strategy in that same thing. If I tell you to go to the blog, it's going to be about strategy. It's all connected and it's all giving. The other thing I'll tell you with that is make sure that the calls to action are somewhat varied. Putting them in the same place, same time, all the time. Sometimes gets a little rough. In the same sense, saying just begging people to do something over. And over and over again. Gets a little bit old. Make sure that you're offering. New and different things. Email or give them a pamphlet. I mean, people will give you their. Email. Address. For a. PDF that shows them what you talked about in the podcast. Things of that nature. The thing that so many people don't do with all this is they don't map the content to part of the sales funnel. When you look at the rest of your marketing strategy. It should at least say, look, this is this piece of the funnel. Or this part of the funnel or this level. Of the funnel. Wherever it's at. You need to. Make sure where people are coming on board to your. Podcast. For us. We're talking about the very basics here. In a lot of. Cases, we're talking about people that I mean, once again, have done a podcast for a while. They're doing it on their own. Or they're thinking. About starting for us. Too. I mean, it's it's all about the top of the funnel. That's where. Our. Podcast sits. This is very much. Top of the funnel. Start getting people into. Our. Ecosystem. Maybe your podcast is much closer to when someone's getting ready to buy. Maybe it's halfway through. Maybe it's right after. Maybe they're part of the. After the email stage. There's all sorts of pieces. To this, but make. Sure that you're. Talking to. People in your. Podcast in. The appropriate. Place in the funnel. If you're talking to them in the wrong spot, it's once again, it's not. Going to resonate. And that's a huge. Part of. What it's all about. Additionally, cross-promotion and integration. Now I say cross-promotion and integration. Because it's kind of I talk about your podcast ecosystem all the time. Your podcast is something that it should be a giving thing. So to send that out to people, you are once again giving them something you're not telling them, hey, I want you to go listen to my podcast. No, you're saying, hey, would you like more information? Here's more information. There's a big difference. In the. Way that's presented. So with this, you're this gives you another tool like check us out on. Facebook for more information. Check out our website for more information. If you're curious about learning more. Sign up for the email newsletter. This is once again another. Avenue for you to reach out. To people for you to, to get the ear of people and get those additional touch points. With that, you have to make sure that all these touch points, especially the podcast, are bringing value to your listeners. What are they going to gain from this? To me, as. A branded. Podcast. There, there's. Two typical keys that people should be gaining. From your. Podcast. One, they should be getting a value for their time. In terms of. Knowledge. They should be learning something. They should. Be better educated. And they should be able to put something. Actionable right then and there. The other thing, it should be at least reasonably entertaining now. Entertaining doesn't mean. That you're. Have people rolling on the floor laughing the whole time. That's not necessarily the case. It could just be mildly funny. It could just be something that keeps someone smiling. It could just be something that makes someone feel good by listening to it. Any way you look at it, those are two keys that you really need to have for. Your. Podcast to be successful. On the back end of this, I know so many people that will put their podcast out there and I'm like, what are the analytics look like? And they're like, I don't know. It's like, why that's sitting there. Like, I got downloads, right? What? When are people leaving? How are people getting there? Those are key pieces of information because without this, you're just putting a podcast. Out there. On hope. Looking at the analytics lets you know what's going right, what's going wrong, and what you should do more of, what you should do less of where. Where are the opportunities for you to. Really capitalize on things. So make. Sure that you. Are spending that time and going out and looking at those analytics. It's such a key. If you don't do it, you are missing just a huge, huge, huge opportunity. The same sense from the analytics side. Whatever your call to action is, when your episode hits, you should see an increase in that. Action from the call. To action. If you're telling people, hey, sign up for the email newsletter and you don't get any signups, well guess what? Maybe that's not the call to action that resonates with people. Maybe you didn't ask it right. You're going to need to try a few different things to see what works. No magic formula, but it will tell you when you did something wrong. The other piece to that is make. Sure you're working to build. Community engagement. Whether it's the number one thing, answer the comments. By golly, answer the comments. These are people that have spent. Their time to reach. Out to you to say something they actually typed on their phone. Spend the time to engage with them. When you do that, you have fans for life. The other thing start a Facebook group. Or discord or Reddit group. Any one of those things encourage. Those interactions. Because once again, that becomes another touchpoint for you. That becomes another way for you to communicate with your customers. The final piece that I want to mention on this podcasting. It's like any other piece of marketing. It is a long term strategy. Don't put a podcast out there and be like, okay, it's out there. Where all am. I? Where, where are the throngs of listeners and viewers? It does not work that way. Podcasting is a long term strategy. It is like any other. Long term strategy. It pays off as long as you put in the time and effort. Make sure that you're doing that. Once you've started to see some of these things. I want you to put together that a 12 month podcast plan. How often are we posting? What are we posting? Who are we posting to? All those questions that I talked about earlier, those are the things that we need to look at. Put that in a 12 month podcasting plan, and I'm going to suggest you do it in a. Like word document or. A, Google Docs document because it may change. It's going to change. It's the same thing with the mission statement. Shouldn't change the audience might change. How you engage with them, might change because you're going to look at those analytics and those are going to. Point you in the right direction. With all that being said, we have some very interesting news that bodes pretty darn well for. Branded. Podcasts. We'll be right back. So Edison Research. Is one of the leading, like audio. Research companies. Out there. They provide data insights on podcast listening. Like it's all about the analytics, the how, the when, the. Where, the. Why that how people engage with podcasts and when. It's all about helping. Podcasters understand. The audience and the industry as a whole. They have their report called The. Infinite Dial and the 2025. Version. Just came out. Couple of interesting headlines that I gathered from this. First off, podcast consumption is at an all time high. 70% of Americans aged. 12 or up. Have listened to a podcast in the past year, 70% of people. That is. Pretty. Amazing. Now the. The really thing. That is more amazing with that is. 55% of Americans. Aged 12 and up are now monthly podcast consumers, 55% of the people in the. Country. You can reach. Monthly via a podcast. To me, that is that's huge. I mean, we've crossed the threshold. The threshold. If you walk. Down the street and there's a crowd of people. A majority of them will listen to a podcast that to me, statistically speaking, that to me is a is a pretty neat thing. 73% of Americans have. Consumed a podcast. An either an. Audio. Or. A video. Format. A lot of people don't know. That they are consuming. Podcasts. They see it as a talk show when they're watching something on YouTube. But that still slides under that podcast. As far as a branded podcast goes. Content. I mean, if you do audio and. Video as a branded. Podcast, holy cow, is there. I mean, you can reach so, so, so many people. Speaking of the video portion of that. It's 33%. Of weekly podcast. Listeners are. Using YouTube. Whether it be. The audio or the video side. Either or 33% of people. Are going to YouTube. Make sure your podcast. Either the video. And or the. Audio, both should be on YouTube. It doesn't. Matter where you. Host your RSS feed. We can talk about that if you. Ever want. To talk about like, RSS feeds and stuff like that. To me, that is the the, the fact. That 33%. Of people that are listening are on YouTube is huge. The other thing that we've noticed too, is that 70. 9% of. Americans age 12 and. Up are. Listening to some. Form. Of online audio, digital audio. Audio consumption is widespread, could be via their vehicle. So many people are listening to that, branded it just really this tells. Me branded. Podcasts are just really well positioned right now. I'm getting so many people saying it's 20, 25, I'm too late. You're not. Especially if you have just a few people already that would be willing to listen to me. It's never too late. Let's make sure that we get you up and going before it really, really is too late. That being said, I would love to hear your questions. I would love to get your feedback. By all means, put those in the comments if you have a. Question or a concern about your podcast. Please sign up for the No Pitch Podcast consultation. I love doing those because I go on and I get to help. So many people just up their game. Put the link in to your show. I will go. Take a listen or watch for a little. Bit. We'll come up with some tips. That you're going to be able to act on very, very. Quickly. And very, very. Easily. That all being said, this is a great week. I am looking forward to next week. Make sure that you take care of. Yourself. And if you can, take care of someone else too. I will see you very, very soon. Oh oh hey everybody go! Oh!

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Josh Troche

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