A number of years ago, I shocked people, when I announced, I was going to stop production of my award-winning podcast – The Ambitious Entrepreneur Show.
(What shocked me, was following my announcement I received several messages asking whether I’d be interested in selling it. I had no idea anyone would see that much value in what I had created and would even consider asking whether I would sell it to them, which is a story for another day).
In this week’s article I want to share the mistakes I made with my podcast that led me to stop production, so you can avoid making the same mistakes with your coaching business podcast. (Or, if a podcast is something you’re considering that you can avoid these mistakes altogether).
I stopped the production of my award-winning podcast – a podcast that had frequently been listed in the top business and entrepreneurship podcasts, because my own message had gotten lost in the noise of my own podcast.
AND I had gotten bored with the guests on the show, as nothing they were sharing was innovative or of interest – it was the same old message. I’d had enough.
It wasn’t until several months later, after I’d been able to take a step back, I realised some of the key mistakes I’d made with my podcast, and what I needed to do instead, should I ever decide to relaunch it – which I did 18 months later.
Here are the 3 mistakes I made, along with the tips on what to do, so that your message doesn’t get lost in the noise of your own coaching business podcast, which will prevent you from being building your visibility as an influential trusted authority, building an audience of your ideal clients, while nurturing listeners into leads.
- I strayed from my original theme and topics and struggled to build a highly niched audience of my ideal clients
When I started my podcast – The Ambitious Entrepreneur Show, I was supporting coaches and consultants with developing their personal brands. I’d recently transitioned out of the career coaching industry so my tagline was, ‘Get Noticed, Get Hired, and Get Paid What You’re Worth’.
In short, I helped coaches build their personal brands so they could stand out from the crowd by their ideal client and get paid what they were worth for their expertise.
However, when I launched my podcast, the guests I had on my show along with the topics they spoke about were not specifically targeted for coaches or service-based businesses, who were my ideal clients.
I didn’t have a robust guest strategy in place, and ended up interviewing anyone who had an interesting message to share. I learned a lot myself, and obviously built an audience of found the information valuable – however my audience was diverse and not a highly niched audience of my ideal client.
TIP:
The lessons I learned and what I recommend you do with your coaching business podcast is:
- Be clear on who your ideal client is and the theme and topics you’ll be sharing on your podcast that will be of interest to him/her;
- Have a robust guest strategy in place to ensure the topics they speak about are of value to your ideal client;
- If you’re going to interview guests on your podcast, make sure you incorporate solo-shows into your podcasts with relevant topics that are of value to your ideal clients and will continue to build your reputation as an influential trusted authority – THE choice vs just A choice when they’re ready to move forward.
- I wasn’t clear on my ‘end-in-mind’ or how I was going to leverage my podcast to nurture listeners into leads
When I first started my podcast, I had no idea about the ‘customer journey’ and how I could best leverage my podcast to nurture a relationship with my audience of ideal clients as I continued to build ‘know, like and trust.’
I assumed if they liked what they heard, they would go to my website to find out how they could work with me. What I know now is NOT to assume anything. Unless you let people know what the ‘next step’ is and you invite them to take that next step – how can they possibly know?
What I’ve since learned is that with the right strategy in place, your podcast can provide an incredible opportunity to be discovered when your ideal client is looking for a solution to a specific problem. (That’s the Awareness Building Stage in the Customer Journey. I share more about the 3 Stages of the Customer Journey, here).
Provide them with valuable information – the kind of information that if they are listening to your podcast while driving, has them want to pull over onto the side of the road to take notes. (This is something one of my audience members once told me she was tempted to do).
TIP:
The lessons I learned and what I recommend you do with your coaching business podcast is:
- Get clear on the customer journey your ideal client will take so that you’re able to leverage your podcast to nurture and build ‘know, like and trust’;
- What are the most pressing problems your ideal client is searching for? Make sure those are the topics you share on your podcast, and make sure the titles of each episode include keywords and phrases to ensure your episode has more likelihood of being found when they’re searching for information;
- Make sure you continue to leverage relevant episodes in all your marketing. Hint: Notice how I have linked to a previous podcast episode above for those people who want to learn more about the 3 Stages of the Customer Journey. Keep leveraging your solo shows.
- I didn’t have a clear call to action for my dream customer to nurture listeners into leads
More often than not, the call-to-action coaches have at the end of each episode of their coaching business podcast is, “Subscribe to my podcast, leave a rating and share with a friend or colleague if you think they’ll get value out of it.”
While there is nothing wrong with that call-to-action, there’s a much better call-to-action and one that will continue to build your list – your database of dream customers, with whom you can continue to build a relationship with.
That call-to-action is to provide them with an opportunity to further solve the struggle (that brought them to your podcast in the first place) by accessing a free resource (i.e. opt-in), which you’ve created for them.
Note: if you don’t have Tip #1 and Tip #2 in place first, it will be difficult to build a level of intrigue and desire needed so that your audience will be compelled to access this resource.
TIP:
The lessons I learned and what I recommend you do with your coaching business podcast is:
- Know exactly what your ideal client will find compelling and create a free resource to offer as your call-to-action. Hint: A Quiz and podcast series is ideal. Here’s mine so you can see it in action as well as experience it. If you’re a coach who is looking to scale your business – you’ll find this resource valuable;
- Leverage your free resource (i.e. opt-in) where-ever you can to build your list. For instance, the call-to-action on podcasts you guest on, at the end of speaking presentations, the ‘next step’ on social media posts, to continue building your list of ideal customers.
There you have it – the three mistakes I made and three tips on how NOT to let your message get lost in the noise of your own coaching business podcast.