10 ways to use a podcast to grow your business in 2024

Podcasting can be an incredibly powerful tool for business growth, but it does require strategy and intention. In today's episode, I'm sharing 10 ways that you can use a podcast to grow your business in 2024.

– Why understanding podcasting as an audience growth tool is essential.
– How considering your podcast as a new revenue stream can help you explore diverse and creative income possibilities and networking opportunities.
– The benefits of having your own podcast to build credibility and “know, like, trust” with your audience.
– How podcasting can improve your speaking and presentation skills.

 

 
Let’s dive into 10 ways you can use a podcast to grow your business in 2024. Now, whether you already have a show or you're thinking of launching one, these 10 things that I'm going to share with you today might be ways that you hadn't actually considered before for using a podcast as a growth tool for your audience, for your income and for your business in general.

 

You can use your podcast to grow your business in 2024 as an email list-building tool.

I am a big fan of building your email list, especially in the current online world, because we've seen social media algorithms have changed a lot. The content that you post on Instagram or LinkedIn or wherever you're showing up online, it's reaching fewer and fewer people. Over time, as the content platforms become more and more saturated, the algorithms have to distil the content even more.

So your reach decreases over time whereas when you build your email list, that is an audience that you own. You can email that list. You can land in their inbox and it's not an algorithm that is determining whether they want to see your content or not. If they don't want to see your content anymore, they can unsubscribe and that's how it works. It becomes much easier to reach them. It also means that you're not at risk of losing your audience. If a platform shuts down, if your account gets hacked or blocked, you're not going to lose that audience like you would with a social media audience. At the start of every podcast episode, I give you the call to action to register to get my Daily Biz Boosters.

That's one way that I use the show to grow my email list. You might also notice that throughout some of the episodes, I give calls to action to watch my masterclasses, download my free workbook, my free ebook. That's another way that I use the podcast to grow my email list as well. 

 

You can use your podcast to grow your business as an audience builder. 

Now your podcast alone, isn't going to build your audience, but it is a specific audience that you can build. So for example, the people who are subscribed to my podcast, I consider them to be one of my audiences in the same way that I would consider my Instagram followers to be an audience or my email list to be an audience.

And the content that I share on my podcast is what determines whether somebody is going to hit that subscribe button and join this particular audience. But your podcast itself isn't inherently that discoverable unless you end up in the top charts or a new and noteworthy, it's not going to grow itself.

And that's where you can leverage things like interviewing guests and asking them to share the episode as a way to reach new people. You can use your podcast as a way to demonstrate how good you are when you reach out to other podcasts to be a guest. You can show them, Hey, look, this is what I normally talk about on my show.

And when you are interviewed on other people's podcasts, you can give them that call to action to go and listen to your podcast because that person is already a podcast listener. They're more likely to now go and listen to your podcast than when you are at an event, in person saying to somebody, Hey, I have a podcast, this where you can find it. Sometimes even asking them to open up their podcast app and find your show and then subscribing to it for them. I've done that in the past at events. That's how you can grow that podcast audience, which is an audience you can then nurture in your business. 

 

Use your podcast to grow your business as a new revenue stream.

I am a big fan of having multiple different revenue streams in your business because the more diverse revenue streams that you have, the less risk that there is that you will lose all of your income. If one of those streams dries up, it also makes it easier to create consistent income because you have it coming from multiple different sources.

You're not just relying on one place to drive all of your income. And then if there's no income from that one source, one month, you have nothing at all. ─ So there are a couple of ways you can use a podcast as an income stream. The main one or the most popular one is sponsorships. Sponsorships typically pay on a CPM basis like all other advertising.

So that's cost per 1, 000 impressions. Or in a podcast case, it's going to be per 1, 000 listens. Now, the rates that you get paid per 1, 000 listens, that is going to depend very much on your niche. What typically happens is podcasts with the more niche audience, tend to get paid a little bit more because the sponsors want to reach that really specific audience.

So they'll pay a little bit more because they know that more of the people who are listening to that episode or that podcast are going to be the right person for their product or their service.  

Affiliate income is another way that you can use your podcast to generate revenue.

For example, I am an affiliate for Kajabi, which is a software platform that I use to host all of my online courses.

And I talk about it regularly on this show. And if somebody signs up through my link, then I get a 30% commission for the lifetime that somebody is a user of their platform. And 30% might not seem like a huge amount, but over time, the more people who sign up, I'm getting that recurring monthly commission from all of those people.

It becomes a really nice little revenue stream. I've also seen other podcasts get really creative in how they use the show as a revenue stream. So some of them will do, not just a sponsorship, but almost like a brand partnership where the brand is sponsoring a couple of episodes. They might get an interview on your show.

You might send an email to your list talking about that brand. You might do a social media post. So it's like a whole package rather than just this is the price per 1000 listens.  I've also seen some podcasts charge guests to be interviewed on the show. Now this probably will only work if you have a bigger show, but it's an interesting revenue stream and it's something that you might consider in the future. I don't love it, but it's one that you could potentially implement as well. 

 

Use your show to grow your business in 2024 is as a way to generate client leads.

A podcast is a great way to build this concept of know, like, and trust. To get somebody to know you, like you, and trust you because you are in their ears day in and day out. And for somebody who wants to work with you, they need to know you, like you, and trust you. And by hearing you over and over again, they start to build that connection with you. So give your leads a call to action that moves them into that next step in your sales process.

For example, book a sales call, discovery call, fill out the application form, register for my free webinar, whatever your sales process is for that next offer, give them that call to action and always be thinking about what kind of content a potential client wants to hear or needs to hear to be ready to work with you.

So for example, let's say that you are a copywriter and you're teaching people to write their copy on your podcast. The people who are coming to learn how to write their copy on the podcast are not going to be the same people who invest in you to write their copy for them. The people who invest in the done for you, they don't want to learn how to do it themselves.

So if your free content is telling them how to write your own website copy, and one of the services you sell is writing their website copy for them, the people who value somebody else writing their website copy for them, are not going to be the same ones who are consuming that how to write your own website copy content.

So always be really mindful of what you are putting out there and who you are trying to attract. 

 

Use your podcast to get in front of your dream clients.

I know quite a few podcasters who do this. They use their show as a way to meet their dream clients as a way to get their foot in the door by interviewing them.

So you reach out to them to have them as a guest, interview them on the show, and start to build that relationship. And I wouldn't recommend pitching them straight away and saying, “Hey, would you like to work together” when they've only just got to know you. So starting to nurture that relationship, starting to give them value, starting to support them.

And then when they are ready for that solution, they're ready for somebody to help them to solve the problem that they have. You're then at the top of their mind. 

 

Use your show to grow your business in 2024 as a credibility builder. 

Unlike a blog, a podcast still does have some barriers to entry. You still need to go and buy a microphone. You still need to figure out how to host it. You still need to do all of the different steps to get it out there, create the cover art, etc. So not everyone has the capacity or the desire or the motivation to create one. This means that it does give you a little bit of credibility as somebody willing to put in the work to create a podcast.

The other great thing is that while you can use AI to generate blog posts ─ and social media posts and all of that kind of content, you can't use it to create podcast episodes yet. Well, you can, but they sound really bad. It gives you basically no expression. It's like this flat voice that's just talking in one tone nonstop. It's something that where you're not competing against all of this AI-generated content yet. So having that podcast positions you as somebody who is credible, somebody who is willing to put in a little bit of extra work, who knows about their topic, and you can also share content that makes you more credible.

So stories about how you've worked with clients and helped them to get results, your own story, what qualifies you, what you've learned, all of those things make you more credible as well. 

 

You can use your podcast as a place to share through leadership content. 

So in the online world, there's been such a big trend towards short-form content. We've seen all of the reels and TikTok and the short snippets on Threads and Twitter X, whatever you want to call it. ── That's all short-form content, which is really easy to create, really easy to consume, but it doesn't usually get anybody thinking. Long-form content is a great way to share thought leadership, share your new perspectives, your new ideas, things that will get somebody to think, that's interesting. I hadn't thought about it that way. Yes, you could share this kind of stuff on social media. But if you're writing a long LinkedIn post with your thought leadership content, you don't own that. It's now on LinkedIn's platform and they could close down overnight or they could delete your content. Same with if you're writing a really long Instagram caption. Great. But that's not on your platform now, that's on their platform, whereas you could share it on a platform that you own. That's why I'm a big fan of long-form blogs, podcasts, videos, anything where you can share your content on your own platform. 

 

You can use your podcast as a way to build a connection with your audience. 

I have had so many listeners reach out and tell me, I feel like I know you because I've been listening to your show for this many years and you're always in my ears whenever I'm walking my dog. And I've had listeners turn into friends. So Bec Miller from Health with Bec, she's one of my good friends now. She reached out to me four years ago because she was coming to the city where I live, Brisbane, and she said, can we have dinner? And I was like, great, we absolutely can. She went from a podcast listener, to a client, then she became a friend. So your podcast is a great tool for building that connection with your audience and even building friendships. And when you're in somebody's ears so much, it's almost like you're having that conversation with them. So they do get to know you, like you, and trust you, like I mentioned before. 

 

You can use your podcast as a way to become a better speaker or a better presenter. 

The reason I put off launching a podcast for so long was because I hated how my voice sounded in recordings.

I hated my voice. I hated public speaking. I was not confident. And it's funny because I have so many people tell me like, I want to start a podcast, but I'm not confident like you, Steph. But I wasn't confident either five years ago. I found that through podcasting, I've built that confidence and I've become a better speaker. I've become a much better presenter. I'm much better at organizing my thoughts and articulating them in a way that my listeners and my audience can understand because I've been forced to do it three times a week. Well, not forced to, I forced myself to do it three times a week for the last five and a half years. And it forces me to organize my ideas when I'm outlining my episodes, right? So when I'm sitting there outlining an episode, I have to take all of the muck that is in my brain and put it into a bullet point outline so that it forms some sort of cohesive thought. It's not just me throwing word vomit at you.

That has been so valuable for me because now when my students ask me a question on a Q& A call, or if I'm speaking at an event and somebody asks a question, I can very quickly organize my thoughts. and give them a concise answer rather than just rambling and not really giving them a response at all.

 

You can use your show to grow your business in 2024 is as a networking tool.

When you see somebody online and you're like, that person sounds really cool. I want to be their friend. A great way to meet them is to invite them to be a guest on your show. 

This can be somebody you look up to. This could be somebody you just want to connect with. It can be a great way to build your network and make business friends. Like if you're feeling lonely in your business or you're struggling to make business friends, interview people you want to become friends with.

Honestly, build that connection with them. Even if you don't think you're ever going to work together or collaborate or anything, even if you can't see any way that you guys can serve each other, at the very least, a new friendship is awesome. Running an online business can be so lonely at times and you have to put in a little bit of intentional effort to build those business friends.

And it's funny because now I think about my main friends, most of them have businesses and we've met each other through connecting online.

So you have to put in that intentional effort, but your podcast can be a great way to meet those people. Even if it's just virtual.

 

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