Let me start this Tip Sheet by providing a brief recap of what I do.
Remember those American TV shows of the 70s and 80s which would always begin their episodes with a BIG, BUTCH, AMERICAN VOICE saying…
“Previously on… Days Of Our Lives | Hill Street Blues |DIE-Nasty…”
Well, I won’t be doing that.
I’m John. I’ve built a 30+ years career in the audio media sector, telling stories via broadcast radio, podcasting, at live events and through voice overs.
Now, in addition to all that, I’m also helping businesses and business people harness the power of podcasting, whether that’s to educate, entertain or inform.
That journey starts by knowing what you want to achieve.
Do you want to generate more leads and ultimately revenue?
Do you want to become the trusted authority figure in your sector?
Do you want to keep numerous staff in multiple locations continuously updated with regulatory information or best practice instructions which change at pace?
Whatever the reason, it needs to be defined at the very beginning of the process, and I’ll always sit down with you and do that.
On occasion it may be you decide a podcast isn’t the best way to go when I explain the parameters of what that might entail on your behalf – and that’s OK. Better to have asked the question and subsequently ruled the idea out, than constantly wondering, but never investigating further.
If you do decide to go ahead, some podcasts are more easily constructed than others.
There just appears to be an obvious path to take, which aligns everything required.
- You deliver VALUE for your listener
- You achieve your DESIRED OBJECTIVE
That’s it. It’s that simple.
In order for the podcast to work, each party gets something out of it
So it may be we look at your business, figure out what your customers biggest pain points are, and solve those for them over a number of podcast episodes.
Take the questions you’re asked most, and answer them.
Those types of episode immediately address aspects such as your expertise, knowledge and professionalism, but, in addition, over time also begin to show more of your personal nature too.
By the time your listener’s made the decision to buy from you, they already feel as if they know, like and trust you.
Your podcast has applied the ‘people buy from people’ method and executed it for you, hopefully multiple times.
That’s a slam dunk of a process, BUT, what about the shows which don’t spring to mind as obviously as those?
Where the mechanic of how you’ll communicate with your audience and what your show will actually contain doesn’t appear as straightforward, or, worse still, when you think about it, you realise nobody would really want to listen to something about your type of work?! That’s exactly the area I’m addressing in this Tip Sheet.
My Business Is Boring! Who’d Want To Listen To A Podcast About It?!
First off, and this is the sort of thought side-bar a creative has with themselves – ‘My Business Is Boring’ is a great title for a podcast which has anything to do with drilling – but as I say, that’s a creative aside. Or maybe it’s just the Dad Joke years in me really taking hold.
Staying on track – I take your point.
Not every business is as immediately interesting as the next, or perhaps the nature of your work is….delicate, but if you have a customer base, you’ve obviously managed to attract people to you somehow, and they’ve been intrigued at some stage by what you have to offer.
So here’s the answer.
One of my mentors used to describe it like this:
Don’t sell the sausage, sell the sizzle.
In other words, sometimes the excitement isn’t so much about the product itself as the anticipation of it, or, more widely, the associative behaviour attached to it – what you’ll be doing or where you’ll be when using the product.
I’ve mentioned it above, so let’s make it the obvious example.
It could be Smoked, Cumberland, Bratwurst, Chorizo, Italian, Pork And Apple, Pork And Black Pudding, Beef, Frankfurter….or hundreds of others, including my own particular favourite – The Grange Hill Sausage.
For years, this was the most talked about thing in the opening credits of Grange Hill, but that’s not an example of ‘selling the sizzle’, it’s just nostalgia.
A sausage, when it comes down to it, is meat injected into an artificial skin, which is cut and tied in a knot at one end.
A programme about the manufacturing of a sausage, even for the aficionado, sounds boring, and probably is.
That would be selling the sausage.
But think about the things you associate with a sausage.
A lie-in, lazy weekend breakfasts, family barbecues, or those little ones you buy to cook on the beach in Summer. Hot Dogs at a gig, or a sports event. Maybe even into the winter when you get a sausage bun at a fireworks display.
All of those examples are sizzle. You sell the excitement of the entire package, not the meat-mix waiting to be syringed.
Let’s take this a little more into the real world.
The following are some I’ve come up with by way of example.
If you own and operate a theatre, your podcast is an insight into what’s coming soon. You interview the stars or the producers of the shows coming up and create a ‘behind the scenes’ culture for listeners who feel they’re receiving inside information ordinary customers won’t have.
It’s called ‘From The Inner Circle’
If you own a sports shop. Don’t sell the shoe, sell the smash | jump shot | winning cross court back-hand…..
Each episode, you interview famous sports-people (locally or nationally) about their career. Your customer is interested by virtue of the fact they’ve already perused your website to see if you stock what they’re looking for.
Now, your website also has a click through to a podcast featuring a footballer they like, or a golfer they follow on tour. And if they’re not on your site, they see the poster in your shop, or the reverse of the business card you place in their bag – all of which point to the podcast.
The listener loves hearing the in-depth stories, and by association, you become an authority figure in their mind for knowing your stuff about sport and sporting goods. Next time they’re looking, they’re coming to you.
It’s called ‘Hold The Back Page’.
Were the first couple too easy?
OK, let’s make it tougher.
Let’s do death.
So, you’re a celebrant or undertaker. Business, one assumes is always…steady?
Let’s say though you want to be seen as a more human Humanist, or the company that really does pull out all the stops to make a final farewell memorable and unique. How do you achieve that?
Well, think of it a little bit like Desert Island Discs for your funeral. We’ve created a podcast which asks you while you’re still very much in the land of the living, how you want to push off this mortal coil?
What will the music in the service be? Who’ll play it? The church organist, or are you going to get Elton John in? Hey, it’s your funeral!
Who’ll do your eulogy, or any readings? Ricky Gervais? Spike Milligan? (Again, I know he’s dead, but it doesn’t matter. It’s only a podcast!)
What about pallbearers? Hugh Heffner’s Playboy Bunnies?
The cast of The Magnificent Seven?
The Champions of the 1983 European Cup Winners Cup – Aberdeen FC?
A mix of the three?
Willie Miller, Yul Brinner and 3 women in bunny suits walk into a bar and….
I digress.
My suggestion for that one is that the interviewer asks a different famous guest the same set of questions every episode – all to do with various aspects of the ceremony, and the episodes become known for that.
There’s a podcast which could be joyous, hilarious and hugely popular.
It’s called ‘Thinking Outside The Box’
The last one here is for a company which enables you to research your family tree.
For them, we’re going to put their crack team of historical forensic investigators onto cases which have plagued your family’s dinner table for years. They’re going to look into that story which your family has passed down for generations and insist is TRUE. You know the type of thing – every family has one. My wife’s family maintains actually they should be millionaires because back through the years one of their ancestors created the recipe for Robinson’s Barley Water, BUT, because they sent it in for a competition waived all rights to any earnings which may be subsequently made from it. Even now, it’s trotted out. Every. Single. Wimbledon….But is it true? We asked 100 people to guess, and then followed that up with an actual investigation to discover the answer.
Each week, a case unfolds in the same way with the same type of investigation. Again, a lot of fun, and potentially edge-of-your-seat stuff if told the right way.
And the company associated with that, reaps huge dividends for its professionalism in research.
It’s called ‘Family’s Fortune?’
So, next time you reckon, ‘why would anyone listen to a podcast about my business- it’d be boring’ – maybe consider selling the sizzle not the sausage.
And if you need a little help to think….differently – that’s what part of our discovery call can be about.
John Mellis is a radio and audio professional with over thirty years of experience in those sectors. Today, he operates in a variety of roles as a presenter for Global Media’s Smooth Radio across the UK, a BBC contributor and as a creator and host of multiple podcasts designed to promote the businesses and business owners who commission them. In this weekly Tip Sheet he introduces the concepts and building blocks for designing your own business podcast. You can subscribe to it below, as well as downloading John’s free ebook ‘Pitch Perfect Podcasts’ and sign up for the online course ‘Win Business Podcasting’ which takes you from newbie to nerd at your own pace so you can conceive, record and publish a business podcast of your own. Let’s make great conversation!
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