Developing a marketing strategy entails a lot of thought and planning. In fact, you might have already tried multiple techniques to approach your target audience: blog posts, ad campaigns, social media, etcetera. But, is there anything else you can do to reach them? If you're looking for new ways to promote your business, podcasting may be the answer.
Numerous industries have thrived thanks to podcasting. And many SaaS businesses are a great example of that. So, if you want to engage your audience in a new way and boost your brand, this post is for you.
Today, we’ll explain the benefits of podcasting and introduce you to four brands that thrived with podcast marketing:
- Basecamp
- ZipRecruiter
- Shopify
- Slack
Ready? Let’s go.
The Benefits of Podcasting for SaaS Companies
The SaaS ecosystem demands value-centric and resource-intensive marketing techniques. Why so? Explaining your differential can often feel like a titanic task, especially since most people don’t want to see ads, but valuable content.
Users are notably reticent to online ads. In fact, the usage of ad blockers has been increasing steadily for years. So, most SaaS marketers have long adopted content marketing as the core of their strategy. Estimates vary, with some estimating content marketing adoption rates of up to 80% among B2B marketers.
In this crowded and competitive landscape, podcasting can be a key differentiator. Podcast marketing can be great for getting closer to your audience.
Curious about how podcasting can elevate your content marketing efforts? Check out our podcast marketing guide for beginners.
Success Cases
At this point, you may be asking yourself how to start a business podcast and how to design a podcast marketing strategy.
Below are some success stories that will inspire you and show you the power of podcasting for SaaS companies.
Let’s dive in!
Basecamp
Basecamp is a SaaS company that provides tools for remote workers. Having bootstrapped its way to $100B in revenue, this company is known for its level-headed approach to growth.
The company's first podcast, The Distance, was launched in 2014 and ran for three years. In it, they interviewed creators of long-standing businesses (25 years and up). The episodes were short and full of emotion, that way, the brand could engage with its audience by inspiring them.
The story of their current podcast traces back to a New York Times bestseller: Rework. In it, the creators of Basecamp, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson advocated doing less as one of the key tenets of their work philosophy. That mix of efficiency and work-life balance is the same principle of the company's product.
Many years (and much growth) later, both founders noticed that the book’s topics were still relevant, as many people still contacted them with comments and questions about them. Therefore, they decided to turn their book into a podcast by the same name: Rework.
This company went for a risky podcasting style. The Rework Podcast's main topic is not Basecamp's services, but its founders’ disruptive thinking.
Was podcasting worth it for the brand? Yes, considering that the goal is to build long-term personal relationships that turn into loyal customers.
Rework has:
- An average rating of 4.7 stars on Apple Podcasts
- 6.1k backlinks pointing to its podcast website
It’s estimated that Basecamp gains approximately 5k-6k users per week. And its disruptive marketing efforts are part of the reason why.
ZipRecruiter
ZipRecruiter is a platform dedicated to connecting job seekers with employers. The platform offers Big Data selection features that fit the scale of your business. If you are a small company, you are offered a small number of direct matches through automatic resume processing. If you are in charge of recruiting for a large company, the platform will arrange a strategy with your company to manage the millions of candidates applying for your offers.
This company bets very heavily on their podcast, but usually as a sponsor rather than as a producer. In fact, in 2019, it was the B2B company that bought the most podcasting advertising.
ZipRecruiter's strategy is all about exposure.
In August 2022, this brand appeared in 133 podcasts and the top sponsored genre was Comedy.
ZipRecruiter also adopts a very direct copywriting style for their ads. While Oracle only mentions its brand once in 52 seconds, ZipRecruiter mentions it 12 times in 87 seconds.
Its debut as a producer was the creation of Rise and Grind, in 2018, hosted by best-seller Daymond John.
This debut was a bold change in ZipRecruiter's podcasting marketing strategy. Now, they won’t just appear on another's shows, but will also be part of a podcast’s creative process. The content is in line with the brand because it’s about hard work and self-improvement, the two pillars of any job search. Also, in episode 6, the host interviewed ZipRecruiter's founder and CEO, Ian Siegel.
This podcast has two types of episodes:
- Inspirational and motivational ones, lasting a few minutes.
- Interviews with high-performance entrepreneurs, lasting about an hour.
Currently, ZipRecruiter is a well-known public company. As proof of the positive results of their podcasting strategy, we can highlight the fact that they continue to double down when it comes to investing in this format.
Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce platform for small and large businesses. In fact, it’s one of the most prominent players in its industry.
They’re currently producing a show called Masters of Shopify. This podcast is all about starting and growing an online business. Its main focus is"Actionable Strategies and Ecommerce Marketing Advice", and its hosts are experts in the field.
Considering that Shopify’s users are online retailers, Masters of Shopify is a powerful platform to build customer loyalty. In fact, thanks to Masters of Shopify, users will link Shopify’s advice with a direct improvement in their business. This virtuous cycle is the foundation of content marketing. And Shopify has used podcasting to make it possible.
Slack
Slack is a communication tool for teams. It’s one of the leaders in its field and it’s quite popular among companies that work remotely. It’s also integrated with dozens of popular tools, including Google Drive and MailChimp. In fact, their mission is to be their users’ "digital headquarters".
Slack approaches podcasting in a subtle way. Its podcast, Variety Pack was designed to offer a "warm-up" to the company's ethos before inviting a potential customer to sign up. The podcast’s theme is to explore the world of work.
What were the benefits of starting a podcast for Slack? In 2016, the company had an average of 40,000 listeners per podcast episode. This contributed to explosive business growth.
In its first four years, Slack reached 4M daily active users, including high-profile clients, such as IBM and LinkedIn. On the other hand, this show became the gold standard of branded podcasting.
Key Takeaways
As you already noticed, each company that makes a strong bet on podcasting takes a different route. What does this mean?
We can conclude that:
- There are many potential approaches to podcasting
- Podcasting is an adaptable format
- Podcasting has an excellent cost-benefit ratio
Your SaaS can be part of the new wave of B2B podcasting. And what better way to reach a large audience than turning your episodes’ best moments into engaging podcast videos? With Audiotease, you can create professional audiograms in minutes, from your browser. No expensive software or editing experience needed. Try Audiotease today and supercharge your podcast marketing.