Pod Like a Pro: Episode 7

Pod like a Pro – Episode Seven

Private, Internal and Premium Podcasts

Sparky 0:22

This is Pod Like A Pro, the podcast that will hopefully teach you how to podcast like a professional. Does exactly what it says on the tin. And on this week's Pod Like A Pro episode we will be covering private podcasts. It's me Sparky and of course with me every week, the chief exec the MD, the man in charge of Sound Rebel. It's Ben Anderson.

Ben Anderson 0:45

I mean, official title is Director but I love that every week I've got a new one. Like, my business card’s gonna be really, really long by the end of this series, which I love!

Sparky 0:51

Giving out Q4 sheets of paper as your business cards just so you get all the names on there, Ben!

Ben Anderson 0:58

My name is Ben and yes, I run Sound Rebel. My background is in the radio industry, UK radio industry as a producer of breakfast shows and then a managing editor for three big commercial radio stations in the Northwest and North Wales. But yeah, I've been doing podcasts now for years. And it's interesting this because we're talking about private podcast today. But you may have also heard the term premium podcasts, paywall podcasts, internal podcasts, they all pretty much do the same thing. But essentially today we're talking about how people are using audio in a different way. It's not all about putting something on Apple Podcast, Google, Spotify, Amazon Music and letting the world hear it. Sometimes people are using audio more privately for lots of different reasons. And that's what we're going to cover today.

Sparky 1:47

Yeah, podcasting is more than just talking to people about, I dunno, your protein diet, or, you know, the latest murder mystery that's been unsolved for years. It's a business tool. And I feel like by the end of this episode, you're going to find out exactly how you can use podcasting in other ways.

Ben Anderson 2:05

Yeah well, it is businesses that use private, premium, paywall, internal podcasts, because they're either a way to make money from your audio, for example, with a premium podcast, it might be behind the paywall listeners who subscribe to your normal show have to pay extra to hear the additional bits, or it can be used to improve your processes. So I've got clients who use them to improve their communications, I've got clients who use them to improve their sales processes. So this isn't for the kind of everyday podcaster. This is for people who are looking to… it's for businesses, either who are wanting to directly make more cash from their audio, or as I said, improve the processes. I'm just waffling on now. Okay, exactly the same thing in different words Sparky!

Sparky 2:48

So let's get into it, then Ben. I mean, that's fine. And the power of podcasting is that we can edit that out if we want to, but if it sounds good we can leave it! And that's podcasting!

Ben Anderson 2:59

So let's start off them by talking about using podcasts to directly make you money from subscribers. There's a number of ways that you can do this. So recently, Apple have brought out and Spotify have brought out a way for you to monetize your audience through their platforms. So you can produce essentially extra episodes, people pay for those extra episodes. It could be for example, we've done it before where we had a show called Dilemmas, which is the main show is a girl called Jess talking to her celebrity mates about people's real life problems. The little extra bit that we gave people was her boyfriend, Michael was very, very funny. And he would listen back to the episode and then do a Michael reviews episode. And it just be Jess and Michael having a chat about the main episode that everybody's heard. It's that little behind the scenes insight into Jess’s life more - Jess is an actress, well known from a big Channel Four soap - and just hearing her in a lounge talking about some of the issues that were raised with Michael, it was lovely, because you're almost doing the show again. But Michael, this time is offering his opinion on the dilemmas that were discussed. I didn't agree with you there just when you said that because of this, this, this and this. So it's the same concept but you’re just kind of re-skinning it, I suppose, for a premium audience.

But we're also doing it in the moment with Over the Influence, our alcohol free podcast, because we're launching a full online community. In fact, by the time this podcast is out, it should be launched. But essentially what we're offering we're asking people to pay 19.99 a month to join our community. They get all of these kinds of benefits. It's basically like a social media site within Over the Influence or kind of an alcohol free social media platform that people can connect join groups, talk to each other, all that kind of stuff support each other on their journeys, but we're also offering a load of additional content with it. So we're gonna be doing weekly Zoom sessions with different guests on there, and people can watch along live or they can watch it back. But we're also doing premium podcasts. So the main show, the free show comes out every Monday. And that is essentially a format where we talk to a guest about their alcohol-free journey. Sometimes it's an author, sometimes it's a big Instagrammer. Sometimes it's a normal person who's part of our community. But essentially, it's digging into those kinds of life story side of things. Every Thursday, we'll be releasing a premium podcast that only our community members can hear. And because they are members of our community, they're paying, they're obviously very serious about alcohol free life. That's where we're going to use it more of a kind of magazine format show where me, Freddie and Sharon who present the podcast, talk about the kind of weekly issues that come up around alcohol free life. So for example, let's say there's a new story that's come out about people drinking more as a result of X, Y, Z, we'll talk about that, we'll use it as a place to celebrate some of our community members, it will be more of a kind of, as I say, magazine format. So we'll talk a bit about this a bit about that a bit about something else, but it's additional content for people who love the podcast, they can get even more from us, because they are paying to be members of the Over the Influence community, you'll hear a lot of podcasters talking about, “subscribe to our Patreon” and Patreon is essentially a platform there's a few different versions of this, but Patreon is the big one, where as soon as people subscribe and pay their three pounds, three dollars, whatever it is a month, they're gonna get to access all that additional content. And it works really nicely because people who are massive fans of you want more, you know, they love what you produce already. They'll pay to hear more of it either it's kind of just more of the same or it's as I said, it's like kind of behind the scenes or a slight tweak on the format.

Sparky 6:37

Yeah, it's that bit extra and it's that, you know, that spending a bit of time, I don’t know, getting to know the presenters more. Like this is on an entertainment based version for sure Ben like that. That's definitely what people want to pay the premium price for.

Ben Anderson 6:51

Yeah, it's like people who watch the Bake Off there are millions of people who watch the Bake Off There are loads of people who watch Extra Slice - whatever it's called, I'm not a Bake Off fan but someone was talking about it the other day!

Sparky 7:01

Come on Ben! We know you love Mary Berry, the old Paul Hollywood of Sound Rebel over here!

Ben Anderson 7:07

But Extra Slice won't bring in the same amount of viewers as the main Bake Off show but they're the real hardcore fans of it. You know, like Big Brother’s Little Brother or Big Brother's Bit On The Side or whatever it is… everyone knows these kind of things!

Sparky 7:16

Go on you want to mention the Strictly Come Dancing one because I know you do. Like “Keeeep Dancing!” or whatever it is.

Ben Anderson 7:23

“It Takes Two.” It does take two!

Sparky 7:25

Sorry! You know the name so clearly he is a fan! But it makes perfect sense. What you say is that's a targetable audience those die-hards are the ones that are more likely to part with money for your podcast.

Ben Anderson 7:37

Yeah. And Zoe Ball on It Takes Two - I actually don't watch Strictly Come Dancing but I’m just aware – it’s a cultural phenomenon! But you know, she's not, it's not the main show. But that's what people want. They want that kind of commentary, they want that insight, they want the kind of “oh, this is how the training has gone” and actually what they thought about it. And that they get all of that from the Extra Slice, the It Takes Two, the Bit On The Side. It's exactly the same concept for your podcast, what's that extra bit that you can give, that people will pay for? The great thing about this, if you can get it right, is that you're producing one lot of content. But then all you got to do is focus on building your subscriber numbers. If you've got 10,000 people paying five pound a month, for your extra content, suddenly, things are looking really great. So it is - you've got to establish the main show first, you can't just launch something and then launch the extra slice straightaway, you've got to establish that this is a show that people want to listen to, you've got to then educate that audience to say to them “Look, you love what we do here, we're now doing an extra bit, would you like to pay for it?” But if you get it right, it can work really, really nicely.

Sparky 8:47

There are some podcasts making like hundreds of thousands of pounds, like you know, and yeah, it's a fantastic market, if you can open it up. So I mean, Ben is going to tell us by the end of this episode, exactly how we can tap into those hundreds of thousands of pounds, right?

Ben Anderson 9:03

Well, it's, I think people will put their hand in their pocket, if they really like something if they really feel that they're getting value from something. It's not just entertainment, you know, Over the Influence, for example, that is we're giving in the premium podcasts, we're giving people really good tips, really good information, really good education, on how to stay alcohol free. And that's worth it for them. You know, as long as you're producing content, that's great. People will put their hand in the pocket to support something that they feel like they get value from.

Sparky 9:31

Yeah, definitely. And I mean, really, for the cost of, you know, a crate of beers, you know, which you were invested in before, if you were drinking alcohol, you know, that money is better spent on the education of joining the, you know, the alcohol free community, Ben? So I mean, that works for me. So that's why I mean, for the Over the Influence model is a really good actually a really good example of how you can unlock that premium content.

Ben Anderson 9:57

And we're, we're working with clients on exactly that, you know, Over the Influence is a some new idea. You know, there's not that many, there's a lot of podcasters out there who are giving people extra audio and asked them to subscribe to Patreon. There are very few that are building proper big online communities like we're doing for Over the Influence. But we're now starting to work with clients with that exact thing in mind. Let's produce your show. Let's see how it goes. And then is there a community model here? Is this something extra that we can do, we can produce you the extra content, we can produce your Extra Slice for you, we can help with the production, we can help with the idea we can help with the format. It's a nice way of looking at it. And not many people are thinking that way at the moment. So yeah, that is premium slash paywall podcasts, how do people make money from extra audio? If you've got any more questions on it, just email me, Ben at sound rebel.co.uk.

Sparky 10:58

There's a few great examples there of how you can make money from premium content. But you know, you also saved from this episode when we can learn about how businesses can use the power of podcast to, you know, to hit an untapped part of their audience or to be more direct with an audience that they've already captured.

Ben Anderson 11:15

Yes, so this is, I suppose, it does fall under the private podcast banner. But it's businesses who are using podcasts to improve their processes. And I've got a couple of different examples for this. So audio podcasts, you can access them anywhere at any time. One of the other great things about podcasting that we've covered many times during this show, is that the way that people listen to podcasts they consume them when they're walking when they're running when they're in the car. So I've worked with clients on creating audio to engage their key stakeholders in their businesses. So sometimes that will be you know, clients who they want to give more information to, to kind of give them more content to improve what they do and show that they are providing value to their current clients. Sometimes it will be that actually their employees, they want to improve their internal communications with their employees.

One of the great things about podcasts, for example, versus let's say, all staff emails is that you can hear the person sending you that giving you that information. You can hear their intonation, you can hear their tone, their delivery, it's not just a cold email that can be taken in 25 different ways. 25 Different people reading it, it gives that kind of warmth, that gives that personality to the information that you can't get from a cold email. So for example, we worked with a student home company on an internal podcast, the idea being that they have a head office, where they kind of got the core staff, but obviously, they've got sites in every city across the UK, student homes accommodation sites. And in each one of those, they've got a property manager. So they wanted to produce a podcast is still a relatively new business, they've done incredibly well, but still a relatively new business. They wanted to feature their top brass. So the management team that people that employees only usually see the names of on emails or whatever they want it to feature them, first of all, giving the kind of backstory, the business and why they started it. But then giving more information on where it's going. The idea being that they're sending this information out to everybody, they can access it whenever they want to, you know, podcast is available anytime they just log on to the website, adding the normal password and company login information stuff. And then they can listen to it when it suits them. And for them, it was great because it did exactly what we wanted it to - it gave people an insight into the people who were making the decisions, people who affect their livelihoods on a day-to-day basis.

The audience gets to know them better, and it helps to build loyalty. We all know what it's like having a boss who sends instructions, but then actually you never see them. Hear them. They're just literally instructions sent from on high. Sometimes you agree with them. Sometimes you don't! Having the ability to - because it's not live of course isn't that's one of the great things about it, people can listen to it as and when they want to. But you still achieve that kind of one-on-one feel with whoever's listening. 90% of people listen to podcasts on their own. It's a personal experience. So, if your business has the aim, for example, which many businesses do, where they go, “actually, we're really good at working with our clients, we produce a really good product, we provide a really good service, but actually, we're not doing so well on the kind of employee engagement side of things,” then maybe it's worth thinking about podcast.

Sparky 14:46

You know what I feel like though, the one thing that you said in that which really stands out to me is I'm not good at reading a long email that comes through or you know, like a load of instructions or, you know, there's often weekly update emails that get sent around a lot of businesses if that was was a podcast and it was audio, audio, you could listen to it on the drive home at the end of your week or things like that. It just makes that for me. The communication with your with the person and like you say, the person who's reading it and hearing it, you know. There’s often emails that go around giving people a pat on the back in the company, but if you can actually hear the cheer in your boss's voice when he saying “and here's…” so you know, that that really brings, it really makes an email way more exciting. And it's a real, it's a much better way of engaging with your people.

Ben Anderson 15:29

And obviously, it's all produced as normal. You know, we did exactly what we do with a podcast that's going out there on Apple, Spotify, Google, you get all your music, you get your voiceovers, you get the editing. It’s slick, it sounds great, y’know, you get all of that. And obviously, clients can approve it before it goes out. I think the other thing to say here, which is an important one is that obviously some information is confidential in these things, there's a couple of ways that you can distribute a private podcast, either, you can give people what's called the RSS feed, which is what all podcasts work off, they can add that into their podcast app, and they can download and basically, just as they would with any normal podcast subscription, when a new episode drops, it will drop into their podcast app. What I would say about that is that you can't keep it completely confidential. Just like somebody can screenshot an email, and send that on, you know, people can take the RSS feed link, they can copy and paste it and send it on to somebody. So if you're, basically if you're doing confidential information, then don't distribute it like that. If you're going to do a podcast, a private podcast that does contain information like that, host it on your website, wherever you'd usually put kind of employee communications, host it there. We've got clients who password protect it. So they know exactly who's logged in, exactly who's listened to it, when they've listened to it. So I just to make the point that just because they're called private podcasts, if you're going to distribute the RSS feed for them, so that people can listen within their podcast apps, it doesn't mean that only that person can listen, that link can be shared. So just a little kind of note of warning there.

Sparky 17:06

Yeah. I mean, that's it. So I guess that's why a lot of people host things on their gateway as well. Isn't it like your work gateway, you've only got access to that, employees can only have access to that. So okay, yeah. keeping it safe. But honestly, the screenshot of the email though, Ben, I mean, that does happen, that does happen it!

Ben Anderson 17:22

It does. Yeah. I've had one this week from somebody who is rather disgruntled and wanted some advice, but it's funny, isn't it? Because I read the email. And I basically said to them, I think you've taken that the wrong way. And isn't that funny?

Sparky 17:39

Proving your point though, exactly right there though Ben. You know, a million things written down. But that's the problem. Like, I feel like you've got like to stop saying this on a podcast. Like, I mean, I suppose you are trying to make a business out of it. But this is a, this is a business idea. Because you’re right!

Ben Anderson 17:53

I mean, we are we know it's not trying we are successfully producing podcasts!

Sparky 17:58

Let's go. Let's just pause here and let's go to the Dragon's Den, mate, I think we need to Peter Jones will be into this.

Ben Anderson 18:06

Yeah, it's a I think the reason I'm really glad we're talking about it is because it's not something that people think about, straightaway when they think about podcasts. Podcasts have been around for 20 years, but it really is now emerging as a really solid form of communication. And there's so many benefits to it that you don't realise until you get into it. And you know, with a private podcast, you can take it anywhere. You can have your main presenter, let's say it's your head of comms, who is giving the weekly company update. But then you can edit invoice notes that the company or, you know someone in the office in Birmingham can give a quick update by recording a voice to into their phone and sending it in. It's not just about hearing one person you can make it whatever you want to make it you can feature an episode of this this is every Friday, we send out well done email to celebrate things that people have done in the business this week. Well, instead, do it! Get them on Zoom. Get the moment capture the moment where you call them up and say “you’re employee of the week and a bottle of champagne is on its way to you”, “Oh God thanks so much! Great!”, you know you can make them whatever you want to make them it just it's such a flexible way of getting this information out there and it's cool and they're gonna boom they're gonna…

Sparky 19:16

So more powerful then like then an email so much - because I mean, we know exactly these emails you're talking about which sometimes will stay in my inbox unread but maybe you're excited every week to listen to your work podcast this work private podcast, they're here if you get a mention this week, like that is actually a - that's fantastic.

Ben Anderson 19:34

I'm glad you like it Sparks! Let's get a few flogged!

Sparky 19:36

Well, hopefully, mate. I mean, honestly been I've given the optimism so now people here in this will be like “yeah, okay, I feel like Sparky is into the idea, let’s make money! I’m in!”

Ben Anderson 19:52

But also, let's talk about the sales side of it too. So, again, just ways that you can use audio that you wouldn't necessarily think about straightaway. We produced a private podcast for a residential surveying business in Birmingham. The idea was that they spent a lot of time on the phone answering the same questions. They offer a number of different surveys, depending on how old your property is, what type of property is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it takes about 10 minutes to run through it all on the phone. We created a private podcast for them, where it was a first-time buyer, talking to the boss of the company. And asking the questions that all first-time buyers ask, “what survey do I need? Why do I need that type? Do I really need to spend that money on this?” Long story short, what they do now is if a first time buyer calls them up they say, “Look, let me stop you there, go to our website, have a listen to this podcast. And give me a call after you've listened to it because it's full of information, I think you'll find really useful.” They go away, they listened to it, they come back, I want option two, it cuts out that time they're spending on the phone. They've basically educated themselves through the information that you provide them with. They feel confident that you're the company to go with because you've given them this information. They've heard the person who's the boss of the company speaking directly. They know, they feel as if, they feel grateful that this information has been provided.

It's called, I call it the limoncello effect. And this is a really silly story. We went on a cruise years ago, and you'd go on, you know, you get off and you go round Rome, and you get off and go around Pompeii, or whatever else. You’d tip the tour guide at the end, most of them are getting kind of 10-20 euros, one of the tour guides, I think it was in Pompeii, just before about 10 minutes before the bus was getting back to the – I was about to say “the ferry” it wasn't a ferry, it was a really nice, a very nice cruise ship! He went round. And he gave everybody who wanted one a little glass of limoncello, just to say thanks for coming on the tour. But because he had given them something, the psychology of that if someone gives you something, you want to give them something back. So he was bringing in 40-50 euros from every person that bought the limit cello and it cost him… what? 15? If that!

Sparky 22:10

Hey man! Oh, six euros! I mean, if you know the right shops Ben!

Ben Anderson 22:15

It's exactly the same concept with this. It’s that somebody who is nervous and scared about buying a house, which is a lot of people!

Sparky 22:22

Which is a lot of people! It’s really daunting that first step. And I always think about the first time I went for a mortgage meeting now. Terrifying, it was!

Ben Anderson 22:30

Yeah, and the costs rack up as well. So for a company to go “look here you go, here's all the information you need. There's a person just like you asking the boss of our company, the questions that you probably want to ask us. Of course, if you've got any more off the back of it, ask us on the phone, that's fine.” But you're giving them that kind of basis of information where they don't just go, that's really useful. I know exactly what survey I want. Now they go, that's really useful. I know exactly what survey I want now, and you're the company I'm definitely going to go with because you gave me that information where other companies just sent me an email. Yeah, you want I mean, so…

Sparky 23:02

That makes perfect sense. And it cuts down time, though, as well, because that's it, there will be the same old questions over and over again, that they're spending a lot of time answering to these clients. We'll give them all those answers in a podcast first, and you are, the work you're cutting out, which is always something I know managers and company directors are keen to cut down that workload. So you're working on… right?

Ben Anderson 23:26

I mean, this podcast is an example of it as well, this will be available. This is available, because you're listening on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon Music everywhere. People can discover this podcast. But actually wasn't the main thrust behind producing it. I realised that I was sending out all these PDF sales decks to people. “This is why you should have a podcast. This is what's great about podcasting. Here's all the benefits. Here's how we do it.” ….Why am I doing that? We're an audio company! So this podcast, Pod Like A Pro, different episodes are going to be sent to different people at different parts of that sales process. So you might be listening to this, because I've sent it to you to go you know what you guys should really consider a private podcast, have a listen to this, and it explains everything. Why not? Rather than a sales deck, why not produce a pod deck instead? There's so many different things.

Sparky 24:17

And as you say, I've got a lot more time to listen to things whilst I could be doing something else almost paying attention to the podcast, rather than having to sit down and give my full attention to a PDF document, which is never the most exciting thing that arrives in your inbox.

Ben Anderson 24:30

Yeah. And hopefully you listen to this and go you know what, I like that, Sparky. I like that. Ben, these guys are obviously a nice company know what they're doing? Yeah, cool. I'm gonna use them. Yeah, it's like, there's so many different ways that you can use audio. It's not just about putting a show out there or a podcast out there. I always say to clients it’s about engagement overreach with podcasts. It's about talking to the right people and asking the right people to do what you want them to do next. Who cares if you've got 100,000 listeners, if not one of them engages with you, not one of them does anything off the back of listening. It's much better to have 1000 who all do it.

Sparky 25:19

There are people you know, even I'm learning whilst listening and working on these podcasts with you. And I think, you know, this is a new door, which company directors, marketing experts can open and use to make their companies better. So it's great information. And yeah, I love hearing you.

Ben Anderson 25:40

Well, if it sounds like it’s up your street, get in touch Ben@soundrebel.co.uk We'd love to speak to you. We love working on all this kind of stuff, obviously, because we're a podcast production company, but I mean new ideas, we love new ideas. We love trying things out. We love giving things a go. Get in touch.

Sparky 25:55

So look, there's another episode of Pod Like A Pro for you. Thanks so much for listening. Remember, you can subscribe on your podcast app. Or you can get on the mailing list by emailing ben@soundrebel.co.uk.