Why B2B Podcasts Stall on Spotify (and What TikTok Does Better) | Jason Bradwell, Founder of B2B Better and Host of Pipe Dream Podcast

Speaker A: This podcast is brought to you by B2B better. Most B2B podcasts rack up downloads, but they never move the needle on Pipeline. At B2B better, we build own media systems that sales teams actually use to close deals. We've helped companies turn their podcasts into revenue engines, shortening sales cycles, improving outbound reply rates, and directly influencing millions in pipeline. So if you're tired of content that looks good on paper but doesn't drive business results, visit b2b-better.com to see how we do it differently. Hey everyone, welcome to this episode of Pipedream. And like yesterday, we are taking a question from our audience. Uh, and a reminder if you have any questions on what it means to invest in a audience led marketing strategy and uh, turn your point of view into pipeline, you can send us questions in the uh, to the address that we are dropping in the show notes of this episode. Or of course you can just connect with me on LinkedIn and share it there. Um, so uh, question from our uh, listener is I think we used to think of podcasts as long form audio shows. Increasingly the rise of short form media has now meant that podcasts are often consumed in brief video segments across things like Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube shorts. In your view, do B2B podcasts need to be built with those spaces in mind or are they fundamentally consumed in different ways? Yes, it's a great question. Um, I think it touches on a couple of important points. So the word podcast I um, think is going through a bit of a kind of shift in understanding. Five years ago when you talked about podcasts, what you were typically talking about were audio only, long form, um, kind of you know, narrative or interview based driven content that largely if you were delivering them as a brand, like a corporate brand, existed to service your top of funnel. Right. Build brand awareness. Today we live in a world where actually the definition of the word podcast can change depending on who it is that you are speaking, speaking to. Right? And where it is changing into, I think for the majority of people is when we're talking about podcasts, what we're actually talking about is editorialized serialized kind of rich media thought leadership, which is a bit of a mouthful but you know, unpack that often video based, um, uh, often kind of repurpose and cut up into different formats, um, and often expected to not be consumed in its whole right for you know, a 60 minute episode being watched, uh, or listened to from start to finish. But actually um, that the, with the right strategic repurposing you know, output of that podcast, be they clips, be they blog posts, be they emails, you know, be they long form, whatever, you know, uh, every moment, every touch point, um, counts towards the overall consumption of the podcast. How we think about it here at B2B better is that these platforms that are emerging, um, and increasingly take up uh, mindshare in the daily lives of B2B buyers, TikTok, YouTube shorts, Instagram, et cetera, are really fertile ground to expose your content to new and different audiences. Um, and in fact without them, your podcast will, or your show will uh, experience slow and perhaps even stunted growth. Why, um, if you are approaching your podcast as an audio only, um, entity, while there is value in that, um, what we have found is that brands need to work 10 times harder in order to get that podcast in front of their prospective clients. Um, because Apple and Spotify, um, unless you can develop partnerships with them as a platform or you invest heavily in I guess like earned media, podcast partnerships, um, guests placements, et cetera, um, they don't have great organic discovery. It is hard to surface a new podcast, uh, into Spotify and Apple purely um, on organic, unlike YouTube shorts, TikTok and Instagram, um, where particularly with YouTube shorts and TikTok, we consider them, you know, the Facebook of 10 to 15 years ago. When it comes to organic discovery, you can see, and we do see brands with next to no following on those platforms placing clips and seeing them get hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of views purely from organic. The um, algorithm works much better in your favor, um, on those platforms. And so you need to be thinking about how can you cut and turn your podcast, um, into assets that are usable, uh, in those locations. However, um, I feel like I've said however a couple of times here, you know, it's not enough to just have a 60 minute long form interview and allow AI to cherry pick, uh, moments for you, um, from a, what is otherwise kind of random conversation between two or three individuals. Um, the process of cutting clips for YouTube shorts, Instagram and TikTok starts way back in the scripting process. Way before we ever sit down and actually record anything with a guest. You need to, as part of your scripting process be thinking strategically and editorially about, well, what kind of sound bites, what kind of social clips do we feel will resonate on these platforms on YouTube shorts, Instagram and TikTok, and then how do we script questions to ensure that we are maximizing our chances of getting those sound bites when it comes to the post production process. This can even Extend into the interview itself. You know, when you've scripted a question that you already know, you are going to be cutting into a social clip. If that question is asked and the guest is maybe looking around the room or they stutter, um, or they kind of get to an answer, but in a roundabout way. It's your job as the brand, as the producer of the show to, you know, either stop the interview at that point, or at the end of the interview, make the guest or the host give that answer again. Give them the instruction, hey, what you said there was really interesting. We want to turn that into a clip. What you said in three minutes, I need you to condense down to 45 seconds. Just give us. Give us that sound bite. And so you need to work harder, you know, rather than just relying on, you know, fixing it in post or AI to kind of magically give you the clips that may or may not exist when you get to the final edit. So to sum up, you know, should we be thinking about YouTube shorts, Instagram and TikTok as distribution channels? Absolutely. The organic discovery alone, um, uh, and exposing your podcast to new audiences on those platforms is worth it. Um, and second, don't leave it to fate for these clips to emerge out of your podcast recordings. Script them in advance, brief the guest and the host exactly what it is that you are looking for and that you are turning into clips. And, you know, hold them to that, stop them, make them rerecord, uh, because the content at the end is too valuable to waste. All right, so that's it for this episode of Pipedream. If you have any questions about how to turn your point of view into pipeline or how to build an effective podcast, we'd love to hear them. You can connect with me on LinkedIn, Jason Bradwell, or send me an email at jason2b-better.com and we'll answer it on a future episode of Pipe Dream. All, uh, right, until next time. See you then. Bye.