Jan. 25, 2022

The #1 Reason Why You Need a Podcast

The #1 Reason Why You Need a Podcast

This week, we’re going way deeper than just how to start a podcast, we’re also uncovering how your show can make money! If you’re ready to discover how your podcast (no matter how new!) could become a consistent source of revenue, swipe these actionable marketing ideas on podcast monetization.

What could podcast monetization mean for your business?

If you’re ready to discover how your podcast (no matter how new!) could become a consistent source of revenue, grab a pen and get ready to swipe these actionable marketing ideas.

This week, we’re going way deeper than just how to start a podcast, we’re also uncovering how your show can actually make money for your business!

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL LEARN: 

  • 3 simple marketing ideas for podcast monetization — without paid advertising or sponsors
  • The #1 way a podcast can create a steady stream of incoming revenue (even if you just launched your show)
  • Why all coaches, course creators, and service providers should learn how to start a podcast this year

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Transcript

Courtney Elmer 0:00  

Welcome back my favorite listener. This is the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ Podcast. It's episode 106. And over the past couple of episodes, we've been focusing on why starting a podcast is such a smart move when it comes to your marketing system. And if you've tuned into those episodes, and you've already learned why starting a podcast can give you instant credibility, so you can finally experience what it's like to be seen as a leader in your niche, and how starting a podcast can save you time on marketing. So you spend less time on social media, and you can reinvest that time back into your business.

Courtney Elmer

Now in this episode, we're talking about how if you're a course creator, or a coach or a service provider, starting a podcast can create a steady stream of incoming revenue into your business. Even without sponsored episodes, or advertisements. Those are just icing on the cake. So if you want to find out how starting a podcast can help you hit your revenue goals this year, keep listening. 

[INTRO TRACK]

Courtney Elmer

So when people come to me to start a podcast, they want to start a podcast for a lot of reasons. They want to be seen as a leader in their niche, they want to reach a wider audience with their message they want to get in front of more people, they're tired, they're frustrated with social media, and with email marketing. And with all of the other marketing tactics out there that they've tried that haven't worked for them. But deeper than all of that one of the unspoken questions in everybody's mind when starting a podcast is, can I make money from this?

Courtney Elmer

My reason for starting a podcast was connection for you. Maybe it's to get in front of more people or to use your voice or to teach because you're good at teaching, or to speak because you want to become a better speaker. But if you're a business owner, chances are, you're smart. You only want to invest your time where it yields you some sort of return. And that return has to be worth the time you invest. Because I will tell you that no one gets into starting a podcast to fill their time with one more thing to do. There is always a deeper ulterior motive. And for many business owners, that motive is money. And that's a good thing. 

Courtney Elmer

Because starting a podcast can absolutely be a profitable source of revenue for you when you have three key elements in place. Now, at the time of this recording, I am hosting a live training later this week where I am going to teach you what these three elements are. And whether or not starting a podcast is a next right move for you in your business. So if you are catching this episode, you can register for that training in time right now at The AntiFragile Entrepreneurship Podcast workshop theeffortlesslife.co/podcastworkshop

Courtney Elmer

And if for some reason you have listened to this after that workshop has ended, you can still go to that link and get the details on how to access the replay. So let's talk starting a podcast and podcast monetization. How does it work? Can you really make good money from starting a podcast? The answer to that is yes, you can and you don't necessarily need big sponsors to do it either, though, those will certainly be a bonus for you down the road. So as you're listening to my voice right now, here's what I want you to keep in the back of your mind. If you're a coach, if you're a course creator, if you're a service provider, it follows that you need sales to keep the doors open to your business. Without sales you don't have a business.

Courtney Elmer 4:15  

Obviously the primary goal for coaches and course creators or service providers is to sell more coaching packages or more courses or more services. Now the problem with selling is that in order to sell you first need leads. And the problem with lead generation is that quality leads can be really hard to come by, especially in this day and age. Right now you might be relying on word of mouth referrals, or live product launches, or complicated sales funnels or hosting webinars or sales calls or a combination of any or all of these strategies. 

Courtney Elmer

In addition to marketing yourself on social media, or trying to grow an email list and keep them warm or manage a team and do all the other things you're responsible for in your business. It is enough to make anyone want to pull their hair out instead, imagine if you had a source that delivered new quality leads to you automatically every single day. Imagine if you didn't have to go out and hunt those leads, but that new quality leads automatically showed up to your door every day asking to buy from you. How would that change your business? What would you give to get access to a steady and never ending supply of Perfect Fit leads? 

Courtney Elmer

Because you know, as well as I that making sales is easy when you have a steady stream of leads coming to you to sell to? How might this solve all the revenue problems you might be experiencing in your business? Wouldn't that help you hit your revenue goals this year? What if I told you that with starting a podcast that is properly positioned, it is possible to double or even triple your course or program sales? When positioned correctly within your marketing system for your business can become the number one source of primed, ready to buy Perfect Fit leads coming to you on a daily basis asking you for help.

Courtney Elmer

 I can't tell you how many students we have worked with who said I never knew how many leads I would get simply from starting a podcast. In fact, one student shared with me recently she said, engagement is up across the board because of starting a podcast. So now not only am I getting leads from starting a podcast and poeple asking to work with me, she said now because of starting a podcast, people all of a sudden on my other platforms and my email my social media are now reaching out to work with me as well because of how fast starting a podcast can build your credibility. 

Courtney Elmer

So before we even start a conversation about sponsorships or advertisers asking to promote their stuff on your show, why not begin with starting a podcast and using it as a platform to promote your own programs, or courses or services. So keep this in the back of your mind as I'm about to share what I'm about to share with you next. Now, there are three primary ways to monetize starting a podcast. Actually, there are over 20 ways, but we're going to be talking about three of my favorites today.

Courtney Elmer 7:21  

So the first way to monetize and start a podcast is to promote your own products or services. So this might be your online courses, your digital products or physical products, your merchandise, your webinars, your live events, your workshops, and so much more. 

Courtney Elmer

The second way is to promote other people's products or services as an affiliate. So this might be the digital tools and platforms that you're in affiliate with colleagues, programs, products or services that you partner with products that you use regularly and affiliate with through Amazon or other affiliate programs, JV partnerships, and everything of that kind. 

Courtney Elmer

And the third way to monetize when starting a podcast that I love, is to accept donations from your listeners to grow your podcast listener base, and also monetize it through listener support. How many radio shows have you grown up listening to I remember NPR, we our listener supported radio station? How many times have you heard that, and when you have built a community of loyal listeners, they want to support you. So this is another means to monetize your podcast without even having to get into pitching sponsors or trying to find advertisers or getting into any of that.

Courtney Elmer

So let's take a deeper dive into each one of these mechanisms. Now. The first one is my favorite. I am a coach, I am a business owner. I am a course creator, and monetizing my podcast by offering what I do what I naturally teach is a perfect fit. For those that are listening to my podcast. And for many of my students, it's the same, promoting your own products or services. So for shows that are starting out with zero to 1000 or more downloads per episode. This gives you the most control of your content and your listener experience because here's the thing once you get bigger and if you were to ever get into sponsorships or advertising, you have to be a big dog. 

Courtney Elmer

And you have to have 1000s of downloads per episode before a sponsor might even look at you. And once a sponsor starts to look at you and negotiate a sponsorship package with you, they're going to want to have control over how you promote that product on your show. They're going to have the final say so in how long the advertisement needs to be how many times you have to say it on the show the way you say it on the show. How you cannot advertise anyone else's products or programs even your own because you're advertising there's Think about it this way for a second. 

Courtney Elmer

I want you to picture American Idol you remember American Idol. Was it Pepsi that sponsored them or was it Coca Cola? I don't really Ever which one it was, but it was one of them. And can you imagine if they all of a sudden had like Dunkin Donuts cups sitting there, I mean, Coca Cola would have blown their lid and be like, No, we are the sponsor, right? Like, they own you in the sense of having control over how their product is being promoted when you start a podcast. So keep that in the back of your mind. 

Courtney Elmer

But when you're promoting your own products or services, this gives you 100% control over your content, and more importantly, over your listeners experience. Now, I always make pros and cons list for everything. But I can't come up with any cons to promoting your own paid services. It is a fantastic way to monetize starting your podcast from day one. And it fosters the relationship with each listener by extending an invitation for them to continue working with you.

Courtney Elmer 10:57  

Now another way that you can quickly and easily monetize while starting a podcast is also by promoting other people's products or services. As an affiliate. As I mentioned, these might be digital tools that you love. I mean, this is the system's made simple podcast, we are always sharing tools, and software and books and things of that sort to help our listeners streamline and simplify their business. And so we share a link to that it's going to be an affiliate link. 

Courtney Elmer

And we have that displayed on our website, you know, all the FTC disclaimers and everything anywhere, we display a link on our show notes or wherever, you know, people know it's an affiliate link. It's not like you're hiding that from anybody. And people understand. Affiliate partnerships now people get with that is people in the online business space especially. So they're not surprised to see that if you share it, they're not going to be like oh my gosh, sharing an affiliate link, that's weird. They're not gonna think that.

Courtney Elmer

So for shows that are gaining traction with 1000 to 5000 downloads per episode, this is going to be an easy way to add additional revenue to your business as your listener base grows, because typically only two to 3% of your listener base will purchase something from you via your podcasts. That's a very conservative number. In fact, I was reading a statistic recently that said over 54% of listeners have reported that they would purchase something from a podcast. 

Courtney Elmer

But think about your program launches or your product launches industry standard, the average sales conversion rate is about two to 3%. If yours is higher, you're doing really good. And same goes for your listener base, the bigger it gets especially. And so you can start promoting affiliate stuff on your show from day one. But you'll begin to see a better return when you have a larger listener base. So this is why I always say if you're going to take a tiered approach to monetizing while starting a podcast, start with your own stuff, 100%, it's gonna be the fastest way and it's gonna be the fastest way to monetize while starting podcast, and generate revenue for your business. 

Courtney Elmer

As you begin to grow and gain traction, you can start adding in affiliate revenue by promoting affiliate links and things of that sort on your show within your shownotes within your show transcripts or blog posts that you might be writing. And you're going to see a better return on that with a bigger listener base. Simply because of math, I mean, it's comes down to math, you know, if 3% of your listener base is buying, and you make $15 on a sale, as an affiliate as opposed to $1,500 from someone buying your course, you can see that it's going to be volume, it's going to be volume based. 

Courtney Elmer

So then my third favorite way to monetize while starting a podcast is to have a donation based podcast. And this is especially great if you run a nonprofit, of course, it is a natural fit there. But even if you're not a nonprofit, don't exclude this from your monetization strategy. Because this is a way to monetize while starting a podcast through listener support. And when you have a community of loyal followers of loyal listeners, they're gonna want a way to reciprocate.

Courtney Elmer

donation based monetization hinges on the power of reciprocity, you're showing up week after week delivering value to your audience. They want to wait a thank you, they want to wait to reciprocate that they want to wait to give back. And so you'd be surprised how many people will simply make a donation to continue supporting this show when you frame it correctly. And when you ask for their support, and tell them why their support is important. And there's a million different tools out there now maybe not a million, but there are lots and lots of different tools out there that you can use to set up accepting donations from your listeners while starting a podcast. 

Courtney Elmer

Patreon is one that is amazing, you can actually create membership content. For those that support your show with a small monthly membership fee. Maybe they're giving you five bucks a month in support of the show. And in return they might get access to exclusive behind the scenes content that you create just for them, or exclusive merchandise or something that you're providing for them because they are a monthly supporter. That's a great Great platform.

Courtney Elmer

Another one is buy me a coffee, literally, you can advertise on your podcast and say, hey, you know, we're a listener supported show, which means that your support while I'm starting a podcast is what keeps this show going week after week, it's what makes me starting a podcast possible. So we are so grateful to for the support of listeners like you. And so when you go to buy me a coffee.com, whatever you're buying me a coffee link is you can send us five bucks, you know, and it's going to help keep the show going. Right. And the idea is that for as little as the cost of a cup of coffee, they can support your show and the work that you're doing.

Courtney Elmer 15:37  

And so I would say this strategy also, again, works best for shows that are beginning to gain traction, they've hit that 1000 downloads per episode mark, simply because this is also going to be volume based as well. But one of the pros of this is that it's really quick and easy to set up through Paypal or Patreon. And it's based solely on goodwill. Now, one of the cons of this if there were a con is that it 10 We tend to see this work best for nonprofits, or political interest podcasts, or other podcasts with small targeted niches. Or if you have a highly engaged, loyal and passionate audience in a small or targeted niche. 

Courtney Elmer

But even if your show doesn't fall into one of those categories, I don't want you to exclude this, this is something that you can add down the road. In fact, we would love to add a Patreon option down the road for our listeners and provide behind the scenes content for you. And more stuff that we can give you to add value to your life in your business. More teaching more tools, more content, beyond what you get listening here week after week for the show. 

Courtney Elmer

So if you're getting value from the show, think about it this way, how much would you pay for access to that content month after month, knowing that you're supporting the production of this show, and also getting access and return to all these other amazing cool things simply for being a loyal listener, people will feel the same way about when you start a podcast. 

Courtney Elmer

So to wrap up this conversation today about monetization while starting a podcast, here's what I want you to walk away with when choosing a monetization strategy that makes sense for your audience. The key to remember with any and all of these strategies is that you aren't actually selling anything, you are simply extending an invitation to your listeners to solve a problem that they have. Trusting that when they're ready, they'll take the next step to solve it, whether that's purchasing a product, or registering for a workshop you're hosting or enrolling in your program, or whatever it may be. 

Courtney Elmer

And aside from this, you're one of those people who would be committed to your listeners experience if you have a podcast or if you were starting a podcast, you're one of those who would put your listeners experience at the top of your priority list. And when you do that, then it's natural that you would only be recommending products that you use and love yourself things that you would recommend to your best friend, or to your students and your clients, whether those be your products, or someone else's products. 

Courtney Elmer

So the bottom line is this. When it comes to podcast monetization while starting a podcast, you need to understand that inside every episode, you have a unique opportunity to make an offer to your people. In the online business world. We talked about making offers and the more offers you can make the more chances you have to increase your sales. But sometimes it's not feasible to make an offer everyday unit you can't host a workshop every day. 

Courtney Elmer

You can't host a free challenge every week. I mean, maybe you can, but I certainly wouldn't want to I'd get burned out really fast. But with every single podcast episode that you put out, you have the opportunity to make an offer to your people. The more listeners you have per episode, the more chances you have to convert those listeners to customers regardless of the monetization mechanisms you choose. So if I have piqued your interest

Courtney Elmer 19:02  

about starting a podcast, whether your dream of starting a podcast is something you are finally ready to bring to life, or whether now you're starting to consider if starting a podcast could be a faster, easier way to help you achieve the results you want in your business to grow your leads to grow your sales and to simplify your content marketing. Then I'm going to invite you to join me for an upcoming workshop that I am hosting later this week.

Courtney Elmer

I mentioned this at the start of this episode. And this is something that you will want to go register for today if you are listening to this because we only have a limited number of seats available this workshop is in very high demand. So head to theeffortlesslife.co/podcastworkshop right now and reserve a seat and inside of this workshop I am going to reveal the three essential ingredients you need for starting podcast that is profitable, I am going to lift the curtain and show you my proven podcasting framework that has helped dozens and dozens of podcasters start a podcast that is top ranked in their categories on Apple. 

Courtney Elmer

So if you're wondering if starting a podcast is right for you, if this is the next right move for your business or if you're ready to jump in and you're been waiting for the right person to come along and show you how to do it, then you won't want to miss this training. So I hope to see you there again at theeffortlesslife.co/podcastworkshop

Courtney Elmer

And once you register for that, go to my Instagram and follow my account there. I am there every day with tips and tricks to help you create, start a podcast and leverage your message into a profitable podcast. Now, next week on the show, I have a very special guest joining us who is going to reveal what it means to run lean in your business and why you should. This is an episode you won't want to miss so stay tuned for that. I will see you back here next week. Until then, go live EffortLESS Life®.