Read This Before You Hire A Podcast Consultant

A great podcast consultant or podcast strategist can skyrocket the success of your business.

Or, it can be a complete waste of your time and money.

I say this as a podcast consultant myself and I’m fully aware this post may be a bad career move for me.

But so many people hire podcast strategists who don’t deliver meaningful results, and I’d like to help you avoid that.

Here are a few things to consider before you hire a podcast expert…

What Is A Podcast Consultant?

The first thing you need to understand is that a podcast consultant’s job probably isn’t what you think it is.

Podcasting isn’t a goal. It’s a tactic used to achieve other goals.

There’s a LOT of hype around podcasting and it’s easy to convince yourself you need to conquer it to succeed.

It’s tempting to compare your followers, listens, subscribers, and “engagement” to your competitors and believe your podcast strategy is a failure.

But your true goal isn’t podcast success — it’s to sell a product, create an opportunity, or further a cause.

Podcasting is just a tactic you can use to help achieve that goal.

A good podcast consultant knows the point of a podcast strategy is to accomplish a real goal, not to just be “good” at podcasting.

So before you hire a podcast strategist, make sure they can explain how their approach to podcast marketing will help you accomplish your actual goals and not just improve your listener metrics.

Speaking of which…

Podcast Metrics Don’t Matter

Once you recognize podcasting itself isn’t a goal, you’ll discover most podcast metrics are often misleading vanity metrics.

If your goal is to sell more widgets, it’s not your podcast engagement that matters — it’s how many widgets you sell.

Some podcast metrics may correlate to the metrics that matter, but often they don’t.

You can triple your podcast following, but if those followers don’t buy your widget, then who cares?

That’s not a podcast success story, but too often it’s presented like it is by podcast consultants who don’t actually know how to use podcasts to drive truly meaningful results.

Podcast Content Strategy Is More Valuable Than Podcast Production 

Most people overpay for podcast management and underpay for podcast strategy.

I’ve lost count of the number of podcast agency proposals I’ve seen that look the same.

Fancy decks, filled with detailed plans about what types of podcast content they will post, frequency of episodes, and even promises to create social media assets to ensure they had fresh content for each platform.

You know what wasn’t isn’t in those proposals?

An understanding of the podcaster’s business goals.
And… An explanation of the creative approach to the content, how podcasting will help the accomplish goals (beyond just attracting more random listeners and followers), who the target audience would be, and how this investment in podcasting will further the business growth.

These dime-a-dozen proposals look great but lack any real strategic vision.

Podcast experts are often so focused on podcast management, that they ignore the more important podcast strategy.

Here’s the truth:

It’s not hard to post on podcast platforms (no matter how podcast agencies try to make it seem complex).

What’s hard is to develop a podcast strategy that uses that content to accomplish your actual goals. This is a key reason I wrote ‘Narrow Podcasting’.

Make sure you don’t pay for podcast services without a clear strategy behind them.

Hire A Podcast Strategist Who’s More Than Just A Podcast Expert

Non-podcast experience is as important as podcast experience.

Since the strategy piece is more crucial than the management piece, look for someone who understands your industry as well as they do podcast platforms.

Just because a podcast strategist knows the latest Apple and Spotify tricks doesn’t mean they understand how your industry works and what your customers are looking for.

The latter is just as important — maybe more so — than the former.

The podcast consultant you hire can only be as good as their understanding of your business.

A Podcast Strategist Is An Amplifier, Not A Magician

If your product, service, or creation doesn’t provide actual value, the best podcast consultant in the world won’t be able to help you.

Podcasting is not a shortcut to success — it’s just a way to amplify things that deserve amplification.

So if you hire a podcast expert to help you with it, you better make sure what you give them to amplify is worth it.

Your Podcast Consultant Should Give You A Conversion Strategy

A podcast strategy without a conversion strategy is meaningless.

Podcasting is an entry point. It’s the beginning — or continuation — of a conversation with your customer and audience.

But that conversation has to ultimately lead somewhere. To a purchase or an action. To a conversion.

A podcast strategy that doesn’t include a conversion strategy is a waste of time and energy.

While I am a huge fan of serendipitous moments in business, the greatest beginning in the world is meaningless if your vision and strategy aren’t set.

So make sure you hire a podcast strategist who can not only tell you how to attract attention but a person who also has a plan to convert that attention into action.

How I Can Help You With Your Podcast Strategy

It may not seem like it from this post, but I believe podcasting is an incredibly valuable tool if used the right way.

If this resonates and you’d like some help from me to help you approach podcasting, here’s how I can help you.