Morgan Franklin: You know you can have the perfect podcast
that's flawlessly aligned with your brand and messaging and the
products and services you provide. You can perfectly
explain your operations and what it's like to work with you and
remove any doubts that a customer might have about hiring
you, and still not be effectively turning your podcast
listeners into buyers. Before we get into this episode, I want to
admit personally, I've missed so many opportunities to turn my
listeners and the listeners of the podcast I produce into
buyers. And if you're like me, and sometimes you put selling on
the back burner to create what you think is quality content. I
want you to know you can have both. And in this episode, I'm
going to teach you how to do exactly that, how to have both
quality content and sell with your podcast. Hello and welcome
to podcast for profit. My name is Morgan Franklin. I'm a
Podcast Producer, strategist and educator. This podcast will help
you create and grow a podcast that cuts through the noise of
social media and speaks directly to your target audience. If
you're ready to create a podcast that will align you with the
experts in your industry, position yourself as a trusted
leader and create another source of revenue for your business.
You're in the right place. Having engaging, purposeful and
even entertaining content isn't mutually exclusive to selling
and pitching directly to your audience. It will take practice.
It will take preparation, and most importantly, like all sales
and marketing, it will take trust. In this episode we're
going to talk about overcoming the anxiety of asking for the
sale, using your podcast to create a sales funnel for later
sales, and creating content that aligns with your products. I
think there's a really big disconnection right now between
how we're using social media and podcasting and outreach like
newsletters and other forms of digital communication to speak
to our future customers, and how they would actually like to
experience these platforms. Let me explain what I mean. Okay,
listen to this example, because if you're on Instagram or
LinkedIn or even just somebody that has an email address. I bet
you have experienced all of this too. Every other person you
follow or add that's a professional service provider
within 24 hours is sending you a message like this, Hey, Morgan,
thanks for the follow. I have services in XYZ. You can set up
a discovery call to talk about XYZ. I have a freebie in a
newsletter, you can sign up for it XYZ, and you're thinking,
wow, this is so desperate. This is not what I wanted when I
followed you. It's giving used car salesman in the worst
possible way, and I will unfollow you immediately if you
send me a message like that. It is so cringe. And back to what I
was saying earlier. It's not the way that consumers want to use
these platforms. I mean, think about yourself. This is not the
way that you want to experience Instagram or LinkedIn or
Facebook or whatever it is, getting endless unsolicited DMS
and connection invitations with the pitch and the invite and
cold emails. It's not how these social media platforms are
intended to be used. They're supposed to be used to build a
friendship, and that's why I think so many podcasters,
including myself, get shy about selling on their podcast,
because we don't want to be those annoying over the top,
cold pitch brands. But I want to remind you that there is nothing
wrong with selling. In fact, you should be selling and pitching
to your audience on every single podcast episode, and reminding
yourself that the difference between you and that person that
sent you a DM asking for your business is that you are
cultivating the relationship and trust and knowledge through the
content of your podcast, and that is so different from an
unsolicited direct message or email. I teach a marketing and
branding class to hairstylist, and talking about their fears
around selling products and their mindset around selling
products is one of my favorite things. In the beginning, almost
every hairstylist is terrified of selling products. And when I
say products, I mean shampoo, conditioner, all that extra
stuff that, you know, when you get up to the counter they're
trying to sell you, you know, they just ask you to pay for
this haircut or color or whatever pricey service that you
had, and now they're taking you up to the desk and they're
asking you to pay $50 for shampoo. The horror that's so
intimidating, right? That's a lot to ask of a new stylist, and
you know that's a lot what it feels like to pitch your product
or service on a podcast that you depend on people using their
most valuable resource on which is their attention. It's their
time. Because we know. And understand that people don't
have to listen to our podcast. In fact, we have to do a lot of
work and effort to convince them to listen to it in the first
place. So we don't want all that to go out the window because
they feel like this is one long ad, and that's why I'm going to
tell you exactly what I tell the hairstylists that are afraid to
sell shampoo, don't think of it as selling shampoo. Think of it
as selling value. This person just spent $200 on their hair
color. Do they want to wash it all down the drain with a $10
shampoo from Walmart? No. Did someone just spend 30 minutes
listening to you talk about a business concept or a way to fix
a very industry specific problem, or any other resource
that you could provide without you telling them that they can
work with you directly and get the most out of your knowledge
that they clearly find value in and appreciate. It's all in the
mindset. It's all about how we perceive the motivations of what
we're doing. Because if I tell you, Hey, go get some money from
your listener, that's a lot different. That's a lot
different energy than me saying, Go provide the highest value and
information you possibly can to your listener, and that process
might include them paying you some money that is just it's
totally different. It feels so different. And that's what I
want you to start thinking of this as, is the value that you
are creating for this listener that is beyond your podcast,
that also involves them paying you money for your time. Okay,
so before we move on, I have a question for you to think about,
how often do you listen to every single podcast episode that
somebody puts out, even a podcast you love? Do you listen
to every single one of the podcast episodes? And it's
probably not. Most of us pick and choose the episodes we
listen to, and I think this is something that more podcasters
should think about when it comes to converting listeners into
buyers. These are all totally made up numbers, but let's
pretend that you have a very loyal listener. They listen to
60% of your podcast episodes, which is pretty good. Of the 60%
they listen to, they listen to half of those episodes all the
way through. I'd say that that's pretty average, which means that
out of 10 episodes, they're only listening to three until the
very end. And while them listening to 60% of your
episodes is pretty good, the 30% that they're only making it to
the very end is not a great percentage. For those of us who
leave the call to action for the very, very end. Again, I am so
guilty of this. That's why I want to encourage you to do one
of two things, and I am also working on these two because I
am just as guilty for leaving the call to action to be to the
end of the episode. But this is what I want you to do. Either
have a freebie you're talking about throughout the episode. So
like, for example, say you have a free PDF or workbook that you
have for people who sign up for your email list, or make this
download the first part of your episode description. So either
way, and to make that clear, basically what you're doing is
you're talking about one resource that is throughout the
episode. So you're not just waiting till the very end.
You're saying, Hey, this is what's going to help you, not
only outside of this episode, but throughout this episode, and
then also starting off your episode description, even if you
change it later to say free download XYZ, so that people see
that right when they click on your episode, that can really
help you Get through that problem of not having good
listener retention, but still being able to execute a call to
action, especially with a free resource, because sometimes it
just doesn't make sense to pitch your product in every single
episode, and that's okay, but it does make sense to give
something away for free. It does make sense to make this episode
the top of your sales funnel, because if someone is taking the
time to listen to a whole podcast episode about you
talking about something, chances are that they like you and they
want to spend more time with you, and they want to hear what
you have to say. And I want you to make that as easy on them as
possible. And back to our amazing listener that only
listens to 30% of our episode all the way through if we have
their email address. Now we don't have to rely on them
making it to the end of the episode or even listening to it
at all to reach them to sell now, we can send them an email
every week and say, Hey, this was the podcast episode. Hey,
this is what we're running a special on. Hey, this is the new
product that we have. It opens up a different line of
communication that is so important, because we know most
people don't listen to every episode. On average, it takes
businesses 12 touch points to make their first sale. That
means, from the first. Time someone sees your content and
engages with it, or listens to your podcast or opens your
email, you have to have 12 of those interactions, or touch
points, as they call them, before a sale is made.
Typically, that's a lot, and if you can use a podcast to be your
touch point number one, and then, let's say, signing up for
an email and receiving a freebie as interaction two and three,
you can be well on your way to having a buying customer instead
of relying on your podcast episodes as being your only
touch points. Again, this is why those people that DM you and
that try to pitch you their services are so ridiculous and
annoying because they're asking for the sale on touch point one,
and that is insane. That's why it feels so cringe and wrong,
all right, so let's talk about creating podcast episodes that
are a compliment to your products and services. Because
for most of us, this is the missing link to making sales on
our podcast. We don't want our episodes to be one long
commercial for a service that we're trying to sell. And we all
know podcasters who do that. But what we do want is to provide
complimentary information to the person who would be buying from
us. What do they want to hear, for example, with this episode,
and spoiler alert, at the end of this episode, I'm gonna pitch
you my podcast coaching services. I'm pretty sure you
saw that coming, but that's what we're talking about. That's what
I know you would benefit from if you are listening to this
episode. The same goes for freebies and using your podcast
episodes for your top of sales funnel, create your content
around what your listener who is buying from you wants to hear.
What are their pain points? What are they interested in? What
makes them laugh? I think that, like when we're so caught up in
the trying to figure out and solve a problem, we also forget
that buyers are just people. And you know, if you're in the same
industry, you probably find the same things funny. So just
thinking about like I was saying earlier, how do people actually
want to communicate with digital media, and whether that's social
media or podcasts or whatever it might be, how do real, actual
human beings want to connect with each other. And I know that
this sounds so ridiculously easy, but for most of us, it
isn't. We are so caught up in the things that interest us and
the problems we're facing at our stage of our business that it's
kind of hard to see exactly where our buyer or listener is
in this process. So try to take a step back, take a step back
from where you are, and think about where you were. I know
we've talked about this in several episodes, but it is that
important, because we are getting so ahead of ourselves
90% of the time that we can't read the label from inside the
jar, and our listener and buyer has no idea what we are talking
about, and if you're trying to sell a specific product or
service, think about where in your professional journey you
would have needed this product or service, and what questions
you had then, what interested you, what did you need to Know,
and what would you have told yourself? For me, it all comes
back to value, and I hope that you can resonate with this too.
It's just so much easier to sell the value of a product than it
is its features. It's so much easier to be passionate about a
product when you know that this is really going to help the
listener, and I really think that they can pick up on that.
People know what you're thinking and when you're excited and when
you're clearly passionate about something, especially on a
podcast, people can tell so the next time you're pitching a
product or asking someone to sign up for your email list or
whatever you want them to do, I want you to write down three
ways you know that this product or service or freebie or
whatever it is, will improve the person who is listening, will
improve their life. And you're not going to read these out to
the listener. You're just going to read them to yourself and
have them for yourself so that you can get excited about this
offer. Because again, I think so much of it comes from our
subconscious and us believing that either this product is crap
or that this product is actually going to help people. Either
this freebie is totally junk, or you truly, truly believe that
this is going to help somebody out when they sign up for this
newsletter, also smile. I know this is probably something that
you've heard 1000 times before, but people can hear you smiling
if you're smiling and happy. Subconsciously, people are
thinking, wow, if I buy this product, I am also going to be
smiling and happy too. Yes, they are buying a product for its
purpose and for its feature, but at the end of the day, we buy
things because they. Make our lives easier because they make
us happy, because they provide us with a feeling. And so if you
can, from the very beginning, already be proving that this
product makes you feel a certain way, you're so much further
ahead than all of your competition. And lastly, make
sure that you've clearly instructed the buyer on how to
buy. So if you're pitching a one hour coaching call on your
podcast, don't just say, okay, and you can buy coaching calls
from me. No, you want to say, I have a one hour coaching call
available. You can find out more information and schedule your
appointment at the link in the episode description, or go to
XYZ For more information, every call to action should have a
straightforward objective of what you need to do next and
expect it is not enough for you just to say what the product is.
You also need to say, this is how you can get it, and this is
what that process of getting it will look like. That is so
critical. And I think so many podcasters go wrong with that,
because they think, Oh, well, people are just listening.
They're going to come back to the blah, blah, blah. No, you
need to state exactly what they need to do and how they can do
it. Turning listeners into buyers isn't going to happen by
accident, but if you have a straightforward message, and you
believe in what you're saying, and you give the listener
confidence in the buying process. That is what's going to
turn your listeners into buyers. If you have a podcast, you're
struggling to turn listeners into buyers. I have a 12 month
coaching program where we'll meet one hour a month, one on
one to discuss your podcast selling strategy and podcast
sales funnel. I also have one hour consultation options. If
you're a little bit further along in the process and you
just have a few questions or you need some feedback on the way
that you're selling with your podcast. The link to find out
more about my coaching and to contact me will be in the
episode description. If you have any questions, feel free to
message me. My email is Morgan at morganfranklin dot media that
will be in the episode description as well. Remember,
focus on value and everything else will fall into place. And
as always, I can't wait to listen to your podcast. Hey,
thank you so much for joining me on this episode. If you enjoyed
the podcast and you'd like to hear more episodes like this
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