There are at least 72 million podcast listeners in the United States, many of whom make up a good portion of a B2B publication’s demographic.

Because of the promise of this niche medium, we included podcasts as one of the four types of B2B advertising to watch in 2019.

But what about starting a podcast yourself? If you work with a trade magazine, you already have a niche audience and advertisers interested in highly-targeted, industry-specific advertising. A podcast may be the next channel for your advertising opportunities. Here’s what you should consider.

The Early Success of B2B Podcasting

Plenty of B2B publications have already delved into podcasting as both a means of expanding their reader base and offering a new channel for advertisers.

PlayerFM offers a long list of podcasts hosted specifically by magazines — many of which are trade publications or at least carry a B2B focus. From The Fine Homebuilding Podcast to the Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast, the rise of trade-focused podcasts highlights just how much interest there is.

Apart from looking at trade publication podcasts specifically, trade media companies can learn from the successes of more broad based B2B branded podcasts.

More specifically, Rise & Grind by ZipRecruiter is a fantastic example of a branded podcast. “No one wants to listen to a 10-episode podcast about how great ZipRecruiter is at finding a job or helping hire the right applicant,” said Midroll CRO Lex Friedman. “But if we can create a show with someone like entrepreneur and author Seth Godin about what it means to be successful and being the most productive person around, that’s going to appeal to exactly the kind of people that ZipRecruiter wants to reach.”

Look for What Appeals to Your Audience

That’s the key phrase: a trade publication podcast appealing to your reader base and connecting advertisers with them in a new way. Realizing early success in starting a B2B podcast is about starting with the right point of view.

Look at podcasting the same way you would look at native advertising: what value can it offer your audience and what will it do for your publication’s reputation?

On that front, consider asking yourself three questions before jumping further into the process of creating a podcast for your trade media company:

Why start a podcast? Knowing the reason behind the new channel will help you focus on everything from ad sales to ROI measurement.
What topics would you want to cover? And how do you plan on tying them in with your existing publication?
How will you get the resources you need? Consider your budget, what you need to learn, how you’ll distribute your podcast, potential guest posts and more.

The answers to these three questions will give you a good baseline to work with. From there, there are a handful of things to think about before moving forward.

5 Things to Consider Before Starting a Trade Media Podcast

Start by asking the right questions. Then think about the factors of starting a podcast you may not have considered even in answering those questions. These include:

Cost. True cost, that is. Getting a quality podcast going isn’t just a matter of recording some audio and putting it up on the platform. Make careful inventory of the costs behind recording, editing, design, hosting, marketing, equipment and more.
Relationships. Consider how starting a trade publication podcast could affect your relationships with your current advertisers. If they aren’t yet advertising via podcast, what’s the value offer you can give? If they are already utilizing podcast ads elsewhere, how can you draw them in?
Distribution. Decide how you want to distribute and market your podcast. Publishing podcasts works a little differently than other media (i.e. Spotify and iTunes pull from RSS feeds), so make sure you do your homework.
Revenue. How will the podcast fit into your existing revenue model, and how will you introduce the model? If you’re looking to expand existing advertiser relationships, running with baked-in ads or even full sponsorship is a good way to go.
Measurement. To measure the ROI of your foray into B2B podcasts, you should establish your metrics ahead of time. Do you want ‘success’ to depend on how many people from your audience tune in or on new ad revenue?

Do you sell ads for podcasts? MediaRadar has the contacts and brand insights to help you win more business.