Duration: 23:51
PART 1 — Analytical Summary 🚀
Context 💼
The talk is delivered by Will, an executive producer and co-founder of the Making Money podcast (with co-founder Damo). Drawing on experience launching multiple top-10 shows, Will explains practical, ROI-focused ways to use podcasting to grow a business. His thesis: podcasting’s unique trust and long-form engagement make it powerful across acquisition and conversion—if you pick the right approach and execute with discipline.
Core ideas & innovations 🧠
Will frames podcasting’s edge around three properties: trust, depth, and education. Audio is a highly trustworthy medium—audiences are better at detecting insincerity through voice than video—so it’s ideal for trust-dependent sectors. Long-form listening (30–90 minutes) fosters deeper engagement than swipe-based social feeds. And for nuanced learning, podcasts (and YouTube) excel. Usage is substantial: roughly a third of Europeans spend about seven hours a week listening.
There are three primary strategies: create your own show, appear as a guest, and advertise/sponsor. Each fits different business models, funnel stages, and budgets. Creating your own podcast can work extremely well for high-trust or high-LTV businesses (e.g., health, finance, luxury real estate) and in B2B, often as a mid-funnel conversion asset. Examples include ZOE (health/nutrition) and a surrogacy provider using a podcast to humanize their team for prospects already in their ecosystem. But the reality is harsh: about 44% of podcasts don’t make it past three episodes. Costs often run £1k–£5k per episode; production/marketing takes months; and discoverability is difficult because podcast platforms lack algorithmic feed mechanics. Chart placement and editorial features matter; growth is still driven primarily by word of mouth. Social clipping rarely correlates with audio download growth. To offset discoverability issues, launching as a video podcast on YouTube is recommended despite added costs.
Guesting is Will’s preferred starting point for most businesses. Podcast success follows a steep Pareto principle: the top ~5% of shows command ~95% of audience. Focus on category leaders (use Apple/Spotify charts and niche reputation) and avoid scattershot bookings via agencies. Go direct to producers and craft a top 1% guest pitch: lead with a single, compelling, instantly understandable insight (evidence and story help), keep it concise, and position the speaker (not just their name) in a way that’s relevant to the show’s audience. Skip fake personalization and links that trip spam filters, and follow a structured follow-up cadence. A smart twist: propose an affiliate model so the show shares in upside from referred clients—often a decisive advantage since many podcasts struggle with monetization.
Sponsorship/advertising can deliver strong ROAS thanks to trust-based host-read ads. For low-LTV B2C, commoditized buys (e.g., Spotify network) at low CPMs (~£5) are viable. As LTV and trust needs rise, host reads become more effective, though CPMs climb (£40–£100); still, they often outperform because engaged listeners act on the host’s endorsement. Will advises going direct to shows—even those repped by agencies—to customize messaging, pacing, and deals. Test across at least three shows, target 2+ exposures per unique listener, ask for screenshots to validate numbers, and don’t default to the cheapest inventory. Rate cards are negotiable (aim for 15%+). Creative should empower the host to tell a natural story, not read rigid brand scripts.
Attribution remains thorny, especially for B2B or high-consideration purchases (think ERP like Odoo): conversions often happen well after exposure and via other channels. Use custom URLs/codes, but expect them to capture a small fraction (Will cites a large advertiser like Cleo finding <5% of conversions via codes). Add an open-text “How did you hear about us?” field to capture truthful attribution, and apply multipliers to account for latent influence across channels.
Impact & takeaways ⚙️💬
Podcasting’s trust premium makes it powerful beyond pure top-of-funnel. It can shorten sales cycles in mid-funnel by humanizing brands and deepening credibility. For most companies, the quickest, lowest-risk path is to guest on top shows with a sharp, evidence-backed unique insight and a clean offer model (e.g., affiliate). Advertising scales when you buy thoughtfully, respect creative fit, and measure blended outcomes rather than last-click. Building your own show can be transformative—but only if you have the content stamina, budget, and a clear place for it in your funnel. Above all: chase quality (category leaders, host reads, frequency) over vanity metrics, and design attribution to capture reality, not just coupon codes.
PART 2 — Viewpoint: Odoo Perspective
Disclaimer: AI-generated creative perspective inspired by Odoo's vision.
The talk resonates with our core belief: trust plus simplicity wins. A podcast episode that explains a problem clearly is often more valuable than another banner or landing page. When teams orchestrate content, CRM, and attribution in one place, they can move from “we think it worked” to “we know why it worked.”
Practically, I’d wire podcast workflows into an integrated stack: capture inquiries in Odoo CRM with open-text attribution, route leads to Marketing Automation for nurturing, manage affiliate agreements in Subscriptions/Accounting, and publish dedicated landing pages with Website + UTM tracking. Keep it simple, measure end-to-end, and let authentic voices do the heavy lifting.
PART 3 — Viewpoint: Competitors (SAP / Microsoft / Others)
Disclaimer: AI-generated fictional commentary. Not an official corporate statement.
Podcasting is a strong lever for trust, but enterprises must operationalize it: multi-region governance, GDPR-compliant consent, brand-safety controls, and localized host-read scripts at scale. The attribution gap is real; we’d advise combining open-text self-reported attribution with CDP pipelines and MMM to quantify incremental lift across markets and segments.
The opportunity is in repeatability. Category-leader shows deliver reach, but global brands need frameworks for frequency, creative QA, and financial controls across dozens of podcasts. This is less about a viral clip and more about building a durable, compliant, and localized audio channel—without sacrificing the authenticity that makes host reads convert.
Disclaimer: This article contains AI-generated summaries and fictionalized commentaries for illustrative purposes. Viewpoints labeled as "Odoo Perspective" or "Competitors" are simulated and do not represent any real statements or positions. All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.