In this video, Christine shares two tips that will make your podcast pitch to your boss, client, organization, etc much easier and more likely to be approved. This year we are sharing our best advice for how organizations can use podcasting and YouTube shows to connect to their dream audience and get a great ROI.
See full transcript of the video below.
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Transcript:
Welcome to a new video. It’s a new year. We’re talking this year specifically to organizations that have teams who manage the audience and the marketing budget for your brand, your organization, your cause, and they’re looking to use podcasting, YouTube, long-form on-demand media to further that mission. The reason we’re shifting a little bit this year is because if you’ve heard me say many times if you’ve been watching these videos, there is so much more power in the current media landscape for individual creators to partner with brands and organizations that have bigger audiences and platforms and marketing budgets and kind of make magic together. So for a long time I’ve talked straight to content creators because that’s been my background, but I’m working more and more with brands and organizations and institutions and nonprofits who have existing audiences and platforms, and I want to help you and your teams really understand the power of these mediums that do require the personalities and the talent of individual content creators and how to make those worlds work for you. To, you know, get your message out and influence the audience that you have to do the thing you want them to do. So today’s video, I’m kind of shifting and speaking directly to the marketing teams who work in these organizations. You may be wondering, like, how do I even start to pitch this to my leadership team or my boss? If I see the value of investing in a podcast or YouTube show or long form content, not just like, you know, really short social first content. How do I start to like explain this in the terms of like return on investment and how it’s going to move like the KPIs forward for our brand goals this year? So I’m just going to give you a few really simple ones that you can start with. And if you’ve already tried them, you can leave me a note and I’ll go deeper in the next video and in a little more complex. But if you’re just starting out and you’re trying to figure out like how do I translate the value of these mediums and working with content creators in long-form content to my boss or my senior leadership team, here’s where I would start. Be really educated about what the big goals of either your company or your clients are this year. like truly frame any project you want to do that involves the long form content in the same language and like end goal as the existing goals in your organization. Because if you are a brand that sells a product and you’re trying to get more customers or grow revenue or, you know, build brand awareness, you want to speak to your senior leadership team exactly about how this show is going to do that. let’s say you’re a non-profit or maybe a university or something that doesn’t have like a physical product but you’re wanting to help your senior leadership team understand how the podcast, the YouTube show, the long-form content that you, you know, collaborate with content creators will either maybe, you know, increase thought leadership status or help build awareness in the demographics you’re trying to reach like the audience that you’re trying to reach to build awareness of your cause or your organization. If that’s you know, maybe there’s like a specific number on that like we’re trying to increase that by 25% or something I want you to language your entire case for this kind of content in those same Return on investments right in those same goals because one of the toughest things for people who make decisions is to say yes to about long-form content is it can feel too nebulous to them. Like they understand like on a big picture how having a podcast or a YouTube show or you know working in long-form media will be good but it’s hard for them to say yes when it’s like a bigger budget item or maybe a little little bit riskier from a brand standpoint like what if we look dumb what if it doesn’t do well what if we work with a content creator who you know turns out to not be great there’s a little bit more risk there than doing like a short you know brand approved social media video and so I want you to speak directly to how this project actually moves the big goal forward in tangible ways. So you know what that could be better than I do. You know your team. You know what matters to them. You know what your rules are. But just starting there and making sure that your pitch for this project, this media project, is directly tied. Like very clear, simple, simple words. Do not need to make this complicated. The number one piece of feedback I give when someone sends me a podcast pitch or a proposal and they’re like hey can you review this and like let me know how to make it better whether they’re pitching to like a client or a boss or you know trying to get funding maybe is I’ll read through it and then I’ll say you know use half as many words make this language so much simpler be so much more direct in how this media project actually achieves the outcome you’re looking for. It is really tempting sometimes, especially if you’re inside of a big organization, to use really big, you know, professional words and kind of speak corporate language to make a show seem legitimate, but that’s actually usually I would say 99% of the time it backfires because it makes the show seem like up in the air, kind of in the world of like big words and not reality. And since shows kind of feel like a nebulous thing until they get made and people can see reactions and feedback and numbers and things like that, you want to tie your pitch to very real outcomes and numbers and as solid of you know goals as you can tie it to. So even if you’re estimating you can say you know we want this show to increase blah blah blah audience size by x percent or we want to convert this many people you know to our email list through the show or we want to get this many signups for our program obviously, you know, we want to increase revenue by X percent. And then you can go from there and outline like, and this is why we’re proposing this topic for a pilot season tied to this revenue goal or whatever. Does that make sense? It’s so valuable to connect how the show will lead to the like actual real outcomes that everybody wants for the year. And because big media projects like podcasts and YouTube channels are long games, as you’ve heard me say many times, Um, you, you do kind of want to look at those annual goals or maybe the three to five year goals. If you just look at like quarterly goals, it’s really not going to do you any favors because just getting the show made will probably take at least two to three quarters. And then like, you know, those goals can change so fast. So I would recommend tying your show to like annual goals or like multi-year goals. And that will really set you up if you’re just trying to get a yes to make like a pilot episode or to, you know, get proposals from production partners, it can get you, you know, a yes to the next step. Okay. So if that makes sense, I’m going to give a second suggestion as well to kind of help you get started to like get your boss or your senior leadership team on board. Understanding what they value the most in terms of status is really, really helpful because media projects are typically associated with status, right? Even if there is like revenue or, you know, audience growth. goals there, really underlying media projects or status symbols. And even if that’s a subconscious thing, you know, some senior leadership teams will be able to articulate that and some will just say like, we want this, it’s good for the brand. And what they mean is like it elevates our status. And so it’s really helpful for you to understand and know or ask around and be like, hey, what kind of status does this leadership team or this boss really care about? Because for some people it’s about like personal brand, like we want to make our leadership team, like the people who are on it look good. We need to elevate that. For other people, it’s like we need to look really relatable to our target audience. Maybe it’s like a relatability status, like they’re the cool in friend, they get us, like we listen to them. It could also be within the peer group of your industry. Like we need the status that like we’re like the good guys or the trusted experts or the smart ones or the ones who get it right in our industry. So maybe this project is about like making your peers think something about you status-wise. So that’s just to kind of get you started thinking you probably already know the answer. Or you can ask around if you don’t know the answer. Ask your teammates and be like, what is the status symbol that matters the most to the people who need to make the decision on this? Because media projects do create status. And that will help you understand the risks that your senior leadership team may perceive in this project if it doesn’t create the status they want. So those are two places to start. One, tie your show idea to the actual annual goals that your team has and how it’s going to like directly make those happen or contribute. And two, understand what kind of status your senior leadership team cares the most about and how this show will help build that. And already, if you can answer those two questions and just put them down in simple words, remember, short, direct, to the point, you’re going to be on your way to getting maybe the first step or the first yes to exploring how this show can get made. I hope that’s helpful. Leave me a comment. If you want more details on that or you want to go deeper, subscribe to the channel because I’m going to bring you a couple videos every month this year, specifically trained at teams. We’re working in larger orgs that are trying to use long form media to achieve your goals. And I want to be able to help. So I’ll see you next time.