How to New Clients From Your Podcast

With Megan Dougherty on the Business Podcast Spotlight

Not every show can turn listeners into clients- but with the right audience, the right offer and the right content – it can happen.

Can you really get new clients from your podcast?

Yes. But.

It’s pretty much the dream for a business owner starting a podcast – but not every show can manage to create that direct line between listeners and new clients – you need the right mix of expertise, audience, content and offer.

Angela Foster is the host of the Inside Petite Style podcast, and when she started her show, after just a few month she found she was gaining 3-4 new clients a week from listeners. I asked her to join me on the Business Podcast Spotlight to talk about how she came to be getting that result – and how to scale it up even more.

About Angela Foster

After 20 years as an executive in the fashion and beauty industry, Angela Foster now helps high-achieving women feel more confident by creating closets they love—ones that truly represent both their personal style and professional brand.

Through her signature S.P.A.R.K. Style Method, Angela’s clients show up feeling prepared and confident whether they’re heading to brand photoshoots, delivering keynote presentations, or simply navigating everyday life. They love their wardrobes because every piece fits their height, flatters their body, and reflects who they are.

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Creating the Conditions to Gain Clients from your Episodes

When it comes to podcasting for Business, Angela has done an incredible job. Started a show, put in some time and got her sea legs, and began getting clients – 3 or 4 a week!

That is exactly the outcome we all hope to get when we start a show, but not every entrepreneur who starts a show sees that result right away. There are a few things that made Angela’s business and show poised to see that kind of outcome,

Looking at her business, she was already known as an expert in her space, and offers a personal and emotionally significant service – the kind that requires a lot of trust for people to buy in.

On her podcast, she answers the kinds of specific questions she KNOWS her audience is searching for, and the podcast served to give the kind of insight and information she would otherise be providing in other mediums. After having listened to her show, listeners they feel they know her and trust her well enough to take the leap into becoming a client.

Something that also helps with that is that she has an easy to find and buy entry-level offer. New clients aren’t jumping to the very highest tier for the most part, they’re starting with a single paid consultation, it’s an easy, low-risk way to get personal advice from someone who already helped them.

That’s a big takeaway here: if you want clients directly from your listening audience, it needs to be a logical next step from listening in terms of price and ease of access.

This means makng sure you are creating content that matches the listener’s intent when they are searching for information.

Finding a specific type of clothing at a specific moment in time is a great example of intent-based content creation. That is a problem someone wants SOLVED at the time they go looking for information.

Think about your own services and offers and the specific ‘triggers’ that will cause someone to take action to try and solve the problem – if you’re not sure, ask your current clients, check your inbox for your past inquiries and what they included, and spend some time browsing social media to see what people are specifically asing about (ideally, right before they make a purchase of some kind, if you’re able to determine it!)

There also need to be enough people listening that a certain percentage of them will reliably take action, of course. Angela started with a good-sized following on social media and email -these are people who were already aware of her expertise and adding a new media format provided a new way to seal the deal, as it were. If you are starting with little to no audience it will probably take longer and a lot of active audience building work to see results.

Business Podcast Blueprints Analysis

According to the Business Podcast Blueprints, a show that is a direct listener-to-client pipeline is an Audience Engagement show. It does the work connecting with, educating and nurturing people that you would otherwise do manually or through other kinds of content. It’s also important to note that this will almost always be a solo show, rather than an interview one.

While interviews are the most popular podcast format (and critical for Relationship Building!) if you want to build the kind of knowing, liking and trusting that leads to sales you need to give your audience lots of time hearing you talk. This is especially true when you’re creating content that addresses high-intent topics that people are looking for when they’re in the mood to buy.

For this type of podcast, you’re also probably going to want to avoid sponsors – you want your listeners to engage with you after they listen – not anyone else.

High quality show notes or even edited transcrpts are a good idea as well – because your goal is to speak directly to high-intent topics your audience is interested in, we don’t really care if someone reads, listens or watches – as long as they do it, and then take action!

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Scaling Up Your Success

Once you’ve got your high-intent, problem solving episodes, and an easy, low-cost starter offer that people can book right away, and enough listeners and conversions to start assembling some data, then its a matter of optimizing. Most likely, you are going to need to do some trial and error to get things running perectly, so here’s what you should look at:

How many episodes on a specific topic do people listen to before they take the next step? Ask your current clients, then try to record enough episodes on your highest value topics.

Where did your clients, the ones who signed up after listening, they first hear about the show? Promotion can be an endless time-scuk, so If there are clear patterns like most people heard from LinkedIn, or word of mouth? Focus your promotions there.

How are your episodes organized on your website? Is it easy for someone to listen to multiple shows on the sapce topic? Create category pages or specific playlists on single issues.

This is not the easiest podcast strategy, but if you can crack this particular nut, you’ll be in a very enviable category of podcasters! If you’d like a little support, check out our business podcast production services – especially a solo audio show. It can be a great addition to your marketing, and the benefits compound exponentially over time.

Are You Ready for the Spotlight?

If you have a podcast for your company, or you’re planning one in the near future, then we want to feature you!

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Let’s highlight the good work you’re doing – and take your podcast to the next level.

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