Contact Us

Author: creativemillco

  • Show Me, Don’t Tell Me

    Show Me, Don’t Tell Me

    Even a Written Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

    “Show me, don’t tell me.”

    Those were the words a younger, deflated Tom Nixon read written in red atop his recently submitted creative writing assignment.

    The admonishment, coming from my sixth-grade teacher, would be a recurring theme in my life.

    “Show me, don’t tell me.”

    I saw the words again in high school, upon return of my argumentative writing assignment. Again in college, scribbled in blue across the top of the cover page to my recently submitted screenplay.

    “Show me, don’t tell me.”

    Don’t TELL me the character was angry. SHOW me.

    Don’t TELL me why I should be persuaded by your argument. SHOW me.

    Don’t TELL me that everyone was sad about the tragic event. SHOW me.

    Don’t TELL me the the story had a happy ending. SHOW me.

    How did the character react? What actions did she take that demonstrate the emotion you’re describing? What does the character say or do to convince the reader and make him or her truly authentically relate to the emotion you’re trying to describe?

    “Show me, don’t tell me.”

    What this Means for Your Marketing Copy

    Don’t use marketing language to tell me your product is “best-in-class.” Show me.

    Don’t tell me how customer satisfaction is your highest priority. Show me.

    Don’t tell me how your product changes lives, solves problems, or achieves professional or personal aspirations.

    Show me.

    What I learned in sixth grade holds true today. If you’re using your marketing content and messaging to TELL people why they should engage with you, nobody will relate. But if you SHOW them—through storytelling, testimonial, metaphorical allusions, emotional connection—your story will resonate. And be remembered.

    Remember, people might forget what you say, but they will remember how you make them feel.

    Show them, don’t tell them.

  • How to Know if Content Marketing Is Working

    How to Know if Content Marketing Is Working

    You Can’t Convince Someone to Buy from You

    If the above is true, why market at all? Perhaps I should explain…

    By the above assertion, I mean the goal of content marketing in the business-to-business world is not to convince someone who is not in the market for your product or service to buy from you when they’re not in need. B2B decision-making doesn’t happen that way.

    Yet too many B2B marketers put too much pressure on themselves to identify success metrics in a way that consumer marketers and advertisers might. If I put out a piece of content, I should expect a lead. Nope. Doesn’t work that way. At least not for B2B professional services providers.

    The mistake they’re making is applying consumer marketing methodology to an ecosystem with a much longer buying cycle, a much more sophisticated buyer, and likely, a much higher price point than a typical consumer product.

    Do the Opposite of What You Think You Should Do

    In fact, you aren’t really marketing to shoppers at all, in the B2B space. You’re marketing to latent or dormant shoppers. Some of the marketing you do won’t even be directed at potential customers or clients at all, but rather referral sources and centers of influence, because that’s where buyers of B2B professional services to go to shop for service providers. They ask friends, colleagues or other trusted confidants.

    I was fascinated by this recent article entitled, “The 95:5 rule is the new 60:40 rule.” An excerpt:

    Many B2B marketers seem to think that marketing works through persuasion, ‘pushing’ buyers down a funnel by explaining the product benefits. According to our surveys, 95% of B2B marketers expect to see significant sales within the first two weeks of a campaign. And that’s a reasonable expectation, if you believe that ads convince buyers to purchase products.

    How marketing actually works: The 95:5 rule

    So how does marketing actually work, you ask?

    The exact opposite way.

    Such is the conclusion of our new research with Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. According to Dawes, only 5% of B2B buyers are in-market to buy right now. That means 95% of the buyers that you reach are out-of-market and won’t buy for months or even years. And, contrary to popular belief, you cannot persuade the buyer to go in-market because they already have what you’re selling and won’t need a newer version any time soon.

    Marketers don’t move buyers in-market – buyers move themselves in-market based on their needs. For example, if an IT manager just purchased a brand new cloud computing solution yesterday, then that need is gone, and there’s nothing a B2B marketer can do to generate an immediate sale.

    So what can we do?

    Give up? Focus on the 5% who are in-market? Ignore the 95% who aren’t?

    No. Marketers should focus on the 95% – the out-of-market buyers.

    Effective marketing increases future sales in future buying situations. How? By increasing the probability that the brand comes to mind when the buyer goes in-market. Simply put, the brand that gets remembered is the brand that gets bought. You can’t push buyers down a funnel, but you can, to quote Professor Jenni Romaniuk, “catch buyers as they fall”.

    If you stay focused on generating thought leadership content that purchases trust, gains influence, establishes authority, and consistently reinforces the problems you solve and the value you provide, you will be making an impact where it matters most. But because your someday-shoppers are lurking, latent and listless, you won’t have the immediate, tangible results to demonstrate that you’re making progress.

    But you will be.

    B2B marketing does not work like a gum ball machine. No coin in, candy out dynamic at work here. But when that 95% becomes the 5% who are in the market for your product or service, you will have already won the customer over, either directly or through the referral source who has been paying attention, and can recall your name and justify your bona fides with confidence.

    That’s how business-to-business marketing works. And there’s nothing you can do to change that.

  • Do Less, Sell More?

    Do Less, Sell More?

    What if you could do fewer things, that look less time, and actually have more success building your business and selling your services?

    That’s the premise behind my new book, Do Less. Sell More.: How Entrepreneurs are Building Seven-Figure Businesses without Breaking the Bank, Working Like Dogs, or Losing their $#@%!

    For practitioners at large professional services firms—such as law firms, accounting firms, consulting firms, and others—the constraints on time are equally real. For service professionals, the conundrum is circular: We need to develop new business to earn a living, drive revenue into the firm, and create value. We also need to bill our time and serve the clients we have—which also drives revenue, creates value and supports our living. Since we are still limited by the finite resource of hours in the week, we struggle to “find time” to do business development activity effectively and to the extent required to generate results.

    In Do Less. Sell More., I lay out a mindset and methodology to give you permission to do fewer things—maybe just one!—as well as a roadmap/worksheet for you to discover and define what those things should be for your marketing and sales plan.

    Here’s one five-star review:

    This book is a must read for anyone looking to simplify their marketing and business development, by cutting through the noise and getting to the heart of what matters. As an entrepreneur, I found many useful tips and takeaways and will be referencing this book as I work to build my business. -Shari Belitz

    Want to learn more? Check out tomnixonbooks.com

  • How to be a Thought Leader without Faking It

    How to be a Thought Leader without Faking It

    Joe objected, “But I’m NOT a thought leader. Why would anyone listen to what I have to offer?”

    Just because you don’t regard yourself as the preeminent voice in your space doesn’t mean you can’t offer insights. You don’t need to be a certified “Thought Leader” to have observations, experiences, theories, command of basic principles, inquiries and perspectives.

    In the aggregate, all of those potential offerings position you as an active participant in a given domain or congregation. Over time, you become recognized as a credentialed member, and even an authority. Eventually, people come to recognize you as an expert. That expertise becomes regarded as thought leadership. Maybe not today, but at some point in the future.

    It doesn’t start with the proclamation, “I am a thought leader; here are my views.” It begins by making consistent offerings and deposits into the bank of ideas and conversation.

    Thought Leadership is not a base to be stolen. It is a goal to consistently drive toward. It starts small, with commitment, confidence and consistency. To complete the baseball metaphor, aim for base hits, and don’t swing for the fences!

    Yes, Joe. You’re a thought leader in the making—regardless of experience, title, age or demonstrable track record.

    Step to the plate.

  • Content’s Proper Place in the Sales and Marketing Funnel

    Content’s Proper Place in the Sales and Marketing Funnel

    Churn Less Content, Sell More Contents?

    [The following is a brief excerpt from my just released book Do Less. Sell More: How Entrepreneurs are Building Seven-Figure Businesses without Breaking the Bank, Working Like Dogs, or Losing their $#@%! Learn more about it, or purchase your copy on paperback or Kindle here.]

    Content is working its way down the sales funnel farther than ever before. While we have historically thought of content in terms of “content marketing”—which generally lives near the top of the sales funnel—we should now be thinking in terms of “content business development.”

    Meaning: How can we repurpose or specifically engineer a new piece of content in a way that is more direct and immediate in its application, so that it nurtures a personal relationship, rather than solely operating as a one-to-many awareness or branding vehicle?

    First, it comes by way of a mindset adjustment. Rather than thinking of business development efforts as sales (if that’s your aversion), think in terms of serving others. Giving, rather than receiving. Invitations, not pitches. The offer, not the ask.

    That simple shift in viewpoint alone will remove a self-applied pressure of expecting every outreach you make to someone to result in a sales opportunity. For one, it doesn’t work that way. Two, you won’t look forward to the activity.

    But if you’re serving your network and people you’d like to include in your network, by providing them with either things of intellectual value or by raising their profiles somehow, that’s not selling…it’s serving.

    And both you and the person you want to influence will be better for it, regardless of whether you ever work together professionally.

    CONTINUE READING >>

  • Podcasting for Professionals

    Podcasting for Professionals

    Does the world really need another podcast?

    The answer to that question may be no. But the more relevant answer is this: The world may not need yet another podcast…but you know who does? Your narrowly defined target audience.

    Remember, if you are producing a podcast to grow your business—and not be the next internet celebrity—you don’t need to appeal to everybody. You only need to serve a very distinct and defined core audience. Unless you’re the next Joe Rogan or Howard Stern, you’re not going to amass an audience of millions. But that’s not the point. 

    The Smaller You Go, the Bigger You’ll Be

    Consider my friends Bryan O’Keefe and Gena Usenheimer, who co-host “Into the Breach,” which bills itself as “the first law firm podcast exclusively devoted to reps and warranties insurance and the transactional risk markets.” Whoa. Talk about niche. What even is that, you might be asking. 

    Yes. Extremely niche.

    When Bryan approached us about his idea to start a podcast serving a very niche audience, he really meant niche. He told me, there are maybe 20 companies in the entire world that would be in a position to hire me and my firm for this type of work that I specialize in. My audience is a very specific person within those types of companies. I figured, the largest his audience might ever get would be one or two hundred people.

    Did that discourage Bryan and Gena? No. It emboldened them.

    Bryan told me, “Nobody out there is doing this type of podcast. Nobody’s serving this audience. We have the opportunity to be the first. And if we do it well, we may be able to stake out a position as the only podcast serving this market.”

    Small Ball Yields Home Runs

    So how’d that turn out for them?

    Bryan wrote me on LinkedIn, “Gena and I saw an incredible explosion of work in the last two months.  We were averaging about [X] deals per month previously. And we’ve had [10X] the last two months, including [6X] alone this month!  It was a very good ‘problem’ to have. We can’t say enough the role that we think the podcast is playing in the growth.” 

    You can do the same for you and your podcast. But resist the urge to appeal to a mass audience, and instead target only a small niche, with niche content and specialized expertise.

    So here’s step one: Complete this sentence:

    My podcast is going to provide valuable  __________________ for ___________________.

    The first blank is your content focus. The second is your audience. 

    Now you’re off and running…and your first professionally produced podcast is closer than you think.

  • How to Use Content to Overcome the Selling Aversion

    How to Use Content to Overcome the Selling Aversion

    We’ve discussed in a previous post the Catch-22 that lawyers and other service professionals who bill their time face when it comes to developing their books of business: We have to bill our time to make money, but we have to spend our time doing non-billable work (prospecting) to build a practice.

    But what if that’s not the only conundrum standing in the way of an effective business development effort? What if, like many, you suffer from an aversion to the notion of “selling,” either out of ethical concerns or a simple distaste for the perception of peddling your wares? After all, you want to practice law, or accounting, or consult…you didn’t earn an advanced degree to be a sales person.

    Understandable. But as our careers mature, business development becomes crucial to advancement opportunities. So, we might not like to “sell,” but we’d better be active relationship builders, if nothing else. You might not want to cold call a prospect, or send an unsolicited invitation to lunch, or attend a networking event. But you might not have to.

    And this is where content comes in.

    Serving Isn’t Selling

    As Jay and I discussed on a recent episode of The Thought Leadership Project podcast, content is working its way down the sales funnel farther than ever before. While we have historically thought of content in terms of “content marketing”—which generally lives near the top of the sales funnel—we should now be thinking in terms of “content business development.” Meaning: How can we repurpose or specifically engineer a new piece of content in a way that is more direct and immediate in its application, so that it nurtures a personal relationship, rather than solely operating as a one-to-many awareness or branding vehicle?

    First, it comes by way of a mindset adjustment. Rather than thinking of business development efforts as sales (if that’s your aversion), think in terms of serving others. Giving, rather than receiving. Invitations, not pitches. The offer, not the ask. That simple shift in viewpoint alone will remove a self-applied pressure of expecting every outreach you make to someone to result in a sales opportunity. For one, it doesn’t work that way. Two, you won’t look forward to the activity.

    But if you’re serving your network and people you’d like to include in your network, by providing them with either things of intellectual value or by raising their profiles somehow, that’s not selling…it’s serving. And both you and the person you want to influence will be better for it, regardless of whether you ever work together professionally.

    We shared some specific examples during the episode linked above, but here are a few others:

    A personal email with a link to your latest post. You’ve written the content, it got published to your website, and your firm blasted it out to everyone on its mailing list. But what about a personal email to someone who you think might legitimately benefit from the thought leadership contained therein? “Hi, Bob. I remember you saying that you were frustrated with your research project. I put together some thoughts on overcoming the barriers to research initiatives that I thought you might find useful. Hope this helps.” Notice: no ask…all give. You didn’t have to “sell,” but you have likely further endeared yourself to the recipient. They’re apt to respond to that email, no?

    An invitation to guest author. What sounds more flattering to the person on the receiving end? Can I buy you lunch?, or Would you be interested in guest authoring or co-authoring a piece on a topic that I know you have considerable expertise? One sounds like it has strings attached, the other is a bonafide compliment. Maybe such a post will live on your website, but maybe you and your subject matter expert cohort can co-pitch its publication to a broader audience, say, an industry magazine or blog. Now you’re working in harmony, rather than negotiating a sometimes awkward or adversarial buyer-seller dance.

    A request for an appearance on your podcast. If you or your firm produce a podcast on a particular area of subject matter expertise (or even if you don’t), think of someone you’d like to meet or further a relationship with and ask him or her to be a guest on your podcast. While you might meet some resistance to that lunch invitation, I’m confident that your prospect will find the time to call into a radio-style interview that will amplify that expert’s platform. In the process, you will have a genuine conversation with that individual and, likely, create a much deeper connection that might blossom further over time.

    An offer to opine. Other variations on this theme include:

    • asking subject matter experts if you can interview them for a book you’re working on, either for inclusion or on background

    • inviting professionals or whole firms to participate in a research study that you’ll later publish (which provides a great opportunity to follow back up with such a prospect once the report is out and insights can be gleaned and shared)

    • querying a subject matter expert for a quote or anecdote to support a piece you’re authoring for either your own blog or a third party

    • conspiring with a colleague to co-present at a speaking opportunity you’ve either already secured or are willing to pitch for an upcoming industry event

    Ask Me, Don’t Sell Me

    Notice, in every example cited above and on our podcast, the outreach is always an ask, and never a pitch. It’s an offer…an invitation…a service, of sorts. You are providing legitimate value or making a flattering commendation. Anyone can do that. And more of us should.

    This is content business development—the crucial counterpart to content marketing.

    So if your aversion to business development is the fear of “selling,” overcome that fear through great content, and a legitimate desire to help others. Do that consistently and effectively, and the sales will take care of themselves.

  • How to Launch a Business Development Podcast in Six Steps

    How to Launch a Business Development Podcast in Six Steps

    Podcasts aren’t just for fun anymore. Increasingly, sellers of sophisticated services and other business professionals are turning to podcast production as a way to market their businesses, services and products, and ultimately, generate new business opportunities.

    Everywhere you look, research and data keep pointing to the same new reality: Decision makers are increasingly turning to audio formats to consume content and mine expertise. If consultants, professionals and business owners are not claiming their seats at the table, there is a good chance their competitors are.

    Consider this, then, your roadmap to get you from positing to podcasting…from production to promotion.

    Step One: Find Your Niche

    The first step is to establish and document your podcasting strategy, which begins with clearly defining your audience. While your intuition might tell you to build as large an audience as possible, my advice is to delineate your intended listenership as narrowly as possible. The goal (at least, realistically) is not to amass a large audience of lightly engaged, occasional listeners, but rather, a deeply engaged cadre of true fans who make your content a priority in their otherwise time-pressed lives. You’re not endeavoring to be the next Joe Rogan or Adam Corolla. You are trying to attract devoted fans in a narrow but deep domain of specific subject matter in which you can be positioned credibly as a true expert and thought leader. Remind yourself that this is a business development initiative, not a vanity project or popularity contest. 

    Once the niche has been articulated, everything going forward becomes easier. It’s more intuitive to build a content calendar (because you’ll know what a very specific audience truly cares about), it will feel natural to market your podcast to more easily identifiable decision makers, and it will open doors for future syndication opportunities in target-market media outlets. If, alternatively, you try to create a platform that attempts to appeal to an ill-defined, broadly brushed and nebulous audience of “business owners” or the like, you’ll be met with greater competition, increased user skepticism, and far more difficulty staking claim to the mantle of “thought leader.”

    Step Two: Content Calendar

    Once you know who you’re talking to, and what that audience cares about, you’ll be able to formulate a content strategy that answers the questions your constituents grapple with professionally. Start by creating a list of questions you believe these individuals are asking, or what problems they are looking to solve. If you get stuck, start jotting down the questions your clients or customers pose in meetings or via email. Chances are, if your clients are asking those questions, so are your prospects. And so, too, will your podcast audience tune in to learn about. Next, take that list and prioritize them as best you can. Your top-five are the topics of your first five episodes.

    Step Three: Form and Format

    You’ll next want to outline a format and frequency to which you can reasonably commit for the foreseeable future. Things you should define before commiting your valuable time and resources—so you don’t fall victim to the “podfade” phenomenon — include:

    • Format: Am I interviewing guests? Do I have a host interviewing me? Do I solo-cast? I typically caution against solo-casting, as being the lone voice on a microphone is a very uncommon skill. Typically, we encourage a conversational format, with two or more personalities casting at once—whether this is you and a colleague or you and a guest (who may be a prospect you can invite on the show!).

    • Frequency: How often can you find the time to carve out for recording an episode per month? Usually, busy professionals can at least do this monthly, but no more than weekly. Somewhere in that range, you will find the frequency that’s right for you. But, whatever you choose, stick to the commitment you’ve made to your audience!

    • Episode Architecture: Determine an intended length for each episode, and stick to that as well. Be honest about the audience you’re looking to attract, in terms of how much time that likely busy individual will be willing to spend on your podcast. In my experience, 30 minutes is a good place to start…about the same duration as a typical office commute.

    Step Four: Get the Tech Right

    Based on how you’ve defined your podcast’s formatting (above), you’ll need to make modest investments in hardware and, possibly, software, to produce your podcast as professionally as possible. Remember, this podcast is an expression of your (and your company’s) brand. Handle with care.

    • Microphone: Though you can find “free” ways to get audio input into editing software, we strongly encourage that podcasters purchase a good microphone. It doesn’t even have to be a professional-grade microphone used in recording studios. But for $100-200, you can find decent-sounding mics that integrate with the USB ports on your computer, or good-quality microphones you can use for live recordings (say, in a conference room setting). For my podcast, The Thought Leadership Project, we like the Blue Yeti mic, which is a compression microphone ideal for podcasting and which plugs right into your USB port.

    • Audio Interfacing: Again, depending on your formatting decisions established earlier, you will likely be interviewing guests or conducting a conversation with a co-host. If those guests are remote to your office location, you’ll want to invest in a high-quality Web conferencing software solution, such as Zoom, which allows for session recording and audio compression. If you plan to record your episodes face-to-face in a conference room location or similar, you may need to invest $100-$200 in a four- or six-channel audio mixer with USB interface capability. (I recommend starting your search at Sweetwater.)

    • Editing Software: If you’re on a Mac platform, the Garage Band software that comes on board with your computer offers more than enough editing capability to produce and publish your podcast. There are other free or low-cost options out there for non-Apple users as well, such as Audacity.

    Step Five: Invest in the Brand

    A podcast is every bit important as any other brand asset your firm will launch into the marketplace, and should be regarded as such. In your zeal to get your podcast launched, don’t overlook the branding basics that will help to properly position and promote your podcast:

    • Naming: Not only should you ideate to come up with a unique name for your podcast that is both descriptive and alluring, you need to do some advanced planning to make sure you’re landing on something distinctive. As you create your short list of possible names, do some searching in Apple Podcasts to make sure it’s not already taken, nor that there are too many others with similar sounding names.

    • Domain: A great way to promote your podcast is to promote it as its own distinct entity, and not some obvious marketing initiative that could potentially scare away potential listeners. One way to do that is to secure and ultimately promote a domain name that markets your podcast by name, such as “The Thought Leadership Project Dot Com,” or the like. Invest in the domain, even if you ultimately decide to map that URL to a podcast page on your firm’s website. It’s far better than directing listeners to “visit our firm’s website, scroll to the bottom of the page, then click on Podcasts, then click on the The Thought Leadership Project,” for example.

    • Branding: You’ll also need some identity assets developed, such as a logo. Once you’ve established a visual image that matches the tone and intent of your podcast, you can deploy that brand into your podcast’s thumbnail photo (the image that appears in Apple Podcasts, etc.), and a “cover photo,” which is like a header image for your podcast in publishing directories (similar to your header image on LinkedIn or Facebook).

    Step Six: Hosting and Syndication

    Once you’ve produced the first four to five episodes of your podcast, you can launch into the podverse. You’ll need to establish two primary properties, one for hosting and one for syndication:

    • Hosting: Your audio files will need to live somewhere — somewhere that can produce a subscription feed for the syndicators (such as Apple Podcasts and Google Play) to pull your content from as you publish it. WordPress websites can be configured with popular plugins to accommodate the hosting of a podcast, and Squarespace sites offer this capability as part of most subscription packages. Third-party hosting providers will host your podcast at no (Anchor) or little (Podbean, Soundcloud, and others) cost, as well.

    • Syndication: To get your project on the popular apps that syndicate podcasts, you will need to establish and configure accounts on Apple and Google Play. Once configured, you will connect these services to the RSS or subscription feeds where your podcast is hosted and — voila! — your podcast is available for listeners to hear, download and subscribe to. Other popular podcasting apps, such as Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast and others will automatically pick up podcasts syndicated by Apple and Google.

    You’ve Only Just Begun

    Congratulations! You’re a published podcaster! Of course, the project doesn’t end there, but rather moves on to the next chapter: promotion. You’ll want to take active steps to grow your audience in perpetuity. This includes activities like:

    • Promoting your podcast on social media, and announcing new episodes as they go live.

    • Using your company’s existing marketing channels to gain attention for your content, such as a prominent position on the company home page and regular notifications in firm emails and newsletters.

    • Finding syndication opportunities. Remember that narrowly defined audience you identified earlier? Seek out the content communities and trade media to which that audience flocks. Inquire into opportunities to have your podcasts featured or promoted via those channels. If your content is targeted to a niche and legitimately provides subject matter expertise and insights, you might be surprised how willing industry influencers are to share or even syndicate your podcast.

    • Leveraging your podcast as a business development initiative. Looking to open a dialogue with a targeted prospect that’s difficult to reach? Invite him or her to be a guest on your podcast. That’s an invitation that’s unlikely to go unanswered!

    Before you know it, you’ll be reaching decision makers where they prefer to spend their time…and just for fun — for business!

  • How to Launch a Professional Podcast in Six Steps

    How to Launch a Professional Podcast in Six Steps

    If “Podcasts are the New Black for Business Development,” as has been argued, there is no time like the present for marketers of professional services to get en vogue and launch their firm’s audio thought leadership into the arena of ideas.

    Everywhere you look, research and data keep pointing to the same new reality: Decision makers are increasingly turning to audio formats to consume content and mine expertise. If your firm and its attorneys are not claiming their seats at the table, there is a good chance your competitors are.

    In all likelihood, you’ve considered embarking on a podcasting initiative for your firm, but for whatever reason — be it strategic, tactical or logistical — you haven’t completed the journey. Consider this, then, your roadmap to get from positing to podcasting … from production to promotion.

    1. Find Your Niche

    The first step is to establish and document your podcasting strategy, which begins with clearly defining your audience. While your intuition might tell you to build as large an audience as possible, our advice is to delineate your intended listenership as narrowly as possible.

    The goal (at least, realistically) is not to amass a large audience of lightly engaged, occasional listeners, but rather, a deeply engaged cadre of true fans who make your content a priority in their otherwise time-pressed lives.

    You’re not endeavoring to be the next Joe Rogan or Adam Corolla. You are trying to attract devoted fans in a narrow but deep domain of specific subject matter in which you can be positioned credibly as a true expert and thought leader. Remind yourself that this is a business development initiative, not a vanity project or popularity contest.

    Once the niche has been articulated, everything going forward becomes easier.

    It’s more intuitive to build a content calendar (because you’ll know what a very specific audience truly cares about), it will feel natural to market your podcast to more easily identifiable decision makers, and it will open doors for future syndication opportunities in target-market media outlets. If, alternatively, you try to create a platform that attempts to appeal to an ill-defined, broadly brushed and nebulous audience of “general counsel” or the like, you’ll be met with greater competition, increased user skepticism, and far more difficulty staking claim to the mantle of “thought leader.”

    2. Develop a Content Calendar

    Once you know who you’re talking to, and what that audience cares about, you’ll be able to formulate a content strategy that answers the questions your constituents grapple with professionally.

    Start by creating a list of questions you believe these individuals are asking, or what problems they are looking to solve. If you get stuck, start jotting down the questions your clients pose in meetings or via email. Chances are, if your clients are asking those questions, so are your prospects. And so, too, will your podcast audience tune in to learn about. Next, take that list and prioritize them as best you can. Your top-five are the topics of your first five episodes.

    3. Define Form and Format

    You’ll next want to outline a format and frequency to which you can reasonably commit for the foreseeable future. Things you should define before committing your valuable time and resources—so you don’t fall victim to the “podfade” phenomenon — include:

    • Format: Am I interviewing guests? Do I have a host interviewing me? Do I solo-cast? We typically caution against solo-casting, as being the lone voice on a microphone is a very uncommon skill. Typically, we encourage a conversational format, with two or more personalities casting at once—whether this is you and another attorney or you and a guest (who may be a prospect you can invite on the show!).

    • Frequency: How often can you find the time to carve out for recording an episode per month? Usually, busy professionals can at least do this monthly, but no more than weekly. Somewhere in that range, you will find the frequency that’s right for you. But, whatever you choose, stick to the commitment you’ve made to your audience!

    • Episode Architecture: Determine an intended length for each episode, and stick to that as well. Be honest about the audience you’re looking to attract, in terms of how much time that likely busy individual will be willing to spend on your podcast. In our experience, 30 minutes is a good place to start…about the same duration as a typical office commute.

    4. Get the Tech Right

    Based on how you’ve defined your podcast’s formatting (above), you’ll need to make modest investments in hardware and, possibly, software, to produce your podcast as professionally as possible. Remember, this podcast is an expression of your (and your firm’s) brand. Handle with care.

    • Microphone: Though you can find “free” ways to get audio input into editing software, we strongly encourage that podcasters purchase a good microphone. It doesn’t even have to be a professional-grade microphone used in recording studios. But for $100-200, you can find decent-sounding mics that integrate with the USB ports on your computer, or good-quality microphones you can use for live recordings (say, in a conference room setting). For our podcast, The Thought Leadership Project, we like the Blue Yeti mic, which is a compression microphone ideal for podcasting and which plugs right into your USB port.

    • Audio Interfacing: Again, depending on your formatting decisions established earlier, you will likely be interviewing guests or conducting a conversation with a co-host. If those guests are remote to your office location, you’ll want to invest in a high-quality Web conferencing software solution, such as Zoom, which allows for session recording and audio compression. If you plan to record your episodes face-to-face in a conference room location or similar, you may need to invest $100-$200 in a four- or six-channel audio mixer with USB interface capability. (I recommend starting your search at Sweetwater.)

    • Editing Software: If you’re on a Mac platform, the Garage Band software that comes on board with your computer offers more than enough editing capability to produce and publish your podcast. There are other free or low-cost options out there for non-Apple users as well, such as Audacity.

    5. Invest in the Brand

    A podcast is every bit important as any other brand asset your firm will launch into the marketplace, and should be regarded as such. In your zeal to get your podcast launched, don’t overlook the branding basics that will help to properly position and promote your podcast:

    • Naming: Not only should you ideate to come up with a unique name for your podcast that is both descriptive and alluring, you need to do some advanced planning to make sure you’re landing on something distinctive. As you create your short list of possible names, do some searching in Apple Podcasts to make sure it’s not already taken, nor that there are too many others with similar sounding names.

    • Domain: A great way to promote your podcast is to promote it as its own distinct entity, and not some obvious marketing initiative that could potentially scare away potential listeners. One way to do that is to secure and ultimately promote a domain name that markets your podcast by name, such as “The Intellectual Property Cast Dot Com,” or the like. Invest in the domain, even if you ultimately decide to map that URL to a podcast page on your firm’s website. It’s far better than directing listeners to “visit Nixon Law Dot Com, scroll to the bottom of the page, then click on Podcasts, then click on the Intellectual Property Cast,” for example.

    • Branding: You’ll also need some identity assets developed, such as a logo. Once you’ve established a visual image that matches the tone and intent of your podcast, you can deploy that brand into your podcast’s thumbnail photo (the image that appears in Apple Podcasts, etc.), and a “cover photo,” which is like a header image for your podcast in publishing directories (similar to your header image on LinkedIn or Facebook).

    6. Focus On Hosting and Syndication

    Once you’ve produced the first four to five episodes of your podcast, you can launch into the podverse. You’ll need to establish two primary properties, one for hosting and one for syndication:

    • Hosting: Your audio files will need to live somewhere — somewhere that can produce a subscription feed for the syndicators (such as Apple Podcasts and Google Play) to pull your content from as you publish it. WordPress websites can be configured with popular plugins to accommodate the hosting of a podcast, and Squarespace sites offer this capability as part of most subscription packages. Third-party hosting providers will host your podcast at no (Anchor) or little (Podbean, Soundcloud, and others) cost, as well.

    • Syndication: To get your project on the popular apps that syndicate podcasts, you will need to establish and configure accounts on Apple and Google Play. Once configured, you will connect these services to the RSS or subscription feeds where your podcast is hosted and — voila! — your podcast is available for listeners to hear, download and subscribe to. Other popular podcasting apps, such as Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast and others will automatically pick up podcasts syndicated by Apple and Google.

    You’ve Only Just Begun

    Congratulations! You’re a published podcaster! Of course, the project doesn’t end there, but rather moves on to the next chapter: promotion. You’ll want to take active steps to grow your audience in perpetuity. This includes activities like:

    • Promoting your podcast on social media, and announcing new episodes as they go live.

    • Using your firm’s existing marketing channels to gain attention for your content, such as a prominent position on the firm’s home page and regular notifications in firm emails and newsletters.

    • Finding syndication opportunities. Remember that narrowly defined audience you identified earlier? Seek out the content communities and trade media to which that audience flocks. Inquire into opportunities to have your podcasts featured or promoted via those channels. If your content is targeted to a niche and legitimately provides subject matter expertise and insights, you might be surprised how willing industry influencers are to share or even syndicate your podcast.

    • Leveraging your podcast as a business development initiative. Looking to open a dialogue with a targeted prospect that’s difficult to reach? Invite him or her to be a guest on your podcast. That’s an invitation that’s unlikely to go unanswered!

    If you’re ready to get going on launching your podcast and need a little help getting organized, I invite you to consider taking this Video Course: Podcasting for Professionals, which will go into greater detail, show a few success stories, and give you a bonus hack for using your podcast as a business development platform!

    Congratulations…you’ll soon be wearing the “new black!”