Case Study
Entrepreneur and Business Coach Tanja Kunz is on a mission. In 2020 Tanja launched Female Power Coaching, a coaching service supporting women to realise their potential in their careers. Tanja quickly decided that a podcast would be a key marketing tool, centred within a broad content marketing strategy to also include live streams, videos and social posts across multiple channels and platforms.
Launching a podcast was a natural choice for the business. The Female Power Podcast is Tanja’s platform to demonstrate thought leadership, to interview other experts in the field and provide inspiration, and to explain the strategies, techniques and training which are applied during coaching of clients. Importantly, the podcast also would spread the word about the coaching programs and include a call to action to women who wish to realise their potential.
Target Audience
The podcast, which is an encapsulation of the business, is aimed at women who are overlooked in their careers, who feel like they can't get ahead. Tanja said:
“Our clients include women from a wide range of industries and life stages. They include those looking to change industries, those returning to work after maternity time, or supervisors who feel uncertain about their position."
Female Power Coaching's core products are its coaching programs, workshops, and its resources. The self-development process can be exhausting for clients, but also liberating and life-changing.
"Our programs require courage, but they are broken down into management stages to ensure that the development is not overwhelming." - Tanja Kunz
Podcast Objectives
Three key objectives were decided upon. The podcast should grow the community of new and existing Female Power Coaching customers, build awareness of Female Power Coaching’s core products and services, and provide a call to action (encourage listeners to subscribe to the podcast and social channels). Based on these objectives, the following metric goals were set:
An average 600 unique listeners per episode after 12 months
A minimum retention rate of 70% (this rate indicates how engaged listeners are)
An average listener growth rate per episode of 5% during months 0-12
Format development
Each episode follows the same structure:
Music introduction and podcast logline: “The Female Power Podcast - accompanying Power Women to the peak of their potential”.
Short welcome and episode description from Tanja
Main section - either an interview between Tanja and an inspirational expert, or a talk on a relevant theme by Tanja.
Closing Section / Call to Action - information on services and how to access them
Music Ending
Music was selected which is casual, energetic and positive. It features hand-clapping which reflects the spirit of teamwork and positivity Tanja tries to instil across the coaching programs. The runtime would vary between 20 and 50 minutes per episode, as Tanja anticipated that the listener was motivated to dedicate at least this much time or more each week to listening and learning. As the geographic reach of the business is german-speaking Switzerland, Germany and Austria, the podcast is mostly conducted in High German with occasional episodes in Swiss German. Currently, 75% of the podcast audience is based in Switzerland.
Production
As Tanja wanted to record her podcasts herself directly, we focused our support on streamlining her workflow and advising on equipment and recording techniques. This included creating episode templates in a production and distribution platform called Anchor.fm. We set up a package of standard music and sound assets to be used in each episode, including some short bursts of music to punctuate the sections of the podcast (known as "stings").
Using a platform such as Anchor offers advantages. In future Tanja has the option to edit episodes, adding, replacing or removing sections within episodes without the need to delete or delist the episode. Episodes can remain "published". This means that listeners are not alerted to the changes, whilst the original listening data is also retained. It also means that as a podcast grows in popularity, it is possible to insert dynamic or native advertisements across some or all podcast episodes retrospectively. The podcast owner can therefore potentially monetise all published episodes, not just new episodes.
Launch
The Female Power Podcast was launched in early September 2021. Tanja decided to use her weekly LinkedIn Live talks and interviews (another great way to build awareness and develop potential customer relationships) as the core component of each Podcast. After building up a catalogue of twenty sessions, she launched the podcast by releasing one episode per day for twenty days.
“The launch strategy worked really well. By uploading new episodes daily during the launch, we managed to achieve 500 downloads after just three weeks. It ensured listeners immediately had plenty of content to dive into.
Afterwards, we changed to publishing a new episode each week on Tuesday mornings at 06:00 CET. Publishing weekly gives me enough time to focus on other business matters, whilst still giving new and existing listeners a reason to tune in frequently.” - Tanja Kunz
Analysis of early results and recommendations
After the 25th episode was released, we reviewed the initial data that came back via Anchor's built in listener data dashboard. The results were promising. Tanja was on track to hit her target number of unique listeners. The retention rate was a little lower than desired. After analysis was carried out it was determined that some episodes were longer than most and these also were the ones with loewer retention. We further redacted the poorly performing episodes and set plans to draft shorter, tighter scripts for future episodes. Tanja said:
“I’m pleased with the early results which show that the podcast is increasing its reach all the time. We’re well on the way to reaching our 12 month target and I have a clear picture of where I want to take the podcast next.”
Qualitative Feedback
Tanja has received many encouraging comments and reviews from listeners. "One listener said:
"I recently discovered your podcast which you are publishing daily. The topics are incredibly well chosen and the content very cleverly delivered."
Another listener said:
"Great podcast, very refreshing and inspiring with lots of good input. You can literally feel the joy. That's what makes it fun."
Can podcasting work for your business?
Not every organisation needs or wants a podcast. Sometimes, it is better or simpler to have brand association with third party podcasts. This can take the form of guest interviews, native ads, and other forms of branded advertising. In other cases, where organisations wish to strengthen their position as a market leader, demonstrate authoritative expertise in a sector, lead a campaign, or bring together stakeholders, then a dedicated podcast can be a fantastic way to do so. It's essential beforehand to visualise what your marketing objectives are, to understand if and how your podcast serves those objectives.
“Adventurous Media really helped me to shape the podcast in the right way that meets the needs and expectations of my audience. With their help I have established a quick and efficient workflow to make and publish my podcasts, clarity on the data that matters and a clear plan on how to continue to grow the podcast and the business.” - Tanja Kunz
We’d love to hear from you to find out how we can assist you to build your podcast, the right way. We can help you to:
Identify your listeners and the value your podcast can provide them.
Choose and implement your production workflow.
Plan and analyse your distribution to ensure your listeners are hooked from the first episode and that your audience growth matches your ambitions for your business.