Podcast Or Hard Pass? Lessons From The First 100 Days

If you’ve ever thought about launching a podcast for your business, or if you’ve dismissed the idea as too resource-intensive, this episode of The ChangeOver is for you. 

Over the past six months we’ve experienced what it takes to make a B2B podcast work and now we're sharing what we've learned, including:

• why we started a show
• how we got buy-in from the team to participate
• what’s working well, including tools we've implemented to create more efficiently
• how we're measuring show performance, including business impact

Here’s something we didn’t expect: as our podcast started generating fresh content, it also influenced the way we think about thought leadership, audience engagement, and even client relationships. 

What started as a way to help listeners navigate shifts in organic search and AI disruption quickly became a valuable marketing and client delight asset. And if you assume podcasting is only for big brands with production studios, think again. With the right strategy and tools, a podcast can become your content creation and brand authority cornerstone.

Yes, this is a podcast episode about podcasting — but it’s not just an exercise in self-reflection. Whether you’re considering launching a show for your business or just looking for smarter ways to leverage your content, tune in to shorten your learning curve — and your path to value. Catch the whole conversation below (or read on for the key takeaways).

Check out episode 17 of The ChangeOver now, then subscribe on Apple, YouTube, Spotify, Weidert.com, or your favorite podcast app.

Making the Business Case for a Podcast

The world of digital marketing is changing super fast, thanks to AI, and it's a challenge for B2B companies to keep their audience's attention and stay top-of-mind. Traditional content strategies like blogs and gated whitepapers still have value, but they aren’t always enough to cut through the noise. Today’s buyers expect authenticity and expertise, but they’re also looking to hear from actual humans. 

At the same time, AI-driven search and awareness-level content saturation are making organic discovery more challenging. That’s why marketers are rethinking how they build brand awareness, establish authority, and engage their audiences in ways that offer instant value. Here’s what we considered before launching our The ChangeOver Podcast:

• Organic search is no longer enough. As inbound marketers, we spent years heavily focused on technical and content-focused SEO. When AI hit the scene we quickly realized we were facing headwinds we wouldn’t recover from — at least in terms of organic traffic. That meant relying primarily on our website as a full-funnel asset for lead gen wasn’t a viable option anymore. A podcast is a full-funnel asset that creates touchpoints in platforms that are already highly popular with our audience (Apple, Spotify, YouTube), and it has a place on our owned channels too (website, email).
• Thought leadership has to be human. AI-generated content is flooding the internet, and a lot of it’s pretty generic and mediocre. On the other hand, real expertise coming from a real person with a face and a voice? The term thought leadership implies that it comes from a leader, and that points to a need to involve real people in the conversation.
• B2B buyers listen to podcasts. Our audience research revealed something surprising: while our target personas weren’t all consuming the same publications, we found they were consuming the same format — podcasts. That was the green light we needed to launch.

More Than a Mic: How a Podcast Fuels a Content Strategy

While AI-generated copycat content is piling on the noise, artificial intelligence itself isn’t the problem. (That’s a topic for another whole conversation.) In fact, the combination of a podcast and an AI-enabled repurposing strategy adds up to a sustainable way to produce and distribute content across channels with a lot less effort.

One podcast episode doesn’t just live in one place. First off, we publish on multiple streaming platforms as well as our own website. But in addition to that, every show we produce generates 25+ pieces of content, which typically includes the following:

• Full-length video and audio episodes on multiple platforms
• Video clips for social media on multiple platforms
• Blog recaps (like this one 😉)
• Email newsletters
• Social carousels
• Social graphics
• Sales content

Instead of adding more work, the podcast became a central pillar of our content strategy. 

“It’s not additive. We didn’t just tack a podcast onto our marketing. We built it to create synergy across all of our efforts. It is the engine of our marketing machine."  

From Idea to Execution: How We Achieved Internal Buy-in

Launching a podcast is one thing; getting your team on board and participating is another. Here’s what worked for us:

Assemble and activate your experts. As we’ve said before, marketing is a team sport. We brought our subject matter experts (SMEs) together early and asked for their ideas as we developed our podcast calendar. Quarterly brainstorming sessions with SMEs across the disciplines in our agency keep our topic planning up-to-the-minute, balanced, and relevant. SMEs are valuable across the whole process — don’t limit their contribution to studio time.

Streamline participation. Speaking of studio time, you don’t need a studio — and the podcasting tools you use can really speed the process from start to finish. After all, no one’s asking for more tasks to cram into an already busy workday. We use AI to prep and refine topics, generate discussion guides, pre-write social media posts for guests, and then repurpose the recording and transcript into all those formats people want. Of course, we never publish a thing without heavy human involvement, but the efficiencies AI gives us allow us to be present on many platforms.

Celebrate early wins. Here’s a memorable one Greg and I discussed: not long ago, a prospect told us he’d known about us for years but didn’t really understand our expertise until he watched the first few episodes. While it won’t show up in KPI reporting, it is proof of impact. Don't discount anecdotal evidence and be sure to share these wins with your whole team (we use a dedicated "High Five" channel on Slack). 

Measuring Success: What Actually Matters?

Some marketing teams hesitate to launch a podcast because they aren’t sure how to measure success — in other words, they're asking "Can I directly attribute leads to this effort?" The truth is, traditional marketing KPIs don’t always apply. Generally, a podcast isn’t about immediate conversions — it’s about long-term brand-building, thought leadership, and trust. Here’s what we focus on instead:

• Subscriber and follower growth – a steady increase in subscribers means your content’s resonating and keeping people engaged
• Engagement rates – metrics like listen-through rates and episode completion show whether people are truly consuming the content or dropping off
• Direct feedback from prospects and clients – some of the most valuable insights come from conversations with clients who reference the podcast or share episodes within their teams
• SME interest – enthusiastic participation from external experts is a reflection of wanting to be associated with something you’re making

But here’s where things got interesting: The impact of our podcast went beyond audience growth.

“We started this as a brand awareness play, but we didn’t expect it to have such an impact on client delight. Clients are listening, sharing episodes internally, and connecting the dots on what we’ve been telling them in strategy meetings.” 

We’ve also seen the podcast work as a sales tool. When a prospect has a question about a topic we’ve covered in-depth, in addition to explaining, we send them a link to the episode where we break it all down. It’s an easy way to provide value while reinforcing our expertise.

But… Should *You* Start a Podcast?

To answer this question for your own business growth strategy, start here:

1. Do your research. Make sure it aligns with your business goals and audience behavior
2. Share the love. Assemble and activate your SMEs, and do what you can to make participation fun and easy
3. Leverage technology. AI and automation can streamline production and repurposing
4. Set realistic expectations. Podcasts don’t deliver instant leads; they build brand awareness and authority over time

If your team’s been talking about launching a podcast, you’re smart to learn from the successes (and failures) of people who’ve already been there. We’ve tested multiple tools, refined our format, and optimized workflows for efficiency, and we’re happy to share what worked. Just reach out — we’ll tell you what we wish we’d known from the start. And keep Greg’s advice in mind:

“Your audience doesn’t expect perfection, so neither should you. If you know your subject, your podcast is going to be good.”

Watch the Full Episode & Subscribe 

You can find (and subscribe to) The ChangeOver on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or on our website. Get caught up on past episodes, check out show notes, and send us your burning questions. You just might get your answer — and a shout-out — in a future episode.