Since Covid-19, we’ve spent more time on our digital assets in general, and on those for our partners and sponsors in particular.  We’ve added sponsor inventory on our core newsletters (some of which weren’t sponsorable before) ー the Insider (15k/day) and the Daily+Weekly (80k a week).  We’ve grown our YouTube views 50%.  Our digital events have attracted almost 100,000 attendees already, and we’ve added sponsor workshops there.
.
And we’ve paid a bit more attention to our industry-leading podcast, going from 1.5 to 3 podcasts a week and opening up new ad opportunities there.
.
FWIW here’s what we’ve learned from 350 SaaStr podcasts:
.
#1. It’s harder to get podcast guests than it should be.  It’s not that hard for SaaStr, but harder than you might think. It’s a bit ironic that a unicorn CEO can get 130,000+ listens for 20 minutes of work on a Zoom (e.g., a SaaStr podcast) … but would rather be on stage at Annual!  Both are great, but we’re surprised it’s easier to get many guests to our IRL and digital events than our podcast.  Something to think about for yours.  Not hard.  But harder.
.
#2. The reach is insane. But you gotta use it right.  Most marketers we’ve found aren’t podcast-fluent yet.  But think about it.  Where else are you going to get thousands of folks in your space to listen to your pitch?  Nowhere else.  We get 130,000+ downloads a month.  I mean if you are good at podcast marketing ー I almost wonder why you’d do anything else.
.
#3.  Use the pre-roll ad or whatever to be very succinct.  We’ve found folks that ask people to type in complicated URLs get middling response.  But announcing new product features, or reinforcing brand messaging, seems to perform very well.  Get people excited in 15 seconds.  That’s the job.  Not getting folks to your boring webinar via a complex URL.
#4. Yes, brands matter.  When we have a top-tier speaker on the podcast, we get about a 50%-70% lift.  But switch it up.  Stewart Butterfield (CEO of Slack) was our top download so far in 2020.  But … the converse is the rest of the podcasts still get a ton of downloads.  50%-70% as many as Stewart Butterfield.  Less known guests ride on the “download tail” of the top brand guests.  So perhaps the best strategy is to mix the brands in with the brands-to-be.
.
#5. Go on any podcast in your vertical or in SaaS with 10,000+ downloads.  Get your CEO, or get yourself, on any podcast in SaaS with 10,000+ downloads.  Maybe even 1,000.  There really isn’t a better use of 20 minutes of your time.
.
If you want to sponsor the SaaStr podcast and reach 130,000+ buyers and execs, click here or just email us to talk.
.
If you want to submit a speaker, click here.

Related Posts

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This