How to Use Podcasts to Grow Your Business | Eagan Heath

Sadaf Beynon: [00:00:00] Welcome to Podjunction, where business meets podcasting. Whether you're on a morning jog, driving to work, whipping up a meal, or just simply taking a minute for yourself, our weekly bite sized episodes promise fresh insights from successful podcasters who have cracked the code of using podcasts to grow their business.

So whether you're a podcasting newbie or a seasoned podcaster, this episode is for you.

Welcome back to yet another amazing episode with Matt Edmundson and I on Podjunction Podcast. Why

Matt Edmundson: are we laughing already?

Sadaf Beynon: You tell us, Matt.

Matt Edmundson: I can tell you that this is the second time, ladies and gentlemen, we have tried to do this particular podcast because Sadaf got all kinds of tongue tied in the last one, [00:01:00] which was just very funny.

So we've just been laughing hysterically at that. Yeah, warm welcome to you and in case you haven't figured it out already, although we talk about podcasting and how to use podcasting to grow your business we do the banter and the joviality, don't we? We like to joke around a little bit, especially me.

Thanks as part of my personality. So very warm welcome to you. If you're after a really slick professional podcast,

wow. And for the four people that are left now. Welcome to Sadaf's mum, brother, uncle, aunt, my mum, whoever's listening to the show. Thank you. This is family related.

It's great to have you. Warm welcome to you. Warm welcome to you. What are we talking about today anyway?

Sadaf Beynon: We are back with Eagan Heath and the surprise is this week that he is going to be talking about how he uses his podcast to grow his [00:02:00] business.

Matt Edmundson: That's a surprise.

Sadaf Beynon: That is a surprise because last time, if you remember, You asked me the question what's coming up and I didn't know and I thought it was a surprise.

Oh yeah, the end of the

Matt Edmundson: last podcast you said, oh it's a surprise. So you figured out what the surprise was. I'm like, I don't understand how that's surprising because we're talking about podcasting and how to use podcasting to grow your business. And ironically, that's what Eagan's talking about and that's not a surprise.

No. Okay, good. Alright, as long as I'm not going Looney Tunes, I'm okay. So yeah, cool. Are we going to jump straight into it or do you have a random question which you normally have? I bet you've not prepped one.

Sadaf Beynon: I do not have a random question for you today, Matt. Awesome. The way this is going

Matt Edmundson: to work, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to play a video clip from the great, actually guy about his What was it we're talking about again?

Oh how he uses his podcast to grow his business. It's actually the name of his show. I'm just having a moment. I'm just having a little moment. to lie down now. I need some tablets or something. Anyway, we're going to play this video clip. I'm going to take some notes. Got my notebook, got my pen. I enjoy these clips as much [00:03:00] as anybody.

And so we're going to take some notes then Sadaf and I will be back after this short video to go through our thoughts and our ideas about what has just been said. Hopefully we do it in an entertaining and informative educational way, rather than blabbering on. But you be the judge, let us know. But before you do, here's a clip.

Sadaf Beynon: How do you use your podcast to help grow your agency?

Eagan Heath: Yeah, so this is, this has been a big question, and now that I have a business partner, he's asking, hey, is this doing business, is this worth our time, et cetera, et cetera. It's like that piece, and I think I had good expectation going in terms of, again I'm almost not even evaluating that until the three year mark, is my thought, or even let's get a few hundred episodes out.

So I guess that would be, if we could get to Roughly one a week, when we hit the 150 mark, maybe I'll look harder at that. But anyway, to answer your question, the, I see it as a way to build referral partnerships. So when we were Get Found Madison here in my, in the state of Wisconsin, in the U S it's [00:04:00] I built an SEO company by building referral partnerships with web design company.

And

Eagan Heath: so their clients would say, Hey, we're not on page one of Google. And they would say, go talk to Eagan and his team, basically. So I saw that work, and that made sense to me. That was tangible to me. If I'm going to local networking events, I'm there in person. How do I reproduce this online if we're going national or international, right?

And so it made sense to me of we talk to quote unquote competitors that also run Google Ads, Meta Ads, etc., but we learn from them and we collaborate and then we could potentially build referral partnerships and so we have gotten referrals through the show that way. So I think of it that way. It's a way to keep current on what's going on, one.

It's a way to build your network and get out there. And then also you're doing obviously the whole piece we talked about on content marketing and if you're building trust.

So

Eagan Heath: then the question is, okay, but then do you get clients through it? And the answer to that is yes, as well. So we've had people reach out and it's not even a, they're subscribed to the show and they listen every week.

[00:05:00] It's they saw a specific episode and reached out. So it was a topic they cared about. They were really interested. They liked what we said on Google shopping. And then we talked and did an audit and so on. So projects and clients, client work comes out of it. The other one I like to mention is I had somebody who was local, so they were eCommerce, but they were in our city or nearby and they drove up and we met at a coffee shop to talk through and do the sales process.

And he sat down for coffee and this prospect said, I'm already sold on you. I just binge listens to all your episodes.

Sadaf Beynon: Oh, wow.

Eagan Heath: Yeah. So that's a nice place

Sadaf Beynon: to start.

Eagan Heath: Yeah, and they became a client. So that's one you don't even think about where you're like, you're going, you're grinding, you're getting 12 views and listens on some of these things.

And you're like, why bother? Why do it? But you're thinking. For me, I was thinking we evaluated three years, we evaluated 150 episodes. And it's just your whole catalog is out there and people can go back and binge it. And it's pretty, it's interesting that he said that exactly and that was such a differentiator.

It was just like, obviously this guy's the [00:06:00] authority, we're going to work with them.

Yeah.

Eagan Heath: And it's, one thing that's interesting about that is most, most, most, most of the episodes are me interviewing other experts, other people.

Yeah. So

Eagan Heath: every night I'll have my team on, we'll talk through the channel they're working on or a case study,

but

Eagan Heath: Most of the episodes are not even featuring us and our work and what we're doing.

It's just this level of authority. Oh, he's got the show on it. He must be the guy to hire. So yeah, that was powerful.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah, no that, that makes a lot of sense. So yeah, I guess maintaining the integrity of what your podcast is about. It's pretty huge, isn't it?

Eagan Heath: Yeah. And some of those pitches we get from the, the podcast pitcher people like it's many of them are like, so and so is an experienced business leader and manufacturer.

And it's you what do they do? Okay. Do they do eCommerce? We'll talk about general entrepreneurship and marketing and business stuff sometimes. But oftentimes, yeah, we have to say no, or it's just Hey, this is an eCommerce show. This isn't just a chance for you to come on and talk about your stuff or whatever it happens to be.

So

Eagan Heath: I think that's good. And I also just, you can put so much time into a blog post, into a podcast, into a [00:07:00] video, into a webinar, whatever it is. And this consistency of let's do many things, let's get dozens of episodes and then more out there. You really never know the ones you spend the most time on.

It's a total flood, no one cares, and ones that you just cranked out and didn't spend that much time on will just hit.

And

Eagan Heath: when you look at the view counts, when you look at the listen counts they will eclipse everything else combined. It's just like it's that power law distribution that you find throughout the natural world and the business world of a few of them are going to be more than all the rest combined.

And you don't know which episode that is. That's another reason to just keep going and keep looking stuff

Sadaf Beynon: Got you curious and you want to catch the full episode, be sure to subscribe to the show. We've got plenty more great conversations coming up.

Matt Edmundson: Welcome back. Another great clip there from Ian actually, I really enjoyed that one. And how he uses. [00:08:00] Podcast to grow his business. Now, there's a couple of things he said, which I think we should dig into. One, he talked about building a referral partnership through his podcast, which I thought was interesting.

Two, obviously he talked about getting clients directly. It was three was part of his sales process. And I think really one of the, I think the thing which really resonated with me was what he said. He gets clients directly through his podcast because they don't necessarily subscribe to his show, although I'm sure they do now, but they listen to an episode about a topic that they cared about.

That was a phrase that he used. And that really stood out to me is actually doing your podcast around topics that matter most to your potential clients. Obviously it's going to draw them in because that'll get ranked hopefully. And because you're answering the questions, which they have, hopefully it'll cause them to reach out and get in touch.

And it's done in a sort of a non threatening kind of way, isn't it? Through a podcast. So addressing the topics that [00:09:00] your customers care about through your podcasts. That I thought was really cool.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. It is really cool. Yeah. And as you were saying, like it sets him up as they're listening to him talking about it, sets him up as a.

expert in the area, the authority on what's being spoken. So they already as the guy said to him, I'm already sold on you. Yeah. Yeah. Love those kind of conversations.

Matt Edmundson: I've listened to every episode and I still like you.

Sadaf Beynon: Even the first one,

Matt Edmundson: even the first ones, you're absolute genius.

And I'm, but it's one of those things, actually. And I think, we've mentioned this before on the show, but The power of the podcast to get people to like you because they feel like they know you, the whole Zig Ziglar know and trust thing when it comes to sales, people need to feel like they know you, they like you, and they trust you.

There's something about podcasting, which causes people to do that, which I find quite extraordinary. And I think about the podcast that I listen to, especially the podcast that I keep [00:10:00] listening to. I'm starting to feel like I am getting to know and trust who the different presenters of the show, almost that if I sat down with them in a pub, they would obviously have no idea who I was, but if we're sat down in a pub just chatting away, but I feel like I, I know them a little bit, I know a bit about their family, I know, what I mean, all these kinds of little things.

And so you do build that know and trust factor, which I think is really important. And especially also because when people listen to podcasts, it's not like they're listening to them. In a sterile environment, they're listening to them when they're walking the dog or when they're, chopping onions and making a chili or whatever it is that they're doing that it's a deeply personal space.

Usually when I think it's 75 percent of people listen to podcasts and what I would call a deeply personal space including the car. So it's not like an office environment. And so you're in a personal space. Hopefully you're bringing information, education, entertainment. And so you're building that know, and trust factor, right?[00:11:00]

Super powerful, super, super powerful. And you do that again, coming back, talking about topics that the customer cares about, which is what we do on this show.

Sadaf Beynon: When we're not messing around. No, when you're not messing around.

Matt Edmundson: I'm very serious all the time. Yes, of course you are.

Sadaf Beynon: But yeah, I think you're right.

We use, we do use this as a platform to. To do that, don't we? We do. If you think

Matt Edmundson: about every topic that we talk about, it's something that you guys hopefully are interested in, not every week, you're going to be interested in every week. I get that some weeks are going to be more relevant than others, but we, it's not like we talk about I don't know, football, the Premier League's just finished.

It's not like we're going to talk about what we could do, but it's not really that relevant to what you guys want to know about. You want to know how we use podcasting to grow our business, right? What are some of the tips, tricks from everybody else? And I think. That when we talk today about, how Eagan's done it, you listen to that and go, actually, [00:12:00] that idea of building a referral network is something that I've not thought about.

I can implement that into my process somehow. And I don't, maybe there's something you don't quite understand or know. So you go I'm just going to message Eagan because obviously it's contact details and he'd love to hear from you. So you just go I'm just going to message Eagan. And I'm saying, how do you do this exactly?

And he'll hopefully answer you or tell you to get lost one or the other, but at least right? And so no, Eagan would never tell you to get lost. And he'll tell you how he has done it, maybe to the detail that you need, or maybe answer the question specifically that you need. And that's what draws people in, I think.

And it's great because Eagan loves it when you reach out to him, you get new contact, you get to meet someone, you get some fresh ideas And we sit in the middle and hopefully it works well.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. I think that's what's quite cool about the whole podcasting space. Yeah. Isn't it? There's so much to learn and there's so many different ways of doing things and it's quite interesting.

Matt Edmundson: Usually.

Sadaf Beynon: Yeah. If [00:13:00] you're not doing production, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Matt Edmundson: Did you hear that sound? That was the sound of angels weeping for everybody doing production. That's what that was.

Oh, how to make friends and influence people, Matt. So another thing that he mentioned, which I don't think has really been talked about before, is actually using the podcast as part of your sales process which I really like. And it doesn't have to be done in a contrived way. Just that, he met the guy in the coffee shop who, like you say, turned up and he'd listened to a whole bunch of shows, hadn't he?

And before we make appointments with people for, we do all that kind of stuff, just to even put in a link to your podcast in your email you'll be amazed. So I spoke to someone a few weeks ago we're going through a phase at the moment on the eCom side of our business, we're doing some acquisitions, right?

We're doing growth by acquisition. We're acquiring some new eCom businesses. One person that I went to see a couple of weeks ago, no, sorry, they came to see us, listen to the podcast on the whole journey. Just listen to a few episodes. And in [00:14:00] fact, it was a bit of a random episode because it was about how to deal with burnout, which was not directly related to EP to eCommerce, but it was obviously connected with them.

And yeah, it's really fascinating how that occurred. I went and met somebody on Friday, sat down and talked with them. Listen to a lot of podcast episodes and they're like you said this on the show or somebody said that and you're like, I genuinely, that's awesome.

I don't remember my name sometimes, let alone everything else, but it's interesting, isn't it? How you can use it as part of your sales process, just from a simple link in your email or telling people about the show, if that's the email that you're using to communicate with prospects. So it's not I'm sending an email to a prospect going, Hey, would you like to buy my stuff?

By the way, watch this because we think you'll find it cool. And look, it's all about me and on iCall. That's not what I'm saying. Sometimes that works. Not really, if you're British, to be fair. The Brits don't like that kind of thing. We like subtlety much more. And but that said, sometimes we get people.

Last week, [00:15:00] somebody emailed in, had a few questions for something that we do. All I did is to say, listen, appreciate the question. I think if you watch this, it will answer the questions that you have given links to one or two things that we'd recorded. And so using that as part of the sales process is really cool.

And people really like that. So being able to send people to stuff to answer questions, the podcast you've recorded, because again, you're answering their questions, right? really powerful, really great stuff. You got anything to add to this? I feel like I'm doing all the talking.

Sadaf Beynon: No, that's fine. You can do.

But I was thinking as you were talking actually about an episode a few weeks ago with Marcia Reiner. Do you remember she was saying when someone trolls you?

Yeah,

Sadaf Beynon: your name pops up. And it is a bit like that where you're saying Yeah. And they want to get inside your head a little bit, understand how you approach life, what your viewpoints are on different things.

So I think it is actually really helpful for that. And again, it's one of those benefits that doesn't, of [00:16:00] podcasting that doesn't necessarily, give you sales right away or ever, but at least you're Your networking relationships can really be built.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Love Marcia as well.

She's a legend. But no, that's totally true. So I take takeaways from today. I think go find the questions that people really want answered in the industries that you're working in and do podcast episodes around those questions. You can even title the podcast that question. For example, we're going to, I think we've mentioned this before.

We're making some changes to EP coming up to the eCommerce podcast, which is one of the podcasts that I host. We're going to start to introduce some different content pillars into the show. Mainly it's expert interviews, but we're going to include founder stories. We're going to include, I don't know what we're going to call it.

The third pillar is just my opinion on stuff, really. Just what I think about various different things, answering people's questions, mainly Q& A with Matt is maybe the best way to describe it. So if I was thinking [00:17:00] about this for EP, some of the questions people have would be like if I was starting an eCommerce business in 2024, what would I do?

Because Matt, you already established an eCommerce, you've been around a while, you've already got market share or whatever it is. And so we're going to do a series of episodes, like how I would start a business, how I would start an online business in 2024, right? Because that's the question people have.

So that's just, I'm just going to give, this is how I would do it. And people really like that. Transcribed What I would do to improve email marketing, what would I do to make social media work for my online business rather than it's being a black hole of bleh I don't know how you'd spell that.

No,

Sadaf Beynon: I don't.

Matt Edmundson: But it's that kind of thing, isn't it? It's looking at the questions, the top questions that people have in your industry, doing podcast episodes around those. That draws people in. And I think that's super helpful. And you don't even, the good thing is you don't even have to answer those questions.

So for example, if we're going to do one on email marketing, how to do email marketing in 2024, [00:18:00] I just need to go get an expert in email marketing and grill them. And it's not like I need to sit down and prep that conversation. You can create those episodes, I think relatively easily, just constantly refer back to the questions that people have all the time because one, it draws people in and two.

You can then email those out when people ask specific questions. It's email marketing, people might ask me and say listen, these are the three things that you might want to think about, but if you want a deep dive, check out this podcast episode, I think that it just gives you that base level of content, which is actually quite good.

Does that make sense?

Sadaf Beynon: It does make sense.

Matt Edmundson: Do you think that would work?

Sadaf Beynon: I think that would work great.

Matt Edmundson: Always looking for validation from Sadaf. She's yes. Yes and no yes and no but no, hopefully you anything else you want to add to that?

Sadaf Beynon: No, I don't. I think you've said it all, Matt.

Matt Edmundson: I've said it all, because you've been quiet today, which is unusual.

Are you all right? I am

Sadaf Beynon: all right. Are you sure? Yes. This is where I burst out crying, no

Matt Edmundson: kidding. So yes very interesting conversation, I like that, it's given me some [00:19:00] food for thought because I need to go back and think of some of the questions that people are asking, I wonder what I'll do about that now.

And so Eagan, thank you very much, you are a legend for that top tip. Next week, coming up, we have

Sadaf Beynon: more Eagan.

Matt Edmundson: We should just call this The Eagan Show. The

Sadaf Beynon: Eagan Show.

Matt Edmundson: What's he talking about, or is that a surprise? That's a surprise.

Sadaf Beynon: Hey!

Matt Edmundson: Ladies and gentlemen, this is called Proper Planning and Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance, apparently.

Yes. We could rearrange that, Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Podcasting.

Sadaf Beynon: Yes, I had to think

Matt Edmundson: that through. I could see your brain was processing. , it was a mixture of thinking about that and what the kids are going to have for dinner later, right?

Sadaf Beynon: Just

Matt Edmundson: thinking about these multiple streams in your head.

Sadaf Beynon: Yes, the life of a mum. Mum at work.

Matt Edmundson: Mum at work. Brilliant. Listen, so much for joining us this week. Hopefully you've got something out of this. Stuff you can implement in your own podcast.[00:20:00]

Thank you so much for joining us. Don't know why I did that stupid voice, but thank you so much for joining us. It's been great. We'll see you next time. Bye for now.

Sadaf Beynon: And that brings us to the end of today's episode at PodJunction. If you've enjoyed the insights from this episode and want to hear the full conversation with today's special guest, don't forget to visit podjunction. com where you'll find more information about how you can join PodJunction Cohort.

Whether you listen while on the go or in a quiet moment, thank you for letting us talk. Remember, every episode is a chance to gain insights and to transform your business with podcasting. So keep on tuning in, keep on learning, and until next time, happy [00:21:00] podcasting.