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#9: How to Boost Your Podcast's Earnings With Show Sponsors
Episode 913th February 2024 • Podjunction • Sadaf Beynon and Matt Edmundson
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Welcome to Podjunction, where we delve into the intricacies of using podcasting as a tool for business growth. In this episode, we're joined by the phenomenal Chloe Thomas, a seasoned podcaster known for her successful forays into the eCommerce space with shows like eCommerce Master Plan and Keep Optimising. Chloe shares her invaluable insights on leveraging podcast sponsorships to elevate your podcast's earnings.

In this episode, you'll discover:

  • The importance of identifying the purpose behind your podcast and how self-sponsorship can drive your show's success.
  • The myth of needing a massive audience for sponsorship and the power of an engaged audience.
  • Strategic tips for attracting sponsors and maximizing your podcast revenue, even with a smaller listener base.
  • Chloe Thomas's journey in the podcasting world, her approach to securing sponsors, and how she has made sponsorship a key revenue stream for her podcasts.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Self-Sponsorship: Understanding the intrinsic value of your podcast and aligning it with your business goals.
  2. Engaged Audience: Focusing on engagement rather than sheer numbers can make your podcast more attractive to potential sponsors.
  3. Niche Positioning: Carving out a specific niche can significantly increase the value of your podcast to sponsors, especially in industries with high customer value.

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About Our Guest:

Chloe Thomas is a podcasting powerhouse and a leading voice in the eCommerce community. Through her podcasts, Chloe has helped countless business owners and marketers optimise their online presence and drive growth through actionable insights and expert advice.

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Chloe Thomas:

Transcripts

Sadaf Beynon:

Welcome to Podjunction, where business meets podcasting.

Sadaf Beynon:

Whether you're on a morning jog, driving to work, whipping up a meal, or just

Sadaf Beynon:

taking a moment for yourself, our weekly bite sized episodes promise fresh

Sadaf Beynon:

insights from successful podcasters who have cracked the code of using

Sadaf Beynon:

podcasts to grow their business.

Sadaf Beynon:

So whether you're a podcasting newbie or seasoned podcaster,

Sadaf Beynon:

grab your notebooks and get ready.

Matt Edmundson:

Welcome to Podjunction.

Matt Edmundson:

My name is Matt Edmundson, one of the hosts here, but I'm

Matt Edmundson:

definitely not the chief host.

Matt Edmundson:

The chief host is this beautiful lady sat beside me, Sadaf Beynon.

Sadaf Beynon:

What was that?

Sadaf Beynon:

It's me.

Matt Edmundson:

Oh, if there's ever a reason to watch the video version

Matt Edmundson:

of this podcast, you just, that's

Sadaf Beynon:

it right

Matt Edmundson:

there.

Matt Edmundson:

That's awesome.

Matt Edmundson:

Welcome to the show.

Matt Edmundson:

We are a show where we talk about podcasting, how to use

Matt Edmundson:

podcasting to grow our business.

Matt Edmundson:

So yeah, if you use, if you've got a business and you're

Matt Edmundson:

trying to grow it with podcasts.

Matt Edmundson:

You're at the right place.

Matt Edmundson:

So we're going to chat all about that today.

Matt Edmundson:

The way the show works is we have a guest come on.

Matt Edmundson:

We do an interview with guests who basically have podcasts and they

Matt Edmundson:

tell us all their little secrets.

Matt Edmundson:

We'll play a clip from that interview and then we chat about that clip and the sort

Matt Edmundson:

of key things that we can learn from it.

Matt Edmundson:

And usually Sadaf makes fun of me somehow along the way

Matt Edmundson:

or is it the other way around?

Matt Edmundson:

I can't remember.

Sadaf Beynon:

I'm sure it's me making fun of

Matt Edmundson:

you.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, probably.

Matt Edmundson:

Let's just go with that.

Matt Edmundson:

Let's just run with that as a theory.

Matt Edmundson:

Welcome to the show.

Matt Edmundson:

It's great to have you with us.

Matt Edmundson:

And today we have coming up.

Sadaf Beynon:

We have Chloe Thomas, who is a podcast host of eCommerce Master Plan,

Sadaf Beynon:

which is one of them, one of her podcasts.

Sadaf Beynon:

Yeah, she's got quite a few.

Sadaf Beynon:

Yeah.

Sadaf Beynon:

The other one that is quite popular is Keep Optimising and I'm sure

Sadaf Beynon:

there's another one in there.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

She started one about sustainability and the name will

Matt Edmundson:

come back to me at some point.

Matt Edmundson:

But yeah she's an absolute legend, Chloe.

Matt Edmundson:

You can't help but like Chloe.

Matt Edmundson:

Yes.

Matt Edmundson:

She's just lovely and in fact, I remember when I first started out doing eCommerce

Matt Edmundson:

podcasting, Chloe and I connected quite early on in my in my journey.

Matt Edmundson:

And she's one of those people that is so generous and open with her

Matt Edmundson:

knowledge and information about things.

Matt Edmundson:

Even though in, in a lot of ways we would be seen as competitors because

Matt Edmundson:

we both do eCommerce podcasts.

Matt Edmundson:

If I've ever had a question.

Matt Edmundson:

Chloe's one of those people that I would have no dramas asking and

Matt Edmundson:

I, cause I don't think she'd have any issue telling me the answer.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, which is really nice, actually.

Matt Edmundson:

It's really lovely when podcasters from the same space get on together like that.

Matt Edmundson:

And actually Chloe was.

Matt Edmundson:

Instrumental in putting together a little a swee a little Get a group.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

A contingent.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

A gaggle, maybe.

Matt Edmundson:

Of e-commerce.

Matt Edmundson:

Podcasters.

Matt Edmundson:

So she contacted all of the podcasters in the UK that we knew

Matt Edmundson:

about that were podcasting in this space and said, let's get together.

Matt Edmundson:

And a bunch of us did.

Matt Edmundson:

And we've done it a few times.

Matt Edmundson:

It's been great.

Matt Edmundson:

So it's been good, hasn't it?

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

. So that's Chloe's an absolute legend.

Sadaf Beynon:

Yeah.

Sadaf Beynon:

And today she's talking to us about podcasting for sponsorship.

Matt Edmundson:

Ah.

Matt Edmundson:

The old question of sponsorship and podcasting.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, this actually is one of the questions I asked Chloe early on

Matt Edmundson:

when we were doing the eCommerce podcasting and people were approaching

Matt Edmundson:

us wanting to sponsor the show.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

I was like, I haven't got a clue.

Matt Edmundson:

Never thought about sponsorship.

Matt Edmundson:

It's not why we did it, to be fair.

Matt Edmundson:

So I turned to Chloe and Chloe gave me a lot of good advice.

Matt Edmundson:

So you're going to want to listen up to this.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, for sure.

Matt Edmundson:

All right.

Matt Edmundson:

Should we do it?

Matt Edmundson:

Wait.

Sadaf Beynon:

Sorry.

Sadaf Beynon:

Before we get going.

Sadaf Beynon:

Question, Matt, I wondered what is the most silliest thing you believed,

Sadaf Beynon:

or you believed in as a child, or,

Matt Edmundson:

the silliest thing I believed in as a child?

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

What's this got to do with podcasting?

Matt Edmundson:

I don't know.

Matt Edmundson:

This is just a random question.

Matt Edmundson:

You can make the connection here.

Sadaf Beynon:

That's up to you.

Matt Edmundson:

Silliest thing I believed as a child, goodness me.

Matt Edmundson:

There are certain things that I could say, but that I shouldn't just in case

Matt Edmundson:

there are certain people of a certain generation listening to the show.

Matt Edmundson:

The obvious ones aside, um, you know what?

Matt Edmundson:

I grew up in the eighties, right?

Matt Edmundson:

And the eighties were just this magical time.

Matt Edmundson:

And I remember watching.

Matt Edmundson:

This TV show called The Red Hand Gang.

Matt Edmundson:

If you're from a certain era like I am, you may be familiar with this TV

Matt Edmundson:

show and in that TV show the chief protagonist this the sort of leader of

Matt Edmundson:

the gang you I think his name was Richie.

Matt Edmundson:

He had a computer which he called Ralph, right?

Matt Edmundson:

Ralph.

Matt Edmundson:

And I'm tying this into podcasting.

Matt Edmundson:

I just realized how I'm going to do this.

Matt Edmundson:

So someone's bringing this round.

Matt Edmundson:

And what would happen in the Red Hand Gang is Richie would talk to his

Matt Edmundson:

computer like Ralph was a real person and he would ask Ralph questions and

Matt Edmundson:

Ralph would give him the answers.

Matt Edmundson:

Okay.

Matt Edmundson:

You couldn't do this, not in the 1980s, it was a ridiculous thing to do.

Matt Edmundson:

Computers were definitely not that powerful, but I believed that they could.

Matt Edmundson:

So I started to write computer code.

Matt Edmundson:

I tried to, I learned how to write programs so that Ralph would be able

Matt Edmundson:

to respond to some of my questions.

Matt Edmundson:

And so I could, I even called it Ralph, I called my computer Ralph.

Matt Edmundson:

And I would type the questions away and it would answer.

Matt Edmundson:

And so I had this belief somehow, back then, that stuff like computers talking

Matt Edmundson:

things like bikes flying, things like Street Hawk and Knight Rider and Airwolf.

Matt Edmundson:

They were all possible.

Matt Edmundson:

And, that there were really people like Hannibal and B.

Matt Edmundson:

A.

Matt Edmundson:

that never actually shot anybody and never really got shot.

Matt Edmundson:

With a welding torch in the back, I don't know, welding torch and a bit

Matt Edmundson:

of metal, they could create a tank.

Matt Edmundson:

You just believed all of those things, didn't you?

Matt Edmundson:

And it's when you get older, you go, maybe they're not so true.

Matt Edmundson:

Although Ralph.

Matt Edmundson:

It's now possible because we have things like, I don't want to

Matt Edmundson:

say, Siri just in case everyone's phone's stuck and your phone's

Sadaf Beynon:

going to come alive.

Matt Edmundson:

And Michael Knight used to stand in the corner, didn't he?

Matt Edmundson:

And he'd talk to his watch and he'd go, Kit, and Kit would respond to him.

Matt Edmundson:

And you can now, I can now do the talk through my watch thing.

Matt Edmundson:

Cause I've got the iPhone, the Apple watch thing.

Matt Edmundson:

And so some of these things.

Matt Edmundson:

Have actually come to pass with technology.

Matt Edmundson:

What?

Matt Edmundson:

Wanted to get in on the conversation, see what's in you, obviously, there you go,

Matt Edmundson:

let's turn that off, And so while some of it was fairy tales, actually just with

Matt Edmundson:

technology, it's come about but yes, I'm still waiting for my car with turbo boost.

Sadaf Beynon:

I like that.

Sadaf Beynon:

Thank you, Matt, for bringing it around for us.

Matt Edmundson:

Somebody had to.

Matt Edmundson:

Anyway, should we listen to Chloe?

Matt Edmundson:

Yes, we should.

Matt Edmundson:

Here's Chloe.

Matt Edmundson:

And one of the reasons I love talking to you, Chloe, apart from the fact you're

Matt Edmundson:

just awesome, is a lot of the podcasters I talk to, they are in agency podcasting.

Matt Edmundson:

Or they have a business and they are podcasting as a result of that too.

Matt Edmundson:

Usually the theory is I'm a marketing agency, I'm going to do a podcast on

Matt Edmundson:

marketing, I'm going to become, I'm going to go and get 10, 000 listeners,

Matt Edmundson:

10, 000 people will then understand who I am as a marketing agency.

Matt Edmundson:

So at some point they'll funnel through to us if and when they're

Matt Edmundson:

looking for a marketing agency, the standard theory, right?

Matt Edmundson:

Whereas for you, actually your podcasting is your business.

Matt Edmundson:

It's not, you're not doing this because you've got a marketing agency.

Matt Edmundson:

You're not going on and going, hi, this is eCommerce Masterplan sponsored

Matt Edmundson:

by Chloe's marketing company.

Matt Edmundson:

Which is quite unique in a lot of people, a lot of podcasters that

Matt Edmundson:

I know, you're actually using podcasting to create an income.

Matt Edmundson:

So how do you do that?

Matt Edmundson:

What's your, what's the main source of the income, if you don't mind me asking?

Chloe Thomas:

It's sponsorship.

Chloe Thomas:

It's as simple as that.

Chloe Thomas:

And for us, sponsorship are the ads that go out in the episodes.

Chloe Thomas:

So on Keep Optimizing, we take up to two sponsors per month.

Chloe Thomas:

So they're usually tied in.

Chloe Thomas:

She says, usually.

Chloe Thomas:

It was Klaviyo until December.

Chloe Thomas:

They sponsored the whole of Keep Optimizing until December.

Chloe Thomas:

Now in the new shiny world of 2023, we're getting sponsors that align

Chloe Thomas:

with the subject we're talking about.

Chloe Thomas:

And they can take a, an exclusive one for that month

Chloe Thomas:

because it's a topic based show.

Chloe Thomas:

We've just in the middle of, as we record this, we're in the

Chloe Thomas:

middle of Marketing Attribution Month, which is being sponsored

Chloe Thomas:

by Triple Whale, who are the big.

Chloe Thomas:

Advertising, tracking, attribution people.

Chloe Thomas:

So they've taken exclusivity for the whole month.

Chloe Thomas:

So that's what we do on Keep Optimising.

Chloe Thomas:

On eCommerce Masterplan, we have currently have three ad slots per episode.

Chloe Thomas:

So if one person goes in the pre roll, which is just after my intro, and then

Chloe Thomas:

two people can go in the mid roll that.

Chloe Thomas:

I am working on rejigging it again because up until last year

Chloe Thomas:

I had a sponsor who took the whole year in that pre roll section.

Chloe Thomas:

So now I can't, until I find another one to do that, I'm, I've

Chloe Thomas:

got a little bit too much capacity.

Chloe Thomas:

So I want to streamline it to keep the earning per episode where I

Chloe Thomas:

want the earning per episode to be.

Chloe Thomas:

So it's always exciting.

Chloe Thomas:

There's always something to be tweaking with it.

Chloe Thomas:

And then we also do one sponsored.

Chloe Thomas:

Email to our audience on a Thursday that someone pays for and it's their

Chloe Thomas:

message that goes out in the email.

Chloe Thomas:

So those are our three happening every week advertising income opportunities

Chloe Thomas:

and then occasionally I run some kind of event thing that the sponsors, that we get

Chloe Thomas:

sponsors for that's a bit like a virtual.

Chloe Thomas:

Historically, they've been virtual summits.

Chloe Thomas:

This year, they're going to be a bit different because I think the virtual

Chloe Thomas:

summit space is a bit jam packed, and I can't compete in that space, so we're

Chloe Thomas:

doing something different and that is where the sponsors essentially they're

Chloe Thomas:

break even events where I put all the sponsors money back into marketing

Chloe Thomas:

in order to grow my own list, to keep the whole thing chugging along.

Chloe Thomas:

So yeah it's basically purely and simply sponsorship of

Chloe Thomas:

advertising space on the stuff

Matt Edmundson:

we do.

Matt Edmundson:

And how have you, um I don't do sponsorship necessarily on our podcast.

Matt Edmundson:

People have reached out to us and asked us to sponsor.

Matt Edmundson:

We've done a few sponsors.

Matt Edmundson:

Whether we'll do more in the future, I dare say we will but it's

Matt Edmundson:

not something that I need every week in my podcast because like

Matt Edmundson:

many, it's part of my business.

Matt Edmundson:

It's not my source of income.

Chloe Thomas:

And it's really important to decide whether you're

Chloe Thomas:

going to do sponsorship or not.

Chloe Thomas:

One of the reasons we didn't do it for the first two, three years of eCommerce

Chloe Thomas:

Masterplan was because I couldn't, I didn't have a big enough audience

Chloe Thomas:

to charge a number at which I was willing to put an ad in the episode.

Chloe Thomas:

Both for the effort it would be to create the ad and to edit it in and the way

Chloe Thomas:

that would affect the, the processes we went through, timings wise on the show.

Chloe Thomas:

But also the, fundamentally, if you're listening and you're

Chloe Thomas:

in the UK, watching the BBC is great because there's no adverts.

Chloe Thomas:

I was like, I'm not going to abuse my audience's ears until it's worth my while.

Chloe Thomas:

If someone wants to pay me 10 an episode.

Chloe Thomas:

It's not worth the effort, and it's not worth, abusing

Chloe Thomas:

the audience's listenership.

Chloe Thomas:

And if you're someone who's running a podcast to generate brand awareness

Chloe Thomas:

for your own agency, I think you have to really think hard about, do

Chloe Thomas:

you want a sponsor in that episode?

Chloe Thomas:

Because it, every single call to action you put in that episode reduces the

Chloe Thomas:

impact of each individual call to action.

Chloe Thomas:

So I think, I was always very clear I wanted it to be, I wanted the business

Chloe Thomas:

to move towards being advertising, money, heavy, but in the right, but even then,

Chloe Thomas:

I refused sponsorships for a while.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

So how, from your point of view and I appreciate this is from your point

Matt Edmundson:

of view, Chloe, what size audience did you need to attain before

Matt Edmundson:

sponsorship became a viable option?

Chloe Thomas:

See that is Such a difficult question to answer because it depends

Chloe Thomas:

on so much more than your podcast.

Chloe Thomas:

If you're doing like a yoga, I always pick on yoga.

Chloe Thomas:

If you're doing a yoga podcast or a general interest podcast, you've got to

Chloe Thomas:

be getting thousands of listeners before it's worth talking to any advertisers,

Chloe Thomas:

generally speaking, and you're going to be earning a pretty low CPM.

Chloe Thomas:

Like an industry standard CPM.

Chloe Thomas:

So cost per million listens.

Chloe Thomas:

Oh, so per thousand, listen, per thousand.

Chloe Thomas:

Yeah.

Chloe Thomas:

In, when you're in a sector like eCommerce, because of the economics of the

Chloe Thomas:

sector, you can earn an awful lot more.

Chloe Thomas:

If I was earning that CPM, I would have to do another job.

Chloe Thomas:

, let's just put it that way.

Chloe Thomas:

And my podcast wouldn't have any sponsorship on them, and

Chloe Thomas:

I'd probably only be doing one.

Chloe Thomas:

But because I'm in a sector where.

Chloe Thomas:

There's a whole ecosystem of SaaS companies, so software companies who

Chloe Thomas:

want to get in front of eCommerce brands, and it's hard to do that, then

Chloe Thomas:

there is the opportunity to do it.

Chloe Thomas:

Keep optimising, get 250 listens in the first 28 days for each episode,

Chloe Thomas:

eCommerce Masterplan gets 1, 000.

Chloe Thomas:

So you can make, you can certainly cover your podcasting costs, including your own

Chloe Thomas:

time, for 250 listens per episode in the first 28 days, which is the rough industry

Chloe Thomas:

standard for counting these things.

Chloe Thomas:

Obviously, if you get it to a thousand, you make a bit more money.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, it's a bit more interesting for people, isn't it?

Matt Edmundson:

It's it is a fascinating one, isn't it?

Matt Edmundson:

Because I I get what you're saying that there are certain industries where

Matt Edmundson:

actually the value of your sponsorship is very different to, say, a yoga podcast.

Matt Edmundson:

What?

Chloe Thomas:

Even sorry, spoke up.

Chloe Thomas:

But even with my ep, my podcasts, if I did a, if I had a Shopify podcast, so

Chloe Thomas:

90% of my listeners were on the Shopify platform, whereas mine are across all

Chloe Thomas:

the platforms in e-commerce, and I had.

Chloe Thomas:

80 percent listenership in the USA, I could probably charge a lot more

Chloe Thomas:

than I do, but because I have a global audience that's split across different

Chloe Thomas:

business sizes, and But if you wanted to get really hard nosed about it,

Chloe Thomas:

you're right, everyone wants people selling this amount of merchandise

Chloe Thomas:

a month, and they want them to be on the Shopify platform has the biggest

Chloe Thomas:

ecosystem, so they want Shopify sellers who are doing over a million a year.

Chloe Thomas:

If you went laser focused on that and who are based in the US, you

Chloe Thomas:

could charge an awful lot more than if you were doing what I'm doing.

Chloe Thomas:

So even within a sector, it becomes Quite interesting how you structure

Sadaf Beynon:

it.

Sadaf Beynon:

If you're intrigued and want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out

Sadaf Beynon:

PodJunction Cohort, where you can listen to the complete interview and much more.

Sadaf Beynon:

Simply visit thepodjunction.

Sadaf Beynon:

com for more information about how to join.

Matt Edmundson:

Welcome back.

Matt Edmundson:

Thank you, Chloe, for coming on the show.

Matt Edmundson:

Always a legend.

Matt Edmundson:

Always love talking to Chloe, like I said at the start.

Matt Edmundson:

And did you, listener, did you notice that subtle ad roll

Matt Edmundson:

straight after Chloe's talk?

Matt Edmundson:

Oh, yes.

Matt Edmundson:

Subtle as a brick in the face, right?

Matt Edmundson:

But it's just but yeah we obviously have that ad role there in the middle of the

Matt Edmundson:

talk, the mid roll ad, they call it.

Matt Edmundson:

But yeah, what did you think to that, Miss Beynon, or Mrs.

Matt Edmundson:

Beynon?

Matt Edmundson:

Really

Sadaf Beynon:

interesting, actually, because we haven't, as you've said

Sadaf Beynon:

before, too, we haven't ever done, we haven't really gone down this road before.

Sadaf Beynon:

A little bit we have.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, a few people have reached out and we've

Matt Edmundson:

tried sponsorship, haven't we?

Sadaf Beynon:

But it hasn't been something we

Matt Edmundson:

just do.

Matt Edmundson:

No, and one thing that I do know about Chloe is because her main

Matt Edmundson:

income is sponsorship, she works a lot at getting sponsors onto the show.

Matt Edmundson:

Whereas we don't.

Matt Edmundson:

If people come to us and want to sponsor it, We might say yes, we might say no,

Matt Edmundson:

we're not entirely sure, it depends on who you are and et cetera, et cetera.

Matt Edmundson:

But we don't spend time going out trying to get sponsors for the show because

Matt Edmundson:

that's not the purpose of our show.

Matt Edmundson:

That's not why we did it.

Matt Edmundson:

But I know Chloe does, right?

Matt Edmundson:

So I think if you go down that sponsorship road it's not a case of

Matt Edmundson:

build it and they would, they will come, like the field of dreams thinking.

Matt Edmundson:

I think if you've got a massive audience, people will start to reach out to you.

Matt Edmundson:

Other than that, there might be a little bit of hustle and grind that you've got to

Matt Edmundson:

do to go and get the, yeah, the sponsors.

Sadaf Beynon:

Yeah.

Sadaf Beynon:

It struck me though how she was talking about depending on I've got it here.

Sadaf Beynon:

The, like the changing dynamics of the audience.

Sadaf Beynon:

She has to adjust the ad structure.

Sadaf Beynon:

Yeah.

Sadaf Beynon:

So it's something you really have to be on the ball about.

Sadaf Beynon:

Yeah, you do.

Sadaf Beynon:

Like you can't just be like, okay, this is how I, this is the structure

Sadaf Beynon:

of my podcast and just let it run.

Matt Edmundson:

No.

Matt Edmundson:

And Chloe's always tweaking it as well.

Matt Edmundson:

And I guess if you listen to her shows, it'll be different

Matt Edmundson:

to what she talked about.

Matt Edmundson:

Mainly because when we recorded this, it was a few months ago, but she's constantly

Matt Edmundson:

tweaking constantly away because fundamentally for sponsorship to work.

Matt Edmundson:

You have to have an engaged audience because that's what sponsors by repeat.

Matt Edmundson:

So if you can get a sponsor for one show we've turned, do you remember

Matt Edmundson:

we had people approaches and ask if they could sponsor a show because they

Matt Edmundson:

thought and it was mainly agencies trying to get set up and running.

Matt Edmundson:

They're like if we sponsor your show, you could promote our eCommerce agency.

Matt Edmundson:

And we could, we will therefore get sales off the back of that.

Matt Edmundson:

This is what they're thinking, right?

Matt Edmundson:

You've got an audience, thousands of people listen to your show, which they do.

Matt Edmundson:

Could we sponsor that?

Matt Edmundson:

And I had to say, I remember saying to them, listen, you're more

Matt Edmundson:

than welcome to sponsor the show.

Matt Edmundson:

You're going to have to get out of thinking sponsoring of one

Matt Edmundson:

show because podcast advertising is not really about sales.

Matt Edmundson:

It's more about brand awareness, right?

Matt Edmundson:

It's more about getting the name known out there.

Matt Edmundson:

As we all know, it's just that constant, and you've got to, for an advertiser

Matt Edmundson:

who's going to advertise on your show, really they've got to do it.

Matt Edmundson:

Repetition in advertising is a great thing, isn't it?

Matt Edmundson:

And I think, so when agencies have approached us in the past and said,

Matt Edmundson:

Oh, can we sponsor an episode?

Matt Edmundson:

How much is that?

Matt Edmundson:

And we've gone it's going to be whatever, 700 bucks.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

They're like okay, we could do that because we'll get two or three

Matt Edmundson:

clients and I'll pay for that.

Matt Edmundson:

And I'm like, no, you won't, unless you're like really lucky.

Matt Edmundson:

I don't think that's, what's going to happen on.

Matt Edmundson:

And I think you'll probably find that if you just do one, it's

Matt Edmundson:

just going to be a waste of time.

Matt Edmundson:

And we have said that to people.

Matt Edmundson:

We've turned people away because I think it's a different form, but the bottom

Matt Edmundson:

line is for advertisers to invest in sponsorship of podcasts, they all realize

Matt Edmundson:

actually podcasting is very top of funnel.

Matt Edmundson:

It's very brand awareness.

Matt Edmundson:

It's a long road and you've got to be, it does work, but you've got to be

Matt Edmundson:

committed to the cause and you've got to have some deep pockets to throw at it.

Matt Edmundson:

. And and so that sponsorship, that company is looking for an

Matt Edmundson:

engaged audience, basically.

Matt Edmundson:

. If your audience is constantly, it's not established, it's Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Like changes every week.

Matt Edmundson:

They're like we're not interested.

Matt Edmundson:

'cause we can't build something with, yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, Chloe was totally right about the audience.

Matt Edmundson:

Keeping the audience engaged, keeping that in mind.

Matt Edmundson:

Super, super critical when it comes to sponsorship.

Matt Edmundson:

I had a question.

Matt Edmundson:

No doubt, Sadaf actually means I have a question.

Sadaf Beynon:

So she talked about, I can't remember exactly how it all went,

Sadaf Beynon:

but basically she's got more than one podcast that she has sponsors for.

Sadaf Beynon:

So is she basically saying that you can, it is possible to hit a ceiling when it

Sadaf Beynon:

comes to earning money from a sponsor?

Sadaf Beynon:

On a given podcast?

Sadaf Beynon:

Yes

Matt Edmundson:

and no.

Matt Edmundson:

And I think it depends again on your strategy.

Matt Edmundson:

So I think realistically with something like eCommerce Masterplan, there's a, when

Matt Edmundson:

you do an eCommerce Podcast or a podcast, which is quite specialist like that, there

Matt Edmundson:

is going to be the initial growth, right?

Matt Edmundson:

And you're going to grow your audience.

Matt Edmundson:

But sometimes it's easier to do a new podcast.

Matt Edmundson:

Then it is to try and grow that next 10 percent on an existing podcast, right?

Matt Edmundson:

So there's a law of diminishing returns, isn't there?

Matt Edmundson:

So you can grow quite quickly at the start, but then it slows down.

Matt Edmundson:

It's not our experience.

Matt Edmundson:

We decided the opposite way.

Matt Edmundson:

So I think your audience can grow and it can get bigger.

Matt Edmundson:

But again, I think for you as a business, you as a company, you've

Matt Edmundson:

got to look at the sort of the economics of that and ask yourself.

Matt Edmundson:

Now I know what I'm doing with my sponsorship.

Matt Edmundson:

And Chloe was really smart on this, I thought, because

Matt Edmundson:

she had a list of sponsors.

Matt Edmundson:

She knew people who wanted to sponsor the show, and they

Matt Edmundson:

wanted to sponsor more shows.

Matt Edmundson:

So she creates more shows for them to sponsor.

Matt Edmundson:

And I think it's in a niche like eCommerce to do two eCommerce podcasts that focus

Matt Edmundson:

on two different themes that attract similar but slightly different audiences.

Matt Edmundson:

I thought was genius because she already had the list of sponsor.

Matt Edmundson:

It's not like she went and did a podcast, one on e-commerce and one in gardening.

Matt Edmundson:

. Do you know what I mean?

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Where you've gotta rethink that whole thing.

Matt Edmundson:

So I thought for, from Chloe's point of view, it was a very

Matt Edmundson:

smart, strategic decision.

Matt Edmundson:

Not that obviously Chloe needs my approval, but I approve of this message

Matt Edmundson:

But I again.

Matt Edmundson:

We've not created a, I say not as in not yet created a second eCommerce podcast.

Matt Edmundson:

We are talking about it but is it easier to grow an existing

Matt Edmundson:

podcast or start a new one?

Matt Edmundson:

I think only you'll know.

Matt Edmundson:

I think it depends on the market.

Matt Edmundson:

It depends on the niche.

Matt Edmundson:

It depends on the listeners.

Matt Edmundson:

I think if you do the yoga podcast that she was talking about, you

Matt Edmundson:

could just build the audience for that because every man and their

Matt Edmundson:

dog likes to do yoga, it seems.

Matt Edmundson:

Whereas the audience for eCommerce is much smaller, much, much more niche.

Matt Edmundson:

Does that answer your question?

Matt Edmundson:

It does, yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Thank you.

Matt Edmundson:

Very good.

Matt Edmundson:

So what else did you get out of that?

Sadaf Beynon:

I was curious.

Sadaf Beynon:

Curious, Matt.

Sadaf Beynon:

How did she, because she did say she didn't obviously start sponsorship right

Sadaf Beynon:

away because she had to get the right numbers and audiences and all that.

Sadaf Beynon:

Do you know, because I know you've had several conversations

Sadaf Beynon:

with her, do you know how she got to that point where she was?

Sadaf Beynon:

Ready for Sponsorship.

Sadaf Beynon:

How did she grow her audience?

Matt Edmundson:

That's the subject for a whole different Podjunction episode.

Matt Edmundson:

How do you grow your audience?

Matt Edmundson:

I think again, the thing that I would say about audience growth, I don't

Matt Edmundson:

know if you pick this up with Chloe, her Keep Optimising Podcast has

Matt Edmundson:

250 downloads in the first 28 days.

Matt Edmundson:

So let's just say on average, that's 10 downloads a day for the first, 28 days.

Matt Edmundson:

Obviously, it won't be like that.

Matt Edmundson:

It'll be much more stacked at the front.

Matt Edmundson:

When it's released the thing about that, what that tells me is you don't need a

Matt Edmundson:

large audience to make it work for you.

Matt Edmundson:

As in you don't, some people think I've got to have an

Matt Edmundson:

audience for a hundred thousand.

Matt Edmundson:

I've got to get a hundred thousand downloads a month to make this worthwhile.

Matt Edmundson:

And the answer to that question is yes, if you're going down the traditional route.

Matt Edmundson:

So on any eCommerce platform.

Matt Edmundson:

Sorry, any podcasting platform, let's talk about the right niche here.

Matt Edmundson:

So if you take any podcasting platform, for example, we use Captivate, right?

Matt Edmundson:

They don't sponsor this show.

Matt Edmundson:

Captivate, you totally should sponsor the show.

Matt Edmundson:

But we're big fans of Captivate and you can definitely check them out captivate.

Matt Edmundson:

fm.

Matt Edmundson:

We love what they do.

Matt Edmundson:

They have this ability to build in ads pretty easily, right?

Matt Edmundson:

And you can go to.

Matt Edmundson:

Add buying platforms.

Matt Edmundson:

There are places that you can go where you can go, these are the kind of

Matt Edmundson:

people that I'm looking for and they'll sponsor your show and they will pay you.

Matt Edmundson:

I think the average rate is 34 bucks CPM.

Matt Edmundson:

I think that's what it is from memory.

Matt Edmundson:

Last time I checked 34, 37, something like that.

Matt Edmundson:

So CPM cost per million, right?

Matt Edmundson:

So for every per thousand, it's a French meal every time it messes with my head.

Matt Edmundson:

So the cost per thousand.

Matt Edmundson:

If you get 34 bucks standard per 1, 000 downloads, now bear in mind, most

Matt Edmundson:

podcasts don't have over 250, let alone 1, 000, but let's say, her most popular

Matt Edmundson:

podcast has 1, 000 downloads a month or ours, let's say ours has 1, 000 downloads

Matt Edmundson:

a month and I can get 34 bucks a month or 34 bucks per podcast on average,

Matt Edmundson:

I've got to do a lot of podcasts, right?

Matt Edmundson:

Or I've got to have a big audience.

Matt Edmundson:

So if I get paid 34 bucks, but I've got 100, 000 that's

Matt Edmundson:

very different then, isn't it?

Matt Edmundson:

Because I'm getting paid whatever, three and a half grand just working

Matt Edmundson:

my very poor maths, times 34 by 100, 3400, three and a half thousand.

Matt Edmundson:

Is that right?

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Someone's going to prove me wrong.

Matt Edmundson:

Actually 34, 000.

Matt Edmundson:

But let's say then you're getting three and a half, 4000.

Matt Edmundson:

So You've got to have massive audience for it starts to really generate

Matt Edmundson:

any significant salary or income.

Matt Edmundson:

The way Chloe does it, which I think is much smarter is she's in a niche

Matt Edmundson:

where actually It's not really about 34 bucks per thousand downloads.

Matt Edmundson:

This is all about the value of the listener.

Matt Edmundson:

And she is quite right.

Matt Edmundson:

eCommerce is an industry where actually the value of getting

Matt Edmundson:

a customer is quite high.

Matt Edmundson:

So for someone like Clavio, who used to sponsor her podcast,

Matt Edmundson:

getting people to switch to their.

Matt Edmundson:

Clavio is an email software, by the way.

Matt Edmundson:

So if you do email marketing, we don't use it.

Matt Edmundson:

We use Clavio in our eCommerce business.

Matt Edmundson:

We do.

Matt Edmundson:

But for Podjunction we use ConvertKit, but they're all the same.

Matt Edmundson:

They do these sort of email marketing platforms.

Matt Edmundson:

So the benefits, obviously the value of a customer for Clavio is quite

Matt Edmundson:

high, really high, because I think for our eCom business, we're paying

Matt Edmundson:

like five, 600 bucks a month, that's six, seven grand a year, sterling.

Matt Edmundson:

You don't need many of those to make it work really and so they're going

Matt Edmundson:

to be a lot happier paying a much higher rate to sponsor the show as long

Matt Edmundson:

as it's obviously working for them.

Matt Edmundson:

And I think that was super smart, that whole niche thing makes sense.

Matt Edmundson:

And yeah I think sometimes the niche is better than the download

Matt Edmundson:

numbers, especially if you're looking to make an income from

Matt Edmundson:

podcasting that is sponsorship, right?

Matt Edmundson:

If that's your sole source of, like for Chloe.

Matt Edmundson:

There are other ways to make money from podcasts, obviously, and we talk

Matt Edmundson:

about a lot of those on the show, but sponsorship is probably one of the key

Matt Edmundson:

ones that people initially think about.

Matt Edmundson:

And I think with someone like, if you're doing that route where Chloe is doing

Matt Edmundson:

sponsorship, picking niches where there's going to be, where you have to, you

Matt Edmundson:

don't necessarily have to get a large audience, 250, 000 people listening to the

Matt Edmundson:

show, downloading it every month, where.

Matt Edmundson:

Where that niche is willing to pay a higher rate.

Matt Edmundson:

I think that's a clever idea.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Cool.

Matt Edmundson:

Does that answer your question?

Matt Edmundson:

It does.

Matt Edmundson:

I can't remember what your question

Sadaf Beynon:

was now.

Sadaf Beynon:

How did she grow it to that point

Matt Edmundson:

In the first place?

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Just it's, yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

You don't, like I say, you don't need massive audiences and getting 250

Matt Edmundson:

people to listen to your podcast.

Matt Edmundson:

It's not, you can do that pretty straightforwardly, I would have thought

Matt Edmundson:

if 250 people aren't listening to your podcast, months we need to have

Matt Edmundson:

a conversation or there's lots more PodJunction episodes for you to consume.

Matt Edmundson:

It's probably a better way to put it but yeah, or check out some

Matt Edmundson:

of the, can I do a quick plug?

Matt Edmundson:

Yes, please do.

Matt Edmundson:

Why not?

Matt Edmundson:

Cause it's my show.

Matt Edmundson:

Oh, it's your show.

Matt Edmundson:

Actually it's your show.

Matt Edmundson:

You can do a quick plug.

Matt Edmundson:

So PodJunction Cohort if you've not checked it out, do check that out

Matt Edmundson:

because what we do is we put the full interview on Cohort and you

Matt Edmundson:

can listen to that entire interview.

Matt Edmundson:

We do charge a small fee for it.

Matt Edmundson:

That's how we make money.

Matt Edmundson:

That's how we pay the light bill and put it out and that's how

Matt Edmundson:

you can support this channel.

Matt Edmundson:

When I say small, it's I want to say four bucks a month.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

It's tiny, small and you get to listen to the full episode,

Matt Edmundson:

which a full episode, the full interview, which is always useful.

Matt Edmundson:

But of course, from our point of view, how we make money out of this, it's not

Matt Edmundson:

on charging someone four bucks a month.

Matt Edmundson:

Is it?

Matt Edmundson:

Let's be real.

Matt Edmundson:

And they sponsor the show.

Matt Edmundson:

So PodJunction Cohort is our own thing and we use that mainly as the show sponsor.

Matt Edmundson:

Although, like I say, Captivate FM, do reach out, I will have a

Matt Edmundson:

conversation but but obviously that for us, that's very top of funnel.

Matt Edmundson:

So you'll start going along to Podjunction Cohort.

Matt Edmundson:

We hope you like the stuff you might do, might take one of our courses.

Matt Edmundson:

We've got two courses coming out.

Matt Edmundson:

One's a hundred bucks.

Matt Edmundson:

One's going to be like 900 bucks.

Matt Edmundson:

We also have a podjunction, a podcasting service, which we offer business

Matt Edmundson:

clients here, strategy meetings, which we charge anywhere from three

Matt Edmundson:

to five grand, I think, for the initial consultation depending on

Matt Edmundson:

when this is coming out, prices may have changed, do not hold me to those.

Matt Edmundson:

So you can see, we have a very clear funnel and podcasting is

Matt Edmundson:

very much the top of our funnel.

Matt Edmundson:

And that's how we make money from it.

Matt Edmundson:

But with Chloe and sponsorship, we don't be, yeah, don't need big numbers.

Matt Edmundson:

But it's quite a fun road to go down.

Matt Edmundson:

I think you can make it work.

Matt Edmundson:

Very interesting.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah, totes, totes.

Matt Edmundson:

Very interesting.

Matt Edmundson:

Key takeaways.

Sadaf Beynon:

For me, we don't do sponsorship, but I did,

Matt Edmundson:

I did.

Matt Edmundson:

That's not true.

Matt Edmundson:

We sponsor our own podcast.

Matt Edmundson:

I think that's a really good.

Matt Edmundson:

I think it's the reason why I want to be so pedantic about this because not only

Matt Edmundson:

will it please my eldest son, who is the most pedantic person on the planet.

Matt Edmundson:

The reason I want to be so pedantic about this is because actually.

Matt Edmundson:

You have to see it that way.

Matt Edmundson:

If someone's not paying you to sponsor your show, you are paying for it, right?

Matt Edmundson:

So there has to be a reason for that show.

Matt Edmundson:

There has to be a purpose.

Matt Edmundson:

So what is that purpose?

Matt Edmundson:

So if you think about yourself as a sponsor, for us, it's to grow our

Matt Edmundson:

membership, it's to grow our courses, it's to get people into, as long as we

Matt Edmundson:

understand what that is, we can understand if the show has been successful.

Matt Edmundson:

And so it's like Michael Gerber always says, if you build a business and

Matt Edmundson:

you're not selling that business.

Matt Edmundson:

, then you are buying it.

Matt Edmundson:

You are trading your time, your effort, your energy into that business.

Matt Edmundson:

And so is the exchange worth it?

Matt Edmundson:

Yes or no?

Matt Edmundson:

And I think you have to think about that with your podcast is

Matt Edmundson:

like, if I am, if I don't have an official sponsor, I am the sponsor.

Matt Edmundson:

As the sponsor.

Matt Edmundson:

Am I happy with what the podcast is producing for us?

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Does that make sense?

Matt Edmundson:

It does.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

So sorry to No, be pedantic.

Matt Edmundson:

No,

Sadaf Beynon:

that's fine.

Sadaf Beynon:

So I'll get to what Matt just said.

Sadaf Beynon:

That's my key takeaway.

Sadaf Beynon:

Yeah.

Sadaf Beynon:

No.

Sadaf Beynon:

My key takeaway based on what Matt just said is that yes, we need to be aware

Sadaf Beynon:

of our listeners and our audience.

Sadaf Beynon:

So if we need to make tweaks to the content we're putting out, we need

Sadaf Beynon:

to be aware of that instead, let go.

Sadaf Beynon:

We like it this way, so

Matt Edmundson:

this is what we're doing.

Matt Edmundson:

Yeah.

Matt Edmundson:

Very good.

Matt Edmundson:

And for me, key takeaway, you don't need nu, you don't need

Matt Edmundson:

massive numbers to make this work.

Matt Edmundson:

You just need an engaged audience.

Matt Edmundson:

So if you focus on building an engaged audience.

Matt Edmundson:

It can work really well for you.

Matt Edmundson:

So yeah, key takeaways.

Matt Edmundson:

Chloe, you're a legend.

Matt Edmundson:

Absolute legend.

Matt Edmundson:

You are awesome.

Matt Edmundson:

In fact, can I say that?

Matt Edmundson:

It's not my show.

Matt Edmundson:

You can say that.

Matt Edmundson:

You can say that.

Matt Edmundson:

The reason why I'm joking about this is on every single podcast

Matt Edmundson:

that is technically mine.

Matt Edmundson:

Podjunction, I don't think is mine.

Matt Edmundson:

I think it's more Sadaf's baby.

Matt Edmundson:

I do this thing at the end where I go, in case no one's told you

Matt Edmundson:

yet today, let me be the first.

Matt Edmundson:

You are awesome.

Matt Edmundson:

Create it awesome.

Matt Edmundson:

It's just a burden you have to bear.

Matt Edmundson:

Chloe has to bear it.

Matt Edmundson:

I've got to bear it.

Matt Edmundson:

You've got to bear it too.

Matt Edmundson:

And he can't hold

Sadaf Beynon:

back.

Sadaf Beynon:

He can't.

Matt Edmundson:

Love it.

Matt Edmundson:

Awesome.

Matt Edmundson:

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

Matt Edmundson:

Great to see you.

Matt Edmundson:

Bye for now.

Sadaf Beynon:

And that brings us to the end of today's episode at Pod Junction

Sadaf Beynon:

where business meets podcasting.

Sadaf Beynon:

If you enjoyed the insights from today and wish to hear the full conversation

Sadaf Beynon:

with today's special guest, don't forget to visit the pod junction.com

Sadaf Beynon:

where you'll find more information about how you can join today.

Sadaf Beynon:

Whether you listen while on the go or in a quiet moment, thank you for

Sadaf Beynon:

letting us be a part of your day.

Sadaf Beynon:

Remember.

Sadaf Beynon:

Every episode is a chance to gain insights and to transform

Sadaf Beynon:

your business with podcasting.

Sadaf Beynon:

So keep tuning in, keep learning, and until next time, happy podcasting.

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