Latest / Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint / How Long Until My Podcast Pays Off? A Deep Dive into Timing & SEO

Transcript

How Long Until My Podcast Pays Off? A Deep Dive into Timing & SEO · Closing Sales in Nigeria - Sales For The Nigerian Business Person: The Sales and Marketing Blueprint

• 0:01
  Hello and welcome to the show. Earlier in the day I was in a
• 0:05
  coaching episode. So I figured, let me just come
• 0:07
  over here and share some of that wisdom real quick in case there
• 0:12
  are some of you who are considering using podcasting as
• 0:16
  a tool to grow your businesses. So of course that was what the
• 0:20
  coaching session was about because there are a whole bunch
• 0:22
  of you who assume that you can use podcasting as a means of
• 0:26
  growing sales and business development.
• 0:29
  Now, when I say assume I'm, I don't mean that you guys are
• 0:33
  wrong because like, yes, podcasting can be a tool for
• 0:36
  business growth and it can be a good way to grow your sales.
• 0:41
  But a lot of us come into podcasting and other content
• 0:45
  marketing ideas having the wrong set of expectations.
• 0:50
  Content marketing or any other form of, I mean, podcasting or
• 0:56
  any other form of long form content marketing because people
• 0:59
  can do short term content marketing by putting up, you
• 1:03
  know, like all these stuff that Brain Jotter and brother Shaggy,
• 1:09
  Mr. Macron and you know, all those types.
• 1:12
  So maybe in a sense you can call that content marketing.
• 1:15
  I wouldn't agree. But if you're going beyond the
• 1:19
  short, quick, entertaining stuff and you want to start producing
• 1:23
  long form content, blog posts that are, you know, thousands of
• 1:27
  words long or podcasts that require a significant investment
• 1:31
  in time to listen to these things.
• 1:33
  Because the shortest podcast you're going to find is maybe 10
• 1:36
  minutes. And if you find a 10 minute
• 1:39
  podcaster who is putting out shows two or three times a week,
• 1:42
  you know, that is a considerable investment in in putting out
• 1:47
  content. And you know, people invest in
• 1:49
  that relationship. That's the listeners.
• 1:51
  So podcasting is considered long form content.
• 1:54
  Now. There is no long form content
• 1:56
  that is going to give you business growth in the short
• 1:59
  term. So if you're looking for money
• 2:02
  in the next two weeks, three months, six months, then
• 2:06
  podcasting is not for you. I repeat, if you are looking for
• 2:12
  money in the next two weeks, three months, six months, maybe
• 2:17
  one year, podcasting is not for you.
• 2:21
  You're going to need a considerable amount of time to
• 2:24
  create an audience, to grow the relationship, to create
• 2:29
  engagement. These things take time with
• 2:31
  podcasting. So this is something that you're
• 2:34
  going to consider. Make sure that you have the
• 2:36
  mental bandwidth and that you also have the money bandwidth to
• 2:41
  get along this ride for medium to long term.
• 2:45
  Now, when I said money, bandwidth, I don't mean you have
• 2:47
  to spend millions of naira to get your podcast going.
• 2:50
  In fact, if you want to get your podcast up and running and you
• 2:53
  decide to come through, me, I'm one of those folks who's going
• 2:56
  to tell you that, look, so long as you have an OK phone or an OK
• 3:01
  camera or an OK, whatever it is that you have, I can check your
• 3:04
  stuff. We're pretty much good to go so
• 3:06
  long as we can find a quiet spot in the house or in the office
• 3:09
  that you can record and that you can get going.
• 3:12
  You do not need to spend 345 million naira buying
• 3:17
  microphones, new laptops, padded sound booth.
• 3:23
  You don't need to spend any of that to get going.
• 3:26
  In fact, one of the fact, one that pains me the most is lady
• 3:30
  who had a really interesting idea.
• 3:32
  I'm not going to say what the podcast was about, so she
• 3:34
  doesn't know that I'm talking about her, but she tricked out
• 3:37
  everything, including the house, plus the equipment, plus editor,
• 3:40
  plus everything, invested all that money, and then now it's
• 3:44
  been a year. How many podcast episodes has
• 3:47
  you dropped? Maybe like 5.
• 3:50
  Anyway, let me move on from that.
• 3:52
  So it's going to need a considerable investment in time
• 3:57
  and the money. So when I say money, it's not
• 4:00
  that you need to buy expensive equipment, but you need the
• 4:03
  money because you have to pay for the bills.
• 4:05
  You need to be paying for generator or pay for fuel, pay
• 4:08
  for Internet, what else? Pay for food, pay for school
• 4:12
  fees, you know, pay for everything while you're hoping
• 4:14
  that this podcast is going to kick off someday.
• 4:19
  So podcasting not short term, please not short term.
• 4:24
  Then another set of expectations that I want to share with you
• 4:26
  guys concerning podcasting is this.
• 4:30
  A lot of you who want to get into podcasting are thinking in
• 4:32
  terms of branding. And so because of that, you guys
• 4:34
  come up with sexy titles. And there's no problem with the
• 4:37
  sexy title, with a creative title or with a catchy title.
• 4:41
  Well, actually there is a problem.
• 4:42
  The problem is when your titles are cute or sexy or you build
• 4:46
  them around what you think your personal brand is.
• 4:49
  The thing is, for most people, nobody knows who you are just
• 4:52
  yet, so you're actually shooting yourself in the foot.
• 4:54
  Let me give myself and give you guys an example using myself.
• 4:58
  The reason why my show is called Sales for the Nigerian Business
• 5:02
  Person is because I know that podcasting is a new thing.
• 5:07
  And so if anybody's going to discover my show, it is
• 5:10
  precisely because they type in Nigeria into the podcast search
• 5:17
  because Nigerian podcasts are not especially business podcasts
• 5:20
  are hard to come by. So I know that the person is
• 5:23
  going to type in Nigeria. I know that the person might
• 5:26
  type in business. I know that the person might
• 5:29
  type in sales. Some people have found me
• 5:31
  because I typed, because they typed marketing into the search
• 5:37
  podcast. And then my show came up and
• 5:38
  that's because I put it under the marketing category.
• 5:41
  So it makes more sense to look for keywords that you think your
• 5:49
  potential listeners will be searching or your potential
• 5:52
  customers will be searching. So usually becoming at this not
• 5:56
  from a branding mindset, but come at it more from a sales
• 5:59
  mindset. So be looking at this thing more
• 6:01
  like SEO because whole point of SEO search engine optimization
• 6:05
  is to make sure that people search, find you, and then
• 6:08
  quickly become a buyer, become a customer, become a client.
• 6:14
  So take an SEO mindset when it comes to titling your show.
• 6:17
  So no fancy titles. If I called my podcast talking
• 6:21
  with Tavishima because I think Tavishima is a cool name, nobody
• 6:25
  knows who Tavishima is at this point in time.
• 6:29
  In another 5-6 years when I'm a bona fide big boy in the
• 6:33
  podcasting space in Nigeria, then yes, I can call my show
• 6:36
  whatever I want, chilling with Tavishima and then people will
• 6:39
  find me. It's like that guy Tea with Tea.
• 6:43
  I mean everybody knows who Tea is because Tea has been in the
• 6:45
  game since like been in the game for a long time, you know, doing
• 6:50
  his, his thing, small acting roles here and there, you know,
• 6:54
  shows, comedy, this kind of thing.
• 6:57
  I mean he's been doing his thing for OK from uni like this till
• 7:01
  now. I don't know, maybe it's like
• 7:03
  almost like 20 years. So when he calls his show Tea
• 7:07
  with Tea, people know him. I has already popped off on
• 7:11
  Instagram, Ebonylife and then all these other things.
• 7:14
  So people already know him. So T with T actually means
• 7:18
  something. Somebody can actually say, oh, I
• 7:21
  want to listen to today's podcast.
• 7:22
  And then they'll go on open the search engine and then they'll
• 7:24
  type in TA. But right now that you and I
• 7:29
  have not reached that level yet, coming up with these cute
• 7:31
  titles, you know, conversations with Joe Ogdenbe.
• 7:35
  Nobody knows who Joe Ogdenbe is yet.
• 7:38
  So give your podcast title, make your podcast, give it down on
• 7:44
  sexy title and make sure it is built around keywords that
• 7:46
  people will search for. After people search for these
• 7:49
  keywords. I listened to you for a while.
• 7:51
  Remember this is going to be medium to long term Listen to
• 7:54
  you for a while. Maybe 1-2, three years, Who
• 7:56
  knows, Maybe after four or five years when you pop off and you
• 7:58
  become a big name in the podcast in space, then you can now do
• 8:01
  something. So that's the reason why Oprah
• 8:04
  can't name her show Whatever and people will listen because the
• 8:07
  name Oprah means something. So she can be cute, she can call
• 8:11
  her show omnipresent with Oprah and the thing will, will, will,
• 8:15
  will, you know, the thing will, will pop off and Schwarzenegger
• 8:19
  can call his podcast, you know, Whatever arm wrestling with
• 8:22
  Arnold and people will listen because Arnold Schwarzenegger
• 8:25
  means something. If Obama decides to start the
• 8:28
  podcast today and he calls it bullshitting with Obama, you
• 8:33
  think it will pop off because people know who Obama is.
• 8:35
  So let's be patient, especially when it comes to these branding
• 8:38
  plays. A whole lot of us are not there
• 8:40
  yet. You know, your name might be
• 8:42
  cute like mine, but right now nobody knows who Tava Shimai it
• 8:46
  is, realistically speaking. I mean, yes, you love the
• 8:48
  podcast and over 20,000 downloads, but realistically
• 8:52
  speaking, in the big scheme of things in Niger, nobody knows
• 8:55
  who Tava Shimai is. So coming up with some cute
• 8:58
  thing around my name because I'm doing some branding play or
• 9:01
  something like that. It's just being cute for the
• 9:04
  sake of cute. You're going to slow the
• 9:05
  progress of your show. So let's be practical.
• 9:08
  Let's put some keywords in there.
• 9:10
  Now we know people are going to search for, let them discover
• 9:12
  our show. After a while when things pick
• 9:14
  up, then we can start doing branding, branding, ploys and
• 9:19
  all of that. Then let's see what else.
• 9:24
  I think that's pretty much all that I wanted to talk about when
• 9:26
  it comes to podcasting because lots of people are thinking
• 9:30
  about podcasting. They think it's a viable medium
• 9:32
  for growing your business. And yes, it is.
• 9:35
  Just remember that you're not going to start podcasting in
• 9:39
  January and then you're going to blow in March.
• 9:41
  It doesn't happen that way. So give yourself some time.
• 9:45
  Come up with the content calendar.
• 9:46
  Try and come up with like a year's worth of content.
• 9:49
  Start recording. Give yourself medium to long
• 9:51
  term. Don't assume that you will start
• 9:53
  podcasting in January of 2024 and by January of 2025, you know
• 9:58
  your container will land and you're hammer and you're a big
• 10:00
  boy or you're a big girl. Don't think about things that
• 10:03
  way. Then when it comes to the title,
• 10:06
  please, nothing cute. Please nothing creative, please
• 10:10
  nothing sexy, at least for now. Keep it as basic as possible, as
• 10:15
  basic AF, very, very basic keywords, terms that people
• 10:20
  search for. I mean, look at my own playbook.
• 10:23
  My show is called Sales for the Nigerian Business Person.
• 10:27
  So that if anybody's looking for Nigerian podcasts, I will pop
• 10:30
  up. If they're looking for sales
• 10:33
  podcast, I'll pop up. If they're looking for Nigerian
• 10:36
  sales podcast, I'll pop up and then I put it in the marketing
• 10:40
  category. So if they even type Nigerian
• 10:42
  sales and marketing podcast, I will pop up.
• 10:44
  And that's how people are discovering me.
• 10:47
  And I've confirmed from those of you who reach out to me on
• 10:49
  LinkedIn or on WhatsApp and we chat.
• 10:54
  I'm surprised no more people who say, oh, I just typed in
• 10:57
  Nigerian marketing podcast and then your show came up.
• 10:59
  So that's what we have, what we ought to be thinking about for
• 11:02
  now. So that's you pretty much for
• 11:04
  today. If you're thinking of starting a
• 11:05
  podcast, you need my help, then reach out.
• 11:09
  Let's have a chat. I'll do my best to get you
• 11:12
  going. Or just realize that you don't
• 11:15
  need a whole bunch of money. You're going to start pretty
• 11:17
  easy, pretty affordably, pretty cheaply, just like I am doing
• 11:22
  because I've run through, since I started podcasting, I've run
• 11:25
  through maybe four or five phones, but it has always been a
• 11:27
  mobile phone, apart from the time when I was interviewed by
• 11:31
  Nene Battle Boxes, a communications specialist based
• 11:34
  in Canada. Nigerian babe.
• 11:36
  But of course she Jaguar long time ago, over a decade ago,
• 11:39
  before Jaguar was popular. Well, she's a tech head, you
• 11:44
  know, Aspire microphone and audio and everything.
• 11:48
  So she took it upon herself. I think it was Riverside or
• 11:51
  something like that. She recorded it, she edited it,
• 11:54
  she did everything, did the graphics for the promotion and
• 11:56
  all that. So that's the only time that on
• 11:59
  my podcast we did as incorrect, like production value,
• 12:04
  production level podcast. So for that one, you won't hear
• 12:07
  any sniffles, you won't hear any cough, you won't hear any noise.
• 12:10
  You know nothing because recording was tight then I made
• 12:13
  sure of that. But for the rest of the
• 12:17
  episodes, the over 960 something episodes that I have on the
• 12:20
  podcast is just been me and my phone.
• 12:23
  I look for a quiet place padded up and then I hit record and
• 12:28
  then that's it from in a noisy place.
• 12:30
  I'll let you guys know like, hey, look, this one is going to
• 12:33
  have a bit of noise and then I get straight to it.
• 12:36
  But bottom line, what I'm trying to say is you don't have to
• 12:39
  spend a lot of money to get into the podcasting game.
• 12:41
  So if you're thinking of podcasting, please reach out.
• 12:44
  Let's have a conversation about it.
• 12:46
  My concern will be to make sure that you get on the microphone
• 12:50
  as quickly as possible. Those of you who you guys who
• 12:54
  think podcasting good thing to grow the business, but you say
• 12:58
  I'll get to it in 2025. I'm like, what's like, what's
• 13:02
  the delay for really? 2025 is going to come and go
• 13:06
  whether you get moving or not. So you might as well if you get
• 13:10
  moving now in November, like it's not going to hurt.
• 13:13
  There's no need to wait until 2025.
• 13:15
  It doesn't have to be that deep. It doesn't have to be that hard.
• 13:19
  And don't worry, the podcasting space is not crowded or
• 13:24
  overcrowded. Look, even if you think it's
• 13:27
  overcrowded, when it comes to sales and business development,
• 13:29
  it's all about execution. So even if podcasting is
• 13:31
  crowded, it's about how you execute.
• 13:33
  Come in, let's see how you execute.
• 13:35
  It's the same thing with phone calls or Flyers.
• 13:37
  Everybody makes Flyers. Yes, everybody makes Flyers.
• 13:39
  There might be too many Flyers, but it's all about how you
• 13:41
  execute, how you make your phone calls, how you make your
• 13:44
  podcast, how you handle your your prospecting, your meetings
• 13:48
  at the office. It's all about execution.
• 13:50
  So you're thinking about it coming to the space and let's
• 13:53
  get things going. So thanks for your time and
• 13:55
  attention. I'll catch you guys at the next
• 13:57
  episode. You want to reach out, you can
• 13:59
  send me a message on WhatsApp. The phone number is 08064662140.
• 14:05
  Country code is +234. Then on LinkedIn, I am Tavi
• 14:10
  Shima Ayede. That's that's my name.
• 14:12
  I'm the host of the show, so use this link.
• 14:15
  We're listening to the podcast right now.
• 14:17
  Highlight my name, copy pasted the search function in LinkedIn,
• 14:21
  and then my profile comes up. Send me a connection request and
• 14:24
  we can get chatting in as little as 24 hours, maybe 48 hours.
• 14:29
  But I respond to everyone eventually.
• 14:31
  So thanks for your time and attention.
• 14:32
  I'll catch you guys at the next recording.