Aftermarket Insights Podcast
Using Audio to Communicate a Unique B2B Selling Point Near and Far
The context: SMP, a B2B manufacturer, wanted to promote its unique selling point as a “full-service” manufacturer that offers “more than just a part in the box”.
The solution: To communicate this unique story, SMP needed to create something that:
- Focused on experts from the company's different departments
- Could be consistently and easily communicated to the company's multiple sales teams
- Strengthened the company's brand authority within the industry
- Informed the company's primary customers (warehouse distributors) and end users (shop owners, store owners, counterpersons, etc.)
An early challenge: My initial thought was video. But the medium proved difficult for three reasons: 1.) company experts were in and out of the office, which made scheduling difficult and unpredictable, 2.) when company experts were in the office, many were uncomfortable in front of a camera, and 3.) independent professionals such as technicians had limited access to basic video interview necessities such as internet.
Plan B: Compared to video, audio is more affordable, requires less equipment and time, and may be less intimidating to potential guests. So, what about a podcast?
Preparing for takeoff: Once we settled on the type of medium, we quickly got to work bringing a podcast to life. Here's what we did:
- Branding: Titled the podcast Aftermarket Insights. The tagline "automotive insights from the aftermarket leader" emphasized the "full-service" mission.
- Digital: Purchased and built aftermarketinsights.com website and created @aftermarketinsights handles on all social media channels.
- Differentiation: Researched artwork of other automotive podcasts and noticed that most featured the colors red or black. Working with the company's very talented designer Jose Ojeda, we featured the color green to stand out from the competition.
- Help Wanted: Collaborated with members of the company’s training, product, engineering, and sales teams as well as independent professionals to brainstorm topics and identify guests.
The end result: I produced and hosted three episodes. I interviewed a total of seven experts (including internal and external guests) across the three episodes (six made the cut). Although geared for the automotive aftermarket, the three topics covered—technology, training, and culture—translate to any industry. To date, the three episodes have been streamed more than 1,000 times. You can listen to the first episode below:
Spreading the word: We promoted each new episode across our corporate and brand websites, social media channels, and email lists. In addition to crafting and publishing the various posts and emails, I even created the episode artwork, such as this graphic for our Filling the Technician Shortage episode (which you can see is being promoted on the podcast Facebook page):
And this graphic for the Closing the Gap for Women in Auto Care episode (which is being “cross-promoted” on one of the company’s brand Facebook pages):
In summary: If done correctly, podcasting can be a valuable and inexpensive addition to any marketing strategy. Customers want to know that you're an expert in your field, and podcasts allow your customers to hear directly from your experts in their own words. You can feel free to pitch products and services during episodes but remember…
Podcasting Marketing tip: Less is more. The goal for Aftermarket Insights was to build a trustworthy and authentic source of content for automotive professionals. If you listen to any of the episodes, you’ll notice very little branding. In the end, the best way for any company to communicate their unique “service” story is to build up good will through repeated acts of reliability, trustworthiness, and expertise.
Technical specs: For reference, here’s a list of equipment and tools that I used to produce Aftermarket Insights:
- Blue Snowball USB Microphone for recording in-person interviews (~$49)
- Uber Conference for recording phone interviews to .mp3 files (free)
- Audition for mixing the podcasts (depends)
- Transistor for hosting and dedicated website ($19/month)
Get in touch: If you have questions, comments, or feedback about this project, shoot me an email.