Building A Successful And Stylistic Podcast Show That Attracts Clients With Melissa Digianfilippo Of Will It Stick? Podcast (Podfaded)

Wish you were one of those influencers with raving fans who binge on your every word, consume all your content, buy everything you have to sell, and demand even more. Then stay tuned while Authority Magazine columnist and buzzfeed contributor Tracy Hazzard shares strategies, tips and tactics from top videocasters, podcasters, authors and social influencers on creating that bingeable factor. Now let's join Tracy as she explores how to rise above all the digital noise with the binge factor.

I was so excited to have this podcaster on today. I am really fascinated with someone who can take the time, really do some research before they get started on their show or their episodes in this particular case, and really think about that and use podcasting in a less direct way to leading clients. And so you know there's this sort of funnel model. Of course you're talking about your own stuff, you're talking about your that what you teach your coach, like you write about in your books, like all of that is a clarity to that. But coming up with a stylistic show that is surrounding the topic of something, but done in a really highly produced way and a well researched way, I think it's really, really interesting. And so I was so excited to.

Talk to this podcaster and honestly binge.

On her show and her and her partner's show. So behold, brands are always taking chances on creative ad campaigns and salacious PR stunts to stand out from the crowd to earn customers attention and money. Join marketing junkies and successful multimillionaire creative agency owners Melissa Gian Filippo and Alexa Croce W Weekly for a healthy dose of creative inspiration as they explore crazy marketing moments in history that, whether they flourished or fail, got the world's attention. With 55 episodes and counting, the dynamic duo has covered brands like aviation, American Gin, Louis Vuitton, Oreo, tuft and needles, match.com, uggs Barbie, Thinx, Period Panties, Burger King, Old Spice, LifeLock, Tiffany & Co. And many others. In every episode they dive deep into the history behind each brand's marketing efforts, advertising campaigns or PR stun to explore how the concept was born. And they break down the details to find out the most important question. Will it.

Stick? And that's the name of their show. Will it.

Stick? I love.

It. So Melissa dijon Filippo, just amazing, amazing interview here. How her creative brand agency, perhaps this show really uses it and find out some interesting things is that it doesn't always just drive customers and clients to close and work with them. It drives employees too. So you're going to want to Hear her talk about that. So join us while we talk about Will it.

Stick?

Melissa, I am so glad to have you here. And Will it Stick? Such a great title for a show. Is. Was that your first idea or did you toss around a lot that you gave.

Up? Oh, my gosh. Well, thank you for having me. We tossed around a lot, but actually, Alexis and I were driving when we were brainstorming names to a big client kickoff, and we just were like, spitballing. And when. When she said will it stick? Like it was her idea, I was like, that's it. Because that's what we're trying to figure out. Like, is it gonna. Is this campaign, this creative ad, this stunt, will it stick? Does it have staying.

Power? I love that because I love to talk about stickiness. Like, to me, that's the ultimate. If it's the binge factor, right. If it's st. Sticky, you're going to listen to everything. If it's sticky, you're going to read it all. If it's sticky, you're going to watch it all the way through.

Right? Yes. You become obsessed. Like, you fall in love with a brand when something catches your attention and it sticks. So.

Yeah. So, you know, there's a lot of podcasts that make it easy on themselves. You guys have made it hard on yourselves because you pick a campaign or a story or a brand and you're a company and you're going to review that. So you've got to do.

Research. You're right. And I don't know if we knew that when we decided on this format, but I don't regret it because I have to say a few things, like the research that we put into these campaigns and stunts opens up my eyes to so many cool ideas and possibilities. It's almost like I'm doing research for my clients. Like, I get all these. This fun inspiration and ideas and I really get a chance to, like, dive in and understand all the unique elements that really make up a successful or a really horrible campaign. So, yes, it is. It's very time consuming. We make sure we cover lots of sources. But the content, I think, is worth it. And I think the format, it's not. It's easier to have guests, but we have brought on a few guests after we've covered a campaign. That's our requirement. We cover you. And then if you were the chief marketing officer or a lead on the account, we'll. We'll talk to you.

After. We'll get the. We'll get the behind the scenes story. I Love it. This fascinates me because these stories about how things are working and your perspective on them is so unique because you're coming from that agency standpoint, from that view of like, you do know what it took to put it together. And you know, everyone was like, oh, it just went viral. It was a happy, you know, it's not an accident. And you and I both know.

That. We always know that you're right. And there is so much work and creative thought and mistakes and bad ideas that go into creating the great ones. And you're right. Like, as an agency owner, you know, I own Serendipit Consulting and we're a full service creative marketing and PRA agency and we've seen it all and it takes so much with these campaigns. Some campaigns are created out of just the brand. They might not have an agency partner. And I'm always amazed at the thinking that goes behind when it's not an agency. And then some are agency led and directed. And I just love diving in to understand, like, where did the idea start? Where was it born from? What did it take to get client buy in and what could it take to get it off the ground and actually make it happen? And when virality happens with a campaign, it's my favorite thing. Like, for example, Old Spice, you know, when, when the man, your man could smell. Like, we covered that campaign and gosh, I remember in, I think it was 2010 when it came out, I had so many clients being like, can you make us a viral video like that? And it's, it's just not that.

Easy, you know, like, yeah, how much money do you want to spend and how much time are you going to take to actually create something that looked effortless? Right. It's harder to do. Simple and.

Effortless.

Absolutely. Yeah, I, I know it's amazing that they pulled that off. But, you know, I want to talk about podcast branding, because you've actually shifted your brand. I noticed that your cover art changed over time and so you've been shifting that and I'm curious as to why you've made the choices that you've.

Made. Yeah, great question. So originally we just did cover art that was elegant animation, like a, you know, just art, no imagery of us. And I think it was good, a good starting point. But as we progressed and evolved in our show about a year in, we realized that it was really taking off, first of all. And our social media, I really pay attention to what performs well. So like on our social, on Instagram, all of the social content that did feature Alexis, and I, a little more personally, really got more engagement. So that led me to think, gosh, if our cover art incorporated some of us into it and some of our fun personality, I thought maybe that would be delivering to our audience base, like what they were looking.

For.

So. So we did make that change, and I think it's been really positive. You know, we're still working on revamping our website to match our new brand. You know, you're always the last to get attention when you're an agency owner, but, no, I really am happy with the direction we've gone. Also, the new cover art, the words will it stick? Is a lot bolder and easier to read, whereas the first version was a little more script, maybe a little harder to read. You really had to, like, you know, stare at it for a second. So I'm happy with the new.

Direction. Yeah. So, I mean, it's so interesting because I would. If you were my client, I would have advised you the exact opposite. But I think that, you know, in the beginning, not having your images probably served you better on the podcasting side. And it. It's interesting to try to judge and understand, but in your social media, there's a lot of you in it, right? They're finding you, they're following you. It is personal. So creating a better connection. So sometime we create two sets of COVID art, one that we use on social media and one that we use only in the podcast app. Because the podcast app is more like, well, I'm the person finding what I want to listen to, and it's more about me and not about you, and I don't know who you are, and I may not, you know, may not love the image of you, and.

I may judge you for. Yeah.

Yeah. But for having the image. And so actually, it really hurts the early launch of a show. We see significant difference in a shows when they have their host on the COVID art and when they don't when they're launching. But after a while. Yeah, yeah, but after a while, you could switch it up because it's all on you and the marketing is all on you anyway. But that assumes that you're not shopping within the ecosystem that is the podcast app, and you're not relying on people just accidentally finding you the charts and things like that. So I'm still a big fan. And we have done this for clients who had seasoned shows and switch them to art without their image on it, and their show got increased in listenership. And it's so interesting because of the. In App issue. So it's a totally different model than social media. But yeah, I think the idea of having of noticing this in your social, though, is such a good point as to why you might want episode art and you might want something special and you might want more creative that is different from what you're doing within an.

App. Yeah, that's. You know, and I love that perspective, frankly. I've always been a podcast consumer up until we started the podcast about a year and a half ago or so. And I was not an expert on, you know, and I still am learning so much every day. But I had thought about putting your image, associating yourself with your podcast up front with the COVID art. Could be good or bad. Like, people could judge right away. They could decide, no, just two girls look like they're just drinking. Like, no, no, thanks. Or it could maybe skew the other way. But I'm really happy with the way we did it, which with not starting with us on the COVID art and then progressing based on. Yeah. The social changes. And I think it's always an evolving thing, you know, I don't know what's next for.

It. I agree, I agree. I think it'll be a lot of fun. But, you know, if there's anything that I love is. Is I do love the. More boldness of the. Will it.

Stick?

Yes. I do like that difference between your old art and your new art. So, yeah, it really does look good there. So, you know, you have. I'm going to hit your binge factor right now because I want to talk about this.

When I listen to your show, what I really get is this tremendous rapport and respect between you and Alexis and there's this equal respect for your skill and knowledge and that you don't. It's not like everything you do overlaps. You each respect a different area of commentary that you make about this brand, about the research, about what you've read about. And I think that's really so wonderful to have those multi perspectives. And I think at the end of the day, that's what, you know, I'm listening for when I listen to your show and I'm binging on it because I want to hear your two different perspectives on it and you give it to us. That's just fascinating because most often we get. You know, when you read these, I'm gonna say a lot of emerges so much ego when somebody's reviewing what.

Somebody did, you know, like, oh, yes, I know. I agree. And I. I think it's so interesting because right away. It was easy for us to, to take those roles in the podcast because that's how we operate our business. Like we're business partners and we both have very unique skill sets that complement each other and also fill in the gaps where the other isn't super strong. So I'm a true PR professional. I'm a storyteller. You know, I love media relations and getting my clients in the press and all that. And Alexis is a marketer. Like, she's a brand and color and she sees things totally different than I do. So I actually think there's something beautiful about both of us giving our own perspective on a campaign and respecting each other's what we see from it and our opinions. It makes it really fun. And I also, for us, at least it's very fun that we really don't talk about what we're covering until we are recording. So, like, oftentimes one of us is surprised, like, oh, I didn't even know we were doing this. Like, and it's an in the moment, real, live reaction, which when I listen to podcasts, I love that I.

Do. I think it's, it really works for you there. So because you're in the industry, you probably know this. There are some of you out there who I'm going to say this, and you have no idea what I'm talking about. But one of my favorite things to read every year was the Pentagram papers when they put them out. And Pentagram is kind of a famous ad agency and creative agency in general. And so if you haven't heard of them, you should look them up because they're just amazing. But they would review their own campaigns. And I kind of want to see that from you. Like, I'd love to have a great idea. I would love to see that, because that's the first thing that I got. And this is why I think your show is brilliant, is because it really did make me want to hire you. And so now if I could then go and hear and see something that was like a case study, what was your perspective on what it really took to create this campaign? And now it's just better than, I mean, look, you got case studies on the website, you got like, you know, stuff we've done, but it doesn't give you that kind of verbal detail that I love the story behind that. And so I think that that would be so helpful in closing.

Clients. And that is genius, actually. And I have a not, you know, I haven't thought of it because we have a lot of national Brands, but maybe not like really well known consumer brands, which is what I often pick for the podcast because I want to deliver what I think listeners are looking for and I want them to connect with the brand. But I. That is so interesting because you're right. Like that content then repurpose on our website or in some way, shape or form. Like, I think that would be so interesting to prospective.

Clients. Yeah, well, yeah, because I mean, this is the thing is. Look, look, I love inspiration from big brands, but the reality is, is that I'm a small business and I don't have the Runway or I might be starting this big brand that is going to become a billion dollar company and a unicorn, but I just can't start that way. And so I don't know how you really get that off the ground. And you're the right kind of agency for that. So I'd love those stories. So I really hope you do.

It. Yes, I.

Love. Okay, good, good. So I'm so excited about it because I missed the Pentagram papers. Like, I really, I loved it when they put that big book out. It was just.

Awesome. But yeah, there is something really interesting about you dissecting your own work, your own team's work, because you come at it from a totally different perspective. You know, all that went into it, you know, it didn't go perfect, like, so I, I really appreciate that.

Idea. Yeah, Yeah, I think it would be fun. The other thing that I absolutely love is that you really identify yourselves at the beginning. So, like, this happens so often on shows. They don't say, I'm Alexis, I'm Melissa, you guys too. And it's so great because from the very beginning, from every single show, I am getting your voice. And so if I got you on the phone as a client, a prospective client, I feel like I really know you and it wasn't a confusion for me. So I think that's also really brilliant in sort of the execution and production value you put into your.

Show. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, and I think that's important because that's my biggest frustration as a listener of podcasts. Like, I want to know who is talking at all times, you.

Know? Yeah. So tell me a little bit about the sort of, you know, way you're picking some of these brands. Like, so we normally ask you how you get great guests, but in this particular case, I really want to dive into how you're choosing some of the brands that you're reviewing or the campaigns that you're.

Reviewing. Yeah, great. So we first you know, we think about brands that we know, household names, campaign concepts that we know are a big deal to consumers, like Just do it by Nike, Got milk. Like those right away. Like we had this running list where those were populated. And then we are big consumers of the trade publications for marketing and advertising. Ad Week, Ad Age, Marketing, Brew Campaign magazine. Like there's so many amazing resources and I am spending a lot of time, you know, email alerts and just jumping into what's hot that day trying to understand brands are doing different. And so that's really where we scour, you know, we scour those outlets for ideas. And then we're following so many brands on social media because it's really interesting to see when they do something different on social media. Like we want to try to cover it pretty quickly if we can. So it's a blend of those things. And then we do get, you know, listeners suggesting, you know, ideas and topics all the time. And my qualification for picking one, like, I want to make sure first of all, like there is a campaign I can cover. Like it's a little harder when it's a brand over time, all the marketing they've done because that show could go on for hours and hours and hours. My ideal situation is like one stunt or one big campaign or activation that skyrocketed or went crazy south, you know, and really like focusing in on that. And I also really like data. I think our listeners like data. So if I can't find real stats and numbers, whether it's revenue or an increase in this or something like I might second guess covering it. Because I would want to hear that if I was a.

Listener. Yeah, yeah, you want to cover all aspects of it and I think that that's brilliant. Balance of workload between the two of you. Do you sort of trade off or does it end up one sided? Like, I mean, you know, those of us who are co hosts kind of know that it's not always as balanced as it should.

Be. Yeah, it's, it's always tricky. I am as a PR pro, I am a researcher and writer. It's my unique ability. It's my passion. You'll hear when you listen, like, I probably do a little bit more than half the content in Alexis is, you know, the listener and responding. But she really has developed a passion for this too. She didn't think she would and the research and the writing. So I would say it's pretty balanced. I mean, you know, we both kind of put in the work for every episode where if she's reporting on a campaign or topic. I'm going to be in the moment thinking and responding and I want to make sure I have, you know, all my commentary. It just really depends on the day. I do run most of our social media, but really that really comes down to our balance in our work too, because we both own this agency, so one of us is overloaded, the other one kind of picks up the pieces on both ends of.

It. Oh, that, that's really good. And it shows it. You hear that excitement about some certain campaigns and the way you take it off. And so it got me to thinking that maybe one or more, you know, you're swapping.

Off. Yeah, we do our best to swap off. Yeah.

Yeah. So getting listeners, you know, you're marketing agency, how do you market the.

Show? Yeah, actually in the beginning. Yeah, in the beginning it was truly like reaching out to our entire network. That was our email list of 13 years at Serendipit, our social media, our personal network where Alexis and I are both members of entrepreneurial organization. So reaching out to all of our network because we wanted to make sure it wasn't just our friends. We wanted listeners who actually could get value, and I would argue anyone could get value, but really it's entrepreneurs and marketers, people who want creative inspiration for their next campaign or their next idea. And so we did a lot of outreach. We asked them to subscribe and listen and write and review right away. I have no fear doing that always and consistently. Then it's been keeping up with social content. And then we do. We actually took a while, but just recently, probably two months ago, started doing email blast just for will it Stick to our Serendipity email list and our Will it Stick email list. So that, that's a dedicated, you know, just focus on the content that we are pushing out that week or that month. So those are the key things. What we have not tried yet is any kind of true digital push. You know, like we do a lot of ads for our clients, but we haven't done that for Will It Stick. We wanted to do it more organically.

First. Well, I think that's really important and to. To see how that goes in the beginning because you don't really know what's going to play yet.

So. Yeah, yeah, you don't know what.

The listeners are going to be attracted to. You'll spend money in places you aren't ready for.

So. Exactly. Yeah. We just wanted to be able to understand organically what would come back to us and the feedback we'd Get. And so that's been really fun. LinkedIn actually has performed really well for sharing our content, just because the audience on LinkedIn, you know, is business people. And so the responsiveness to all the content there is is really solid. And I think we get a lot of shares and, you know, recommendations there.

Too. And have the brands and the companies you covered, you know, shared it and responded well to, you know, the post, the actual episodes.

Themselves. Yes, some of them have. And I love when that happens because, like, Oscar Mayer was one that was really fun. Like, they did comment back and they did respond. And I love that because I really want to hear what they think. Like, I really want to know, like, what do we miss? Like, the few guests that we brought on Tuft and Needle, we brought on a senior executive marketer there, Lifelock, we brought on Todd Davis, the guy who did that crazy stunt about, you know, sharing his Social Security number with the world. It's been really fun to hear their take on our, on our episode and then for them to fill in the gaps. I love when brands let us play and we're working really hard to do more of that, you know, direct sharing with the marketing team of a brand once we produce the.

Episode. Let's talk about monetization or return on investment, because that's how I like to look at it. Alternative monetization is kind of the way we look at everything here at the binge factor, because, you know, you're not always going to get that. You know, you're not going to put ads on your show. I just can't imagine that was going to be your.

Thing.

Right. It's just not. So what type of return on investment have you been seeing from the show? It's been getting you more speaking events, is getting you clients what's working for you, Few.

Things. So our goal with this was truly to build the brand, our brands for Serendipit and to get people interested in hiring us. Like, that obviously was the number one goal along with sharing our passions. I think Alexis and I have an energy that comes to life on the podcast and I think our, the clients that we've grown over the past 13 years have told us our energy is one of the reasons they end up hiring us. So I wanted to bring that forward. And so absolutely, it's in a few things. We've done some natural press and I should have mentioned that ahead of time for this podcast. Like, we're really good at promoting, you know, through media. So that exposure right there has gotten us high quality listeners who have converted to clients, which has been really, really interesting. The other thing is it's added validation and credibility to us. You kind of said it earlier like you would hire us. You know, I mean, by us covering these brands, being bold, sharing our opinions, but also being ourselves, we swear sometimes, like we're kind of weird sometimes like that. I think clients, future clients and current clients see authentically who we are and how we show up, and that's really attractive. So it has added validation for clients on the fence about hiring us. Perhaps it has gotten us some really new high quality leads. Also employees. I mean, as an agency owner, 2021 was the hardest year of my life with turnover. And having this podcast has so many of the resumes we've gotten in. People have been like, I'm obsessed. I've listened. I want to work for someone like you. And that, to me, is an important KPI that we can't avoid looking.

At. Mentorship. And it's like mentorship and which I actually just got this big report from an agency that was looking at this and saying that, that the millennial.

Hiring, they're really seeking.

Mentorship. And you don't have time to provide that when you're running an agency. So if they're getting it from your podcast, good for.

You. Exactly. And actually it's really Gen Z because I'm so. I'm a geriatric millennial, like the oldest millennial that exists, you know. So, yes, there are millennials. But like this Gen Z audience that's just starting to come up that we're hiring, they're so interesting and they. What I think they want more than millennials is true authenticity. And they want to feel that you're a person behind the facade of the business owner. And our podcast does that. Like we are ourselves on it. So that's been really.

Cool. And you're getting across your creative philosophy or your perspective on things, which is hard to do with your staff, you know, in process when you're so busy working.

On. Yeah, there's no time for that. It's like, we don't send. Yeah, you're absolutely right. But your point about ads, you're right. We never thought we were like, we don't. We don't think we'll do ads. But it's so funny just recently because we won an award, we're getting a lot of people coming to us. We are going to do. There's one that we're going to do right now. But it has to be so authentic to the audience. Like I. It has to make sense, you know, based on what Alexis and I would like and what our audience would like. So I'm going to be picky just because I don't want to be.

Annoying. Absolutely. You know, and this is a time when you do run ads. This is where you maybe want an ad strategy in the. This is something that we built into our. Our Potatoes system that we. We founded, because this is for this just very reason. So we used to get. I had a 3D print podcast as my first one. The audience knows that, but you may.

Know. Oh, my.

Gosh. Yeah, it was a geeky show. And so we would have people like Hewlett Packard who would come in and advertise with us, and they maybe didn't want to be associated with some of the other brands or the. Some of the other companies that we covered. And so we were able to, with the way our system worked, block out episodes and say, no ads should run on this show. We did an episode on 3D print guns. No one should be associated with that. That's a negative brand association. So we, you know, we basically can block them from the beginning so that they never have ads on them, and then we can just redeploy the ads by making sure that there's none in those spots. And so we built our system to be able to do that for just this reason, because we need to be picky, not only about the advertisers, but where they go in our show as well and which episodes that they match.

With. Yeah. Oh, that's super smart. And I think you're so right. It's like there's a balance of, is it right for your audience? Is it right for this episode, even? Yeah, absolutely. And I also like endorsement style ads way more than I like listening to a produced ad from a company. I don't know how you feel, but, like, I do. I want to use it, I want to love it, and I want to talk about it, you.

Know? Yeah. Typically we. We recommend a lot of times is that, like, if you're in a rush and you want to just get them out there, do the produced ad and then substitute the, you know, the one a little bit later as you have time. That's more endorsement.

Style.

Yeah. Especially if you've got a story that you can add to it, it's so much.

Better. Yeah, absolutely. That makes.

Sense. I love that. So, branding advice for podcasters. I mean, you're excellent. What kind of creative and branding advice do you have for.

Podcasters? I mean, I think you you have to treat it like you would treat anything else. You have to take it seriously. And I like thinking about right up front, like, what is your voice and tone going to be? And I think people often don't pay attention to that. They think visual is the only important part about, about branding, but it's not, especially with an audio focused format like a podcast. So thinking about how you want to come across, what is the tone, what is your voice, who and how are you trying to draw people in? That has been. That was really critical right up front for us. Like, Alexis and I knew we wanted to be professional, yet fun. We wanted to have fun with it. We wanted to be real, our true selves. So we chose a route that allowed us to be a little more free and flexible versus so highly produced, you know, and I think that's really critical. I also do think, like we talked about artwork, you know, readability and thinking about color theory and color, like, that's all really important too. Like, what do you want someone to feel when they see your cover art? Like, why? Like, what is going to make them click on you and subscribe to you? So all of that plays a role into the decision making of the podcast and the brand. And also the title. Like, you said it, like, will it. Like, we had so many working titles, but I like Short and sweet and punchy. I don't like the word podcast in, in a. Oh, please stop doing.

That.

Why? Why do people do.

That? Like, because it's a podcast app and if I'm in there to put the word podcast, it's.

Redundant. Like, I know it's a pod. Yeah, like I'm here. So I just think the title Short and Sweet, you know, I, I love that. Will it stick as a question? I personally, I like action. I think your brand needs, you need to put thought into it. It's not a quick thing. Get expert help and opinions if you're not an agency and you don't have those resources because it makes a lot of.

Difference. Well, and I think it's really smart to be looking at it as a brand. I'm going to call it a piece of your brand and not the company. So, like, when I see a podcast that is the company's brand, I think, oh, they're selling me.

Stuff. Yeah, you don't want.

That. No, I know. I want it to have like just an aspect of.

It. Absolutely. I totally agree. I don't, I don't listen to one that's like the so and so podcast, like the agency podcast. Like that's not exciting to me. I want the title to scream what the content is. That to me is.

Enticing. Exactly. I agree. Well, let's talk content strategy and plan a little bit. So I'm assuming you're repurposing and you're doing that. Do you have actually a strategy, strategy, plan laid out and how you use your.

Episodes? You know what? Not very well, I'm going to be honest. You know, actually we just started. I did something really interesting this these past week and a half because we won an award through ad week and Alexis and I were so busy. We were speaking at a conference, actually our first like live show, kind of for Will it Stick? At a big fitness marketing conference, which was very exciting. So we were doing that when the award came out and I knew I needed content because I had a lot of new listeners. So what I did is I just did like encore content of some of our most highly listened episodes. We have like 60 plus episodes. There's a ton, if you go way back that are amazing and very highly listened to. So what I did is just push some of those forward as encore episodes and replayed them for our new listeners. And it performed insanely well. And I don't know why, I had a little bit of a fear doing that before. Like I didn't want to repurpose if we didn't have new listeners. And it was just this weird thing. But I think that that's a very interesting.

Strategy. And then I'm sure reruns can backfire. Let me tell you, if you've got a lot of binge listeners, they will reach out to you and they will.

Complain. Well, we haven't gotten complaints.

Yet. So that's good that you got, you know, that you really. Which says to me that, you know, you might have gotten people. And this is what I find about marketing people. Right? So people that are interested in the marketing side of things, they don't have a really long attention span. Like. No. So they probably aren't the best binge listeners. And they picked and choose through your catalog. So they may not have come across it and so. Or they start and then they just listen going forward and they don't always go back and, and check them all out. So you may find that just because of the type of.

Personality. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're exactly right. And I.

Don'T. Engineers, let me tell you, they will yell at you for repeating.

Something. Oh, that's so funny. Yeah, we, you know, I wouldn't do it. I think like, you know, this was more like we got this award in honor of that. We're, we're putting out, you know, a couple of pieces of content that are top most listened to and they're pretty far back in the catalog, so. But I do think I get annoyed. Like I listen to a few podcasts that are more lifestyle driven and when they do rerun episodes because I binge the whole thing. You're right. I'm like, I'm not going to listen to that. It's.

Annoying.

Yeah. So it totally depends, you know. But I have, you know, done a few things. I like to cut up our audio for social media. Like it performs so well when I do little audio snippets of our.

Episodes. Are you doing.

Audiograms? Yeah, audiogram. I kind of make them myself. Yes. I don't use like there's like an audiogram app actually, but I didn't love the, the.

Option. I.

Don'T. We.

Don'T. We make them ourselves.

Too. Okay. Yeah, that either.

Yeah. So I, creative wise, it's just not at your, I, I, at your standard. I.

Understand. Yeah. So I just cut the audio I want and then I pop it over, you know, an image that I think works or a video that I think works. And that works really well. But besides that, we honestly have not really put a ton of deep thought into how else are we going to reuse this.

Content. Oh, well, I love that. Well, I want to brainstorm with you too. Let's do.

It.

Yeah. Because I think it'd be fun. So like, I mean, first off, the first thing that's coming to my mind is like seed articles. So like the articles that you put in trade journals that are your author byline that are basically reviews of the episode. Because in, on the online versions you can always put a video. You can always put, you know, a lot of them don't have audio players, but you could do a full length audiogram of your show if you needed to for that purpose and have the YouTube video. That's why.

We. Oh my God, that's.

Genius. Yeah. So seed articles would be so good for you because case studies are always, or you know, reviews of campaigns are always looked for in those journals. And so that's, I think would be one way to do it. I'd love to see you guys have a book eventually. I think the book is.

Needed. That was something we did talk about and that's a personal goal of mine. Anyway, so I was like, we're doing all this research there's themes that I already can tell you, I think in like buckets of themes. So there's things that I've learned from covering these episodes that I know would make chapters like just in success stories of campaigns and stunts. So. Absolutely. There's a.

Book. Yeah, yeah. And I think, I think going now and recording video from like this point forward and actually because, I mean because it is more of the two of you and that's working on social, it's time to do that. You can start it up and use it in clips of it in TikTok YouTube shorts does tremendously well for my clients. So cutting them up and using them there and 30 second, one minute. And the same thing with LinkedIn, I mean, putting them out on LinkedIn. So then the other thing that I would do Suggest is the LinkedIn newsletter. So you're putting out your newsletter already? Put it in.

LinkedIn. That's a great idea. That's genius. And I love the video. I don't know why we've had this like fear of doing video all the time, but I do think like I love seeing clips of my favorite podcast on Instagram or on YouTube and it does draw me in. So I think you're right. Like, it's just, it's one of.

Those things that I totally understand not doing video. In the beginning we didn't do it with all our shows, but now it just, we're recording it anyway because we're recording an interview and I was like, why are we using it? And so, and discovering that it really is going well. So about, in our, in our agency, so we have a thousand, over a thousand podcasters, but we have probably, I'd say about 56 to 58% of them do.

Video. Oh.

Wow. And then we probably have another 10 or 15 who don't use the long form video, but only use the short. So they are capturing it, they're just not using it in its.

Entirety. Yeah, I think that's smart. And I think, gosh, YouTube, we know is like the number one search engine next to Google, you know, so.

You might as well use.

It. Why not? I know why not. You're.

Right. Right. And then that's the last one that I would say for a content strategy like you gotta blog all this, you have to have the full length blogs. It's time. Because you've got great content association and you know, when you redo your website, adding that blog in there is going to be killer content association for.

You. Yeah. So I have a question for you on that like this is what we've debated because we have our Will it Stick? Podcast website. So should we make this instead a landing page on Serendipit Consulting? So we're driving that traffic to our agency, but it's still a skinned will it stick? Like that seems more beneficial to me than just our podcast website.

Right? Yeah. I mean, in your particular case, because your podcast is so associated from a keyword standpoint and how you're reviewing and what you're talking about in terms of campaigns with your core business. If it wasn't, I would say separate it, but because it is, I would say bring them together. So what I would do is you can always have a Will it Stick? Website that's just sort of like a, you know, one pager. But the minute we go through and click on any of the blogs, those blogs goes on main site and. And then you also have the podcast, so. Or you just have a podcast page that is on your regular website and will it stick as just a forwarding URL to it? That's the easiest to be honest with you. And no one's going to look twice because you know when the URL changes to your core business because you know they know it's you because they've gotten to know you. So it's not a big deal. But at the end of the day, that's what I would recommend from a business strategy for you because it's going to give you the most power in the long.

Run. Yeah, I think, yeah, you're.

Right. And you can go back and blog. This is a little known fact. You can go back and blog episodes that are, you know, two years old. No one's going to care. They don't, they don't. Google's seen it now for the first time when you blog it, it's so, you know, and yeah, so I definitely would do that. And, and one of the things that we do a lot of now with our blogs is we put all our social assets into the blog. So if we created a TikTok or a YouTube short or a Instagram audiogram, we actually put it right into the blog page. Because one of the problems that we have is like on Instagram, if I try to like go through your whole feed and find all of your podcast, I could never do it. I would never be able to find all your audience. So here we're keeping it consolidated in the whole blog associated with each of your episodes. So we meld the, the social media and the blog.

Together. Oh, I love that. That's Such a great idea. Because we're doing like show notes right now deeper on as each episode on willisticpodcast.com with like our sources, which that's so important to me to, to make sure we're linking our sources. We use a lot of great sources, but yes, we're not. We absolutely need to make that transition and get the content on.

Serendipit. Just take the show notes and put them right on my desk. Just take them and put them. Move them right over to your regular website. And then if you want to write like the short summary article, that's what you put out at that publication level on the trade.

Publications. Yeah, Such great.

Idea. Here you go. So we got. We strategize together. I love that because I love it when I can strategize with someone who's going to be like, I know how to take this and run with it. I know what to do. Yeah, exactly. So I mentioned at the beginning that you had the Marketing Podcast of the Year by Adweek. You were just voted that, and that is just absolutely amazing. But you and I kind of also know in the industry that awards don't come easily. No, they don't just get, like, dropped on you. You guys probably had to work for that. Can you give anyone some tips about really getting your podcast noticed by some of these.

Contacts? Yeah, great question. And, you know, most awards, the reality is you have to apply for the award, right? Like, it's very rare that any, any nominating source will just come pick you and find you, I would say. So what we did is we kept a close watch on all of our trade publications, all of the awards that would make sense for podcasts, and Ad week is. Is really the top industry rag in marketing and advertising. So what we've done probably developed a pretty strong relationship with that public or that outlet over social media over the past six months to a year. Engaging with their content because we authentically love their content. Sharing their content that has been really impactful and important. But then making sure we are actively submitting for awards and, and doing it right, like writing a really solid summary and making sure you give them the link to the episodes that you think are the most powerful. And yeah, there were a ton of submissions. But to get named Marketing Podcast of the Year was like, so insanely cool because there are so many amazing marketing podcasts. Like, if you look at that category, it's crazy. Full of amazing people telling amazing stories. So it's all great and it's just, it's cool to get an award from an outlet that, like, you really, really love and.

Respect. I agree. I agree. It's that. That's one of. I mean, I've heard of a lot of podcast awards that I question, and I'm like, ok, but that one is, like, a really awesome one, and it's valued and, honestly, much deserved. Your show is fantastic, and I really want to give both you and Alexis credit for building such a wonderful show. I keep it up. I, you know, like, selfishly, I want you to be around tomorrow because I want to make sure that I can still hear your great stories, and, you know, that makes it fun for.

Me. Yeah, it's so funny because someone else told me another marketer said, if you stop doing this, I'm going to pick it up, but it's a really good idea for a podcast. And I'm like, I'm not.

Stopping. Well, let's broker your show. Let's sell it when you're.

Ready. There you go.

Perfect. Let's make money off of it. So we'll have to talk about that then. I love it. Well, is there any advice that you want to give out there to aspiring podcasters or someone who's got a show and maybe isn't really sure that they've got the creative.

Down? I mean, I think you've got to, like, pursue what you're passionate about. If you're not passionate about what you're covering, it comes through. And I think people buy passion. Like, they. They want to hear that from you. So make sure you love the topic. Really love it. Because, you know, podcasting takes a lot of work. It is. I binged a lot of podcasts before I started my own, and I would never have guessed the amount of work it actually takes. So, you know, loving the topic, you know, being ready to put in the work, and I think, you know, just being really creative and authentic to like who. Who you really are and make sure that comes through. You know, that's worked for us really well, and it makes the work easy when you really like.

It. Well, Melissa, congratulations on your award. Congratulations on a great podcast, and I look forward to hearing more about your podcast and your agency coming.

Up. Thank you. Thank.

You.

There's so much that works here for Melissa and Alexis that just, I mean, amazingly works so well. The dynamic between the two of them, the topics that they're talking about, how well they research it, their opinions and views on it, the way they structure things and how good they are at being hosts, like, all of those things are working together. So while we all might aspire to do one of these shows. For a lot of people, this isn't going to work out really well for you. I hate to say that to you, but this requires a lot more work, a lot more skill, a lot more experience. A lot more of those things have to come together to make it really work. And they do that beautifully. Which is exactly why you want to hire them, right? Because they can do this. It's an outward sign of how good they'll be when they work for you. So that's why it's absolutely worth.

It to do a show like.

This. But again, you have to come in prepared, understanding what you're getting into and being prepared to put in that time, put in that effort, really think everything through from the topics you're choosing and in this case, the companies there or the campaigns they're reviewing, getting all that research completed, making sure the show is produced in a. In a highly produced way because of how you're going to go about and do it. So really thinking about it, if this is the kind of show you want, listen to Will it Stick? Check it out, really understand what they're doing here, but understand that you're going to get into a lot more complex show planning than most people want to do. So be sure that's what you want. Because the result that they've gotten here, the show Will it Stick? Is absolutely worth.

It. And it's why they're award.

Winning. I mean, you know, it's why it's working all around for them. So be thinking about that. I think this is an amazing model and I really wish more shows would put in this effort. More hosts would take the time to make, to figure this out and do this model of show. I think it would elevate podcasting to a whole new level. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do your show your way. Build up to something like that, get your feet wet in podcasting and then shift things, start building in a segment like this so it's not as complex as doing an entire show and build up to something wonderful, just like Melissa and Alexis have built here in Will it Stick? So check out Will it.

Stick? Go to the blog post for.

This episode@thebingefactor.com and come back next time where we'll talk about another different style of.

Podcasting.

You've been listening to the Binge Factor podcast. For more information on podcasting and videocasting success tips and tactics, please go to thebingefactor.com and be sure to listen to our other show for podcasters called Feed you'd brand. If you'd like to be interviewed on this show as well as featured in Tracy's column, please go to thebingefactor.com guest and apply.