⭐️Podcast Monetization: Which offers will work?⭐️
Hey Pod Pals!
This newsletter was lovingly curated (without the use of any AI) in real time on Thursday morning at 8:22am CST.
It is FREEZING cold here in St. Louis....but the good news is...the kids are somehow going back to school today...LOL!
The cold brew coffee is starting to hit me just right....so let's get going!
⭐️ This week we are going to talk about what types of offers you should be building and selling to your podcast audience.
🚨Let's start with a disclaimer: You should NOT feel the pressure to build all of the types of offers that we will cover today. Many of you can make multiple six figures with just 1-3 offers.
I want you to use this deep dive as an assessment. See what offers you currently have compared to what I'm suggesting and then lock in on ONE adjustment or focus point to put effort into.
I think the best place to start this conversation is with a breakdown of a framework that I call The Podcast Monetization Pyramid.
There are five levels of the Podcast Monetization Pyramid:
⭐️ Level One: Start Anytime Offers. These are offers that your audience can jump into at any time. Many people will use a coaching/consulting offer at this level.
In my opinion this is the first type of an offer that online business owners should develop. If someone DM's you asking if they can hire you and start next Monday....we don't want to tell them NO.
⭐️ Level Two: Campaign Offers. These are offers that have an open/close cart period. Typically these are cohort based offers, paid challenges, group coaching, masterminds, etc.
Campaign offers have baked in FOMO (fear of missing out)...where your potential clients feel that itch to jump in so they don't have to wait for the next round ....or have to pay a higher price in the future.
It's important to understand that these types of offers take a lot of energy to be done correctly with promo/marketing. I have a LOT of clients that are totally burned out on this type of offer so we look at other options.
⭐️ Level Three: Recurring Income Offers. These are typically memberships and group coaching programs.
Having a solid recurring income stream as an online business owner is AWESOME. It is much easier to keep a client than it is to go out and find a new one. It's nice knowing that you have a base income coming in each month.
My word of caution on this one is that you might need to hold off on putting effort into this type of an offer. To sell a membership/group program you will typically need a larger audience.
One great workaround is to put people through a start anytime offer like a six week consulting program, and then tell them that you are going to give them first dibs on joining a group support cohort of ten people that you are building.
Once you get ten people through your consulting offer you can open cart for the group coaching cohort.....BOOM...you've got a recurring revenue stream!
⭐️ Level Four: Evergreen Offers. Sometimes people confuse evergreen with start anytime offers. I view an evergreen offer as a hands off funnel type of an offer.
You have a lead magnet, an email funnel, and an evergreen offer at the end of the funnel.
These are a bit harder to pull off because you typically need some email marketing and copywriting skills. Especially if the offer is above the $500 price point.
It's not very hard to create the components of this type of a sales funnel. I think I did it pretty easily within my first three months of being a podcaster and online business owner.
The trick is creating an EFFECTIVE funnel that actually converts. It took me a LONG time to figure out how the heck to do that!
⭐️ Level Five: Affiliates, Brand Partnerships, and Sponsorships. I view this level as total BONUS income for my business.
I spend almost ZERO time at this level. Why???.....because I can make so much more money just focusing on the first THREE levels of this framework.
🏆 Key Takeaway: Make sure you have a start anytime offer of some kind.
Next I want to dish out a quick Pro Tip on what I KNOW works well when it comes to converting podcast listeners into paying clients.
📌 If the offer in any way includes some access to YOU as a coach/mentor it will sell much better.
Example: A 30 day paid group coaching program where you run a weekly coaching session on zoom will be much easier to sell than a stand alone online course (even if the course is cheaper!).
🏆 Key Takeaway: If you aren't making as much money with your online business as you would like, add more access to YOU with your offers.
I realize that the gurus will scream "UNSCALABLE!"....and honestly that means nothing if you aren't making any money in the first place.
Make money first > then figure out how to scale your offers.
The last teaching point of this deep dive is a quick review on my Podcast Monetization Difficulty Axis. I know.....I'm really busting out the frameworks today! LOL
Here are the four quadrants of the PMDA:
✔️ Q1: Small Audience/Broad Topic. This is the quadrant where it is almost impossible to earn income in. Don't be HERE!
✔️ Q2: Large Audience/Broad Topic: There is potential with this quadrant for monetizing with Level Five offers (Affiliates, brand partnerships, and sponsorships). Your online business income generation opportunities are still limited in this quadrant.
✔️ Q3: Small Audience/Niche Topic: THIS is where most podcasters need to try to get to as fast as possible. Niche down your topic and zero in on your niche topic ideal client avatar. You CAN make six figures in this quadrant (I have for the last four years in a row!).
✔️ Q4: Large Audience/Niche Topic: This is the HUGE money zone where it feels like you own your niche. All types of offers work well in this quadrant.
🏆 Key Takeaway: Get to Q3 ASAP!
Now that I have your brain about to explode it's time for your buddy Adam to help you SIMPLIFY all of this:
🏆 Step One: Make sure you have some kind of a Start Anytime Offer.
🏆 Step Two: Make sure you include some access to YOU within your Start Anytime Offer.
🏆 Step Three: Niche down your brand/content/ideal listener avatar so you end up in Q3 (or Q4) of the Podcast Monetization Difficulty Scale.
I just spent the last several minutes unpacking all of the online business ideas that I've tried before....but in this week's episode my Pod Pal Eric blew me away with a NEW monetization idea that you might want to try out!
🎤 Episode 555: $4 million in sales from OLD podcast episodes w/Eric Z Yang.
Top Takeaways:
*How to leverage old podcast episodes to create offers.
*Eric's online summit strategy.
*Key things to focus on to make this strategy a success for your business.
⭐️ CLICK HERE to listen to the latest episodes of Podcasting Business School
📢 Online Business Hot Seat: Packaging & Pricing Strategies.
Last Friday I had one of the members inside of my Online Business Academy for Podcasters on the show for a Hot Seat episode.
If you want to dial in your offer packaging and pricing this episode will really help you out!
Check out episode 554 to hear all about it.
😎 Download Growth Club question of the week:
"We all know podcast growth is important, but what strategies do you have to make sure we keep our current listeners listening to the show?"
Here are a few of my favorite ways to keep my current listeners listening to my show:
✅1. Use my 72 hour promotion window strategy to promote your new podcast episodes.
The goal is to create FIVE unique promotion assets for each episode and deploy those within 72 hours of the new episode release.
Focus on creating assets that act as an "appetizer" for each episode.
Many of your podcast listeners will follow you on social media and they are hopefully on your email list as well. Be sure to let your audience know why they should check out the latest episode!
✅ 2. Reference other episodes of your show when you record new episodes. It's kind of like "if you like this topic....you will also love episode XYZ"
If you have an episode with multiple tips I would try to connect a previous episode with each tip and reference that as you record the audio content.
✅ 3. Use a fan favorite episode recording as your podcast outro. This strategy is AWESOME!
I send my listeners my Speakpipe link to record 60 seconds of audio where they talk about an episode of my show that they loved...and why they loved it.
If you use this as the outro of your podcast it immediately gives your listeners a "next episode" to check out....and it is recommended by a fellow listener and not the host. Bonus points!
🚀 Podcast Launch Tip of the week:
I know that a lot of podcasters are starting on a really low budget....BUT one thing that I highly recommend that you invest in right away is a paid podcast hosting platform.
You will get better:
✔️Customer service.
✔️Analytics.
✔️Distribution.
✔️SEO opportunities.
The paid platforms like Libsyn or Buzzsprout are usually in the $10-$20 per month range....so you aren't breaking the bank.
⭐️ In episode 079 of Podcast Launch Tips I go more in depth on my top recommendations for podcast recording and hosting platforms.
📌Upcoming Events📌
Here are a few upcoming events that I will be either hosting or speaking at:
😱Live Workshop😱 Email List Growth for Podcasters: April 9th & 10th in Nashville, TN. Spend 12 hours with me live and in person as I teach you how to GROW your email list and then leverage it to make consistent sales.
📈Podcast Growth Coach Certification📈 I'm only doing ONE certification cohort in 2025 and we start on April 1st (not a joke!). Registration is OPEN.
Content Entrepreneur Expo: August 24-26th in Cleveland, Ohio. I've just accepted an invite to speak at CEX for the second year in a row. This is an amazing event for content creators and entrepreneurs. I hope to see you there!
🤩 Client testimonial of the week: My client Kathy Colaiacovo has a great podcast called Marketing Your Private Practice.
Check out what she has to say about working with me:
"The thing I value most from Adam is his straightforward approach to podcasting strategy. He tells it like it is and is not one to send you off to do things with no rhyme or reason behind it. His marketing strategy is on point when it comes to podcasting. The bonus to the Download Growth Club is the community of fellow podcasters who are awesome in their own right."
➡️ If you are ready to get some help with learning how to leverage your podcast to build your online business and get more clients hop on my Podcast Profit Potential Discovery Call calendar.
💥What's happening on THREADS this week: I've been posting three times per day on Threads. Here are a few that you might like:
✍🏻"This may ruffle some feathers..BUT it needs to be said.." Full post HERE
✍🏻"83% of the people that do a Podcast Profit Potential Discovery Call with me end up hiring me. Here's how I do it..." Full post HERE
✍🏻"Doing too many interview episodes on my podcast was the main reason I WASN'T getting any clients. It took me 3 years to realize this. Here's how I fixed it...." Full post HERE
I hope that you are enjoying this weekly newsletter!
If you know a podcaster that might get some value from reading this weekly newsletter please share THIS LINK with them!
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Your Pod Pal,
Adam
⭐️ P.S. Ready for some help with your podcast launch, growth, or your podcast listener to client conversion strategy?⭐️
Sign up for a FREE Podcast Profit Potential Discovery Call.