Business Coaching Tips – Building a Solid Podcast Brand Map

October 19, 2022

Does your podcast need a refresh? Or maybe you are starting a podcast and want to build a solid podcast brand map. In today’s blog, I pull the top tips I shared with one of my Podcast to Profit students, during her podcast audit in a live business coaching call. We looked at her avatar, pillars, niche, tagline, and descriptions.

Podcast Brand Map Refresh! Live Business Coaching Recap

In today’s live coaching call, we work through auditing her podcast – refreshing the areas that need work so that she can grow and scale her business. Her main concerns were that her podcast had plateaued and that she needed to niche down to better talk to her ideal client.

Quick tip: If you find your podcast plateauing, it’s a sign that either your person has grown and your content needs to grow, or you’ve grown away from your person. You can accidentally grow away from your person, thinking they are right behind you when they aren’t. If this happens, then you’ll need to reevaluate. Find out where they are and then determine where you went astray or why they went where they did.

Start your brand map refresh by knowing your avatar

The first step of a podcast audit, brand refresh, or building a solid brand map is to know your audience. This is the fundamental piece that influences the rest of the brand map. It’s important to dig deep into who your person is and what they want.

Three great questions to ask yourself (and dig into market research to find answers for) are:

What are today’s imminent struggles for your person? I.e., what are they struggling with currently?
What are they drowning in?
What are they Googling?

If you’re auditing your existing podcast, you can ask your current listeners these questions via your Facebook community or email. Don’t worry if their answers are disjointed or if everyone has a different problem; look for the bigger picture. You might find they tell you their struggles which can differ from moment to moment. These can point you to their overarching desires or pain points. To make your story mapping more relatable to your listener, you can use those struggles in their language.

Know your niche to create a solid brand map

Once you’ve got a clear and detailed idea of who your avatar is, their pain points, and how you can help, you should have a good idea of your niche. With a podcast audit, you check that the niche is niched down enough and still relevant to you and your audience. Sometimes you can combine the who (or what) and the how of your niche, messaging, and marketing to narrow down your focus audience.

Build out your brand map pillars and decide if they are still relevant

When deciding on your pillars, whether you’re changing, refreshing, or keeping them the same, you want to know what’s working. What is your audience listening to? What are they wanting?

Here are two things you can look at to establish your brand pillars:

Look at your downloads. Do certain topics get more downloads? Do other topics get barely any? These numbers are vital data that give concrete evidence of what people actually want.

People’s responses. If you ask your listeners what their number one pain points are, you might sometimes get immediate struggles rather than overarching desires. Remember to always go back to the main pain point and desire.

Does your podcast tagline need to be refreshed?

Here are a few things to look for in your tagline. If your tagline doesn’t check these boxes, it might be time for a refresh:

Make sure it’s ten words or less.
Combine tactical outcomes with what your person wants.
Make it easy to understand. They shouldn’t have to think deeply to understand what you mean.
It should be boring and tactical. We want to be clear instead of catchy!
If you have niche-specific words or phrases that don’t make the tagline, keep them to be used as keywords.

Don’t be afraid for your tagline to be simple! It’s meant to draw your ideal listener in because they know your show is for them at a glance.

The difference between your podcast description and introduction

Your podcast description is the writing people see when they visit your podcast. It covers what the podcast is about, who the host is, and what’s inside the show. The intro is the short blurb at the start of the show. Ideally, the introduction is 30-45 seconds, definitely no more than 60 seconds, and focuses on what’s in the podcast for the listener. A good intro should include, what your niche market wants, and what she gets, and then make it relatable. Essentially, it’s all about them.

If you have made any changes to your brand map during your podcast audit, you should update your podcast description or introduction. You want a new listener to know what your show is currently about, not what it was about.

Have your keywords changed?

Lastly, you want to think if your keywords have changed during your brand audit and refresh. As you analyze your new keywords, one tip is to research what variations have better visibility and aim to use these in your titling, descriptions, etc. You want your keywords to be searchable so that you show up when people search for things in your niche. The more your keywords relate to your audience, the better!

Want one-on-one business coaching with me, also?

If you’d like a personal business coaching session and have my best tips and strategies applied to your business, I have a limited number of 30-minute unstuck sessions available. These sessions are reserved for my students in Clarify Your Calling, Podcast Pro University, and Podcast to Profit and offer the opportunity for me to help you get amazing breakthroughs and clarity in your business. Email support@stefaniegass.com or go to my courses page for more information!

Love my live business coaching episodes? Check out these additional shows!

Live Coaching: How to Get Clarity on Your Brand and Map Out a Podcast

LIVE COACHING! Title, Tagline, Description & Brand Clarity with Mara Richards

Live Coaching: Building a Podcast From Scratch. Steal My Top Business Success Strategies!

Live Coaching: How to Build Your Podcast Audience By Using Keyword Research for SEO

Live Coaching: How to Choose the Best Name and Tagline When You Start a Podcast

We have many more live coaching podcast episodes, which you can access on my podcast, The Stefanie Gass Show.

Regular brand audits and refreshes are vital to ensure you and your listener are on the same page. It allows you to grow together, making sure you don’t get too far ahead and your person doesn’t get lost along the way. Your keywords should also continue to address your avatar’s number one problem so you can continue generating organic, evergreen traffic. Finally, if you’re getting stuck or want help doing a thorough brand audit, getting another set of eyes or a business coach to have a look can be amazingly helpful.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

P.S. Also, listen to podcast episode 511 for the full training on LIVE COACHING: Podcast Audit + Building a Podcast Brand Map & Business Coaching!

APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE PODCAST

Hey friend! Are you ready to grow your online business without 24/7 social media or having awkward DM conversations?

Podcasting is much easier and saves you so much time when it comes to growing your online business. We invite you to check out Podcast Pro University or Stef’s FREE Podcast for Growth Workshop.