Leverage Your Podcast for Relationship Marketing with Veronica Romney

Hey Friend!

Did you know your podcast can be your number one way to build deep connections with people through relationship marketing?

Those connections could mean growing the number of podcast listeners or increasing their listening time for each episode. Deeper connections can also mean other influencers, podcasters, and leaders you come to know and learn from in your niche industry.

You can leverage your podcast for deeper connections and more significant sales through relationship marketing.

My friend, Veronica Romney, is a relationship and identity marketing expert. She helps CEOs master their roles, nurture their teams, and elevate their leadership. I met Veronica at a speaking engagement and quickly realized that what she portrays online is exactly who she is.

Veronica shares seven relationship marketing strategies to grow your online business and leverage your podcast for more industry connections and sales.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING STRATEGY #1 – GETTING PEOPLE TO SAY YES TO YOU

Stef: Tell us how you got into marketing.

Veronica: I didn’t know I was going to be a marketer. My parents are Cuban immigrants who value education. To them, education changes your destiny. Hence, I loved learning math and business. I planned to go into finance and accounting; however, I couldn’t secure an internship in finance. The only thing that was available to me was marketing. That was almost 17 years ago.

Marketing is art and science, creativity and data. I love that I didn’t have to choose one side of my personality or the other, and I have been wildly loyal to my profession. I am a marketer just as much as a wife, a mother, and a Christian woman. These are parts of my identity.

I look at the world through a marketing lens, which I can’t undo. Anything I see or consume, whether a movie, a concert, or politics, I view from a marketing lens. Marketing, by definition, is the ethical persuasion of getting people to say yes to you. Yes, to buy and learn from you. They act because you told them to.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING STRATEGY #2 – SELF-MARKETING

Stef: What is the most essential relationship marketing strategy when starting a brand and online business?

Veronica: Solopreneurs must learn the art of self-marketing. In other words, you need to market yourself in a way that tells people what you do in a natural, comfortable, confident way.

Self-marketing shares your struggle or pain and how you made a solution for yourself or figured out a better way. Now, you want to help others out of the same pain you were in yourself. You desire to teach others how to achieve the same success or results you did. Self-marketing says, “I did this. You can, too.”

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING STRATEGY #3 – HELPING IDEAL CLIENTS

Veronica: The entrepreneurial journey naturally starts with self-marketing. Then, at some point, relationship marketing evolves into something that is not about you.

Your ideal client shouldn’t buy from you because they want to become you. They should buy from you or through your company because you help them become the best version of themselves. You help them reach their fullest potential.

If you and your brand or online business don’t transition relationship marketing from self-marketing to helping others, you will stay in a small business mind capacity.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING STRATEGY #4 – IDENTITY MARKETING

Stef: Interesting. So, tell us how to shift our mindset and message from self-marketing to client-focused marketing.

Veronica: The shift happens when you stop saying “Buy This, Register for This, Order Now, Click Here” and instead say “Be This or Do This to Become This.” The latter is called identity marketing. Brands move to another stratosphere when they focus on identity marketing.

An example of identity marketing is Taylor Swift. People don’t go to her concerts to become Taylor Swift. They go to her concerts, buy her albums, listen to her songs, and buy merchandise because there is an identity in being a Swiftie. While the lyrics are her story, every time someone listens to those lyrics, it makes them feel something about their story. She speaks for them through her songs.

Another great example of identity marketing is Harley-Davidson. Thousands of people are buried in Harley-Davidson caskets every year. Families commission personalized caskets in the logo and coloring of a Harley Davidson. And they bury their loved ones in their full riding gear. We know that garments and memorabilia symbolize what someone believes in or how they see themselves in the eternities of their lives.

Now, I’m a small business owner. I’m not Taylor Swift or Harley Davidson. How does this relate to me? Self-marketing shifts when your message is you don’t buy from me to become me. You want to work with or buy from me because I can help you be the best version of yourself. I’ll help you become what you believe about yourself but don’t know how to get there alone.

After 17 years in marketing and business, I genuinely believe the wallet achieves what the mind believes about itself.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING STRATEGY #5 – PODCASTING

Stef: Buy This to Be This messaging. That’s good. What marketing channels do you recommend for people to make the most significant impact in this identity marketing? What has worked best for you that is powerful for a solopreneur trying to grow an audience or make a few sales?

Veronica: As a marketer, I try to keep my foot in everything because traffic comes from various places. There is paid, social media, search, and relationship traffic. Relationship marketing is my favorite form of marketing because it is fundamental. Before the Yellow Pages, the Internet, or social media, marketing was just people doing business with people and helping people.

That said, of all the marketing tools I have at my disposal, my podcast has been the most powerful tool in my relationship marketing endeavors. That’s because we connect and start a relationship when I meet people in person, perhaps at a conference, networking, or being introduced through someone else. Before I know it, I’m on their podcast, or they’re on mine. The podcast is the easiest way now.

So many things have come from the podcast. I got invited to a huge speaking opportunity with 1500 chief marketing officers and business leaders, the VP of marketing for Netflix, and the CMO for Mattel, Barbie. Those are big names to share the stage with, and I’m on the roster of speakers because the organizer listens to my podcast.

With podcasting, the valuable metric is not how many downloads but rather the quality of people who listen. People who listen to a podcast are more qualified to work with you than people who watch you on social media for 30 seconds or less. I feel listeners are buyers. If they are willing to listen to you for 30 to 60 minutes, they are telling you their inclination to further invest time and effort, if not money, with you, too.

Stef: So good. I love that we landed here because I have seen that in my and my students’ businesses. The sales happen through the listeners of the show. While we use other marketing channels, they point back to the podcast because that’s where the conversions happen.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING STRATEGY #6 – REVERSE ENGINEER WHAT YOU WANT FOR YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

Stef: Tell us more about how you strategically invite guests to the podcast to meet them, learn from them, and become a part of the opportunities they have.

Veronica: I am a very intentional person. Intentionality and effort are The number one ingredients in making any of it work.

At first, I was like a baby at podcasting. I didn’t know what I was doing. I invited my friends to come on and have fun and talk. Then, I shifted a couple of months into it when I realized I needed to use the podcast strategically for its full potential.

So, I reverse-engineered what I wanted. For example, I wanted to speak on stage, so I invited some of the most prominent conference organizers or event coordinators to share on the podcast. I said, “I have to tell you I am in awe of what you do. Do you mind if I ask you some questions because I’m also trying to carve a niche into this?” Or I say, “I am in awe of what you did to achieve the results you did, and I want to tell your story. It would be an honor to tell that story.” I do not make them look like an idiot, nor do I debate them. I make them look good because I really do think what they did was brilliant. That’s my approach.

When I invited conference organizers or event coordinators to the show, I asked them to share what they look for when vetting keynote speakers. That did two things for me. I heard from them, as experts, how to position myself to become a keynote speaker, and this created a relationship through the podcast. Hopefully, they think of me when I am a keynote speaker. My podcast guests have been wildly generous, sharing what did and didn’t work for them. And they generously introduce me to other people.

I also wanted to be invited to particular masterminds, different networking groups, circles, or tables that I couldn’t access. So, I asked those with their masterminds and networking groups to come on the show. As I write my first book, I want to interview people I could mention because someone else’s words in my book are more powerful than just my take on it. I reverse-engineer what I want and then use the podcast to get me there.

Being able to say, “I want you on the podcast” or “I want to feature you in the book” flatters people. Podcasting has opened virtual doors for me.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING STRATEGY #7 – INVITE GUESTS TO SHARE ON YOUR PODCAST

Stef: That’s amazing. I love how you are courageous and willing to ask. Some people might be thinking, That’s so amazing for Veronica. She’s getting all these huge people on her podcast, but I could never do that because they would never say yes to me. My podcast is small. What do you say to that thought that might be creeping in for people?

Veronica: I haven’t once been asked to show a potential podcast guest my download numbers. As far as they know, I have zero people listening, or I could have a hundred people listening. Perhaps only my Cuban family is listening. Inviting someone to be a guest on your podcast is flattering, and they take it as such.

Stef: I have been podcasting for six years, and no one has asked for my podcast listener metrics either. Tell us how you ask someone to be your podcast guest. Does your team send an email, or do you personally send them a direct message?

Veronica: All of the above, but mainly, I do the inviting through a text or a direct message. I love voice direct messages because the potential guest knows it’s me, they hear how genuine I am, and it gets a higher listen rate. As I invite, I am detached from whether they say yes or no. A potential guest can sniff desperation.

I hope you use Veronica’s seven relationship marketing strategies to grow your online business and leverage your podcast for more connections and friendships in your niche industry. Use this conversation to evaluate how well you use relationship and identity marketing to help your ideal person and get more sales.

Your podcast is a powerful tool. If you need help reverse-engineering your podcast to get more qualified listeners ready to buy, coaching clients, and course sales, Podcast to Profit Mastermind, my six-month group coaching program, is your next step.

I pray this blesses you!

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