Learn how to use your podcast as a strategic marketing tool to build authority, attract ideal clients, nurture leads, and grow your business.
510: How to Use Your Podcast as a Marketing Tool with Jenny Sunneson
About Jenny Sunneson
Jenny Sunneson has been an entrepreneur since 2016, beginning her online business journey as a virtual assistant and social media manager.
In 2018, she launched her own podcast and quickly fell in love with the entire podcasting process. When a virtual assistant client asked her to help manage her podcast, that opportunity led Jenny to realize that podcasting was where she wanted to focus.
By early 2019, she had gone all in on podcasting and has continued working in the space ever since.
Today, Jenny helps busy moms simplify their businesses through Moms Make Money Collective, providing done for you support in administration, technology, and podcast management.
She also helps women prepare for and manage maternity leave so their businesses can continue running smoothly while they focus on their growing families.
After experiencing firsthand how unpredictable social media and virtual assistant work could be, Jenny found podcasting to be a much more sustainable fit, particularly as a mom of two young children.
The predictable nature of podcast production allows her to plan ahead, create systems, and support clients while also creating more space for her family. Through streamlined processes, hands on support, and podcast expertise, she helps moms reduce overwhelm, free up their time, and build profitable businesses they love.
You can find Jenny Sunneson’s podcast here.
How Can You Use a Podcast as a Marketing Tool Instead of Just a Content Platform?
The biggest shift for business owners is realizing that a podcast should not simply be content that gets published every week because they feel like they are supposed to have a podcast.
Every episode should have a job to do within the business.
That does not mean every episode needs to sell something. Instead, the podcast should intentionally help people discover the business, understand what it offers, build trust with the business owner, and eventually take the next step into that person’s world.
Rather than sitting down each week and asking, What should I talk about this week? the better questions are:
- What does my ideal client need to hear from me?
- What do I want to be known for?
- What step do I want them to take next?
That last question is one that often gets overlooked.
Many business owners think about what their ideal client needs to hear and what they want to be known for, but they do not think about where they want to take that person next. Without that next step, the podcast can stop at being another piece of content that has to be created every week.
When the next step is intentional, the podcast becomes part of the actual marketing ecosystem.
Jenny Melrose adds that this connects directly to the customer journey. Content should be created with an understanding of where someone is in the process, whether they are becoming aware of a problem, learning more about the business, building trust, or getting closer to making a purchase.
The podcast can support each of those stages rather than treating every listener as if they are in exactly the same place.
Why Should Your Podcast Content End Up on Your Website?
A podcast can also become the foundation for a much larger content strategy.
Jenny Melrose regularly tells her clients that they need one piece of solid, consistent content, and she gives them three options: a podcast, YouTube, or a blog.
The important part is making sure that the content ultimately lives on the business’s website.
For podcasters, one of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to turn each podcast episode into a blog post. The podcast becomes the original piece of solid content, while the blog post gives the business another opportunity to bring people back to the website.
From there, the content can support the rest of the customer journey, giving visitors an opportunity to explore additional content, products, and services.
The goal is not simply to publish an episode and move on to the next one.
The goal is to make each episode work harder for the business.
What Makes Podcasting Different From Other Forms of Content When It Comes to Building Trust and Authority?
Podcasting gives people something that many other forms of content simply cannot provide: extended time with the business owner.
A blog post can be valuable, and social media can introduce someone to your brand, but hearing someone’s voice creates a different kind of connection.
When people read your content, they bring their own context to it. They imagine what you sound like, how you would say something, and what your personality is like. With a podcast, they get to experience those things directly.
Listeners might spend 20, 30, or even 45 minutes with a podcast while they are driving, working out, folding laundry, or doing school pickup. When that happens week after week, something begins to change.
They start to feel like they know you. They hear your personality. They learn how you think. They hear your stories and experience your expertise.
Over time, that familiarity can become incredibly powerful when someone is considering purchasing services, coaching, consulting, or anything else where they are ultimately investing in the person behind the business.
Podcasting allows potential clients to get to know you before they decide to buy, which can be particularly valuable when the investment is significant.
Jenny Melrose has experienced this firsthand. After starting her podcast in 2016, she was at a conference a few years later when she asked a speaker a question from the audience. Afterward, three women approached her and told her they had not recognized what she looked like, but the moment she began speaking, they knew exactly who she was.
They recognized her voice. That experience demonstrated the unique relationship podcasting can create.
Listeners become familiar with the way you speak, your stories, your personality, your sarcasm, and even little pieces of your everyday life. They can begin to feel as though they know you in a way that is much harder to accomplish through a caption or even a written blog post.
What Are the Biggest Podcast Marketing Mistakes Business Owners Make?
One of the biggest mistakes is creating podcast episodes without considering how those episodes connect to the business.
It can be easy to get excited about a topic and create an episode simply because it sounds interesting. But if the topics being published do not connect to what the business actually sells, the podcast can struggle to produce the results the business owner wants.
This often becomes apparent around the six month to one year mark. A podcaster may suddenly wonder why the show is not doing what they hoped it would do.
The first place to look is whether the content topics actually make sense for the business and its offers.
Another common mistake is failing to give listeners a clear next step.
Someone listens to an episode, but then what? There may be no freebie, no invitation to join the email list, and no mention of an offer.
Without a next step, the listener simply moves on. They may enjoy the episode, but there is nothing directing them deeper into the business.
The next step does not have to be complicated. It could be an invitation to download a lead magnet, join the email list, learn more about an offer, or even simply come back for the next episode.
If there is no next step, listeners have no reason to take one.
The third mistake is being afraid to sell.
Many podcasters are comfortable giving value every week but become uncomfortable telling listeners how they can actually work with them.
Yet listeners cannot purchase something they do not know exists.
This can be especially challenging for women who naturally want to be helpful and provide value without feeling pushy or spammy. But selling does not have to mean turning every episode into a sales pitch.
Jenny Sunneson emphasizes that an offer can be mentioned naturally within the conversation. If an episode is discussing something that is also taught inside a course, for example, the host can simply mention that connection: Inside [the course], this is why we talk about…
That small reference lets listeners know the offer exists without interrupting the content with a hard sales pitch.
Jenny Melrose agrees, particularly when it comes to lead magnets and growing an email list. The most important thing is making sure the opt in is connected to what listeners are already hearing about in the episode.
When the content, the call to action, and the offer are connected, the podcast becomes more than something to publish every week.
It becomes part of the business’s marketing strategy.
How Do You Promote a Lead Magnet Effectively in a Podcast?
The most effective approach is to weave the lead magnet naturally into the episode rather than relying entirely on a pre recorded promotional segment.
While a pre recorded pitch can be easier for the host because it is automatically included in the episode, it can feel jarring from the listener’s perspective. Instead, Jenny Sunneson recommends introducing the lead magnet or offer throughout the episode when it naturally connects to the topic being discussed.
For example, when talking about a specific strategy, the host might mention that the same topic is covered inside a particular program and direct listeners to the link in the show notes. The goal is not to interrupt the episode with a sales pitch, but to introduce the resource naturally as part of the conversation.
Then, at the end of the episode, the host can make a more formal call to action.
This creates a natural progression. The listener hears about the resource, becomes familiar with it, and then receives a clear invitation to take the next step.
Softly introduce it throughout the episode, then make the stronger invitation at the end.
How Can Podcast Hosts Use Their Episodes to Grow Their Email List Rather Than Simply Their Podcast Audience?
A podcast should not only serve the people who are already listening. It can also be a growth tool that helps new people discover the show and eventually move into the rest of the business.
Jenny Sunneson recommends two primary strategies for growing a podcast: search engine optimization and guesting on other podcasts.
Use SEO to Help New People Discover the Podcast
The first strategy is making the podcast searchable. That means optimizing episode titles and descriptions around the keywords people are actually using to find information.
For podcasters who already have dozens of episodes, going back and optimizing an entire back catalog can feel overwhelming. Instead, Jenny suggests starting with two simple areas: the podcast name and the name field.
A podcast name does not necessarily need to be changed. Instead, a keyword extension can be added after the name using a colon or similar separator. This allows the podcast title to include the words potential listeners are searching for.
She has seen podcasters make this one adjustment and notice an increase in downloads within just a few days.
The name field is another easy opportunity. Rather than simply listing a person’s name, relevant searchable keywords can also be included.
These small changes can provide a starting point for improving discoverability without requiring someone to immediately optimize all 50 or 100 episodes in their back catalog.
From there, the goal is to optimize new episodes going forward and gradually work through older content.
The second strategy is guesting on other podcasts. Being a guest allows a business owner to get in front of an established audience without asking listeners to leave the podcast app they’re already using.
Instead of directing someone from a podcast to Instagram or another platform, the listener can simply discover another podcast within the same environment. That makes the transition feel much more natural.
Jenny recommends using these two strategies together, but not necessarily all at once.
When someone is first launching a podcast, she prefers to focus on SEO and getting comfortable with hosting their own show. Once they feel confident with their podcast, they can begin appearing as a guest on other shows.
Both strategies help expand visibility while keeping the audience within the podcast ecosystem.
Jenny Melrose adds another important piece: the podcast episode should not have to live only inside the podcast app.
A transcript can be turned into a blog post, allowing the same episode to benefit from search on the podcast platform, Google, and AI tools such as ChatGPT.
The key is to approach the blog post strategically by using keyword research, creating SEO friendly titles and headings, and making sure the content fully answers the question someone is searching for.
The podcast becomes the starting point, but the content can continue working across the business’s larger marketing ecosystem.
What Does a Good Podcast to Offer Funnel Actually Look Like?
A good podcast to offer funnel does not have to be complicated. In fact, Jenny Sunneson believes it can be very simple as long as the host is intentional about where listeners go next.
It begins with someone discovering an episode because the topic speaks directly to a problem they are experiencing. They may find it through search, or they may already be following the host. Either way, they listen, receive value, and begin building trust.
At some point during the episode, the host points them toward a relevant free resource or low cost offer. That next step is important because it moves the listener somewhere the business owner can continue the relationship.
Once someone joins the email list, the relationship does not have to end when they close the podcast app. Email provides an opportunity to continue nurturing them with helpful content, introduce them to relevant offers, and eventually invite them to work with the business.
Ideally, they are still listening to the podcast at the same time. That means they are being nurtured in two places, continuing to hear the host’s voice through the podcast while also receiving more personalized communication through email.
Jenny describes the basic path as:
Podcast episode → relevant lead magnet or low cost offer → email nurture → bigger offer
The important thing is not creating a massive, complicated funnel. It is being intentional about where listeners are being sent next.
One of the biggest mistakes Jenny sees is simply not sending people anywhere. A business owner can create an incredible podcast episode, provide tremendous value, and then end with, “Great, see you next week.”
But the listener needs a next step.
Jenny Melrose agrees that growing an email list should be part of the strategy from the beginning. The opt in should connect naturally to the podcast content and ultimately lead toward a relevant product or service.
The email sequence does not need to be intimidating either. It can be just a few thoughtful emails that continue the conversation and introduce the listener to the next logical step.
The funnel does not have to be complicated. It just has to give people somewhere meaningful to go.
20 Hour Workweek Blueprint
The 20 Hour Workweek Blueprint helps moms build a profitable business in 20 hours a week or less by structuring their business around the time they actually have. Rather than trying to fit a business into a 40 hour workweek, the blueprint helps moms simplify their businesses around real life, including school schedules, family responsibilities, appointments, and everything else motherhood brings.
Inside, Jenny Sunneson shares her four part framework for creating a sustainable 20 hour workweek, along with time budgeting and weekly scheduling worksheets, an offer audit, a systems simplifier, and a one page business plan. The goal is to help business owners focus their limited hours on the activities that actually move the business forward.
Action Steps:
- If you liked this episode of Influencer Entrepreneurs, please subscribe and leave a fabulous review!
- Join the conversation on Instagram by tagging Jenny when you’re listening to the podcast. She’ll send you a personal message whenever you tag her.
