The biggest trap in “going video” for a business podcast

Most business podcasts fail when they add video without understanding audience behavior. Cody Gough, Podcast Growth Strategist at NerdWallet, has scaled award-winning shows for global brands including Discovery and built Curiosity Daily into a top science podcast. He reveals why genuine listener reactions signal true market fit over vanity metrics. Gough explains how to build sustainable organic growth by focusing on community engagement rather than just distributing audio content. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast? I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth, and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iHereEverything.com.

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  From advertising to software as a service to data, across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55% to 65% open rate.

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  Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising.

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  Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours.

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  If we're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action, then it's just a matter of timing.

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  Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast, you'll hear the stories of world-class marketers that use technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro.

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  I'm Benjamin Shapiro, and joining me today is Cody Goff, a podcast growth strategist who also works at NerdWallet, and a longtime operator who's scaled award-winning shows for major brands. And today, Cody's going to break down what actually drives sustainable, organic growth in podcasting. What's the biggest trap in going video for business podcasts?

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  Going in without a strategy. You just need to know, why are you doing it? And how are you doing it? And the switch feels kind of easy, like even if you're like, we're just going to add video, we'll keep everything else the same, we're just going to add video, and then that way we can also put it on YouTube. Okay, you say that. So are you going to post the same episode description on YouTube and that same episode title on YouTube that you use on Apple and Spotify, et cetera? Because that ain't gonna work. That ain't gonna fly at all. Like, you'll put in your episode, all these keywords, like, you know, the key to maximizing your Roth IRA is this for contributions, whatever, like, keyword, keyword, keyword, keyword, right? Then you

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  go on YouTube, it's gotta be like, you'll never believe how to make all this money, or like, the best way to make money in 2026, or whatever it is. Like, you just, it's just a different dialect entirely. And not having chapter timestamps, which suck to make, and you have to use AI to make them, or you're just sucking all your time out of the room. Like, that's a, that's a necessary thing for YouTube growth. So like, you, like, it seems like the smallest thing, just put video, put it on YouTube. No, you're now putting something on the platform, the platform, that will not work on that platform.

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  People go to podcasts and they're ready to sit down, or walk around, or do the dishes for 20 to 30 minutes, right? They're, they're in for the long haul. They've already selected, based on their personally curated list, and they're interested in the topic, and they press play, and they put the phone in their pocket, and they go do other things.

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  You can bullshit on a podcast. You can, hey, how you doing? What's the weather? Tell me about your background. Cool, what beer are you drinking today? What's your hair product? All right, let's get into the topic. That seems to work a little bit in audio, although I would argue that the world is getting a little bit more sophisticated and just needs to get to the point. If you're not paying off the value prop in the first 10 seconds of your YouTube video, people are bouncing. Like, to me, the introduction and the connection between what's stopping the thumb, because it doesn't matter if people are following you, that's not necessarily what content they're watching. What's the title which gets them to click? And then in the first 10 seconds, are you helping deliver value related to that thumbnail and title? Like, if you don't get that formula right, forget it. So on

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  YouTube, my learning was, when you're recording for YouTube, that first 30 seconds needs to be scripted. It needs to be something that you know is going to be hot and compelling. That's why we always start with a number on this podcast. We're trying to get the data geeks to be like, ooh, there's a number, let me digest it. I'm still thinking about it. All right, he's still talking. Wait, what was he saying? There was actually a little thought behind some of that formula that went into, how do I pay off the first 10 seconds to get you to stay there? Yeah. Well, that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks for listening to my conversation with Cody Goff, a podcast growth strategist. He also works at NerdWallet. If you'd like to contact Cody, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com.

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  You can always visit his personal website, which is podcastgrowthconsultant.com. And if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, click the subscribe button in your podcast app or on YouTube and we'll be back in your feed next week. All right, that's it for today, but until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

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  Thanks for listening to the Martech Podcast, an I Hear Everything production. Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit ihereverything.com.