This is another in a series of posts giving Top Podcast Picks related to aspects of digital marketing. Here, we are focused on tracking B2B visitors that become leads. These podcasts delve into Marketing Automation and CRM, lead nurturing (so-called drip campaigns), sales lead management and list segmentation. The podcasts I’ve chosen have meaty, long-format content; and they aren’t industry news digests (though they have their place in podcastland).

Here then, are the top picks for lead tracking and nurturing podcasts:

The Automation Podcast
Format: Various Hosts interviewing guests
This podcast comes from the creators of Fuzed, an app for connecting various sales and marketing applications via API. As befits their product, their podcast unravels the plumbing behind various companies’ funnels, touching on back-end CRM & marketing automation processes, KPIs and tools. An Australia-based podcast, I like their dedication to making marketing scale and how it has a multiplier effect for businesses that adopt it. The recurring theme throughout each episode is how to tweak business processes to yield massive increases in output.

SLMA Radio
Format: Host interviewing guests
The main host of this long-running show is Jim Obermayer, who brings a salesperson’s questions to guests who are experts in marketing automation, sales lead scoring and qualification. The production quality is high, as this show is done for regular radio syndication. They have also recently begun offshoot projects, such as a show with full video and spinoffs like Leadspace Radio.

 
 
McMethod Email Marketing Podcast
Format: Host interviewing guests
This show is hosted by John McIntyre, an American known as The Autoresponder Guy. John wanted to live abroad so he found an Asian vacation resort that needed web marketing and talked his way into a job. He got great at writing sales copy for their email newsletters and he now writes for many companies from his home in Bangkok. Show topics include: marketing funnels, email copywriting, web-based businesses and managing email lists. I like that John doesn’t reduce copywriting down to slick phrases that trick readers. He approaches copy by using personas, intelligent segmentation and relevant calls-to-action.

The Funnel
Format: Two hosts; occasional guests
I have been listening to this podcast for a year now. The hosts, Lindsay Kelly and John Shea, talk about generating and nurturing inbound leads, understanding buyers, staffing sales and marketing departments and soft skills. After many episodes of discussions between the two of them, they have been bringing on guests to hear their views. What I like about the podcast is that Kelly and John already have different slants on topics. Kelly has a marketing background, where John’s is purely sales.

Mad Marketing by Marcus Sheridan, the Sales Lion
Format: Solo Host
Marcus’ background is that he was living in Virginia with his wife and four kids, running a pool building/servicing business that hit hard times during the 2009 recession. Without cash to run pricey marketing programs, his business had to acquire customers at zero-cost, so being an enthusiastic guy, he started producing content hoping it would generate inbound leads. It not only helped his business stay afloat (sorry for the pun) but it launched him into social media and becoming one of HubSpot’s top inbound marketing partners – and that’s how he became the Sales Lion.

Web Marketing That Works
Format: Alternating hosts interviewing guests
Hosts Adam Franklin and Toby Jenkins run a marketing agency in Australia. They interview CEOs and others who have grown their business using the Internet. Topics include: building social proof, using experimentation in marketing messages and cultivating an audience of potential buyers. Although their podcast is fairly young (50 episodes to date), they coax their guests to go beyond superficial ‘how I did it’ stories to dive deeply into the tactics they use.

A final note about podcasts: Many podcasts are, at heart, marketing vehicles for the companies behind them. But the smart ones cover their subject well, giving the listener a favourable impression of them. The corporate-backed podcasts in this selection keep their sales-pitches to a bare minimum, leaving lots of room for good, impartial information.