If you are considering launching a branded podcast but aren’t sure where to start, this is the podcast for you.
Our guest is Allan Grego from Moneris, one of the largest payment processors in Canada. A few years ago, Allan came up with the idea to start a podcast called “Yes We Are Open” that would showcase small businesses that use Moneris. In this podcast, Allan discusses the challenges he faced getting merchants on board at first and how focusing on compelling storytelling helped overcome those objections.
The podcast has been a huge success. After refining their promotion strategy in the second season, Allan saw downloads skyrocket. Even better – some new merchants signed up with Moneris just so they could be featured! Allan shares the promotion tactics that worked best.
You’ll also learn how the podcast has given Moneris an entirely new level of personality with their customers. He explains how they measure impact beyond just downloads too.
If you’ve been wondering how to launch a branded podcast but in a way that really moves the needle for your business, this episode is a must-listen. You’ll walk away inspired and with new ideas to consider. Give it a listen now!
THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT
- 01:20 Understanding your brand message
- 02:40 How podcasting lets your brand personality shine
- 04:29 Using podcasting to communicate with your internal team
- 05:52 The process of finding guests
- 07:36 Attracting listeners through storytelling
- 09:45 Channels to use to promote your podcast
- 11:35 Why measuring podcast success isn’t all about numbers
- 13:59 Advice for marketers considering podcasting
GUEST DETAILS
Allan Grego is Emerging Channels Communication Manager at Moneris, and is producer and host of the award-winning ‘Yes, We Are Open’ podcast and ‘Shop Talk Podcast’.
“Yes, We Are Open” is a podcast that tells the stories of small businesses in Canada, their successes, failures and what we can learn from them. Allan travels the country to tell these stories of challenge and perseverance. Whether you’re a small business owner yourself, or you’re thinking of starting one someday, these cautionary and motivational stories will provide you with the lessons and inspiration to help you on your way.
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/allan-grego-98362021
Allan: https://found.ee/algrego
Podcast: https://podfollow.com/1582710578/view
QUOTES
The impact of a podcast is you’re in somebody’s ear for a certain amount of time, they are actively listening. They’re listening because they’re interested in what you have to say, so we’re getting a very niche audience. Every brand is looking for that targeted audience to market to – Allan Grego
I do ask all of our business owner guests if Moneris did anything to help them, but other than that it’s all about them. The more genuine I am about listening to their story, the listener gets their story. It shows our personality as a business. – Allan Grego
We thought we’ve got to fish where the fish are, if you want to advertise a podcast, you should probably be advertising on other podcasts. – Allan Grego
Yes, We Are Open is showing off the personality of the company. Listeners feel like they know a little bit about the culture of the company because they’ve listened to our show. – Allan Grego
We are getting some people switching to Moneris because they want be on the podcast – Allan Grego
Find a way to represent your company without being a sales pitch. Why would anyone voluntarily tune into a 2031 hour long commercial for your company? Find a way to entertain or educate, provide some kind of value. – Allan Grego
MORE INFORMATION
If you would like to find out more about how a brand podcast could work for your business visit our website www.dustpod.io.
You’ll find guides on how podcasts work specifically for brands, along with lots more examples of award winning brand podcasts to inspire you. Working with us means you do all the fun stuff, and we do everything else. Find that information on our website www.dustpod.io.
KEYWORDS
#businesspodcast #brandpodcast #awardwinners #storytelling #audience
TRANSCRIPTION
For your convenience, we include an automated AI transcription
Dusty Rhodes 00:03
Can you market a payment processing service using a podcast? We’re about to meet Allan Grego from Canada who’s done just that, and won an award for it.
00:13
World wide brands are engaging with customers through podcasts. These are the stories behind outstanding brand podcasts. So you can listen, learn and be inspired by the best. These are the award winners from dustpod.io.
Dusty Rhodes 00:31
My name is Dusty Rhodes and you’re welcome to our podcast today. Moneris is a FinTech company founded jointly by the Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Montreal. In Canada, when you swipe or tap your credit card, it’s most likely a Moneris terminal, which will process the payment. The brand is always looking to grow and local businesses from restaurants to stores is a growth area for them. To reach that audience, their emerging channels communication manager, Al lan Grego, began a new podcast called Yes, We Are Open
Al Grego 01:03
the impact of a podcast, you’re in somebody’s ear for a certain amount of time. They’re actively listening. They’re listening, because they’re interested in what you’re having to say. So we’re getting a very niche audience. But that’s good. I mean, everyone’s looking for that targeted audience to market to
Dusty Rhodes 01:17
in our award winners podcast today, Alan shares why the podcast worked for Moneris, the challenge of getting guests and how he successfully marketed the podcast. So let’s get into our conversation with Alan starting with him outlining the brand message that he was trying to get across.
Al Grego 01:35
I’m sure that your audience is very familiar with the you know, the concept of a branded podcasts. And so there’s different kinds of reasons for why companies start to podcast. And so hence, I started I had, we had to have a strategy going in, I produced two shows from an heiress and they both have very different goals. One is called shop talk. And that’s kind of our thought leadership show in terms of you know, since we are the leading process payment processor in Canada, we should be leading a lot of those conversations in terms of what the latest technology is, what the latest trends are, and do that. So that’s what Shop Talk is, yes, we are open, we just wanted to shine a spotlight on our merchants. So because we’re a payment processor, our clients are other businesses and a big part of that other small businesses, the restaurants, the bars, the the artisan selling there, there were in the market, you know, that’s who our customers are. So we wanted to create a show that would go out find, you know, some interesting stories tell their stories of origin of struggle, and perseverance, and then how they came out of it and what their future outlook looks like. And that’s yes, we are open.
Dusty Rhodes 02:39
So it’s very business to business targeted. Why did you think a podcast format in particular would work? Well, here?
Al Grego 02:45
Basically, a podcast allows your business to have a personality beyond what we do. It allows us to kind of show behind the curtain, okay, this is what our company’s about. And this is why we love doing what we do. And this is how we support our customers. I try to do it in a non salesy way with yesterday or open, you barely hear me say mentioned that the name of the company in the podcast. I mean, there’s an ad break in the middle, which does that for us. For the most part, I do ask the question of all our businesses, you know, is there anything in particular that manures did to help you through this trying time, sometimes there is sometimes it’s shows just business as usual. And we just kept the lights on. And that was fine. And so there’s nothing to say there. But other than that, it’s all about them, the more genuine I am about listening to their story, and the listener gets their story. It shows our personality as a business. This is what we’re trying to do for our customers.
Dusty Rhodes 03:42
And here’s an example from Yes, we are open of how Alan lets his customers shine, and sound the best resonating with the listener. Every
03:51
time we get feedback from people, it means the world obviously, like we send out we this is one of my favorite things to do is to come here and talk to the customers and they’re like, they’re like we got the vibe in here. It’s just so and we’re like this is exactly what we wanted. Exactly that. So yeah, it we’re super proud. And like we know my dad is kind of shining on us. We feel him here all the time. My mom just this morning. She’s like your father would be so proud of you guys. Just this morning.
04:20
Vicki and Renee, is sugarcane open,
04:23
yes, you’re open.
Dusty Rhodes 04:29
Alan knew the podcast idea would work because of an earlier experience he had while working at HR in Moneris.
Al Grego 04:35
One of the things if anyone’s in corporate training is letting people know in the company, what opportunities there are for development in the company. One of the biggest questions and whenever you do your urine surveys, one of the questions that always has the lowest score is Do you feel like you have enough development opportunities in this company and in HR, we’re always pulling our hair going. We have so many development opportunities but no one knows about it. So I started this biweekly thing called the Moneris minute where I was just saying, Hey, this is what’s happening right? Now you can, if you want to learn about this, you can check this out, we’re doing this, we have this going on, blah, blah, blah. So fast forward a couple of years of doing that, and actually, you know, getting some good traction and our Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, I was interviewing him for something an internal podcast. And when we were done, we started chatting. And he said, you know, we’re thinking about, you know, doing something for manera. It’s like a podcast strategy from an heiress. And I’m thinking, Oh, he’s asking me if I know of any good, you know, companies or whatever, that I can refer him to say, oh, yeah, we can, you know, I can connect us with a few instead. What about you? Oh, oh, okay. Sure. And I’m like, I’ve never done it before, like, you know, and to that scale before. And you say, Yeah, but I find that a few. If I hire people with the passion to do something, the results will be good.
Dusty Rhodes 05:52
So to say, you got the podcast together, and you had your ideas of how you wanted to do it, and you love the storytelling side of things. Tell me your process for finding guests and people to interview on the podcast.
Al Grego 06:03
So it’s our leadership podcast, that’s easy, because we have partners that we work with, we have partnerships with Visa, MasterCard, all the big players are all our partners. So we have people on from our partners all the time. Yes, we are open, we have to find, you know, small Canadian businesses that are Moneris merchants, and you would think that I could just dip into a database somewhere and do a search, I really can’t. But you know, I managed to get you know, eight a season. And we’ve been so far, so good. And the stories I’ve been able to tell most of them have been really interesting. Some of them been very personal. But I think all of them are motivating and have some kind of a lesson to be learned that an entrepreneur can maybe learn from,
Dusty Rhodes 06:44
what do people say to you, when you first ask them to come on the podcast? What’s the reaction?
Al Grego 06:48
At first, I thought it was going to be easy to get people to talk about their businesses, but it turns out, they’re really busy running their businesses. So it’s, um, you know, it’s been a challenge. But but you know, not a bad challenge.
Dusty Rhodes 06:58
So what has worked for you then to turn them around and get them to say, yes,
Al Grego 07:02
well, first, I have to assure them that it doesn’t, it’s not going to cost them a thing. Then I tell them, you know, it’s Canada Wide show like you’ll be heard all over the country. And it’s good publicity. I mean, in some cases, that doesn’t matter if it’s somebody who’s just selling. I did, I did a story of a lady who sells homemade dog biscuits in a local market. She doesn’t care if somebody in Vancouver knows about her business in Kingston, but it’s still a very interesting story. And she she was happy to tell it. So you have to appeal to those people who want to tell their story. And then you have to actually tell their story and try to be as authentic as possible in
Dusty Rhodes 07:36
telling it. Do you have one or two favorites that you can describe?
Al Grego 07:39
One that always stands out because it wasn’t pandemic related. I visited this town in Saskatchewan, and there was a family run or electrical contractor. It was about to be a third generation business, the grandfather started the father is now running it, and the son is being basically groomed to take it over.
07:58
Before the interviews can start, I get to witness some of the day to day business that happens at Saunders electric. Someone drops off an electric motor for repair. Don Jr receives it but the conversation quickly turns to the years potato crop yield. Really good. You immediately get the sense that Saunders electric isn’t just a business in Prince Albert. It’s part of the fabric that makes up the community. And this level of comfort and trust is well earned from 65 years of family tradition, as we’re about to learn.
Al Grego 08:32
Stories like that really hit home because you know yesteryear open isn’t just a business podcast. It’s a storytelling podcast. I think that opens us up to a different audience as well, which is kind of bearing out here with our numbers and stuff. We’re getting good traction in the business section. But we’re also getting you know, people who liked listening to good stories listening so that one there stands out as one that I really enjoyed.
Dusty Rhodes 08:56
Still to come on the award winners podcast, we’ll hear out Alan successfully marketed the podcast to grow the audience, and how Moneris measures the success of the show.
09:07
If you feel a brand podcast worked for you, here are three simple things you can do today to get started. One, visit our website to get more information and guides on how podcasts work specifically for brands, along with lots more examples of award winning brands podcast to inspire you to you can call us with your questions and we’re happy to help. Three, you could consider working with us. So you do all the fun stuff, and we do everything else. Find that information on our website as DustPod does. I am
Dusty Rhodes 09:45
back to our conversation with Alan grego the emerging channels communication manager with Moneris in Canada, like many successful podcasts it took yes we are open a little time to grow, but the investment was worth it. Alan describes the launch pad He promoted the podcast, and it has grown in stages.
Al Grego 10:03
The first year, we started with our usual channels of organic, social and paid social and stuff, like we already have those channels in place for the rest of the company. So we use some of that to launch season one. And we also advertise on local podcast called Toronto, Mike who’s got a big listenership. And we thought, you know, we got to fish where the fish are, if you want to advertise a podcast, you should probably be advertising on other podcasts. So that was the first year and you know, it was, it was okay, like, it helped us launch and the numbers were okay. The following year, we put some money behind it, and we got somebody, you know, a consultant to come in and help us figure out, okay, these are the shows you want to advertise on. And we gave her a budget, and she helped us kind of figure that out. And that’s when it really, yeah, when you did that, you saw a huge jump in listenership. And I think that’s also what helped us, you know, with the award, and season three, was the strength and numbers of the season two, because then we were also appearing on the charts, you know, and a lot of that, so it’s all momentum, right? You launch, you know, you get a few listeners, but the, the more the more listeners you get, and the higher you rank on the charts, that becomes a bit of a feedback, right, and snowball, and it really helped for season two, and then you got the award. And that helped even more, because now we can say we are an award winning podcast, and you should listen to us. And yeah, we’ve been kind of going with that. Now we’re heading into well, I’m gonna start producing season five, which will come out in the fall.
Dusty Rhodes 11:35
How do you measure the success of the podcast,
Al Grego 11:39
podcasting is a he’s done a, an open standard RSS, right. Because of that, it’s really hard to measure anything but downloads, you got closed systems like Spotify, and like apple that can kind of tell you how much of the the episode is being listened to, you know, good number, around 70 to 75% of the episode, if they’re listening to that. We have the biggest metrics are those but then we also get, you know, a lot of traffic being driven to our site, because at the end, we do say, hey, check out moneris.com For more information on whatever, you know, there’s all that stuff that happens. So as far as like what I’m doing for Moneris. Yeah, my measures are, you know, how much traffic my directing to the site, we are getting some some people, you know, switching to bananas, because they want me on the podcast, we’ve had a few of those, too. So that’s been interesting. And who knows what kind of loyalty we’re getting from the ones who who we featured who may be staying, you know, so there’s a lot of that, right. So a happy byproduct has been that we’ve had a few people switching over because they wanted to be on the podcast. So that’s, that’s a happy.
Dusty Rhodes 12:40
So is that people who have become clients have Moneris because they wanted to become a guest on the podcast.
Al Grego 12:46
Yeah, there’s been a couple of those. I’ve had a few. You know, hey, love the podcast loves Beyonce. That’s great. Are you a nurse merchant? And like, no, like, Oh, okay. Well, let me know when you are. And we can talk. So
Dusty Rhodes 12:58
has the podcast had any impact in any other way?
Al Grego 13:01
Yeah, I mean, the other one shot, the thought leadership podcasts, our partners love being on it. So every month, I’m planning the next month. And I’m asking our partnership team, Hey, who wants to be on this? Like, what are we talking about? Who wants to be on? And at least two or three of them? Like, they’re asking when they can be on again, right? And we’re trying to now we’re trying to manage them saying, Okay, well, well, we can’t have this bank on too many times, because then this bank will be unhappy or whatever they’ll be. So there’s a bit of, you know, management happening there. So from that end, yeah. So we’re getting a lot of really great traction from from our partners on that one. Yes, we were open. It’s showing off the personality of the company. And what I’ve heard anecdotally, and because I used to be an HR, I still talk to those people. A lot of the people we’re hiring are like, oh, yeah, we know about the nurse because we’ve heard some of your podcasts. So that’s been nice, you know, to be able to, they can come in and feel like they know a little bit about the culture of the company because they’ve listened to our show.
Dusty Rhodes 13:59
For Moneris, a branded podcast has given the business a personality beyond what they do, and won them several new clients. Alan has done this by shining a light on Moneris his own customers and promoting the podcast through social and paid ads in other podcast each year as it gets bigger and bigger. It’s also won them several podcasting and marketing awards in Canada. For any marketers thinking of launching their own brand podcast, Alan has the following advice.
Al Grego 14:28
Find a way to represent your company without being a sales pitch. Because why would anyone voluntarily tune into a 2031 hour long commercial for your company, they would find a way to entertain or educate. So provide some kind of value. Find out what kind of audience you want and what size audience you want and be good with it. Find your niche and try to just stand out in your niche. So we’re, you know, we found our niche. We’re Canadian, and we’re, we’re business podcasts and so we try to stand out in that niche and be as good as you can with that.
Dusty Rhodes 15:03
Just one small correction for you there. Allan, we’re business podcasts. We’re an award winning business podcast. I remember that. Okay. Allan Grego, from Yes, We Are Open. Thank you so much for chatting with us today.
Al Grego 15:15
Thank you so much.
Dusty Rhodes 15:18
If you would like to listen to Moneris’ Yes, We Are Open or Shop Talk the second thought leadership podcast Allan mentioned, you’ll find links in the show notes on your podcast player right now. Our thanks to Allan for sharing the challenges he faced and the solutions that he found worked, from getting guests to marketing the show. For more information on creating brand podcasts. Remember, you’ll find a great resources on our website. You can also arrange a call to chat about how a podcast could work for your brand specifically, or you could consider working with us so you do the fun stuff. And we do everything else. Until our next award winners podcast from myself, Dusty Rhodes, thank you for listening.
15:58
The Award Winners is a DustPod production from dustpod.io