This episode will inspire you to find the story in what you do and create engaging podcasts which can literally move people.
Our guest Kerri Worral shares how Greater Anglia Rail used podcasting to successfully promote their new fleet and services.
Their “Lives on the Lines” podcast was a resounding success, gaining over 1000 listens in the first month through organic social media promotion alone. Paid social ads drove those numbers even higher, with listeners providing positive feedback and plans to visit locations featured.
Kerri shares how she created this award-winning podcast. She details the process of finding guests, production, promotion and measuring impact in addition to best practices on repurposing content and comparing effectiveness to video.
You’ll be inspired by how Greater Anglia harnessed the power of podcasting to boost their brand and explore opportunities for your own marketing.
THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT
- 01:35 Informing customers about a new product
- 03:06 Approaching a new marketing format
- 04:55 Utilising guest you already have access to
- 05:58 Using an agency to save on time commitment
- 07:01 Professional presenter vs internal presenter
- 10:03 Getting your podcast into the world
- 11:10 Paid advertising for podcasts
- 12:59 Analytics and feedback success
- 15:09 Podcasting vs Video
- 17:50 Expanding your marketing mix with podcasting
GUEST DETAILS
Lives On The Lines takes you on an audible journey by train to meet fascinating people living and working across our Great Anglian landscape.
The railways have connected communities and counties across Britain for nearly two centuries, and that time has seen enormous innovation in the trade, work opportunities and lifestyles of the British people. Rail has tracked lives through innovation, migration, boom and bust, and today the Greater Anglia rural branch lines connect communities here for work, days out and enjoying the beautiful East Anglian landscape.
You can enjoy a journey through history, culture, art and nature and it might just inspire a few adventures of your own.
Lives on the Lines is created on behalf of the Community Rail Partnerships with Greater Anglia.
Our guest Kerri Worrall is a PR consultant for the Greater Anglia Rail Service.
Website: https://www.greateranglia.co.uk
Podcast: https://podfollow.com/1552213970/view
QUOTES
If you’ve got the vision for how you can really bring your organization or your product to life, it’s a really good idea to try and have as many elements in your marketing mix as possible. They really were a value for money because we were able to continue to engage with people and offer them something of real value. It was a really good use of the PR budget. – Kerri Worrall
We didn’t want it to just sound like an advert for getting on a train, we really wanted it to be about the the history, the culture, the community. – Kerri Worrall
We worked with a really brilliant agency and because of that, actually the time commitment wasn’t too much. It wasn’t a burden. It’s such an exciting process to be involved in. – Kerri Worrall
We entered it for a number of awards, so we were able to say that it’s helped improve the reputation of the company. It’s not only the quantitative element of your analytics, but also feedback from people saying, I loved this and I am going to take a train journey because I’ve listened to this. – Kerri Worrall
It would be really easy to repurpose some of the podcast and use it in different ways, in blogs for example. I think once you’ve done it, you’ve just got this fantastic piece of content that you can then look at repurposing in as many ways as you want to. – Kerri Worrall
We’re all really pleased that we did it. It was an experiment that we feel was a successful one. – Kerri Worrall
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. www.dustpod.io.
KEYWORDS
#podcasting #awardwinners #train #brand #history
TRANSCRIPTION
For your convenience, we include an automated AI transcription
Dusty Rhodes 00:02
In the transport sector, we’re about to find out how a rail company used a podcast to literally roll out a new line.
00:10
World wide brands are engaging with customers through podcast. 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 00:29
Greater Anglia, the train operator for the East of England has just finished a complete fleet replacement with all trains which are more comfortable, faster and better for the environment. Their PR consultant Kerri Worrall, got people back on the trains and exploring the local area, using your particularly engaging podcast as part of her marketing mix.
00:49
If you’ve got the kind of vision for how you can really bring your organization or your product to life, it’s a really good idea to try and have as many elements in your kind of marketing mix as possible. They really were a value for money because we were able to continue to engage with people and offer them something of real value. Yeah, it was a really good good use of the PR budget.
Dusty Rhodes 01:11
In our award winners podcast right now. Kerri shares why she chose a podcast format, how she made the whole process as easy as possible to create and some of the techniques that she used to successfully market it. I started my chat with Kerri by asking what was the marketing message that she needed to get across about the new post pandemic fleet.
01:35
So at the moment, it’s all about trying to bring people back by letting them know about about the fleet transformation program about these wonderful new trains that people can travel on really good traveling experience, and highlighting the great value fairs that people can take advantage of. And also kind of talking about the railways green credentials. And as an industry, the target is to reach net zero by 2030. And there’s a huge amount of work going on across the business at the moment to decarbonize reduce waste, recycle more, the new trains are more environmentally friendly by design. So they have the ability to switch from diesel to electric motor help kind of reduce diesel use, they have regenerative braking that returns energy back to the overhead lines that other trains can pick up. So we’re kind of trying to really promote all the time, you know, the benefits of rail travel, for communities for society, but for the individual passenger, as well, and trying to encourage people to switch out of their cars and, and, you know, enjoy the sort of convenience and the ease of rail.
Dusty Rhodes 02:38
There’s a lot in there. What would you say in relation to the podcast, we’re going to talk about what was the most important one of those messages?
02:45
Well, it’s really about getting people to feel interested in the idea of jumping aboard a train and going off and exploring the region. You know, you’ve got all this beautiful countryside, amazing landscapes right on your doorstep. And it was about kind of wetting the appetite, I suppose for actually getting out there and enjoying it again.
Dusty Rhodes 03:06
And tell me when you brought this then to the company? How did you did you find it hard to convince people to go with the podcast?
03:14
No, not really. Because I think in that situation where we were in lockdown, no other marketing could happen. And so because we, we had some space to kind of say, well, let’s try this new format that see if it works for us. And really, it was the ideal way to sort of still reach people still engage with people. And it meant that we could do something, I took the idea to the media team at Greater Anglia and they were really keen to, to give it a go. And also we had to talk to our community, our partnerships about the idea and I think for them, they loved the idea because it was a really good opportunity to focus solely on their branch line and kind of bring out some of those great characters and people and places a bit of the history and the culture so it was a real kind of in depth look at their area. So yeah, worked well.
04:08
Movie, jungle and weights. As we traveled through these leafy tree lined cuttings, it’s easy to forget the changing fortunes of the landscape beyond. Once upon a time there was no railway and goods would be moved to and from this area by boat or cart, it certainly would have taken a lot longer and lives in the villages and towns would have been less conveniently connected. That was until a wave of Victorian entrepreneurship saw the railways rolling into town, creating new opportunities for business, trade and eventually tourism. Wow, we’ve burst forth into the open across a magnificent viaduct. Below I can see the villages of Chapel and wakes Coleman here at the station on disembarking to find out how the railways changed history for the Eastern Counties.
Dusty Rhodes 04:55
How did you get guests on to the podcast?
04:57
We didn’t really struggle To find people to get involved at all, actually, I think a lot of people were really keen to get involved. We worked with a production agency to put these together, it was a case of kind of going to the community rail partnerships, asking them if they knew people in the community who they thought would be, you know, sort of a good person to put up for interview that we all say we’re really, really lucky, because on the rail network, we run a station adoption scheme. And so each well, most of the stations on our network, we have people from the community who are involved with their local station, they helps kind of carry out improvements, or they help with a bit of promotion, or they make amazing beautiful gardens and help with like wildlife and biodiversity at stations. And so we were able to kind of draw on their knowledge, but also ask some of them to get involved as well. And then we kind of put all those people across to the to the podcast agency, and they kind of, you know, picked who they thought would be, you know, which locations and they sort of helped us to kind of plan it all out. Logistically,
Dusty Rhodes 05:58
what kind of time commitment did you have in preparing an episode?
06:05
So, so my involvement in the community, our partnerships, involvement was kind of in the sort of planning stages. And it was explaining to the agency what kind of direction we wanted to take, where we wanted our focus to be, because we didn’t want it to just kind of sound like an advert for, for getting on a train, we really wanted it to be about the kind of the history, the culture, the community. So it was about kind of advising on that, and then finding the people to kind of get involved. And then from that point onwards, we were really lucky to work with a really brilliant agency, who then kind of ran with that put the whole thing together, and obviously liaised with us really closely throughout as well to make sure that it was in line with with what we were hoping for. So I think because of that, actually the the time commitment. Yeah, it wasn’t sort of too much. It wasn’t a wasn’t a burden. Actually, it’s such an exciting process to be involved in anyway. So yeah, it was it was fine. From that point of view.
Dusty Rhodes 07:01
Can I ask you or experience carry on this because it’s something that comes up kind of regularly, you can get a presenter, professional presenter, he’s used to being on radio, or podcasts or in front of a microphone, talking to people and all that. Or you can have somebody from within the company who doesn’t have that polish, but my God, they know everything there is to know about the brand and the product, and whatever it is you’re talking about. As you’ve been down both roads, you’ve had a professional presented, and now you have people in house presenting, tell me? Can you compare the two for me and what you like about each?
07:35
Yeah, I think it completely depends on what you’re trying to create as to which road you you go down for lives on the lines, I think it was so essential that we had a professional presenter to pull everyone’s voices together, give that narrative thread. And she approached it, she was so professional she had, she approached it with so much humor that worked so well. And she always kind of knew what to say, you know, that kind of professional interviewer experience, if you can, it really helps. And it helps the people who were who were being interviewed who weren’t experienced in doing anything like this before. So it was perfect for that, I think for life on rails, having people from the company actually talking. And as you say, giving that real sort of breadth of their knowledge and experience to help customers have a better experience. I think that works perfectly for something like that. It helps to build trust, and it helps to build that kind of connection with the brand. So I think it entirely depends on what on what you’re trying to achieve from your podcast.
08:34
We’re surrounded by hills. And I think on one of these hills, there is quite a local landmark. Yes,
08:42
St. Stephen’s chapel that’s been there since the ninth century. Wow. Oh, yes. And beyond St. Stephen’s chapel is an interesting recent addition that in the side of the hill, Dragon, very like the white horses in other parts of the country, but because we’re not in chalk country. In putting that dragon in it had to be talked afterwards to keep the outline. But it’s
Dusty Rhodes 09:12
still to come on the award winners podcast, we’ll hear how Carrie and Gracie Andrea promoted their podcast, and why analytics weren’t always the be all and end all for them.
09:23
If you feel a brand podcast work 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 podcasts 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.io
Dusty Rhodes 10:03
Back to greater anglers award winning lives on the line podcast and their PR consultant Carrie whorl who was behind the project? After so much effort had gone into creating the podcast, I asked Carrie, what she in Greater Anglia did to promote it and grow an audience.
10:19
Yeah, we launched them in March 21. And I think in the first month, we had about 1000 listens of the podcast. So we were really happy with that we promoted them on social media. So I think in the first month, we were kind of really surprised, actually, people really kind of were interested in them. And we had really lovely feedback from people kind of saying, oh, you know, it was so lovely to hear about this line. And when I can, I’m gonna go out and explore it for myself and things like that. So so that was really, really great to get that kind of feedback.
Dusty Rhodes 10:46
So but how did you actually get the word out? What did you do to tell people that the podcast exists?
10:51
So they were available on every platform, we had like just a really simple, really simple link. And we actually just put it out on our social media channels, and promoted it on there. So I think it was organically promoted at that point. And we didn’t do any paid social media promotion of them until much later on.
Dusty Rhodes 11:10
So how did you find the difference then between organic and paid?
11:13
So we’ve seen so it kind of it seems to go in peaks. So whenever you whenever you promote it, if you put that effort into letting people know continually about it, you can see in the analytics of the podcasts that you get those little peaks, every time you push it, we got a lot more listens, you know, doing the paid promotion, which we’re still we’re still using them now. Because the idea was that you can use them while you’re traveling. So they could actually even act as a guided tour. If you’re on the train, and you put the podcast on for the line that you’re on, you can actually use it as a guide to tour as you’re going along. So they’ve still got that relevance now as well, which is really good. We can continue to push them we can use them for for years, really if we want to.
Dusty Rhodes 11:53
I’m really curious to know about the paid outlets that you use, which which ones did you use, that you found worked.
12:01
So we’ve restricted our paid probation of these to social media. So Facebook and Instagram, though we could have promoted through the Apple platform, or iTunes, but actually, for us with the really small budgets that we have available, it was quite expensive. And I think we felt that actually, we could do more with our money, pushing it through social media, you know, we know that our audience is on Facebook, for example. So we use that a lot anyway, for a lot of our campaign promotions. So we knew that we could reach the right audience on there. And obviously, you can geo target. So yeah, that’s, that’s the one we kind of found works best for us.
Dusty Rhodes 12:43
And how are you able then to connect people from from a Facebook post, to the podcast.
12:50
So the post always links directly to the podcast. So we have smart URL, and it just links directly to them, your platform of choice,
Dusty Rhodes 12:59
you know, what the podcast is doing. And you know, the effect that it’s having on the positive things that it’s bringing to the brand. But there’s people who are kind of just sitting upstairs and they know nothing. They’re just like, well, just show me the numbers. Show me the numbers. Did you have How did you work with those people? How did you present the success of the podcast to them.
13:16
So the podcast analytics rolls on by Omni, so it’s a really, really good analytic tool, and you can just, you can just pop in there, you can look at how many listens you’ve had, in total, you can look for the previous month, the previous year. So it’s been really easy to report back the success of the campaign. But there’s also been, you know, further opportunities from the US, for example, you know, we entered it for a number of awards. So we were able to say that, you know, it’s helped, you know, kind of improve the reputation of the company in that way. And also the feedback that we’ve had from people who have listened. So not only the quantitive kind of element of your analytics, but also just people saying, I loved this, you know, I really enjoyed this, that it is going to, I am going to take a journey, because I’ve listened to this. So kind of bringing all those elements together, really demonstrating, you know, the power that the podcast can have. One of the other things that we’ve actually decided to do with it as well is we have a sound archive of Norfolk sound archive in our region. So we’re actually going to donate the podcast to them. And so we cut we thought to have those you know, preserved for a long time in a in a depository like that would be really useful to people in the future who were coming back to kind of study the region and look into things a bit more closely. We thought it would be a really useful resource for them in the future as well.
Dusty Rhodes 14:35
Did you use the podcast to generate content or the forms of content like video or graphics or photos or anything like that?
14:43
There was actually an idea of kind of taking some of the because because we had the transcripts of, of the podcasts, you know, putting those on to the to the website and yeah, absolutely. It would be really easy to repurpose some of that and use it in different ways in blogs, for example, destination blogs and things It’s like that. So, yeah, I think once you’ve done it and you’ve got it, you’ve just got this fantastic piece of content that you can then kind of look at repurposing in as many ways as you want to.
Dusty Rhodes 15:09
And how would you compare because you’ve done the video and now you’ve done podcasts, how would you compare the two for effectiveness,
15:15
I think they both kind of do very different things, in terms of reach, the videos had more of an impact. But the podcast, the way it performed, was really, really impressive as well. So I think we’re all really pleased that we did it we it was an experiment that we feel was a successful one. And I just think it just produced such a nice piece of content, you know, something that really celebrated different parts of our region, and the railways involvement in it, but also just kind of looking at different parts of that community, the people in it, the history, the culture, some of the amazing sights and stuff. So I think it was really worth doing just from being able to have a really good focus on one area and and showing people how great it could be. And I think it really worked from that point of view.
Dusty Rhodes 16:01
Finally, can I ask you, your own favorite episode? Do you have a favorite episode and then any particular reason why
16:09
I think there was one episode it was about a about Buhl station, where they were explaining about the history of this legend of the Beals dragon. It was just a really, really good look into history but also to to then find out that now if you go there now one of the farmers has created a big white chalk dragon on the hillside. Oh, another another favorite of mine was when they were looking at the Ely to Peterborough line and they interviewed a lady who was involved in the eel day festival in Ely. And she was explaining about the history of El de festival but also the importance of eels to the people of the town kind of in years gone by the kind of way the culture developed alongside these eels and it Yeah, absolutely fascinating. And that’s the the one where I thought I’ve got to go to the dark ale day festival. I’ve got to get on a train and go to Ely and experience that because it just sounded absolutely fantastic.
17:03
We’ve walked through Is this the Jubilee garden? This is the Jubilee gardens that we’ve walked through. And Jubilee Gardens is where the annual eel day festival common Yes,
17:12
yes, that’s right. This is the sort of central ground for the celebrations. There’s a few things going on the day before off in the town, like a eel throwing Contest, which is really, I hasten to add, but handmade deals that can be thrown in the longest throw is the winner. Stranger local games and activities. But then the procession that starts on the Saturday, weaves its way through the town and comes down to the Jubilee gardens where there are lots of activities and stalls used to buy and to taste.
17:46
And this is every day, isn’t it? Yes.
Dusty Rhodes 17:50
What advice would you have for marketers who are thinking of a podcast that wants to make an impact? What would you say to them?
17:58
I think if you’ve got the kind of vision for how you can really bring your, your organization or your product to life, it’s a really good idea to try and have as many elements in your kind of marketing mix as possible. And then you’re hopefully reaching as wide a range of people as possible in the way that they want to consume your content. So you’re just kind of making it as easy as possible for anybody to be able to engage with your brand.
Dusty Rhodes 18:26
Listen Kerri, I can’t thank you enough for taking the time and sharing your experience with the podcast. Thank you for joining us on award winners today.
18:33
Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure to be here.
Dusty Rhodes 18:37
If you would like to take a listen to Greater Anglia’s Lives on the lines podcast, you’ll find a link to it in the description area of this podcast episode on your player right now. My thanks again to Kerry for sharing with us how the podcast supported her marketing message in a unique and engaging way and giving us a behind the scenes look at how it worked for the rail company. If you’re considering a podcast for your own company or brand, you’ll find some great resources on our website at DustPod.io. You can also arrange a call with me to chat about how a podcast could work for your brand specifically, or you could consider working with us. So you do all the fun stuff, and we do everything else. Until our next award winners podcast from myself Dusty Rhodes, thank you for listening.
19:22
The Award winners is a DustPod production from DustPod.io