Talking Squarely

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, we recognized that our content strategy, which was built in evergreen education wasn't going to help small business owners — things were changing too much and too quickly. We needed to engage businesses in real-time discussions about the ever-evolving business landscape.

We did this by producing Square's first branded podcast, which became a powerful tool for facilitating authentic conversation and fostering community amongst our customers. We built a production model that allowed us to be reactive to what was happening in the world and capture how diverse businesses were feeling about. Each episodes covered a crucial topic, from safe marketing practices and doing good to financial survival and supply and demand. When the Black Lives Matter movement gained attention over the summer, we added a special episode with Killer Mike focused on promoting economic inclusion and Black entrepreneurship.

Grounded in thought leadership, the podcast not only aligned with Square's brand and COVID-era narrative, but also supported its product offering. This allowed for the podcast to be used across channels including owned social media, organic search, email, lead generation, and sales as well as be featured in Square's inaugural brand campaign.

The goal of season 1 was brand engagement; the series had a 62% completion rate and generated over 3,000 active listening hours across 11 episodes. Engagement metrics exceeded industry benchmarks, leading Talking Squarely to be recognized as a finalist for the Digiday Content Marketing Awards and earning a Bronze Award at the Signal Awards for Best Branded Podcast Host.

You can hear me and my co-producer, Cindy Lewis, talk about the process of making the podcast in a special episode of Talking Squarely.