Podcasts are rapidly becoming one of the most influential media of the 21st century. For whatever reason, they have been adopted and endorsed by Millennials and Gen Z all around the world as a meaningful, easy, educational, entertaining format that isn’t hard to produce and often has unexpected results. All over America, podcasts are popping up on all sorts of topics, some of the most popular being true crime and lifestyle podcasts that are flocked to by millions of listeners. It’s an exciting state of affairs, since podcasts have enormous potential to do a lot of good in a very convenient way, and they are immensely innovative in a lot of their packaging.
However, podcasts aren’t only useful for individuals looking for a bit of entertainment or podcast producers themselves, there are all sorts of other reasons why they should be embraced. One of those areas is for business, which may come as a bit of a surprise to some people. Businesses in the contemporary era have to be more and more innovative in the ways in which they go about completing their marketing.
Users expect higher quality marketing, distributed in creative and user-friendly ways, which has driven marketing teams to look into all sorts of avenues, from social media influencers to interactive billboards. Podcasts fall under this category as a distinctly innovative field for marketing and a lot can be achieved without too complicated an approach.
With that said, let’s get into some of the many reasons that you should really be considering incorporating podcasting into your marketing strategy this coming year.
When you take the plunge and choose to develop your own podcast for your company, your first step is to imagine what the show will likely comprise of. This can be a bit of a daunting process as you start to realize that you’ve got to fill a whole show with interesting talk. One of your first ports of call in that particular storm is the ‘invite a guest’ port.
Generally, guests on podcasts are there to elevate both the interest level of an episode and the general quality and appeal of the show. You can get guests on to a podcast in a conversational and easy-going circumstance with a lot more ease than you would if you were reaching out through email for example. This boosts your opportunity for forming a genuine relationship with a guest who could be influential for your company.
“Of all of the forms of entertainment out there, podcasts have to be the most convenient. In just a few clicks you’re listening to some fascinating conversation like a fly on the wall, which can be listened to at any time, and can easily be incorporated into an otherwise packed schedule”, says John Newcombe, podcast expert at UKWritings.
Podcasts are perfect for anyone with a lot of time pressure on themselves, particularly mothers, students, business people and the like. For a lot of businesses, we’re perfectly describing a target audience. Since a podcast can be absorbed whilst exercising or driving or any other time you can have something on, this makes it a really user-friendly opportunity for connecting with your user base.
Though it’s a complete fallacy that merely by having a podcast that means you have real expertise, there’s still an immensely powerful psychological sway to be felt by announcing yourself as a leader in an industry through a podcast. If you are in the car industry and the number one car podcast is produced by your company, it reflects positively on the company itself and inspires your customer base to view you as the lead authority in your particular field. It’s a chance to show what you know and to talk with real knowledge and insight about your own world, directly into the ears of would-be customers. That’s a really valuable marketing tool for any company.
Increasingly, marketing in the modern age is about connecting with customers or would-be customers 24/7, 365 days a year. It’s asking a massive amount to actually stick to this, but the instruments are in place for you to be giving daily reminders of your existence to customers and showing them the path towards a sale is always open and available.
It doesn’t matter where a user is, they could be in an airplane soaring above the ocean or sitting in the bath, they can always have a podcast with them. It’s streamable, downloadable media which makes it an ever-present prospect for listeners that never need to leave their side. With a good upload schedule, you can be marketing all week long every week directly into the ears of potential clients.
Though podcasts are immensely popular and become more and more popular with each passing year, they still aren’t an accepted norm as a marketing strategy. Yes, it is a norm to have adverts in the midst of a podcast, but to actually begin a podcast is not yet a standard marketing strategy, which gives you a temporary edge.
If you go now, you’ll still be amongst the first to diversify your media in this fascinating way, offering people an alternative side to your company and a topical method for creating marketing opportunities. “Even the distribution of a podcast can be a diversified process, with great potential for branching out.
A single episode of a podcast can be turned into a blog post for written content, can be put into a newsletter or can be filmed and uploaded to a company YouTube or Vimeo channel”, suggests Paul Emery, tech writer at Academized. It’s a medium that is rich with potential for how you use it, particularly if you get started with it right away.
One of the really fascinating things about the direction in which technology and marketing has gone, is that so many of the stuffy norms of business-client relations have been done away with. Social media marketing, for example, allows customers to chat directly and intimately with company representatives who likewise are able to demonstrate their interest in the customer and foster a relationship.
Podcasts are a tool for achieving a similar thing. Though the premise for the podcast and the funding for it are obviously necessarily connected to your business, in other regards you have a great opportunity to kick back a bit and to talk informally to your audience. Having a segment where you respond to listeners’ messages can even be a good way to workshop company ideas in an easy-going, approachable environment. It’s a chance to genuinely bond with potential customers.
This is a lurking concern for most modern marketing teams, fighting against an incredibly fast moving playing field with an audience with tiny attention spans. Being topical, staying ‘top-of-mind’, can be a real struggle for a lot of companies, particularly since companies are battling their own reputation for corporate stuffiness when they attempt to attract attention of modern, internet-conditioned users. As far as marketing strategies go, you’ve found a real winner in podcasting, particularly if you’re trying to stay on people’s minds all the time.
This is for a few reasons. The first is that it’s very easy to produce podcasts. Two people sitting in a room and a third listening in another room with a few mics is all it takes to produce something high-quality work. So you can produce shows frequently and therefore distribute shows frequently.
Secondly, podcast content can be about anything which means that you have the opportunity to talk in your podcast about current trending topics, giving your two cents on whatever the issue of the day is, another way in which you keep up with your audience.
Your podcast audience will differ somewhat from your Instagram audience who will differ from your email marketing audience. This is to say that as you build your podcast and you get listeners, you’re simply increasing your sphere of influence and boosting your audience’s engagement with your company, all at the same time. The bigger your sphere and the more actively engaged they are, the easier it is for your company as a whole to grow.
And growth leads to more growth, in all areas. Soon, with a large enough podcast following your podcast is inspiring better socials statistics which in turn results in more sales for your company. Overall, from a growth perspective, a podcast audience is a very good thing.
Hopefully, this list makes it pretty evident just how immensely powerful a podcast can be for business marketing. It’s not an obvious choice, which is in some ways its strength as it can help elevate your company’s marketing approach in current and unexpected ways.
Content marketing guru at Mailmunch. I’m passionate about writing content that resonates with people. Live simply, give generously, stay happy.
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