Listening is becoming the renewed brand engagement and advancement tool and content is its new currency:
“The US podcasting audience is ballooning, and eMarketer projects that growth will continue at least through 2013. By then, there will be 37.6 million people who download podcasts monthly, more than double the 2008 figure of 17.4 million. As a percentage of Internet users, podcast downloaders are expected to grow from 9% in 2008 to 17% in 2013.”
Podcasting has been an integral part of my content marketing strategy since 2009. This medium has opened up more doors and connections and established my professional credibility, more than just about any marketing platform that I have used.
By definition, a podcast is:
“A type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device.”
Since the 1930’s there have been radio talk shows and news programs. Today, through the evolution of the Internet capabilities, along with cheaper hardware and software, audio podcasts are doing what was historically done through radio broadcast stations.
There is growing buzz and data that suggests a big uptick and an increased usage of podcasting for good reasons. Podcasts are instructional, fun, mobile friendly, more personal, brand builders and easy to do. People are podcasting on anything you can imagine from business, cooking, travel, sewing, sports, investing, being a working Mom or single Dad, and are finding an audience for them.
One of the key benefits of audio podcasts is the power of listening, hearing someone talking to you, and that theater of the mind allows people to concentrate and learn better.
Reading an article or book is very effective but listening to someone talk to you, hearing their voice talking to you about something you are interested in increases engagement. The archived podcast also allows people to go back and listen at their convenience and radio/audio is an iconic, mature media that people know and trust.
B2B marketers, responding to an Optify survey, reported the 3 most important elements of successful content. Survey respondents resoundingly chose:
- Engaging and compelling story telling (81.5%)
- Originality (52.6%)
- Custom content (49.2%)
If you want to educate, entertain and serve people with great content, podcast radio is hard to beat.
Below I’ve listed 4 simple guidelines for creating and promoting successful podcasts:
Selectively Choose Content
Align your content with who you are and what you want to be known for. Ask yourself, “What are you knowledgeable about that there is an audience for?” And, “What do you want to be known for?”
Be Consistent
Consistently perform your segments and integrate them into your overall content marketing strategy. Make your podcast, email marketing, social media and blog all work together.
Pick The Format And Style That Best Suits You
Whether it be interview format, conversational style or instructional in nature. And if you are interviewing, make sure you feature people who have good energy and have their own active social marketing platforms.
Brand Your Podcast
Make sure you are branding and presenting your podcast with a graphic logo or avatar and a produced open and close segment. Practice doing them for a few weeks before you go live so that you get comfortable and always present yourself as someone who is serious and professional.
There are some great articles on why you should podcast, so do some research. And if you’re interested in podcasting, below are some of the top radio podcasting networks and platforms that you can research, too:
And be sure to check out what some of the top podcasts are talking about, as well as how NPR, Radiolab, and ESPN present them. And tell us, what are some of your favorite podcasts?
On The Air Photo via Shutterstock
Martin Lindeskog
Deborah: Thanks for your inspiring post! I have linked to my website with the tag podcasting for post on this topic. I am an avid listener of podcasts and I have at this moment >40 podcasts added on the podcast app for iPhone called Downcast. I am listening to podcasts during my weekend walks.
I listen to podcasts covering business, economy, philosophy, social media, etc. I also listen to music, e.g. electro swing jazz and Podrunner.
I have my own podcast show on BlogTalkRadio called EGO. I have been using the following podcast tools: Cinch.fm, SoundCloud and AudioBoo.
I will set up a new site that will be covering broadcast media in a broad sense! 😉
deborah shane
Thanks Martin..Reading a lot of very good info on how podcasting is trending and it’s popularity increasing. I can certainly see why.Keep up the good work!
Martin Lindeskog
Deborah: Thanks for your kind words! We will keep in touch regarding this topic… 🙂
In the “on demand” generation, consumers are shifting their focus from traditional broadcasting to content they can curate themselves. Many people will download podcasts to listen to while driving or taking public transit to and from work as it let’s them tune into topics that are relevant to them. From an SEO perspective, podcasts are just another avenue to use in addition to a blog, YouTube video, and infographics to create relevant (and branded) content to keep the content mix fresh and diversified.
deborah shane
Nick, indeed they are. Content creation and curation is allowing all of us to share our ideas, expertise and help others much more broadly, as well as in a niche. In radio it is bringing back
“local” voices! Thanks for stopping by!
I had no idea that so many people were downloading podcasts. That’s crazy!
With the proliferation of video I figured that most people would be consuming video content (with accompanying audio of course).
Martin Lindeskog
Robert: I like to watch video podcasts too, but with audio you have more situations you could listen to a podcast. I like to listen to several podcasts in a row during my weekend walks.
Deborah Shane
Robert, this is maturing trend and one that is projected to keep growing. I think listening is so compatible with our technology and lifestyles!
Ti Roberts
This is a great post Deborah. I agree that podcasts are definitely becoming. More businesses are using them to reach a new and difference audience and build their brands. I thought about starting a podcast and I have yet to make a final decision.
I used to be really heavy into video marketing but have significantly cut back due to other business responsibilities. Podcasting could be a great alternative for me to further engage my audience and it’s much more convenient to do and can be done even from my smartphone.
Thanks for sharing this great info with us. I appreciate it!
Ti
deborah shane
Ti, thanks for stopping by! Don’t think about it to much, get started and try some and see how it goes. It is a great complimentary strategy. Watching and listening require very different media habits. Listening it easier.
Debbie,
Thanks for the stats. I have a podcast called “The Power of Podcasting” that spotlights different podcast success stories. With podcasting its hard to NOT create a connection with your audience when you are in their ears for 30 minutes a week. I’m not a huge fan of Blog Talk Radio’s quality (and their $99 a month fee). Thankfully there are other tools to allow you to do a live streaming show and still take phone calls that will save you $72 a month. The best thing is while I can subscribe to hundreds of blogs, I can’t read them in the car, or on the treadmill, but I can listen to them. Podcasting has been shown to grow your audience by 20% by taking the exact same “blog/written” in formation and putting it out as an audio podcast. It also instantly makes you more “human.”
Deborah Shane
Hi Dave..FYI, I go by Deborah, thanks..There are many options for podcasting. I really like Blog Talk Radio, as it is the best developed community and their studio is very easy to navigate. Livestream is great!
Thanks for this Deborah. It would be interesting to also see the actual hard numbers of podcasts now being hosted and attrition rate. I keep finding wonderful podcasts that I look forward to downloading every week. At the same time there are many that have either sporadic postings, or low quality that makes me wonder about survival rates and subscription trends.
Regardless, I’m researching now for creating my own in 2013.
Thanks again for great resource.
Kip Marlow
Deborah, thanks so much for the information. Another marketing tool I never thought about. I have podcasts (177)from my radio show, Entrepreneurs Club Radio on my website. They are interviews with successful business owners and entrepreneurs. I must find a way to market them in a more effective way.
deborah shane
Kip, may I suggest an integrated social marketing strategy and use your e-marketing, blog, social media and promote topics and promote the content based on topic. Also, tie it into an current article that supports your podcast content. Are they on Itunes?
Martin Lindeskog
Kip: How do you market your radio show at the moment? I like your concept of interviewing successful business owners and entrepreneurs? Have you listened to (and watched video netcast) fellow podcaster, David Siteman Garland’s show, The Rise To The Top?
Do you have text transcripts of your show?
Kip Marlow
Martin, thanks so much for touching base. The show is marketed through our website and Facebook page, and some networking locally. As of now I haven’t listened to Mr. Garland’s program. But, I will now. I do have text transcripts to many of the programs, but not all. I appreciate you reaching out.
deborah shane
You could think of doing an e-book with the text transcripts as chapters and link to the audio./
deborah shane
Join our conversation on the follow up article on Smallbiztrends on this topic that posted Jan 10. https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/01/podcasting-content-marketing.html
Kip Marlow
Deborah & Martin: You guys are great. Given me lots of information to digest. Looks like I need to come up with a plan. Best to you both.
Martin Lindeskog
Kip & Deborah: I say the same thing about you! 🙂 Regarding creating the ebook, here is an excerpt from my page, WorkBook:
This will be a space for my forthcoming pamphlet with the title, Tr@der Manife$to (“Trader Manifesto”). It will be based on the discussions on the trader principle during my EGO podcast @BlogTalkRadio.