The goal of any good content marketing strategy is to bring value to your audience. If you haven’t thought about using podcasts as part of your overall content marketing strategy, it’s time you did. Podcasts are great for content marketing!
In this post, you’ll get a glimpse of who’s using podcasts and what the future outlook is for podcasts. Plus, I’ll teach you seven big ways launching a podcast will benefit your business.
Statistics Prove Podcasts Are More Popular Than Ever
According to Nielson, there are over two million podcasts and over 48 million podcast episodes as of April 2021. Fans of podcasts are increasing faster than there are shows, with 50% of American homes being podcast fans.
Podcasts are a unique form of content that allows people to benefit from the value you bring while doing other activities like working out or driving. This convenience factor allows more people to listen to whole episodes of your show more frequently and more often; 45% of episodes are listened to in their entirety, and the average listener tunes into seven episodes a week.
Podcast Predictions
The increasing popularity of podcasts is undeniable, which makes this form of content marketing a valuable asset to any business or brand’s image. Marketing expert Gary Vaynerchuck believes that podcasts are still in their infancy. Even better, the barriers to entry are incredibly easy to overcome.
Seven Business Benefits of Launching a Podcast
Here are seven big benefits to starting a podcast for your business:
1. Podcasts Help You Establish Yourself as an Authority in Your Industry
Industry authorities are leaders in their field because they provide value to potential customers and other professionals in their industry. For example, if you create a podcast covering construction materials and tools to tell people about efficient techniques and new methods of using those materials, you will gain trust from your listeners. This trust leads consumers to buy materials and tools from your business, or your demonstrated expertise can lead other companies to want to partner with you in some way.
Establishing your authority is a key benefit for all forms of content marketing. Still, one unique value of podcasts is that more eyes and ears are searching for great content to consume via podcasts right now. Since podcast popularity is growing and the number of new high-quality podcasts entering the market isn’t keeping up, podcasts are an under-tapped vehicle for content distribution.
2. Extend Your Digital Reach with Podcasts
With most social media platforms, you shoulder the burden of building your audience; your audience seldom comes looking for you. Podcast users are always on the lookout for good new content to consume.
Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Google Podcasts, and Audible amongst many others, are all extremely popular platforms that filter millions of searches every day. You can list your podcast in all these content-specific search engines. You’d be locked out of these audience-rich online portals if you didn’t have a podcast.
3. Boost Your Website Traffic with Podcasts
The goal of content marketing is to provide value; by doing so, you will, in turn, provide value for yourself in the form of some type of positive action from your audience (such as making a sale).
A podcast will reach new people you may not have encountered before, which can bring more traffic to your website. A “call to action” of asking listeners to visit your website near the end of your podcasts is a great strategy to move traffic through your sales funnel. If you’ve provided value to your listeners, they will happily want to visit your website.
You can also repurpose your podcast content to extend the value of your content creation efforts. Putting the transcripts of your podcasts on your website or blog will also boost your site’s visibility in search engines.
4. Podcasts Can Generate More Social Media Followers
To increase your social media followers, you have to produce and promote high-quality content. Podcasts are a gold mine for content marketing; simply break down the audio into bite-sized chunks that you can use to grab attention on your social media channels.
A single podcast can have multiple moments of helpful content tidbits. Posting bite-sized content that can be shared and re-shared on your social media accounts brings more people into your content marketing web.
5. You Can Sell Products and Services on Your Podcast
Your podcast can be used to sell your products and services, provided you provide enough value to your audience. In other words, no one will tune into a podcast that’s actually a long advertorial; you have to provide value first consistently.
Here are a few ways to sell effectively on your podcast:
- Plug your product or service during your sign-off at the end of an episode.
- Highlight your product or service as its own standalone episode.
- Instead of using your Advertising segments to promote other company’s services or items, create an ad to promote your own.
6. Podcast Content Can Be Repurposed for Other Marketing Initiatives
Each podcast can effectively be more than one piece of content for your social media or website. Try posting written quotes from your podcast episodes on your Twitter or LinkedIn profiles, along with a link to the episode mentioned. Posting a 10- to-30-second audio clip on Instagram or Facebook, along with an image or a video, can help you reach new ears, too.
7. Podcast Are a Relatively Inexpensive Way to Promote Your Business
Podcasts are a relatively inexpensive way to promote your business. The financial barrier to entry is less than $100 if you already own a computer.
What You Need To Start A Podcast
To start a podcast, you’ll need to set up a podcast recording studio. Then, you’ll need to have a podcast hosting service or create a manual distribution plan for your podcast.
Podcast Equipment
A podcast requires three pieces of technology:
- A computer, laptop, or phone to record on.
- A microphone to record with; the best beginner microphone is a USB Condenser microphone. I like Yeti’s Blue Microphone, which has different settings that make recording alone or with multiple people relatively effortless.
- A Digital Audio Workspace or D.A.W., which can range from free to thousands of dollars. My favorite for starting out is the open-source program Audacity which makes recording easy and offers basic audio editing tools.
Setting Up a Podcast
Once you have a podcast episode recorded and you’re ready to release it, you’ll need to pick a podcast hosting and distribution site like Buzzsprout to do all the hard work for you. Buzzsprout will give you all the tools you need to host, promote, and track your podcast.
With Buzzsprout, you can upload up to two hours of podcast content a month for free; the catch is your episodes will only be hosted for 90 days. I recommend you purchase a Buzzsprout premium plan, which lets you post more content and so that your episodes are hosted indefinitely. Buzzsprout premium plans range from $12 to $24 a month.
The biggest names in audio streaming like Spotify and Apple Podcasts will require you to go through a third party to distribute your audio to them. Small sites will let you upload your podcast yourself, though you’ll also have to track episode listener stats yourself.
Bottom-Line: Podcasts Are Great for Content Marketing
The continuous growth of podcasts is undeniable, and there’s no sign of that growth slowing anytime soon. The barriers to entry for podcasting are relatively low for what can be an incredible boost to your follower or customer base. Adding a podcast to your content marketing strategy may be one of the smartest investments you could ever make.