An estimated 15.6m people from the UK were podcast listeners in 2020. Despite this rapidly growing platform, many businesses are not exploiting the marketing opportunity podcasts present.

Learn about the new art of podcast marketing, and how it can help your business grow and consolidate its audience.

What is a podcast?

The definition of a podcast is a digital audio file made available on the internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.

Podcasts have their roots back in the 1980s when it was known as ‘audio blogging’ but have only come to prevalence in the mid-2010s. The Joe Rogan Experience is the podcast with the largest audience size as of 2020, with The Daily, Crime Junkie, and This American Life the next most popular.

But, only in recent years have marketers begun to see podcasting as a platform to promote their brand, product, or service. Brands began to create their podcasts, as well as sponsoring well-known podcasters and collaborating. As of 2019, the estimated market size of podcasting is £9.28bn. This number is only likely to have increased with podcasting popularity growing and more of us listening at home due to the impact of COVID-19.

Why start a podcast for your brand or business?

Increase website traffic

Through a podcast, you can create a hub of potential customers. Through your content, you can engage and cater to that audience and make them more familiar with your business, products, and services.

Over time, you will begin to drive listeners over to your website to purchase from you, making the long-term investment into podcasts very beneficial.

Repurpose content

If struggling to create content for your social media channels, podcasts can help to fill that void. From the content of your podcast, you can clip up snippets of this content and start using your podcast as social media content too.

You can save time creating content and ensure high-quality, consistent content is going out on your social media channels.

A highly engaged audience

On average, 75% of podcast listeners will take action from commercial messages. Your audience is much more likely to view your social media channels, click on adverts or buy your products and services.

This highly engaged audience has so much more value to businesses than other audiences because of this.

You stay in peoples heads

People are twice as likely to be able to recall audio compared to text. Your audience is more likely to remember you and key aspects of your business.

As well as this, you have the opportunity to create more engaging content, which will stick with people more than what an article or infographic likely will.

Strengthen customer relationships and brand loyalty

Podcasts help to build relationships with customers where other marketing channels struggle. The long-form, authentic form of content that podcasting can connect more with potential customers. 

Humans talking to humans one to one in a genuine way is a much more effective way of building a connection with your customers than an article or social media post.

How to Start a Podcast

Know your Audience

As with most marketing channels and strategies, you need to know who you are targeting first.

If you are a B2B business owner, do not think podcasting is not relevant to you. Many B2C businesses are becoming increasingly popular, using the platform to network and build connections across their industry.

Understand who your audience is and what they would want from your podcast.

Have a clear understanding of the format

Your podcast doesn't need to have a defined structure throughout, but an overarching guide for how the podcast should flow is usually a good idea. Your podcast can have defined conversation segments, or a more free-flowing atmosphere, or somewhere in between. 

Where you fit is up to you and what you think is best for your business and audience.

Leverage your network

Having people relevant to your industry and audience appear on your podcast is a great way to grow your audience and create engaging content. Your guest will likely share with their network or audience that they appeared on your podcast, and if they have an interesting story or perspective that people want to hear, more of your target audience will listen.

Make sure you include clear CTA’s

There are multiple ways to include CTA’s in your podcast. Many Podcasts add a CTA at the start and end of the recording. Doing this, you will grab the attention of new listeners but may cause regulars to skip ahead. Try scattering your CTA’s into your podcast at random points too.

The key is to keep your CTA's short and cause your audience to switch off or skip forward.

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