Podcasts have been around for long, but their popularity has dramatically increased over the recent few years.
It is why you can find podcasts on a range of niches, including- marketing, motivation, leadership, stock market, psychology, etc. You name a niche, and you have a podcast on it already.
Podcasts are audio files that anyone can tune in and play, whenever and wherever they are. In fact, you can listen to podcasts while you’re exercising, doing yoga, going on a morning walk, cooking, or busy with some other activity. Unlike blogs and video content, you don’t have to shift your focus to the screen to get the most from these audio files, which is a huge plus point for podcasts.
But can brands use podcasts as their marketing tool?
The answer is a big YES! But it will only be fruitful if done the right way.
Podcasts as a Marketing Tool
With over two million podcasts, and growing, people and businesses have started taking these audio files seriously.
It is believed that podcasts are a great medium to hyper-target niche audiences. And the best part? It has lesser businesses vying for users’ attention, as compared to other mediums.
If you’re on the fence regarding using podcasts as a marketing tool, you should check out why other businesses are spending so many resources to stand out in the podcasting space.
The following reasons for using podcasts as a marketing tool will help you decide if you should add it to your marketing arsenal too or not.
More than Marketing
One of the reasons that made businesses consider podcasting as a viable marketing tool is its unique way of communicating with prospective customers. You wouldn’t want to sound like someone who is only interested in selling a product/service to the listeners; no good brand would do that.
Podcasting helps brands build and nurture a community that has the potential of becoming your brand advocates at a future date.
If you manage to put out quality podcasts consistently, you can establish your business as a trustworthy name in your niche.
Offers Back-end Connection Opportunities with Industry Experts
Those who effectively use podcasting as a marketing tool know the importance of inviting industry experts as guests on their podcasts.
These guests share golden nuggets with your audience to educate them, which ultimately results in higher engagement than ever. But it is not the listeners alone that benefit from guest expert sessions; brands too are on the receiving end.
When a business or big brand calls over industry experts to their studios for recording a podcast, they get the opportunity to establish a better off-network connection with them.
Businesses can turn this connection into a long-term, mutually beneficial association by looking for possible future collaboration options that can benefit both involved parties.
Connect with Your Target Audience on Shoestring Budget
You’ll be surprised to know how inexpensive the entire podcasting budget can be.
No, we aren’t telling you to compromise with your podcast quality, as it is possible to create stellar podcasts on low budgets as well.
Most of the equipment and platform needed to create quality podcasts don’t cost a bomb, and you can easily convert any available room in your office into a podcast recording studio.
During COVID, a lot of businesses even recorded podcasts from their home with no fancy equipment around. And if those brands can do it, so can you.
Only focus on providing quality content that either inspires, educates, or entertains your listeners consistently. High engagement, followers, leads, and other benefits will follow.
Improved Search Engine Rankings
The importance of search engine optimization, a.k.a SEO, cannot be underestimated as a significant chunk of free, organic traffic comes from search engines because of the good SEO practices implemented on the website.
When you add podcasts to your marketing strategy, you get an additional scope of incorporating keywords in your content.
You can create your entire podcast script by optimizing it for a specific keyword and adding it to your official website. A well-optimized podcast can do wonders for your search engine rankings, so make sure you give it a try.
Assists with Content Repurposing & Content Marketing
If you have been using content marketing to keep your audience engaged, you probably know how difficult it is to routinely come up with relevant content ideas constantly.
Luckily, you can use content repurposing to create multiple content formats from a single content piece for promotion, and the same goes for podcasts.
Whenever you struggle to get podcast ideas, check what performed the best in the past, and create a podcast around it with a fresh perspective. As long as the shared content is relevant and valuable to the listeners, they will enjoy listening to it.
You can also use your best-performing podcasts and convert them into a Facebook post or a short video for Instagram, or maybe an infographic.
Doing so will ensure your business never runs out of good content ideas, and your audience gets to see highly relevant posts on all your brand pages across different social media channels.
Reach New Prospective Customers
If you want to reach a potentially untapped target market, you should definitely start podcasting.
And if you’re looking to attract people who can afford to purchase your products/services, podcasting can help fill the gap. According to a survey, around 45% of active monthly podcast listeners have a household income over $75K, and they’re likely to purchase a product/service being advertised on podcasts they like.
So all you have to do is create top-notch podcasts constantly, and the results will follow.
Incorporate Podcasts in Your Marketing Strategy at the Earliest
Now that you’ve understood why brands are using podcasts and how they can benefit your brand, you should consider using them too.
Though podcasts can be used as a standalone marketing channel (for certain business types) too, they can deliver exceptional results when used together with other marketing mediums and mediums.
When your podcasts are planned, created, and distributed the correct way, you can start noticing visible results pretty soon.
