Most Important Reasons to Add a Podcast to Your Content-Marketing Strategy
Podcasting is an incredible way to promote your business. Incorporating it into your content marketing strategy might just be what you need to boost your website traffic and find more customers.
One of the biggest challenges content marketers face is coming up with value-driven, high-quality content in a consistent, and unboring manner. Over the years, we’ve seen how video marketing (a.k.a. vlogging) has dominated the web and hooked the attention of billions of people. While videos are highly entertaining and engaging, they, alone, are not enough to attract your audience.
To make your content strategy even more effective, you’ve got to have the right mix of written content, videos, and podcasts. Yes, podcasts.
Podcasting is a relatively new type of online content that is gaining so much attention among online marketing experts, as well as small and big businesses.
Currently, there are 700,000 active podcasts and over 29 million podcast episodes in over 100 languages. Among the most popular topics for podcasts are health, business, politics, society and culture, and business.
With such a rapidly growing popularity, there are many reasons why you should also consider podcasting in your content marketing strategy.
People love listening to them.
The way you present your content has immense importance in your marketing strategy. With so many great content out there, you need to make sure that yours will stand out from the rest. Podcasting makes a good platform for communicating your message because:
- 51% of the U.S. population have listened to a podcast.
- 56% of podcast listeners are likely to be graduates.
- 45% of podcast listeners are more likely to have an annual income of over $250,000.
Based on these facts, you can conclude that people who are most likely to check out your podcasts are those who are highly interested to know about your business or organization. They don’t just tune in for entertainment. They tune in for information. Valuable information.
Podcasts are more accessible to users.
Audio content is something that people can check out wherever they are and whatever they’re doing - driving, working out, cooking, or while waiting for a friend at a restaurant. It’s super convenient, just like listening to their favourite playlist. When done properly, podcasting enables you to connect with busy individuals who are seeking high-quality information but don’t have time to sit in front of their laptop or browse their device. You’ve got a huge potential market right there.
It’s cheaper than video marketing.
Marketing can be expensive. But it’s critical if you want to grow your business. A basic marketing video can cost you at least $1,200 to produce while a premium video can cost you as much as $50,000! If you have a tight budget, you may not be able to sustain publishing video content on your website. Podcasting, on the other hand, requires very minimal investment.
Usually, podcasting will cost you around $200 - $500, depending on what equipment you need. To start a podcast, you need a decent microphone, a recording tool, and an editing tool. That’s it. You can start recording right away (even in your pajamas). No need to fuss over a good background or having to look nice and presentable.
Aside from being inexpensive, podcasts have a quick turnaround format. You can get everything done in an hour or less, without moving away from your desk. Cool, huh? For businesses, this is even more amazing. This means you can save time and energy on content creation and focus on more important things.
Podcasting lets you create rich, amazing content.
Online marketers understand how important leveraging guest content is, especially if it comes from thought leaders or influencers in their niche. However, they also know that building relationships with these people isn’t easy at all. Often, influencers and thought leaders are just too busy to respond to guest content requests. Writing an article, much more producing a video, takes time and effort. With their busy schedules, it’s hard to get them to say YES, much less, respond to your email.
Podcasting eliminates all these hassles of a traditional approach to guest content. In just a 10 or 15-minute phone call, you can have so much information you can publish on your website for your subscribers or listeners to check out. It’s convenient for the expert you’re interviewing, so most likely, they’ll say YES.
It’s a great way to connect with your audience.
Podcasting is very personal. Just like you, most people like it more when they hear a person speak his/her heart out. They’ll feel the excitement in your voice when you share the great news, or your sincerity when you talk about serious matters. Furthermore, people will feel your passion, enthusiasm, and expertise over your niche.
Because podcasting is about building relationships with your audience, you should keep your message targeted and relevant to their needs. This way, they won’t tire tuning in to your podcast episodes and hearing what you have to say.
Podcasts can help you acquire more customers.
At the end of the day, when all is said and done, there’s only one thing every marketer or business owner wants: get more customers. And that’s basically what podcasting can do for you! When used together with other online marketing strategies, you can expect to reach more people.
But how can you generate leads and sales with your podcast? Here are some important tips:
- Talk about the things your customers want to know about.
- Include a call-to-action (CTA) in all your episodes. Telling them to buy is not enough. A better approach is to ask them to download whitepapers and other documents to know more about the topic.
- Make it simple. People listen to podcasts while walking their dogs or when commuting to work. They are less likely to be in front of their computer. Thus, you want to make things easy for them, like incorporating a text message opt-in where people can respond with a short command like ‘’yes’’. If you want them to visit your website, add a form to your page with very minimal information required.
Podcasting is an incredible way to promote your business. Incorporating it into your content marketing strategy might just be what you need to boost your website traffic and find more customers.