Leverage The Power Of Podcasting
For businesses large and small, podcasts are a huge opportunity to tap into a largely underserved podcast market that's hungry for fresh content, especially in niche areas of interest.
For businesses large and small, podcasts are a huge opportunity to tap into a largely underserved podcast market that's hungry for fresh content, especially in niche areas of interest.
Fifty-one percent of the U.S. population listens to podcasts, and 80% listen to all or most of the entire podcast episode, averaging one episode a day. While that doesn’t sound like much, consider that the average podcast length is 43 minutes. Additionally, 39% of small business owners, 53% of millennials, and 68% of principals of businesses with revenues over $5 million listen to podcasts. No matter who your target market is, there’s a good chance they’re already listening to podcasts.
It's the perfect time for businesses and their marketers to leverage this large listener demand.
Though many businesses are still wary of the time and resources podcast production requires, the market is primed for growth, and for leveraging. Its popularity among consumers should not be ignored.
Your customers have questions and ideally, you have answers. However, answering individual questions with personalization takes time. If your business is growing quickly, you might not have that much time to give. You may also find that many of your customers’ questions are similar. You could address frequently asked questions on your website, but directing your customers to an FAQ landing page isn’t the most personal approach.
Podcasting is a great way to address frequently asked questions and provide detailed responses at scale, while still maintaining a degree of personalization that comes through your voice.
Why Should You Consider Starting a Podcast?
- Reach your target audience: You need to find a happy medium between a topic that is broad enough that you can explore many different aspects of it, and one that is narrow enough to attract an audience with that specific interest.
- Easily leverage podcast aggregators: Distribution channels for podcasts already exist, ensuring your content will reach listeners. By using established podcast aggregators, such as iTunes and SoundCloud, a small business can reach thousands of potential listeners, eventually converting some of them into informed customers and brand ambassadors.
- It won't break the bank: At first, there's an initial, up-front cost, some audio hardware, and software, but, following that investment, podcasts are relatively inexpensive to produce.
- Stay ahead of the competition: Your brand will stay competitive and relevant in an everchanging, growing consumer market. For a small investment of time and money, a business can get in on the ground floor, the first to share its unique content and capture those who want to learn more about that particular field.
What Makes for a Successful Podcast?
The secret to success in podcasting is having a steady stream of content you can draw on that will keep your podcast fresh, informative, and available on a regular basis.
- Content is king: As with most media, content is king. Make yours timely and relevant. Whether you podcast once a week, twice a week or month, do yourself a huge favor by building a schedule and stick to it to stay consistent. Prevent gaps of time as you’ll lose your audience. Build enough of a queue so as to give your self a pad, but don’t lose that pad!
- Be concise: Keep it reasonably short. A half-hour show delivered every week is fine. It can be shorter or longer based on the depth of your content, but make sure it's pertinent to your audience.
- Find your voice: Be authoritative. Own your market by serving up the most current news and information. Tackle the latest controversies and trends in your sector. Be the go-to source for all things your business touches upon, and do it all in a way that's unique to you.
- Interview guests from within your field: Inviting guests to join you on your podcast will automatically raise your credibility and the authority of your program. Your audience enjoys hearing from another influencer in the field, and your guest (it could be a client or vendor) will feel honored to have been chosen to participate. Best yet, each of you will benefit from exposure to the new audience segments the other brings to the table. Just be sure your guests promote their podcast appearance across their social media channels.
About the author
Hi, my name is Rick and I thank you for reading this article!
I explore to learn new stuff every day and here I will share all my experiences and thoughts with you.
You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram. :)