If you’re looking for an opportunity to change up your digital marketing or to give your readers a different way of experiencing your content, podcasting can be an easy, inexpensive option. Podcasting is the regularly scheduled production and distribution of audio content.
While podcasting is a commonly overlooked marketing medium, podcasts offer a number of benefits over text- and video-based content. Here are six key reasons you should consider adding podcasting to your company’s digital marketing toolbox:
Podcasts last longer than blog posts
In today’s Internet ADD world, online readers are skimming more and reading less. This forces bloggers to write shorter posts, leading prospects to spend less time with your brand. But with the average podcast lasting anywhere from five minutes to an hour, the prospect is making a bigger commitment to your brand and your content. Thus, it’s easier to create that sense of attachment and drive top-of-mind preference.
Podcasts make information personal
Forming a relationship with text is really hard. Podcasting, on the other hand, lets the listener hear your voice, which means they can hear your passion, concern, and enthusiasm. Just as radio listeners form a bond with talk radio personalities, your listeners can develop a sense of attachment to you and your personality.
Podcasts are convenient to consume
Your buyers are increasingly grappling with managing their most precious resource: time. One of the greatest benefits of a podcast, unlike text- and even video-based content, is your buyers’ ability to consume it while doing something else. People are listening to podcasts while driving to and from work, while working out, or during the work day.
Podcasts are easy to create
Though a truly world-class podcast does require an investment in tools and learning techniques, that isn’t absolutely necessary. Podcasts can be created with any computer, with tablets, and even with a mobile phone. And with an interview-based format, you even minimize your prep time. So for the time-strapped marketer, podcasts can serve as a fairly easy and time-efficient content creation platform.
Podcasts are great twofer content
Since converting audio content into text-based content is really easy, a podcast interview can serve double duty: It can work as a piece of audio content, and you can then transcribe the interview into text and use that text in blog posts, white papers, and e-books.
Podcasts can expose new audiences to your brand
Because podcasts are indexed and offered on platforms such as iTunes, podcasts are
sometimes more discoverable than text-based content. Buyers aren’t scanning for new text content, but with platforms such as iTunes and Stitcher, channel surfing for new podcasts is easy. Thus, podcasting gives your brand the chance to be discovered by buyers who wouldn’t otherwise seek you out or consume your content.
In order to create a great podcast, focus on creating helpful, educational content. If it sounds like an infomercial, your podcast won’t be very successful! So your first priority has to be helping your audience and solving problems for them. It’s also important to deliver your podcasts on a regular schedule. If you publish erratically, it becomes easy for your audience to forget that they haven’t seen a new episode from you. Regularly scheduled episodes help them remember when to tune in.
According to a 2012 Edison Research Study on the Podcast Listener, awareness
of podcasting has grown 105% since 2006. Likewise, the percentage of people indicating they have listened to an audio podcast has grown 163%, from 11% in 2006 to 29% in 2012. With smartphones, tablets, iTunes, and mobile podcast player apps making it easy to download and stream podcasts at broadband speeds, I think we will see continued growth in podcast listenership. And with such an easy avenue for creating content, you have the opportunity to be at the forefront of this content creation platform.
For more information on using podcasting as a sales prospecting tool and other tips just like these, visit purchase The Invisible Sale, with an entire chapter devoted to creating and using podcasts as sales lead generation tools.
