The key to reaching long-term success with your marketing strategy is to continuously be aware of popular trends and cultural changes.
Adjusting and enriching your content is essential for reaching new portions of the market while increasing the engagement of your current audience.
On your road to developing better brand exposure tactics, you should definitely consider starting a podcast.
Recent data confirms that podcasting is on the rise to a point where every marketer is or should be taking notice.
Why Are Podcasts So Popular?
The first podcast dates back to 2004, evolving from the classic radio show format.
Advancements in technology have made both the listening and the production of podcasts easier, to a point where literally anyone with a mic and an internet connection can make and publish their own show.
The appeal is probably similar to radio except that the podcasting industry has made the whole process more convenient for the average listener.
You can easily sift through vast amounts of content, the majority of which is still available for free even though in recent years some of the podcasts have decided to take the premium route.
Podcasts offer great value for the listeners because they get to explore specific topics in line with their particular interests.
Aside from providing listeners with entertainment, podcasts have become a crucial educational tool for professionals all over the world.
Listening to a podcast in order to passively learn about topics relevant to your field of work is surely one of the contributing factors to the overall popularity of the media form.
How Can You Benefit from Starting a Podcast
The benefits of starting a podcast of your very own in order to promote your brand, products or services are both plentiful and substantial.
Here we will explore how exactly do podcasts boost your business and marketing strategy.
Providing Your Audience with Entertaining and Engaging Content
Podcasts can be a great addition to any content marketing strategy especially if you’re trying to service a niche market.
They are a great way to engage your audience, provide them with new value and familiarize them with the services or products that you’re providing.
Establishing the Voice of Your Brand
You have complete control over the topics being discussed on the show.
This allows you to shape your brand’s voice and present it to the audience in alignment with your mission and vision.
Growing a Community and Researching Your Audience
By building a community around your podcast you’ll gather insights and develop a deeper understanding of the needs and other important characteristics of your audience.
You’ll create a setting where you can communicate with them directly and adjust both your content and services according to the feedback.
Networking and Expanding Your Reach Through Influencer Marketing
If the format of your podcast supports guest appearances from relevant influencers and experts, you’ll be gaining access to their audience via cross-promotion.
This will increase your reach, contribute to acquiring a larger following and potentially attract new customers.
Not to mention the fact that podcast interviews are a great opportunity for networking and befriending well-respected names in your field.
Adding Credibility to Your Brand
A podcast is also an accumulation of useful information and knowledge for your audience.
If you’re offering your listeners good value in terms of tutorials, tips, guides, and case studies, over time you’ll build a reputation that will add weight to your commentary.
Having a podcast will go a long way if you’re looking to achieve the status of an expert in a particular field.
Monetization Opportunities
If you are able to gather a significant and steady number of monthly active listeners, you can monetize by selling ad placements, affiliate marketing or making a portion of your content exclusive.
It’s important to remember to apply these tactics carefully and in a way that doesn’t frustrate your audience. Otherwise, it can be a step in the wrong direction.
How to Start a Podcast
Starting your own podcast is relatively easy and the basic financial invesments are minimal, often unnecessary.
However, in order to assure that your podcast is up to standard, you must consider all of the important aspects of the process.
Choosing and Setting up Your Equipment
From a technical point of view, all you’ll be needing is a mic and a piece of software to record and edit your audio.
You don’t need to go overboard because you can produce solid audio quality without state of the art recording equipment.
It’s more important to set up properly and apply some of the basic techniques to get the best possible quality of your recordings.
Topic Research and Ideas
You’re probably pretty familiar with the concerns and issues your audience encounters.
Basic keyword research can give you additional insight into what types of questions your potential customers would like to have answered.
Once you’ve decided which topics you’d like to cover, try to think of most engaging ways of presenting them to your listeners.
Deciding on the Format
Each podcast should follow a specific format, such as having an intro, outro and other sections for you to determine.
You should know early on what kind of value you’re looking to provide with your podcast and different formats can help you achieve that in different ways. Are you going to have one or more hosts?
Will you be inviting guests to your podcast or focus more on case studies and step-by-step guides? Make sure you answer these questions before you record your first episode.
Preparing Accompanying Content
Another important aspect is to consider all the content you’ll need to prepare in order to promote your podcast.
You’ll need show notes with relevant links along with all kinds of promotional content you can get out of the episode itself.
Adding your podcasts to your webpage is always a good idea and there are lots of cool WordPress plugins that will help you do just that.
Visual pieces of content such as quotes and audiograms work really well on social media. You can even provide your audience with a full transcript so they can easily search for topics relevant to them.
Promoting Your Podcast and Building a Community
Social media is essential for providing a place for your listeners to stay up to date on your podcast-related content and communicate with you, your guests or with each other. B
y building a community around your podcast you’ll gain easy access to the most relevant portion of your audience.
Engage them further by holding live sessions where they can ask questions or by offering exclusive discounts and prizes.
Final Thoughts and Suggestions
Like with every other aspect of content marketing, quality should always be valued over quantity. Reach is important but having strong engagement should always be your priority.
Focusing on creating an invested fanbase is way more valuable than simply increasing the number of downloads.
Once you’ve gathered a significant following you can adapt your strategy to create multiple streams of passive income.
You can also adapt your format and expand to doing video or even hold live podcasts events.
Running your own podcast can have some personal benefits as well as you’ll have an opportunity to learn and grow through preparing content.
You will also get a chance to practice your public speaking skills without the pressure of actually talking in front of a live audience.
Bottom line is, podcasting is a great opportunity if you’re looking to increase their brand awareness while adding an entirely new dimension to your content marketing.
Your success won’t happen overnight but in the end, if you’re consistent and respect a certain standard of quality, it will surely become something both you and your audience will appreciate and benefit from.
