With the many marketing strategies available to business owners, you may wonder, “why podcast?”
For some, podcasting is considered an audio form of entertainment. For others, a podcast is a modern strategy for doing interviews without going through traditional channels.
A podcast is more than just listening to audio. Podcast is more than an interview of two people sitting and speaking into the mic.
So what is a podcast?
Podcast is a growing ecosystem that is presently redefining how we consume content and educate our audience about our business and brands.
From my perspective, podcast is that simple audio innovation that is changing narratives in the business world. It will be advantageous to jump on this growing opportunity while it is yet to fully mature.
Did you know September 30th is International Podcast Day?
The power of podcasts has been celebrated since 2014, and I join the podcast community globally to celebrate this growing ecosystem.
The coming together of two words, “iPod” and “broadcasting”, led to the creation of the word Podcast.
Podcasts have fundamentally changed the way people consume audio, and for that reason, we celebrate on September 30: here’s to International Podcast Day!
As a token of this day’s celebration, my gift to you is to show you 9 unarguable and practical reasons why podcast should be part of your content marketing strategy.
I am doing this to ensure you’re not left behind. Read carefully and let your business benefit from this growing ecosystem.
1. Low Competition, More Reach:
The podcast community is growing massively but yet to catch up with the exponential growth of other media channels like Blogging, Videos, Social Media etc.
This is good news because it means there is low competition. Low competition equals more reach. And that means you can jump on this opportunity to build your brand and become an authority or a thought leader in your industry or niche.
In the USA, there were 48 million weekly podcast listeners in 2018. In 2022, 80 million Americans listen weekly, while over 104 million listen regularly within a month.
This is massive growth within four years. Remember, this data only speaks of the American audience, not the hundreds of millions listening globally.
This data only confirms that there is low competition in this growing ecosystem which means you can focus on this content creation channel.
In a few years, your brand will significantly benefit from the resources and energy invested.
2. More Convenient For The Host Than Recording Videos:
One obvious reason why podcasts must be part of your content marketing strategy is the convenience of creating them.
It is public knowledge that creating videos requires some technical know-how, starting from the lighting to the perfect camera needed, the editing process etc.
Getting started with podcasts is not that difficult. With a good mobile phone, you can get things moving and maybe, get a recording mic if you want to take it to the next level.
Recording and distributing your podcast is not difficult, and you can start today.
The popularity of podcasts is also a huge blessing for many people who don’t want to do videos. Especially those who are camera shy or those who lack the sophisticated pieces of equipment needed to record excellent videos.
3. Little Or No-Start-Up Cost To Get Started:
You don’t need to set up a studio to start your podcast. Neither do you need a website. All you need is the will and readiness to start.
Once you record your first episode, you can proceed to upload it to Spotify, Apple Podcast, Soundcloud, Google Podcast or other platforms.
Some believe a website is needed to start your podcast channel. It is not.
However, you may need a website in two scenarios:
a. When you want to scale up
b. To track the details of your podcast listeners for marketing purposes.
You can literally start with zero dollars. I mean Zero spending!
4. More Convenient For Listeners Than Reading Blogs:
The beauty of podcast is that it’s portable. It can be listened to on-the-go just with the earpiece/earbuds plugged in. Whether the person is in the kitchen or doing general household chores.
Your listeners can be in the gym or be taking an evening walk and be enjoying your rich podcast content.
Podcasts have a lot of advantages as compared to video content or blogging.
This hands-free, eyes-free form of entertainment and educational medium will make your listeners look forward to their morning commute and daily chores because these moments won’t just be a time for activities as usual but a time for learning as well.
5. Listening Is Totally Mobile Friendly:
There are almost 15 billion mobile devices in the world.
So everyone you’re trying to reach has one. They don’t need an extra device to listen to podcasts. Their mobile device is more than enough.
This means that your target audience can access your content anywhere, anytime.
To get the best of a Video, you might need a TV or big screen monitor which is not easily mobile, but to get the best of a podcast, all your target audience/listeners need to do is to press the play button.
Think of the percentage of mobile device owners using the internet daily, and you will see more reasons why podcasts are growing massively and why podcasting is the future.
As far back as 2018, over 69% of podcast listeners are mobile device users. Think what that percentage will be in the next four years.
6. Easily Use Storytelling To Build:
Your Brand With podcasts, storytelling becomes easier. There is a lot that can be achieved with blogging when talking about storytelling for a personal brand, but with podcasts, much more can be achieved.
For personal branding, you must intentionally sell yourself and your story to your audience. It makes them connect with you as a person beyond the product or service you sell.
Storytelling makes it possible for your customers or potential customers to connect with you on an emotional level.
This emotional level makes it easier to build a community around your brand. This can be easily achieved with podcasts.
Your listeners can directly hear your voice. They can feel the human behind the brand. This works better than just reading a post on your blog. Now they can hear and feel the “real you”.
7. The Ease Of Emotional Connection And The Loyalty Of The Listeners:
As I mentioned above, an emotional connection is created when your audience listens to your voice. Then trust comes from the emotional connection. And from trust comes loyalty.
That’s what you’re trying to accomplish – loyal fans!
Acquiring new customers can be difficult. People buy from people they know, like and trust. It’s much easier to get referrals from and sell more to loyal customers.
Do you want to build an online community that will trust you?
Do you want them to refer you to their friends, families and colleagues without any financial inducement?
If yes, then focus on podcasts.
Podcasts can be used for interactive sessions between the host and the audience/community.
These interactive sessions can be encouraged by telling your community to drop questions or topics they want you to discuss on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Then you go ahead and address these questions and topics in your podcasts.
This way, you won’t only be answering their questions, but you will be nurturing their trust and loyalty to your brand.
8. Podcasts Improve Your Public Speaking Skills:
Regularly hosting or being a guest on podcasts can naturally improve your public speaking skills.
Practice makes perfect…
It makes your speech more articulate. It increases your confidence and public presentation skills.
So you are not just doing this to grow your business; you are also growing as a speaker.
Being a great speaker or communicator is good for you as a business owner or CEO. This skill will help you communicate better with your staff, team, customers etc.
9. Podcasting Can Become Another Revenue Stream:
A Youtube channel can be monetized; a blog can be monetized. Similarly, you can monetize your podcast while growing your podcast following and community.
However, don’t make the mistake of podcasting just for monetary gain.
Your focus should be on how you can give enough valuable content. Your audience will be glad to share your content with a broader audience.
If you are giving consistent value, then your audience will grow. If your audience grows, then you can easily monetize.
Seek to serve and give value first. Then the money will follow.
There are many ways you can monetize a podcast. If you really want to know how, check out this blog post to see 35 proven ways to make money with podcast.
There are 600 million blogs in the world today and about 1.98 billion websites.
So, just how many podcasts are there in the world?
As of June 2022, there are over 2.4 million podcasts with over 66 million episodes between them.
So, you do the math: 2.4 million podcasts vs 600 million blogs vs 1.98 billion websites.
Can you see why podcasts have so much impact? And why podcasts are easier to rank on Google and the search engines.
A podcast is an easier way to differentiate yourself from the competition. Do you see why podcasting is the future as far as content creation is concerned?
Just think of the benefits of a podcast.
You can grow your audience, build a community around your brand, influence many people and broadcast your content before the rest of the world wakes up in the next five years.
A ninja content marketing tip: repurpose content!
Consider repurposing your podcast content into videos, blogs, articles, infographics and more. And when your repurposed content contains backlinks to your podcast, it boosts your podcast’s visibility and authority.
Not only have we answered the question “what is a podcast”, but we’ve given you reasons why podcasts are important and why podcasts must be part of your content marketing strategy in 2022.
That’s what International Podcast Day is all about.
Do you need a podcast logo, website, podcast intro, or outro?
Or do you need transcription of your podcast for ease of repurposing?
Noble Wise Marketing can help you make your podcast more successful. And we’re ready to assist with any of your other digital marketing needs.
Now that you know why podcast must be part of your content marketing strategy, let’s help you get started today.
Click the link below for a FREE consultation to begin your podcasting journey.