The bCast Blog

Let us welcome our guest writer Nancy Howard!

In a time when video seems to be the content format that reigns supreme, podcast marketing is rather like an afterthought than a primary choice for a digital marketing strategy. In reality, podcast marketing can be extremely efficient and effective if done right.

That being said, much like with any other type of digital marketing, you need to actually know what you are doing if you want to succeed with podcasts. Hence, here’s everything you need to know about podcast marketing before trying it.

What Is Podcast Marketing?

So, what exactly is podcast marketing? To put it simply, it is a type of digital marketing where podcasts are used to achieve your marketing goals. You could be promoting a podcast you created, or you could be using podcasts to promote something else. In other words, podcast marketing could either use podcasts as the focus or as the tools for promoting your business or brand. Understanding what you want to use podcast marketing for is the first step to creating a good podcast marketing strategy.

If you want to create a podcast and then focus on it, then you will need to define what your podcast will be about, what brand image you will have, who your target audience is, etc. You can also create supporting social media accounts for cross-promoting your podcast. Once your podcast is big enough, you may want to consider creating your own merch. Alternatively, you can use podcasts as an influencer to promote different brands or their products.

If you want to use podcasts as a tool for promoting your business, then the process will be slightly different. You likely already have a particular brand, so your podcast will need to correspond to this very brand. The niche for your podcast will be the same as for your business while your target audience will also likely coincide. If your brand image includes friendliness and casualness, then that’s exactly what you want to emulate in your podcasts.

How Effective Is Podcast Marketing?

Before you actually choose to use podcast marketing, it’s probably worth understanding how effective it can be. After all, you need to have realistic expectations for your podcast marketing strategy. Podcasts, no matter how good they are, rarely blow up immediately upon creation. As Kevin Roberts from the best paper writing services reviews site says, “Much like YouTube channels, podcasts require you to invest your time and effort to be successful. Be patient and flexible – and you will ultimately see improvement in your podcast marketing.”

To give you a better idea of what you can expect, here are some podcast marketing statistics:

• The podcast industry is an ever-growing one with experts estimating that by 2024, there will be around 100 million podcast listeners in the US. In 2020, there were already 55% of US population who had listener to a podcast at least once.
• Speaking of demographics, it’s quite an interesting picture. In 2019, 51% of US podcast listeners were female while 49% were male. 54% of male podcast listeners listened to podcasts on a monthly basis while this statistic was only at 46% for female listeners. The biggest age group of podcast listeners were people 12-24 years old.
• When it comes to podcasting platforms, Spotify is the leader (in 2020). From 2019 to 2020, podcast listening on Spotify increased from 19% to 25%.
• In the US, the leading podcast genre is comedy (22%) followed by news (21%), true crime (18%), and sports (17%).
• Revenue generation is also huge. In 2019, some statistics by podcast platform include $3.68 billion for iHeart Media, $72.55 million for Stitcher, $283.4 million for the National Public Radio, €6764 million for Spotify, and $24.2 million for LybSyn. In 2019, 54% of all podcast revenue was brought in by direct response ads followed by brand awareness boosting ads with 42%. The remaining 3% came from branded content and 1% from product placement.

How Do You Get Started with Podcast Marketing?

Before you start using podcasts for marketing, you need to understand what makes podcast marketing good. As Christine Scott from the best websites for custom writing reviews puts it, “There are two elements at the foundation of good podcast marketing: quality and time. You need to have a podcast that grabs the listeners’ attention and gives them a unique perspective on the topic you are discussing. And, of course, the information you deliver needs to be valuable. Likewise, you need to be patient and invest a lot of time in your podcasts.”

The first thing you should do is define your target audience, podcast niche, and brand voice. Once these are clear, make a list of topics you want to cover and think which of these would work and which ones should better be avoided. Remember that hosting a podcast is a long-term endeavor which means you will have to be flexible with your podcast marketing. The precise topics you choose at the beginning could change over time and even the scope of your target audience could shift.

Try to experiment with your podcast strategy to help you find the best approach or a good enough solution for your issue. One way to stay organized while still being flexible is by having a schedule for your podcasts. In fact, your schedule is by far one of the most important things, especially at the start of your podcast marketing. Release several podcasts at the launch day to hook new listeners, but then you can release one podcast at a time every day, every other day, or weekly depending on your chosen genre.

Remember to engage with your listeners. Podcasts are not a one-way type of format which is why engagement with your audience is essential. At the end of each podcast, encourage listeners to like, share, leave a comment, and subscribe to your podcast. Track when your podcasts perform the best and upload them at the right time. You can also mention your previous podcast episodes in new ones if they are relevant to the topic you are discussing. Cross-promote your podcast on other channels and your other channels on your podcast.

Another interesting thing to try out is guest podcasting. Invite well-known guests on your podcast and discuss relevant topics with them. Likewise, ask to be invited to other podcasts. This will grow brand awareness and bring more listeners to your podcast. You can also cross-publish your podcast on different platforms for getting more listeners (e.g. your website, Spotify, and YouTube could be a great trio).

What Tools Should You Use?

Last but not least, to make your podcast marketing truly a success, you will need to use certain tools. Here are some common ones to help you get started:

• Podcast Platforms: Besides publishing podcast episodes on your website, it is essential that you also publish them on one or several podcast platforms or platforms that support podcasts such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, YouTube, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and others.
• Episode Trackers: As mentioned earlier, it’s a good idea to mention your old podcasts in new ones as long as they are relevant. To do this, you will need to keep track of your podcast episodes. You can simply use an Excel document for this where you note episode title, number, central topic, and other topics covered.
• Podcast Networking: There are numerous ways to promote your podcast, but one that can get you both new podcast friends and new listeners is networking. You can connect with other podcasters in dedicated groups and forums such as r/podcasts, Podcasters’ Support Group, Podcasters’ Hangout, Podcasting Technology Resource Group, and Producing Podcasts. Such groups and forums are also great for learning different podcasting hacks and best practices, getting notified of upcoming podcasting events (both offline and online), and so on.
• Scheduling and Organization: A great way to schedule all your podcasts and organize your workflow is by using some simple but relevant tools for these processes. For communication, you can use a professional messaging platform like Slack and other communication tools like Skype, Zoom, and Gmail. For project and task management, you can use tools like Trello or Asana. For getting notified about your podcast mentions on the web, you can use Google Alerts.
• Podcast Creation: Of course, you will need to use good equipment to record your podcast, but it’s also worth getting good editing software to create the final form of your podcast. Popular podcast editing programs include Reaper, Logic Pro X, Auphonic, and Audacity.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, podcast marketing can definitely be a great choice for anyone looking to diversify their digital marketing strategy. In fact, podcasts could even be one of your primary types of format – or even your number one choice.

On the other hand, podcast marketing can require a lot of dedication and investment from you which is why you need to prepare to it correctly. Use the tips in this article to help you get started with podcast marketing and set up a successful strategy for it.