This is an article ‘Making Your Podcast Matter To Your Brand’ by Marc Primo
Today's generation of marketing leaders is nurturing deeper insights into how brands can engage audiences that were initially outside of their target markets. Community engagement has become more relevant with the evolution of the digital space, and podcasts have been one of the most efficient channels that get brands out there and share thought leadership for years. But how do podcasts help a brand engage new customers?
The entire process of developing and producing a podcast takes a lot of time and effort. Of course, it is well worth it. Over half of the US population regularly listen to podcasts, and there has even been a 42% growth in podcast listenership in the United Kingdom, so it's easy for brands to assume that podcasts are great vehicles to reach a lot of potential customers. And they could be if you know what to do.
What can podcasts do for a brand?
Traditional advertising costs a lot. Just a 15-second ad aired on the radio can cost up to $200 to $5,000 per week, excluding production and talent costs. Aside from being forced to pack everything you want to say within a quarter of a minute, buying ad placements in primetime can quickly deplete your marketing budget.
The modern solution to get radio airing with the most mileage you can get for your brand is venturing into podcasts. These on-air audio clips are typically five to 60 minutes long – surely more than enough to get a brand's unique selling points or promotions out there. What listeners appreciate about podcasts is that brands can directly address their audience's pain points via community threads and in a more entertaining format than the usual radio ads.
Whether via real-time, two-way engagement via live stream between brands and consumers or through digital recordings available on your website, podcasts give both parties more intelligent insights about their needs.
Podcasts also allow brands to reach more audiences at lower marketing costs. Creating a channel online on various social media platforms gives brands easy leverage to connect with their target audiences without breaking the bank.
Of course, brands will still have to invest in high-grade audio and studio equipment to present quality content. In addition, further developing what you want to put on the air or online matters when venturing into podcasts.
Yes, video blogs or vlogs work wonders but may cost more for smaller businesses to consider for the long term. All it takes to start a podcast channel is quality audio equipment, a good internet connection, and valuable content that your target audiences need and will appreciate.
Increasing your brand awareness via podcasts
The most crucial step in creating a successful podcast marketing strategy is determining your target audience. Producing targeted podcasts will benefit your brand if you are aiming for listeners who are mostly busy at work or always on the go because they can listen to your podcasts without giving them their full attention. Besides, most individuals see the same function for podcasts – helpful audio clips that they can listen to while driving, eating, or taking a shower.
Given these insights, you may want to attract listeners open to passively listening to what you have to say online during their spare time. It's important to remember that your content should always be valuable and unique, even for passive listeners. Even if most of those who will listen may not be fully engaged, you can be sure that every click on your podcast makes huge ripples in your brand awareness.
Another thing to consider is how important it is to create content with the right keywords that can boost your search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. While using competitive keywords in blogs, articles, and website material is more common, you can also optimize your podcast with pertinent keywords that will help improve your website's rankings on Google.
With better brand awareness from your podcasts, you can anticipate higher conversions as you build better connections with your customers and their lookalikes. More people will want to test your product once they hear your USPs on podcasts or get direct answers from you through community threads. Including your podcast campaigns in your lead generation strategies is another efficient way to increase your conversion rate.
Common strategies for your podcasts
To help you jumpstart your podcasting venture, here are three usual routes brands take to create online traction:
Landing pages
Perhaps the easiest way to benefit from your podcasts is by directing your target audiences to a preferred landing page where they can know more about your brand and gain more comprehensive answers to their questions.
Look at it this way; if your podcasts belong to your awareness stage within the AIDA marketing funnel, your landing page is the next step that drives customers into developing an interest in what you have to offer. Ensure your landing page's headlines, content, and features are relevant to your listeners, and create more backlinks to your other podcast clips to keep the engagement cyclic.
Hire or be a talking head
This particular strategy, in other words, steers you into influencer marketing. If you want your brand to stand out as a credible authority within your niche market, being a talking head or hiring an able micro-influencer who can connect with your target audience is the obvious solution to keep your podcasts entertaining and interesting.
Once you have engaged the right audiences, you can also offer them drip content via your podcasts to keep them tuned in and interested in what you have to offer.
Complement your podcasts with a SEM campaign
Paid ads always work whether you want to drive visitors to your site or podcasts. Include your podcast channels in your social media campaigns and sponsored search results on Google to promote both your podcasts and brand.
Search engine algorithms will show your ads according to their users' search intent so you can engage the best leads and not worry about preaching to the wrong choir. Though SEM strategies may entail extra cost, supporting it with your SEO and organic campaigns is still better than resorting to traditional advertising channels like radio or television.