Podcasting is worth investing in, PERIOD and some other P's to know!

Podcasting is worth investing in, PERIOD, and some other P's to know!

Podcasts are growing; 'we’re all going to make millions, get on it, quick!'

This seems to be the general consensus at the minute.

Now, I can understand the excitement!

I have been excited about the opportunities in Podcasting since 2015!

YES, 2015!

See here www.jasonallanscott.uk and see The Guardian article, in 2016 where my Podcast made the top 100 businesses in the UK.

*Yes, I'm that old*

With a passionate, engaged audience, an intimate environment, and niche targeting opportunities; it’s hard not to be interested.

So, it’s absolutely no surprise that 75% of brands expect to spend big in the podcast realm this year.

How you do it is the important thing.

Fundamentally, you have two options -

Either to advertise in the space

or

make your own branded podcast.

Now, when they’re done right, I’m a massive fan of both, I do both.

We, A Podcast Company do both!

Our clients, make podcasts and advertise on other podcasts.

My own startup and agency is an advertiser on a few, so I do what I preach!

While often dressed as a southern baptist preacher :-)

But, I am getting off the point....what was the point.....

there are a million articles by me on google and videos on YouTube talking about the former, so let’s concentrate on the latter and question how you can create your own podcast successfully.

Podcasting is an amazing opportunity to spend some serious, one-on-one time with a consumer or potential customer.

It's also still an emerging platform with few competitors for most niches.

yes, I said, emerging platform and few competitors..do not believe the hype of

2.4 million podcasts

As of June 2022, there are?over 2.4 million?podcasts with over 66 million episodes between them -

Let us look at the real numbers!

The latest research from Amplifi Media and Podnews recently showed that there are only 155,000 regularly-updated podcasts!!

(more than 10 episodes, updated in the last ten days)

Where they have actively sought you out and are happy to spend the best part of an hour with you.

Can any other medium get anywhere close to that level of engagement?

Can your best salesperson hold a customer’s attention that long and leave them in love with your brand?

No, no they can’t.

This is your chance to tell a story that reflects your brand's values, changes perceptions, illustrates work (with a charity for example), or highlights your products and services to a captive audience.

But at its core, it needs to have a heart.

We handpick every client we work with, and heart is the first thing we look for!

It should give human insight, tug at our heartstrings, relate to our personal experiences, give us a fresh perception, pique our curiosity, or scare the living crap out of us.

And on the seque of hearts..and heart

We Love Our Heart Podcast hosted by Mark Charles Felstead did that, it scared us to think about our own heart health while educating and entertaining us!

The great Horace, one wrote - and I paraphrase this - ad neuseum

“The aim of the poet is to inform or delight or to combine together, in what he says, both pleasure and applicability to life.

In instructing, be brief in what you say in order that your readers may grasp it quickly and retain it faithfully.”

This is what you need from a great podcast episode.

Whatever it does, it needs to hit the listener right in the feels and mine some of that glorious bonding glue we call oxytocin.

Every single decision we make is an emotional one.

And if you can add emotional currency to your brand, then that is undoubtedly going to drive consideration and purchase intent.

Making it well worth the investment in time and money.

And you will need to spend money.

You need to get your podcast out there at scale, otherwise, what’s the point?

To that end, you should consider your promotional strategy as much as you consider your podcast content, and your podcast team.

I say this all the time, you don't need a book or a course on how to start a podcast, you need a podcast company to help you start and grow your podcast!

We named our company just that, A Podcast Company, cos that is what most people need, someone to guide you, someone to edit for you, someone to produce you, someone to make your content and re-purpose that content, write blogs and make videos for you and syndicate your show to all the networks while organically spreading the gospel of your show on various social media channels.

We show our clients over 21 ways to promote their podcasts and we have a team promoting for them, as mentioned above.

But here is a GIVE-AWAY tip.

As a guide, you should be spending at least three times more on promotion than you do on production.

To make a quality podcast, you should be spending a decent amount on production.

There's no justifying room noise and distortion, rambling on about nothing, the uhms and aagh's and the amazon delivery, Dog barking, Baby crying.. or unoriginal content; listeners expect more.

On an average day, I will get an email or call like the below:

“We’ve got this AMAAAZING idea for a podcast, yah!

Me and my friends, Hugh, Rupert, and Cordelia are going to sit around, open a Jeroboam of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 1945 and talk about all the things that get our goat. And as we’re well...rich....wealthy...upper class.....and we will be talking about the Toodle-pip, ghastly and the frightful we’ll call it ‘Thirst World Problems', it’s going to be hilarious!”

You’d be amazed how many times I hear this sort of idea from people.

But the scary thing is that brands say similar things and attempt it... and undoubtedly, fail.

The problem here is the perception that anybody can make a podcast.

You stick a mic in front of your face and press record... easy isn’t it?

Few stop to think, “What does success look like, why would anybody listen to this?”

“What’s the listener experience going to be like?”, “Is this any different from other podcasts out there?”

Now, given the right equipment, treatment, structure, guests, and stories, the above could actually work as an idea.

But that’s a lot of stuff to think about and get right.

The First P is Planning.

The Second P is Promotion.

If your brand awareness is good and you have a huge social following then it’s certainly helpful, but if you’re expecting big numbers from that alone, you’ll likely be disappointed.

Fail to plan and plan to fail. as we event planners say!

There are, as mentioned, at least 21 ways to promote

1. Leverage your guest's audience.
2. Promote on social media … in a dozen different ways.
3. Release at least 3 episodes on launch day.
4. Convert the audio to a YouTube video.
5. Submit your podcast to podcatchers and aggregators.
6. Transcribe the audio.
7. Throw a two-week rating party.
8. Run a giveaway contest.
9. etc.

By now, you’re probably thinking one of two things.

“This all sounds amazing.

I get to spend quality one-on-one time with my consumers and potential ones, bring to life our product and brand vision, build our emotional currency and drive consideration.

And I get to create shareable content to spark engagement across all our social channels!” If so, great, go for it!

However, if you're thinking “Oh. I didn’t realize it was quite so involved.. I'll take my Yeti Mic ( sic) microphone back to Argos” - that’s ok.

There are still lots of amazing sponsorship and advertising opportunities available, so you can still be relevant in this space.

Either way, Podcasting is a great place to put your ￡$ at the moment.

The Third P is PROFIT!

And there is a LOT of PROFIT in this space, But I will leave that for next time!