The Power of Podcast Influencer Marketing

For anyone that knows me, they know that I love CrossFit. If I’m not doing it, I’m watching videos, talking about it, or listening to someone else talk about it on my drive home. Can I get enough? I don’t think so…

I think the only other thing I could do is to have an in-person conversation with someone I look up to in the sport. The closest thing to that? A podcast.?

Podcasts have taken the world by storm, with the number of worldwide listeners over 424 million. The average Australian listens to just under 2 hours of podcast content every week. Podcasts have a significant effect on listener behaviour, influencing opinions, knowledge and even purchases. The people we listen to are, in many ways, influencers.?

When most people think of influencers, they think of those Instagram accounts constantly seeking new partnerships. But influencers aren’t just an Instagram thing — they’re a growing part of all marketing sectors, including podcasts. To understand how you can leverage the power of influencers in podcasts, let’s first take a look at what makes it work at all.

What is influencer marketing??

Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that uses product endorsements and shout outs from people who are respected and have a dedicated following in their niche. The easiest way to think of influencer marketing is to think of an individual (not a business) promoting a brand on a marketing platform, using their personal reputation.?

What is the difference between affiliate marketing and influencer marketing??

We often get asked if affiliate marketing is the same as influencer marketing — it’s not. Don’t get influencer marketing confused with the person that keeps popping into your DMs (Direct Messages) trying to get you to be a brand ambassador for a product you have only a mild interest in.

“No, @jane_xoxo3, I don’t want to send my ‘fire pic????’ to your page, but thanks for telling me my profile looks great!”

Affiliate marketing makes use of bloggers or social media influencers in your industry to promote your product, and they earn a commission from every purchase made from their endorsement, whereas influencer marketing involves more of a campaign that sees influencers endorsing a product by making some mention of it.

The main difference between the two is the objective: affiliate marketing is primarily sales driven, whereas influencer marketing is focused on increasing brand awareness.

While it can sometimes get a bad reputation for being a bit spammy, make no mistake: affiliate marketing is incredibly powerful when done correctly. You just need to do it in the right order: use brand awareness influencer marketing to build awareness first, and then consider direct messaging people.?

What are the benefits of influencer marketing??

Builds trust?

A lot of the time, an audience has a personal connection with the influencer, so a mention from them can earn your brand huge kudos amongst their followers.?

However, the importance of authenticity in influencer marketing cannot be overstated; influencer marketing relies on relationship, so you don’t want to jeopardise the existing connection the influencer has with their followers by sending the wrong messages.?

Sam Oh from Ahrefs puts it best: “the main reason influencer marketing works so well as a marketing strategy is because you’re borrowing trust from a person who already has influence over your target audience.”?

Affordability?

Influencer marketing is a great way to improve brand awareness without having to bust your budget and commit to long term advertising contracts.?

The power of influencer marketing is huge for small business owners, especially if you work with an Australian marketing agency that offers creative strategies, helps you partner with the right influencers and knows how to leverage influencer marketing so that you can stretch your budget and maximise your marketing spend.?

Brand awareness?

Influencer accounts typically have a large number of followers, all of whom feel some kind of personal attachment to the influencer. An influencer marketing campaign allows you to directly reach this highly engaged audience, meaning that every shout-out or recommendation you receive will be actively seen and heard.?

While this personal connection helps brands reach their audience, it’s absolutely essential that authenticity in influencer marketing is maintained, otherwise you risk precisely the opposite of brand awareness.?

Consumer insights?

Influencer marketing can help you understand your target audience even better than you might have thought you understood it, helping you serve them better and potentially growing your business.?

Successful influencers are geniuses at reaching their audiences, keeping up with trends and understanding the content their audience likes best. This also has the added benefit of saving you time in designing and brainstorming — while you’ll want to be part of the process, influencers will be able to support you with developing creative content. This gives you the chance to place more focus on other parts of your growing business.

Stop! Influencer marketing steps to consider before you go live

Check out these steps to help you understand the whole process before you commit any of your marketing budget to an influencer marketing campaign.?

Start with an objective?

Knowing the objectives of influencer marketing for your brand will help you to quantify your marketing spend. There’s no point allocating any portion of your budget to anything if you don’t have a clear objective. The easiest place to start is deciding whether you want to increase brand awareness or sales. Knowing this will help you choose the right influencers and get the most out of your budget.

Develop a strategy?

Get creative! Be strategic in your approach and don’t just go for the obvious options. Do a little research –?you might even find a few gems that are willing to promote your business for free.

Evaluate influencers?

Don’t just look to influencer marketing trends to develop a campaign. You should be passionate and want to work with the influencers you are considering partnering with, as they are essentially a representation of your brand.

Liking them plays a huge role, but it isn’t the only thing that is important: the numbers need to add up. While checking how many followers they have might seem like the most obvious thing to do, it isn’t. Pay very close attention to audience engagement on their content, especially if you’re considering partnering with a social media influencer. Buying followers is incredibly common amongst unfluencers (wannabe influencers), and will only lead to damage.

Podcast Influencer Marketing?

So this lands us here: podcast influencer marketing. Not every product or service can be effectively promoted using still images or in a short video on social media, so podcasts present a great opportunity to provide buyers with all the information they need before they decide to purchase.

Podcast influencer marketing also supplements higher level marketing efforts, allowing brands to remarket their product to buyers at different stages of the purchasing funnel.

The most common way to increase sales through podcast marketing is to offer incentives (also known as direct response marketing). This can involve the podcaster offering a code that only their audience can use to get a discount or free trial. Increasing brand awareness through podcasts involves getting shout outs or reviews on your product or service.

Pay attention!?

No, literally — get creative with your marketing strategy and pay to get ears listening, now! Whether you’re a large brand, or a small business seeking influencer marketing for startups, we’ve got a strategy that will suit your needs.

As someone passionate in your field, think about what you’d love listening to, and we’ll help you find the right influencer for it. I might be one of CrossFit’s biggest fanatics — or disciples (if you know you know) — but soon enough you’ll be hitting the ears of someone who’s as much of a fanatic as you are for your category. Go get in conversation with them and you might be surprised how much they love to listen.