Why Podcasting Should Be in Your Marketing Strategy

Over the past few years, we’ve seen podcasts emerge as a powerful tool for creators and brands to expand their audience. When done right, a well-produced podcast is multi-purpose: it’s educational, entertaining, thought-provoking, authority-building, and will help you tell your story how you want it to be told.

In the ever-changing landscape of modern marketing, being adaptable to shifting consumer habits is incredibly important. And as consumers tire of fast-paced, short-form content and look for in-depth, long-form alternatives, interest in podcasts has continued to rise. Embracing the long-form counterpart is one way for organizations to stay competitive and thrive within the media landscape, and podcasting is one of these long-form channels that I’ve been a fan of for years.

Voices recently published our Power of Podcasts Report, which discovered notable insights as to how podcasting relates to advertising and marketing:

• Podcasts provide the opportunity to build meaningful connections with your audience–54% of listeners said they feel like they know the personality of the hosts of their favorite podcast very well.
• Data shows that the medium boasts strong conversion rates–48% of podcast listeners said they purchased a podcast-advertised product or service in the last year.
• Podcast listeners are very engaged with the podcasts they listen to, which is good for brand awareness–76% of listeners can recall at least one podcast-advertised product or service off the top of their heads.

The formula appears simple: meaningful and authentic content drives engagement and awareness with your audience.?

Create Authentic Connections by Humanizing the Brand

The online world has completely reinvented the way we connect. The internet has allowed us to create online communities, fostering genuine connections with others who share similar interests. It allows us to stay current with events happening across the country or even the world. Impactful connections are often started by sharing personal experiences and anecdotes and inviting others to join the dialogue actively.

The podcast medium is a unique content opportunity for brands to present themselves personally and authentically. A captive podcast audience isn’t created by prioritizing a pretty feed or eye-catching graphics. The thoughts and perspectives shared and the relatability of the content and host will resonate with this type of audience. The conversational nature of podcasts is its primary strength, and a branded podcast is the perfect opportunity to show the human side of the business–the behind-the-scenes and imperfect cuts of content and the people who make the brand. Listeners see the people behind the work, constructing a sense of familiarity, relatability, and trust.

Increased Brand Awareness

Exploring a new channel to share content opens the door to a different audience you might only reach through podcasting. We know that the different content formats on each platform resonate uniquely with different audience groups. The audience that reads your blog might not be the same as the audience that sees your LinkedIn posts, and the audience that engages with you on LinkedIn will likely be different from those on your YouTube Channel.

That being said, your reach through consistent podcasting can introduce your brand to people who might not be engaged through other channels. As your podcast gains subscribers and listeners, your brand name and message become more recognizable, potentially attracting new customers.

Multi-Channel Marketing

Finally, one of the greatest benefits of podcasting is the content that comes from it, and how easily this content can be repurposed for your social channels, such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Repurposing podcast content is so efficient since it kills two birds with one stone: repurposing promotes the podcast, while at the same time creating usable content for social channels.

Your podcast episodes will contain valuable insights, anecdotes, and discussions that can be sliced into smaller, bite-sized content pieces. Soundbites can be transformed into eye-catching quote graphics, capturing your message visually appealingly. Snippets of conversations can be leveraged to create behind-the-scenes videos or short clips for platforms like TikTok or YouTube Shorts. By repurposing podcast content, you maximize the utility of each episode, while simultaneously catering to your audiences' preferences across various social media channels.?

So, why not give it a shot? Many major brands have already tried their hand at a branded podcast, including Morgan Stanley, Duolingo, Netflix, and even Trader Joe’s. At Voices, we’ve included podcasting into our content strategy for years (check out Mission Audition or Voice Over Experts to see how we do podcasts). All the benefits of a branded podcast listed above, we’ve experienced firsthand. And the best part–brand awareness and marketing strategy aside–podcasting is just plain fun.