If you’re attentive to advertising’s current landscape, you may have already paired digital marketing media like social and paid search with traditional media like radio, print, and television. Yet if you think you’ve exhausted available marketing tactics, you’re only just beginning. One relatively recent medium that many companies have adopted is a podcast. However, they forget one critical component beyond producing the podcast: podcast promotion.
For many, a podcast seems more like entertainment than a marketing strategy. At the mere suggestion, your mind probably jumped to the fact that you’re not a production studio. Your goal is marketing your brand, not content creation. You want to reach your market, not join a different industry like entertainment.
Well, podcasting isn’t about creating entertainment. Podcasts are an engaging form of content marketing, with a slew of benefits to prove it. With the right podcast promotion, you may find that it is an effective tool in your marketing tool bag.
The Infinite Dial reported 62% of Americans have listened to a podcast. This number is a 5% jump from 57% of Americans in the 2021 report. That’s a pool of 177 million people who are choosing to consume information and entertainment on one media platform alone.
And this reach is only the beginning of the benefits associated with podcast promotion.
How a podcast promotion agency can help.
Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’ve already started or are considering a podcast, but are wondering how to promote it. Innis Maggiore can assist you with promoting your podcast as well as assist in either the podcast production or postproduction.
We host our own podcast — Brand Shorthand (video version; audio version) — that is laser-focused on positioning. If you’re considering your own podcast but don’t feel confident in either the production or promotion, Innis Maggiore can handle scripting, coaching, technical assistance, recording/production, postproduction, and promotion of the podcast. If you’re not fully convinced podcasting is for you, here are a few reasons we feel it’s a great content marketing tactic.
Meeting a more engaged audience.
Podcasting exhibits the same advantages as other streaming platforms. Content is entirely on-demand; listeners can begin, pause, stop, and rewatch episodes at a moment’s notice. The fact that listeners can choose every aspect of how they consume means when listeners tune in, they lock in.
Not only do podcasts capture the advantages of on-demand media, but the inherent desires of listeners make them more apt for higher engagement. Podcast promotion doesn’t provide the quick hit content like TikTok. Rather, these audiences are looking for media where they can hear about new topics, unwind with an enthralling story, or find topic-specific expertise with episodes that can last anywhere from 5-60 minutes or more.
All listeners choose their podcasts out of a desire to hear the information, meaning they’re much more likely to retain and think about the content. This aspect of using a podcast for promotion is what makes it so potent as a marketing tool. When you create podcast content, unlike ad fatigue, which is common in other digital media forms, your listeners will remember and consider your content, and if done correctly, consider your brand.
Podcasting comes with low competition.
In line with high engagement, podcasts are in a low-competition market space. Compared to the fight for Friday night TV spots in the days of cable’s dominance, podcasts exist amicably with one another. Also, as a media-streaming platform, podcast promotion reduces the stress to reach your audience. Instead, consumers choose to listen whenever they want alongside all their other favorite shows.
Many listeners who are interested by one topic, more than likely will start listening to multiple podcasts, including ones in the same categories. The same Infinite Dial podcast promotion statistics notes “26% of Americans who listened to podcasts within the last week listened to an average of eight podcasts throughout the week.”
Podcasts in the same spheres will often also promote one another with shoutouts or full-length interviews with hosts of other shows. Unlike the dog-eat-dog competition of business, podcasting operates as a harmonious community, learning, growing, and entertaining together. With the freedom to create and learn how to reach your own audiences, podcasts eliminate the fear of losing potentially loyal audiences to other shows.
Be a leader, start a podcast.
While an engaged audience and low competition make podcasting an easy-entry market, the biggest reason podcast promotion may be your business’s next move is its ability to make or maintain your position as a brand leader.
At Innis Maggiore, we’re all about brand positioning, which means a brand should only stand for one idea in the mind of the consumer. This idea must differentiate you from the competition and serve as the reason customers choose you. The strongest positions are those where your brand is the industry leader.
Podcast promotion helps you create or maintain this brand leadership position. We already know podcast listeners are inherently more interested in the content, compared to television advertising or radio listeners. When they listen though, they also naturally connect to the host as an authority figure on the topic. The long-form episodes and general-conversation style gives listeners the impression they know the host. This relationship in podcasts bolsters their trust in your authority on industry topics, making you a leader in the mind of the listener.
Scared of production? Don’t be.
If this article has piqued your interest, you may still hesitate at the mere thought of producing the show, bringing you right back to the beginning before you ever considered podcasting in the first place. You’re not a studio. You don’t have the resources or skills for podcast promotion, right?
Actually, podcast production is very easy and requires little capital to begin. Just follow these four easy steps, and you’re already on your way to becoming a podcaster.
Planning
Like anything, podcasts do require planning. Before recording, you must sit down with yourself or team and discuss your strategy. What is the goal of your podcast promotion? What is the content? How long will each episode be? Will you follow a script or ad-lib with a cohost? When and where will you post episodes?
All these factors color your podcast with its distinct personality, which also serves as a way to communicate your unique brand identity.
Setup
While podcast promotion involves content creation, it requires very little in terms of equipment and cost.
First, you’ll need a microphone. The voice of your show will resonate with the content your audience consumes, so making sure you have access to a microphone is key. Headphones are also important to podcast promotion, since they guarantee you can hear yourself and your guests with clarity.
Other podcasters may recommend additional equipment. For example, some hosts use pop filters to block crackling from speech while recording. Others invest in boom suspensions to hold their microphones for comfort and crisp audio. While these and other small affordable varieties are available online, they’re not necessary for podcast promotion.
In the end, if all you have is your computer with a microphone (and webcam if you want to create a video version), you can start a podcast.
Postproduction
Once you’ve recorded, it’s time for postproduction. Using an accessible editing software like Adobe Audition, Audacity, or even GarageBand, which comes pre-installed on Apple products, you can begin mixing and finalizing your episode. Once you’re settled with it, you can upload it to your chosen host, whether its Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Buzzsprout, or one of the many other easily accessible podcast promotion platforms. Many podcast recording platforms like Riverside.fm even embed postproduction tools right into their software.
Promotion
Promotion is the most critical component of any podcast. Just because you record it doesn’t mean anyone is listening. There are key strategies to podcast promotion that are very similar to other marketing tactics: finding the right audience, making them aware of the podcast, and engaging them beyond the podcast once they become a loyal listener.
Connect with your audience in a personal way.
As America’s #1 positioning ad agency, Innis Maggiore understands the effectiveness of brand differentiation. In the battle for the mind, podcast promotion is a great tool for your business to broadcast its difference. It takes the one thing that makes you unique — your position — and gives it a living feel and sound.
Podcast promotion animates your position with the perception of deep relational intimacy found in human connection itself — and that’s not something your competition is likely to replicate. The distinct personality created and carefully produced in the podcast itself cannot be duplicated; it is entirely unique, just like your position.
Greet your audiences in a new way. Connect them to your position and promote your brand through podcasting. To learn more about the benefits of podcasting, how to create a podcast, podcast promotion, or finding your positioning strategy, contact Innis Maggiore today.