Why You Should Start a Podcast for your Brand

If there’s one marketing channel that has gone completely under the radar, it is podcasting. Should you start a podcast for your brand?As many as 212 million Americans have at least heard about podcasts. 37% listen to a podcast episode at least a month. Some reports even indicate that 50% of American homes listen to podcasts, translating to over 60 million homes.

Yet, very few businesses have dedicated podcasts. Globally, there are only 1.75 million podcasts and around 43 million episodes. That works out to about 0.43% of SMBs owning a podcast.

Why Your Business Could Be Missing Out

If you’re not part of the 0.43%, you could be missing out on customers and sales. Let’s look at just a few ways podcasting can boost your small business;

1. Build Trusted Connections with Customers

This is perhaps the most significant advantage of podcasts. Podcasts contain one thing you won’t find in most marketing campaigns – an authentic human voice. Our brains naturally connect to the human voice and the emotions it expresses. We are even more moved when listening to someone we respect and admire. If your customers already love you, they’ll be even more attached to your brand after listening to your podcast.

2. Podcasts are Engaging & Memorable

Of the 104 million people who listen to podcasts at least once monthly, 68 million listen once every week. In fact, according to Nielsen, 16 million describe themselves as “avid podcast fans.” The average podcast fan listens to an average of seven different podcasts a week, up from five in 2017. Up to 80% listen to “all or most” of each episode. It tells you just how engaging podcasts can be.

3. Increase traffic to your Website

Podcast listeners are very open to hearing product recommendations from their favorite host. Up to 69% say that podcast ads have made them aware of a new product or service. Better still, 75% of podcast listeners take action from commercial messages. This often means visiting the advertiser’s website and occasionally purchasing the items recommended by the host.

4. Podcasts make you an authority

One of the best ways to showcase your authority in a subject area is to share your knowledge. That is why TED Talks and industry summits are so popular, respected professionals in the field show up to share their knowledge. Industry publications work similarly. Podcasts offer experts another platform to demonstrate their deep understanding of a subject matter.

5. Podcasts build communities

Similar to how social media works, podcast audiences can slowly morph into a community of loyal fans. It could be a community of baby food listeners who regularly meet to share experiences and brainstorm solutions. Or, you can create a community of travel enthusiasts. A loyal community is a valuable asset for any brand.

6. Avenue to reach new audiences

A good marketer knows that people often access information via various channels. While some love Facebook, others prefer radio. Some also choose video blogs, while others prefer industry reports. Similarly, some people prefer podcasts over any other information channel. Starting a podcast is the only way to reach this unique audience.

7. It’s a lower-cost, higher-reward venture

You only need a computer (or laptop) with an internet connection, a microphone, headset, and a host to begin podcasting. You can purchase all of these for under $100 as you don’t need an expensive host when starting. Meanwhile, the return on investment can be very high. Even at a beginner level, you could possibly see hundreds of dollars in ROI per episode.

Wrap Up: Start a Podcast for Your Brand

As you can see, podcasts can offer brands and marketers another valuable platform to engage their audiences and penetrate new markets. Considering the very low initial investment, it’s a definite consideration for any brand.