Chapter 8
Because we live in a mobile-first always-on-the-go lifestyle, podcasting presents a tremendous opportunity for you to tell your brand story and spread the word about your brand. While people are super-busy, they don’t mind listening to your brand story on podcast shows between commutes or while doing their chores.
With roots dating back to the 1980s, podcast marketing or audio blogging as they knew it then, has grown into a formidable marketing channel.
A podcast is an on-demand internet audio presentation or discussion on a specific topic delivered via a computer or mobile device.
You can listen to a podcast live or download it and listen wherever whenever you want.
A fusion of the power of the spoken word and computer technology, podcasts are entertaining and portable.
Their convenience also makes them a popular medium.
These numbers tell the story of the sky-high rise of podcasts:
- 75% of Americans or 212 million people are now familiar with podcasting. (Convince & Convert)
- 75% of podcast listeners take commercial action after listening to sponsored podcast content. (HubSpot)
- Regular podcast listeners listen to an average of 6 podcasts per week. (The Podcast Host)
- Apple Podcasts is the largest podcast platform with over one million shows available in 175 countries and regions. (iTunes Connect)
- Podcast listeners have grown 37,5% in 3 years. (Convince & Convert)
- Podcast advertising revenues will surpass 1 billion by 2021. (eMarketer)
I’m sure you can now see the potential of podcast marketing.
Let’s explore how you can exploit this opportunity.
6 Benefits Of Podcast Marketing
1. Highly engaging medium
Podcasting gives you a deeper personal connection with your target audience. Whether it’s the allure of the human voice or listening to a hot discussion about a trendy subject, podcasts are absorbing.
Did you know that 80% of avid podcast listeners listen to all or most of each episode?
Source: Podcast Insights
In contrast, only 30% read the whole blog post.
This gives you enough time to tell your brand story convincingly and imprint your brand into the psyche of your spellbound audience.
2. Reach new Audiences
Podcasts are magnificent for brand awareness.
Over half of podcast listeners are more likely to consider buying from a brand after hearing its advert on a podcast.
3. Build Authority Fast
When people listen to you share your expertise repeatedly, they revere you.
With each show you do, you ram the point home that you are an authority in your space. Because your fans always hear you expounding matters around your industry, you naturally become the first person who comes to mind whenever they get stuck and need help in your area of expertise.
4. Build A Community Of Raving Fans
Like listening to a master storyteller around a crackling fire, podcasting allows you to build a community of loyal followers.
Only this time you are the storyteller and your brand is the hero.
The more you tell your story, the more you cement your authority. Here’s how to cultivate a stronger community around your brand:
- Encourage discussion and respond to audience comments.
- Give your audience the mic—listen to what they want.
- Feature some of your star listeners in a review type of shows.
Ask an educationist worth their salt and they will tell you people learn twice as much through what they hear than what they read. Podcasting builds stronger connections with your prospects and customers.
5. Cost-Effective
Podcasting is a relatively cheap channel.
You can get started for as little as $150 a basic setup to dip your toe in. Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising costs $250 to $1500 per month depending on the competitiveness of your niche. Remember this cost recurs.
Cash-strapped startups can give podcasting a go without worrying about the costs. Plus, after you grow a big audience, you can monetize it through advertising revenue.
Plus, once everything’s up and running, a podcast is low maintenance.Â
6. Idea Laboratory
Your podcast can be your brand’s research lab.
You pick up brilliant business ideas as you:
- Interact with perceptive guests who are industry leaders.
- Teach and explore your subject deeper and deeper.
- Listen to sharp listener contributions.
Fuel growth using precious nuggets picked from your podcast show. And because these ideas come from customers or experts who are knee-deep in the industry trenches every day, they are workable.
7. Help You Find Your Voice And Positioning
Podcasting can be a marvelous brand discovery tool.
You know what?
A brand isn’t a static, non-living entity. Instead, it’s a dynamic living organism. It’s born, finds its feet slowly, and eventually matures. As you speak more and more about a subject, the more you find your unique voice and your strategic, profitable place in the marketplace.
It helps you refine things as you move along until you find the perfect brand messaging and style for your brand. Besides, it’s a safe place to experiment with different brand voices and styles until you find what sticks.
The good news?
Once you dial in your brand voice and messaging, your brand becomes more memorable to your audience. A memorable brand also stands out from the sea of sameness—it gives you a competitive advantage.
With these benefits in mind, the next step is to state your podcasting goals.
Articulate Your Podcast Marketing Goals
Before you dive both feet into podcasting, it’s crucial to identify your purpose.
Do you want to:
- Increase brand awareness?
- Network with industry leaders?
- Establish your authority?
- Drive traffic to your website?
- Boost your sales figures?
- Inculcate brand culture?
- Deepen your relationship with customers?
- Distribute repurposed content?
Your goals become your lighthouse, a trusted guide that leads you to the shores of brand success.
Pick Your Preferred Podcast Format
Podcasts come in many shapes and sizes. For your show to resonate with listeners, pick the right format for it. Below are five ways of packaging your podcast show.
1. One-on-one interview
In this format, you interview one guest at a time and allow them to share their expertise.
Easy to run since your guests do most of the talking. All you do is ask smart questions and add a bit of commentary.
2. Panel discussion show
For a panel discussion, you interview two or more guests and have an informative discussion.
It’s richer than a monologue style approach because it meshes multiple views.
3. Solo Commentary
This is the easiest format of all where you share your expertise with listeners alone.
It’s best for beginners who want to get a hang of things. Or if you are a solopreneur brand and want to establish your authority in your industry.
4. Co-hosted shows
Two people host the show and switch roles depending on their expertise or the topic under discussion.
5. Hybrid Podcast
Why get stuck in one format when you can blend two styles?
That’s what a hybrid show is all about. Having fun by combining formats.
Your choice of format depends on your personality, leadership style, and goal. Don’t rush to settle on a particular style early on. Take your time. Experiment until you find the perfect match for your brands.
Let’s drill into strategies of growing your podcast and personal brand influence.
Turn High-Performing Posts Into Podcast Shows
Podcasts can give your best content:
- another home.
- another audience to reach.
But you must play your cards right. The keyword is ‘best’. Don’t just pick any article and turn it into a podcast episode. That’d be a sheer waste of resources. Choose your premier content that’s popular with your audience. That gives your show the best chance to succeed and give you confidence in the beginning.
But how do you identify that content?
What do you look for?
Go back to Chapter 2 for the answer.
Turn your blog into a script. Add an intro and outro. Record the entire episode. Voila! You have a podcast episode for your audience to enjoy.
Giving your content a fresh coat of paint and presenting it in audio form gives it a new lease of life and attracts a legion of new fans for your brand.
Promote Your Podcast Aggressively Across Platforms
It’s not enough to have a humdinger of a podcast show nobody knows about.
That’s where promotion comes in.
1. Promote your podcast on multiple social media channels
This is pretty straightforward.
Push your episodes on all your social channels:
- Before the show.
- During the show.
- After the show.
Make your promotional updates catchy, punchy, spicy.
Share fascinating sound bites and use tools like Canva or Snappa to create stunning visuals to grab more eyeballs and get more clicks.
2. Take advantage of your guests’ massive audiences
Podcast guests don’t just help you produce a lovely show.
Your podcast guests are influencers with vast audiences. Leverage their audiences to spread your brand story far and wide. Because they featured in the show, they have a vested interest in it. Ask them to share that episode.
Make it easy for them. Prove:
- Pre-written tweets.
- Fill in the blank sharing templates.
- Pull quotes.
- Image-rich status updates.
Get the idea.
3. Network and partner with fellow podcasters for mutual benefit
Other podcasters are your allies, not enemies.
You can partner with them for mutual growth.
Look for podcasters who target the same audience as you but aren’t direct competitors. You can cross-promote your podcasts episodes to each other’s audiences. Both your shows will gain new fans.Â
Win-win for everyone involved.
A good place to network with like-minded podcasters is joining podcasting communities like:
4. Submit your podcast to podcast aggregators
A podcast aggregator, aka podcatcher, is computer software that tracks, syndicates, and downloads all podcasts you want to listen to.
It’s a convenient way for people to discover and consume fresh episodes.
But your company’s show can’t be aggregated if you haven’t submitted it. Submit your podcast to as many aggregators for a wider reach.
Here’s a list of some leading aggregators.
Take your pick and go for it.Â
Get your brand name out there.Â
But ensure you submit your show on iTunes since 70% of podcast listening happens there according to the Nieman Lab.
5. Titillate users with audiograms
Audiograms are more attractive than regular social media updates.
They fuse an image, audio, sound wave, or subtitles even.
This teases users more than the usual text, image, or video posts. Share memorable podcast moments and get more click-throughs to your show. See this example from Get Audiogram.
Source: Get Audiogram
For catchy audiograms, get a clip of:
- Humorous moments because everyone loves a merry laugh.
- Punchline moments for portable truth capsules prospects can carry home.
- Tasty quote moments because people can’t have enough of lovely quotes.
- Emotional moments because people bond through emotional connections.
- Unique stat moments because numbers denote industry expertise.
- Mini-story moment because stories are memorable and tag the human heart.
6. Leverage the viral power of contests and giveaways
What is it about free stuff?
Everyone loves a freebie, even those that don’t need the free item.
Exploit this tendency by doing regular giveaways. For people to qualify to take part in the contest, they must share your podcast. Contests are not expensive to run. You don’t always have to give monetary prizes. Be creative.Â
Prizes can include:
- Free access to your tool if you are a SaaS company.
- Your signature product.
- Partner products.
- Gift cards.
- Tickets to popular events.
- Popular books.
Woo customers-to-be through contests and giveaways.
Repurpose Podcasts Into Other Content Formats
Give your podcast episodes wings.
Remodel them into other content formats.
1. Videos
2 billion.
That’s the staggering number of YouTube users who log into the platform every month to watch videos. Imagine the exposure your brand will get if you can tap into the platform?Â
So you’ve got to create videos from scratch, right?
No.
There’s a smarter way. You already have the content—your pile of podcast episodes. Use tools like ScreenFlow and Camtasia to turn your episodes into videos. Add an intro and outro and you have a video version of your podcast ready for video.
All without breaking a sweat.
Here’s an example from Buffer.
Source: Buffer
Notice how they titled it ‘interview with…’ because it was originally a podcast.
2. Blog Posts
Transforming your podcasts into blog posts is another way to recycle your content and strengthen your blog and brand presence.
Here’s how:
Step #1: Transcribe the entire episode using a host of free (or dirt cheap) transcription services like Desrcipt, Sonnix, and Otta.ai.
Step #2: Choose the portion or angle of the show you want to focus on because an entire episode can be too much for a single post.
Strep #3: Reorder the points and flow so the content makes sense in a blog post format.
Step #4: Work on the transitions and flow of the post because the spoken word has a lot of discourse markers, e.g. mm, ah, oh, etc.
Step #5: Beef up the content and fill any gaps so the post isn’t just a regurgitation of the show but an article in its own right.
Step #6: Turn long shows into a series of posts or into in-depth long-form posts Google search engines love.
When done, promote it as you normally do.
3. Social media images
You can also dice podcast episodes into gorgeous images to hike your social media engagement.
Turn content-heavy episodes into:
- Pull quotes to highlight your guest’s wisdom.
- Behind the scenes shots to humanize your brand.
- Humorous shots to tickle your audience.
- Startling industry stats to impress your audience with your thorough knowledge.
4. Content Upgrades
Content upgrades are an integral part of a savvy lead-gen strategy.
By offering website visitors a bonus piece of content, you grow your email list and take prospects deeper in their relationship with your brand. Whether it’s a checklist, roadmap, cheat sheet, transcript, audio download, free report, case study, mini ebook, template, infographic, templates, SlideShare, make sure the podcast-inspired content upgrade is:
- Relevant: your bonus piece must connect smoothly with your blog post topic.
- Specific: address a particular pain point your audience struggles with.
- Attractive: people sign up for your upgrade if it isn’t visually appealing.
- Actionable: your upgrade must help people take action and move closer to their dreams.
Because your podcast is an authentic representation of your brand. Don’t keep it to yourself. Shout it from the rooftops.
Optimize Your Podcast For SEO
Thriving podcasts know how to attract new listeners every day from smart search engine optimization strategies.
There’s no reason you can’t achieve the same results for your show. Here are a few podcast SEO fundamentals.
1. Choose a keyword for each episode
Make sure each show episode targets a specific keyword. Don’t produce shows haphazardly without a strong keyword strategy foundation. You won’t see organic visitors.
Focus on long-tail keywords with less competition with a decent traffic potential.
2. Insert your keywords in strategic areas
To make your podcast SEO-friendly, put your keyword in key positions such as:
- The page H1 title.
- The URL of the post.
- Subheads e.g. H2, H3, and H4.
- Episode description.
- The start and the end of the page.
- Image file names and image alt attributes.
- Throughout the body of the content.
3. Include show notes and transcripts
For each episode, it’s crucial to include time-stamped show notes to help your audience and rank for relevant keywords and searches.
The chart, images, and content you avail to your audience are SEO seeds that will grow and attract potential listeners.
Word-for-word transcriptions of the complete show will come in handy when you want to repurpose the show into written content.
4. Insert share buttons on your podcast pages
Strong social signals can entice search engines when they see your show popping up all over social media. Also, chatter about your content on social media streets generates buzz around your brand. More listeners will discover your company.
5. Boost dwell time and retention through images
Images are a potent learning tool, so make your pages image-rich. Studies claim up to 90% of learning is visual.
Source: WOStrategies
Since images have such engagement power, listeners will stay longer on your pages. This boosts your SEO. Include photos of your guests, their material like books, and any catchy visuals related to the show.
Get your SEO game right.Â
You will get a constant flow of new listeners and grow your brand on auto-pilot while you catch some zzz’s.
Pitch Relevant Shows And Appear As A Guest
Just like smaller bands hit the promotion trail by playing on free platforms or as supporting acts for big brands, you can head out on a guest podcasting tour as a guest on popular podcasts in your niche.
Guest podcasting is so effective because it:
- Allows you to connect with targeted audiences who are already interested in the goods/services you sell.
- Doubles up as a networking strategy as you develop strong relationships with your hosts.
- Leads to collaborations that bring in more sales and boost your brand visibility.
- Highlights your expertise and authority in your niche as people see you play with the big boys (or gals) in the industry.
- Opens bigger doors for your brand, e.g. invitations to bigger podcasts, mentions in mainstream media, book deals, etc.
- Closes sales, oh yeah!
- Gets you tons of quality links to help your podcast website rank higher in searches.
How To Pitch Yourself As Attractive Podcast Guest
To land guest podcasting interview slots, you must nail your pitch. Here’s the anatomy of an irresistible pitch podcast hosts can’t say no to.
- Lead with a powerful headline otherwise, your email won’t get opened.
- Show the host how your story will meet their audience’s needs instead of rambling on and on about your brilliance.
- Find a unique, electrifying story to sell because podcast hosts ignore humdrum pitches all day.
- Research the host and their brand so you personalize your email and stand out from the rest.
- Include social proof e.g. respected podcasts that have hosted you before or media mentions, social media account URLs if you have a large audience, experience if you’re an industry veteran.
- Offer a special bonus for the host’s audience, e.g. discounts, reports, free ebook, etc.
- Follow up. Follow up. Follow up.
It’s also important to lay a good foundation for your pitches by developing relationships with niche influencers beforehand. Reach out to them on social media. Mix and mingle. Get yourself onto their radar. Share their content, comment on their blogs, and shows. By the time you pitch them, they will be familiar with you. This enhances your chances of success.
Once you have a few guest podcasts under your belt, you can take a shortcut. Ask your hosts to recommend you to their friends.
Ask For Listener Reviews As Social Proof
You can’t talk of podcasting and leave out listener reviews.
Not only do they provide concrete proof that you are the real deal, but they also improve your SEO. Plus, other brands notice shows with good ratings and earmark them for partnerships.
The iTunes ranking algorithm prioritizes:
- The podcast title.
- The number of subscribers.
- The number of listener ratings and reviews.
The key to getting many ratings and reviews is to grow your subscriber base. Here’s how to get more reviews and drive your podcast up the charts:
Explain Why
Tell your listeners why leaving a review is important e.g. it’ll help spread the message to new listeners or grow the show Sometimes listeners don’t review your show because they see the need.
Ask Regularly
Make it a habit to ask for reviews at the end of every episode.
Ask Loyal Listeners
Ask your loyal star listeners in particular to review your show. They’d be happy to since they adore the show.
Show Them How
Tell people exactly where and how to review the show.
Acknowledge Reviewers
Give a shout out to listeners who have reviewed the show. People love hearing their names on air.
Read Choice Ones
Read some exceptional reviews live on the show.
Give Incentives
Run a content or offer rewards to listeners who leave reviews.
Start podcasting today. Endear your brand to people’s hearts and minds by telling your brand story on air.
