Are You Getting the Greatest Return From Podcasts?
As a podcast listener, it can feel like podcasts are a fun, free, and a convenient way to listen to content – and that’s all true.
But, there is more to podcasts than meets the eye (or ear) for podcast hosts and podcast guests.
Hosting and guesting a podcast has many opportunities to grow your business and brand that you can be missing out on if you ignore this great form of connection to an ever-growing audience of podcast listeners.
Growing your business and brand through podcasting has been rising in popularity and is a very viable marketing strategy.
If you are a podcast host or guest, or thinking of becoming one, here are six ways to get the greatest return on your podcasting efforts.
1. Reach a new audience.
By hosting a podcast or being a guest on one, you can reach a new audience – podcast listeners.
They used to say blogging was THE thing to do to drive traffic to your website and that is still valid.
But people are busy.
They get bombarded with information all day and don’t always want to sit down and read a blog post unless it tells them how to do something quickly or solves some sort of problem.
Podcasting provides a way for you to connect to an audience and have them connect to you in a convenient way that feels like entertainment (see: How to Listen to Podcasts).
CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO START YOUR OWN PODCAST.
If they like you, they can subscribe from most listening platforms and you stay connected.
As a content creator, you don’t have to sum up your subject succinctly in writing and can go in-depth with your topics.
With podcasting, you are also able to build a deeper relationship with your audience, according to Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income on THIS podcast episode where he was my guest.
And best of all, the number of people listening to podcasts just keeps growing year after year!
2. Podcast networking is instrumental for growth.
There are two ways that podcast networking is a hidden gem when it comes to business and brand building.
One way podcast networking is beneficial is that it allows you to reach out to people who you may not have a reason to otherwise.
You may have been dying to talk to a podcast host in your niche but not had a good “in”.
Asking them to be a guest on your podcast is a completely natural, mutually beneficial reason to reach out to them – which makes that host more accessible.
Plus, as your podcast grows in size and popularity, so does your ability to reach those occupying the top spaces on the Apple Podcast Top Charts. You can reach out to your favorite podcast hosts or use tools like Podcast Clout to find successful and even up-and-coming podcasts in your niche.
The second and equally valuable way podcast networking is useful is for creating a “podcast network” of hosts that cross-promote each other.
Bloggers will often do this when first starting out by joining Facebook groups of fellow bloggers and committing to commenting and sharing each other’s content. It’s a helpful way to network and grow your blog and podcasts are no different.
Being able to connect with other podcast hosts and guests is an invaluable way to grow your audience reach!
In a podcast network, you can listen and review each other’s podcasts, share them with their social media followers, and get ideas from each other on how to grow. (see: How to build a podcast network)
3. Cross Promotion
Which brings us to cross-promotion as such a great way to grow your business and brand!
Getting a shout-out on someone else’s podcast, especially in your niche, can double your audience size overnight.
Podcast listeners report they often find podcasts through word of mouth, so when their favorite podcast host mentions a podcast they enjoy, listeners find that “to be effective because it’s a recommendation that comes from a trusted voice”.
If that host has a large audience, well, you can’t buy that kind of publicity! (You could as a sponsor, but this is so much better because it shows your credibility.)
4. Podcasts are awesome for brand building.
Whether you are an influencer or have a niche business, podcasts are a great way to build your brand.
It helps you stay focused on who you are and what you want to discuss.
So many content creators are multi-passionate and have a hard time staying in one lane.
But as a podcast host or guest, you can discuss whatever you want the way you would with your friends or colleagues.
Podcasts are a great way to grow your brand, without having to stay confined “to a lane”.
You also have more time to discuss your content and let people get to know you. On a website, for example, you need to sum things up. Your first sentence has to grab attention and lead people to read your next one and the next one – it’s tricky writing good website copy!
On a podcast, you have time to be yourself and let people figure out who you are and how you can be of value over time.
You can be anything – except boring!
5. Podcasts are “shareable” content.
Millions of people listen to podcasts to learn something. From marketing to mindset – people are listening and often learning.
The great thing about podcasts is that they are very shareable.
People want to tell each other what they’ve figured out, something new they learned, something that made them laugh of confirmed their opinions.
It’s easy for them to send a link to a friend or tell them about your episode making your content spread easily (see: Creating Shareable Content)
As a content creator of any kind, having your content shared is everything.
6. Podcast listeners are often engaged buyers.
I’ve saved the best for last.
The podcast listener is said to be more engaged and more likely to buy a product from someone they like.
Think about it – a podcast listener is already interested in your topic.
If you have or are on a podcast episode about the best widgets, they are more likely to listen to your recommendation for the best widgets. The same goes for if you have a podcast about self-improvement, marketing, branding, being vegan, etc.
As long as you are pitching reputable and good-quality products or services, you are pitching them to people who are already interested when you start talking.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO START YOUR OWN PODCAST.
According to Inside Radio, “56% of people surveyed said they bought an item after hearing it advertised on a podcast”. Even more surprising “87% of respondents said they listen to the commercial message.”
This is not to say you can spend an hour sounding like a commercial and expect to have any repeat listeners.
But if you are excited about a topic and you share a related product appropriately placed in your podcast, you can benefit from engaged potential buyers of whom 87% have at least listened to your advertisement.
The bottom line is this…
Whether you are a podcast host looking to network or whether you are wanting to increase your exposure to a wider audience through guest podcasting, Podcast Clout can help you.
Podcast Clout is a unique database containing the top podcasts in every category to help you find and contact active, quality podcast hosts with their contact information. Click here to see how it works.
You can connect to the podcast hosts to request they be your guest, you be theirs, or both!
You can even find fellow podcast hosts to create a podcast networking group to help each other grow.
You’d be surprised how many people want to help each other grow when they are building their businesses.
I hope these six ways podcasts are used help you get the greatest return on your podcasting efforts. It’s truly a form of business growth and branding that I cannot say enough good things about.
I developed Podcast Clout because I found it so time-consuming trying to find which podcasts I could be a guest for and which ones I could network with.
I knew there had to be a better way to get that information quickly so I could spend my time pitching to them and more importantly being on podcasts!