Why my business should start a podcast?
It’s 2022, people are searching on the internet more than ever. You probably found this article by searching on Google.
You have a hobby? You will search online. You are researching something? You will search online. You want to buy something? You want to find a business you trust, again. Online.
Remember some of the businesses you interacted with recently (not necessarily bought from them). I bet you had some kind of trust with them. You knew their product was going to work as advertised and you were not going to loose your time and money.
And why you knew it, before even trying it?
They probably had established themselves as authoritative figures on their niche.
They probably had a site with all the information about their product, okay. But They probably had put great content out there, showing their expertise.
Podcasting helps businesses find new customers and provide value to them so they remember your brand and keep coming back again and again.
In this article we will why your business can benefit from starting a podcast.
Repurpose your content
If you look around, you will see how much content well known businesses put out there and that’s not an after thought. Content educating their customers about their niche and helping them through their journey.
Content like this can be blog posts, infographics, guides, social media posts, youtube videos and more.
But content like this can be repurposed from one form to another, like podcasting! Many many businesses today take the same piece of content and distribute it in various forms.
You will take some time to research about and gather all the information you can about a topic and then you will distribute it in various forms.
Some people will read it on a written form, great. Some people will see it as an infographic on Pinterest, great. Some people are searching on podcast apps and they will find it there.
Like youtube, they may subscribe to your podcast and keep listening to new episodes.
Eventually they will visit your website, learn more, realize that you have a solution or that you can add value to what they’re interested about and buy from you.
Podcasting is a marketing channel
As we said so far you can repurpose your content and distribute it to various formats.
Actually, you will use multiple marketing channels. Same effort for researching, a little effort for distributing it on each marketing channel.
Podcasts can have their own websites. These websites usually are SEO optimized and appear on search results. Instead of landing on your business websites, people can land on you podcast’s website.
Also podcast apps have search functionality. You can search whatever you’re interested about and you will find relevant podcasts and episodes.
If you’re reading this you may already listen to podcasts and have searched on apps. I personally search about various topics like programming, coffee, music and more all the time. I’ve discovered various podcasts (like Rework, CodePen Radio) and many of them were owned by a company or had interviews that lead me to learn about a product.
Podcasting will generate organic traffic and will help reach qualified leads. People are already searching for something around your product’s sphere, educate them and guide them through the solution you have to offer.
They’re easy to consume
You know, most people won’t read a 1.500-2.000 word blog post. They’re busy.
But they can listen to something while multitasking, transporting or even before going to bed.
Podcast listening doesn’t necessarily have to consume much of your energy. You can listen passively. Unlike youtube videos, you can leave the tab and multitask or have the phone on your pocket while listening.
People can still receive information and be educated by you while not being 100% focused.
I don’t know about you, but I have trouble reading when on a noisy place, but I can put my headphones on and listen to something.
It makes you a leading authority on your niche
You have thought about your niche again and again, you have read everything there is.
You have probably discussed your ideas many many times with friends, co-workers or customers.
You already have something to say, why keep it to yourself?
Share it with potential customers. Educate them. Help them find a solution.
That’s how you earn their trust and make them understand that your solution or product will help.
You’ve already learned everything there is, you’re an authority over the subject. Make people understand this. You won’t fool them, you will add real value and value will come right back at you in another form.
You build stronger relationships with customers
Ok, you’re trying to grow a business.
But you don’t have to raise walls between you and the customer.
People can trust a human more than a faceless corporation, especially when interacting online.
Be your customers’ friend. Someone that is human, has a voice and understands their problem.
Make it personal, connect and try to build trust.
For being an one-sided medium, podcasting is really good for building a relationship with listeners.
Edison Research has found out that people can follow your brand easier on other social media if you’re podcasting.
And, after listening to your episode, it is more likely for people to contact you personally and start a conversation around what you have to offer.
An easier alternative to video
Producing a podcast for your business is, as you imagine, easier than producing video for youtube.
Video is another beast of its own and in order to do a good job you need much more equipment. A good camera, lens, microphone, lights, a good space, an editor, an audio editor, graphics, effects…
It’s a powerful medium and a lot of people will search on youtube but it requires much more effort.
For recording a podcast, it can be you and a microphone in a quiet and cozy space.
Getting your ideas out there quicker in an easy to consume form is easier with podcasting.
You can get a really great sounding podcast for less than 100$.
And you can produce it, by yourself, or perhaps with the help of an audio editor much more consistently. And as I’ve argued on another article, consistency is key.
And don’t forget that you can always cut best-of snippets of your episodes and post them on youtube with a nice graphic and subtitles (repurposing your content ;).
Podcasting will help you organize your thoughts
You have thought about your ideas and product again and again. You have the solutions to people’s needs.
But have you recently thought like a customer thinks at the earlier stages of their journey?
It’s easy to forget about this and think that your customer is already educated. I’ve fallen on this trap.
The act of starting putting together a podcast will make you think more about the customer and the stage that they are currently on.
Planning, like with bullet points for example, about things you want to talk about on your podcast, will help you realize easier what’s missing from the puzzle.
And after each episode, the conversations you will have with listeners, will help you find new ideas with what’s missing so you paint the full picture.
The next blog post and the next episode will fill some gaps for the customer and will make them more likely to want your solution.
It can bring your internal team together
Some marketing books argue that its a good idea to have your whole company generate ideas for content.
Everyone plays a different part and can suggest making a podcast episode about the problem they are seeing the customer might be having.
Not everyone seems the product from the same perspective. For example engineering might have an idea about something that’s not on a marketer’s mind, and vice-verca.
Your internal teams can collaborate and come with ideas for topics and make outlines about key points that must be included.
And besides that, if you’re in the stage of your team being big enough, you can start a private podcast that only you and your co-workers can listen to with announcements, news and training material.
Conclusion
As we’ve discussed podcasting, for various different reasons, can be beneficial for growing your business.
By itself or by addition to other marketing efforts, producing new episodes will keep compounding over time and it’s benefits will start showing.
Because, it’s sure, if you add value to your market, it will come back to you in a way or another.