With the dramatic rise in the popularity of podcasts in the last few years, it was only a matter of time before someone asked if the idea could be used and viewed through a content marketing lens. While questions can be asked till the cows come home, actionable answers are harder to come by. In this article, we will discover that podcasts can be seen as the new format for content marketing businesses can take advantage of.
Massive Popularity
One of the questions needing answering before something can be considered a potential format for content marketing is its popularity. According to a report by Edison Research, over 57 million Americans were active podcast listeners. That report is now a few years old and in 2020 another report showed that 37% of Americans over the age of twelve listen to at least one podcast regularly. The research showed that 100 million people listened to podcasts in 2020 and this was expected to grow to 125 million by 2022, possibly showing a 25 percent increase in listeners over two years.
What’s more, is that often podcast listeners form part of the affluent and highly-educated sectors of society with more disposable income than other economic groupings. This has led to innovative marketers creating podcasts for a variety of reasons but all are intended to promote a brand or business. These trailblazers have discovered several benefits podcasting has unlocked. To see if podcasting is indeed the new format for content marketing it is wise to look at these benefits.
The Big Four
When looking to see if a new content marketing format or platform is worth pursuing a cost-benefit analysis is done. Fortunately, starting a podcast requires little capital outlay, but from what has been seen there are four main benefits podcasts can have in a marketing sense. The first is that they can help develop an authoritative presence for your brand. This has been seen to good effect for live casino online brands competing in a very competitive space. To unlock this benefit, podcasts can be developed to tackle an industry’s pros and cons, this helps develop trust with listeners who in turn may come to be reliable customers.
Second, podcasts can be used to expand the reach of the brand through a growing audience. Because, podcast listeners can be both affluent and highly educated, more traditional marketing tactics are no longer effective but by creating a podcast they trust the brand can reach consumers typically difficult to reach via traditional marketing campaigns.
Third, podcasts have a potentially high return of investment potential given that they are relatively cheap to set up and can, if done right, reach whole new target audiences of previously unreachable consumers. Lastly, a good podcast can improve brand awareness and loyalty as the podcaster places themselves as experts the listener can trust and are willing to share their knowledge for no upfront monetary fee, the listener just need to follow and listen to the podcast. As there is no upfront fee potential listeners have nothing to lose and much to gain if the podcast does as advertised.
Conclusion
Given the benefits listed above, it can be concluded that podcasts should be considered not only a new content marketing format but one of the best available to any business willing to put in the effort.
Check out our own — The Music Universe Podcast — on all major platforms featuring a variety of interviews and conversation.
