Podcasts as a Marketing Tool

Have you ever listened to a podcast? If you have, you’re not alone. According to Demand Sage, 464.7 million people from all over the world had listened to a podcast as of February 2023. For the listener, these podcasts may be educational, funny, creepy — whatever tickles their fancy and keeps them coming back for more.

For businesses, podcasts open the door to a reinvented marketing strategy. With a podcast marketing platform, sharing and promoting your podcast can be pretty easy. Before we get to that, though, you should understand why a podcast is important for your business, particularly in terms of marketing. Let’s jump in.

What Are 3 Reasons Podcasts Are So Popular?

There are several reasons why podcasts are so popular, but three of them are:

• • They’re easy to access and listen to. You can find podcasts for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or a company’s website — like ours at Casted! Plus, they don’t require you to watch anything (although you can certainly include video in your podcast if you want), so you can listen to them while driving, doing chores around the house, walking your dog, and more.
  • They provide educational value. No matter the subject, you can probably find a podcast on it. Some people just want to stay up-to-date with current events. Others prefer to hear all about the books they should read and the authors who wrote them. Still others want to learn about the latest marketing trends. No matter the case, you can get the educational value you’re looking for in a podcast.
  • They build a sense of community. Because podcast topics can cover just about anything, listeners can find people who share an interest with them. Some podcast hosts will also provide a way for listeners to reach out to them or direct them to their social media pages where they can connect with one another. What’s more, if someone really likes your podcast, odds are they’ll recommend it to friends or coworkers, which can further build those relationships, too.

Ultimately, people like podcasts so much because they create a nice mix of education and pleasure. That’s why they work so well in a content marketing strategy framework.

Why Are Podcasts Great for Marketing?

One of the big benefits of a podcast in marketing is their ever-growing popularity. If you create content that aligns with your audience’s existing consumer behavior, you’ll have an easier time attracting them to your podcast. 100 million people in the U.S. are projected to listen to podcasts by 2024. You will have a large audience to draw from should you decide to include podcasts in your marketing efforts.

Another one of the advantages of a podcast is that it’s great for connecting potential customers with your brand. Think about this: 95% of purchasing decisions are emotionally driven, according to Professor Gerald Zaltman of Harvard University. If your audience doesn’t connect with your brand on an emotional level, they’re less likely to do business with you. However, a podcast creates that connection because you become more than a company to your target audience. They get a sense of your company’s voice when they listen to it. They start to see your brand less as a company and more as a human organization with an engaging personality. Your potential customers can hear the emotions behind what your podcast host is saying. They are much more likely to connect with that than an unfamiliar brand name.

You have the ability to expand your audience with a podcast as well. Remember that word of mouth we talked about earlier? If your listeners like what you’re putting out, they’ll probably recommend it to their friends and colleagues. And if those friends and colleagues like it, they’ll tell even more people about it. With a podcast, too, you can attract potential customers who don’t have the time to sit down and read your blog posts or watch your webinars. You’re still providing the value that customers want but in a form that may be more easily consumed by some.

Podcasts are also a great way to advertise. While you shouldn’t spend an entire episode on selling a product or service to your listeners, you can incorporate a couple here and there. A loyal listener base is willing to hear more advertisements if it supports the show. According to Demand Sage, 69% of podcast listeners learn about new products and brands from ads during their podcasts. Why not mention your new products during a podcast? If your audience likes what they hear, they’ll probably be more willing to try it.

How Should a Podcast Relate to Marketing Objectives?

There are several ways to ensure that your podcast aligns with your marketing objectives. First, you’ll want to figure out which marketing goals you want the podcast to help you achieve. From there, determine how you’re going to track the podcast’s success. Do you want to increase brand awareness? Then maybe you track mentions to sales or on social media. Do you want to boost audience engagement? Then maybe you look at how many episodes each listener gets through instead. Defining these goals from the start will give you a clearer sense of what to work towards.

Before you begin your podcast, choose a topic that will resonate with your listeners and search engines. Be sure to pick something that you are an authority on. Keep it specific, and make sure it relates to your business expertise and offerings. For example, if you provide managed IT services, you might create a podcast on the latest innovations in technology. Because Casted is a podcast marketing platform, we created a podcast about making this type of content a bigger part of your marketing strategy (you can listen to it here). When you prove yourself an authority on a topic, search engines will rank you higher in search results for that and related topics. Having a transcript to go along with your podcast will also help search engines recognize keywords to better rank it. Casted uses AI so that you can create those transcripts quickly and easily.

Including a call to action (CTA) in your podcast — some sort of action you want your audience to take after listening to an episode — can also help you reach your marketing objectives. You might direct your audience to connect with you on social media, subscribe so they can receive updates when new episodes are released, or check out your website for more helpful resources. CTAs can increase audience engagement with your brand and expand your brand visibility.

With a podcast marketing tool like Casted, you can easily convert your podcasts into other forms of content. AI-created transcripts can be used to write related blogs, videos, and social media posts so that you can get the most out of the information you’ve already provided your listeners with. You can even post your podcast episodes directly onto your social media channels to make them easier to find.

How Do I Use a Podcast as a Marketing Tool?

To use podcasts as a marketing tool, you should follow a few general guidelines:

• • Determine who your target audience is. What roles do they have? What pain points do they face? What might they want to learn more about? Answering these and other similar questions will guide you towards choosing good topics and sub-topics for your podcast.
  • Keep your podcasts at a decent length. It may vary based on your industry and topic. Typically you want to keep them to approximately 20-30 minutes each without ads. This length allows your audience to listen to your podcasts in relatively short bursts without having to stop in the middle of an episode. Plus, you can create more episodes if you keep each one short. If you do decide to cover a very in-depth or complex topic, however, it is acceptable to make your podcast longer. That way you can provide listeners with all the relevant information in one episode rather than splitting it up.
  • Invite guest speakers. No matter how much your audience likes the sound of your voice, they also like some change every once in a while. Inviting other professionals from your industry to come and speak on your podcast will provide you and your audience with new insights about whatever topic you choose to discuss. Plus, your guest speakers can share your podcast with their network to expand your audience.
  • Be consistent. Like with any content, you’ll want to post on a regular basis so that your audience knows when to expect your next episode. For example, if you decide to post on a weekly basis, keep it to the same day each week. Be consistent, too, with the length of your episodes. Not every episode has to be the exact same, but if you’re shooting for a 30-minute episode, try to stick to the 25-35 minute range. This gives your audience a good idea of how much time they’ll need each time they want to listen. The format of your podcast should also remain fairly consistent throughout all your episodes. Don’t jump back and forth between conducting interviews, chatting it up with a coworker, and providing research.
  • Consider including video. For your listeners who aren’t running around while tuning in, it can be nice to see the person behind the voice. It promotes trust and a sense of connection when they can see you, your facial expressions, and your space.
  • Provide key takeaways. These will give your listeners a quick overview of what you cover in each episode and can even link to any resources, products, or pages you might’ve mentioned in the episode. Casted makes it quick and easy to create and share these takeaways across platforms.
  • Create a podcast marketing strategy. Having one of these is necessary to drive the most success from your marketing efforts. We’ll cover how to create a podcast strategy in more detail next.

What Is a Podcast Strategy?

A podcast strategy provides the who, what, when, where, and how of podcast publishing to guide you towards achieving your goals. Before you start creating and publishing your blogs, you need to figure out:

• • Who will be in charge of recording, editing, publishing, and promoting the podcast. 
  • Who your listener persona is.
  • What the topic of your podcast will be, as well as what you plan on covering in each episode.
  • When you’re going to publish each episode.
  • Where you’re going to publish each episode, as well as where you’re going to promote it (i.e., which social media channels will bring you the most traffic).
  • How much money you have to spend on creating and sharing your podcast. 
  • How long to make each episode your podcast.

When creating your strategy, you’ll also want to look at how your competitors attract their audience, particularly if they have a podcast. How did they format theirs? What topics do they cover? Where are they sharing their episodes? You don’t have to do everything the same way as your competitors, but figuring out what they do well and what could be better provides a nice jumping off point when creating your own podcast marketing strategy.

Note that you shouldn’t set your strategy and then forget about it. As you track your goals, figure out what areas could use some improvement and make the necessary adjustments to your strategy. To accurately track your goals, you need a podcast marketing platform. You need Casted.

Do Your Best Podcast Marketing with Casted

We’ve dropped hints here and there about Casted, but what do we do? We are a B2B podcast marketing platform that gives you all the tools you need to quickly and easily upload, syndicate, and promote your podcasts. Our platform supports both audio and video podcasts. With Casted, you can:

• • Create:
    • One-click clips
    • Key takeaways
    • Searchable auto transcriptions
    • Simple shares and embeds
  • Automatically publish each episode to your website following your brand standards for the page
  • Integrate Casted with your other marketing tools 
  • Track the success of your podcast
  • Access Casted’s partners who can help with podcast marketing services

If you want to get the most marketing value from your podcasts, turn to Casted. Schedule a demo to see what we can do for you.