Think podcasting is just a passing fad? Consider this: podcasting has now been around for more than 20 years (can you believe it?). When podcasting first launched, only 28% of American adults knew what it was. Today, 78% of Americans (222 million) have podcasts on their radar.
Sure, in the business world, starting a podcast takes time and consideration. But the payoff is non-negotiable and has long-term benefits. B2B podcasting continues to prove itself as the new frontier of evergreen marketing content. Is there a high growth trajectory? Yes. Can you reach large audiences? Absolutely. Can you use it to cultivate a treasure trove of evergreen content? You bet.
What Is Evergreen Content?
Evergreen content is content you produce that remains relevant over time. Essentially, this content does not become outdated because it addresses a problem that your target audience faces and offers information or a solution to that issue. The piece will require some refreshing once in a while, but overall your content will stay fresh for a long period of time.
An example of the opposite of evergreen content is content that is associated with a date such as Christmas. The content created for Christmas is not very relevant to individuals throughout the year. It’s only relevant at a specific time of the year.
But what exactly does evergreen content have to do with podcasting?
There is a new phenomenon that encourages podcasters to develop “podcast evergreen episodes.” Similar to blog posts, the podcast episode remains relevant to anyone listening no matter the date they’re listening to it.
Additionally, crafting scripts for podcasts takes a lot of time, research, and effort. Just about the same time as it takes to write a piece for your blog. You can use that podcast content on your blog to draw more of your target audience in as many people are still using Google to search for answers to their questions. There is a lot of valuable content that you’ve created, so why not use it to your advantage on all channels?
Podcasting Is Only in Its Adolescence
Even a decade ago, content marketing revolved around whitepapers, blogs, and email campaigns, all of them written and intended to be read. But how engaging is that same old marketing plan today?
While nearly every brand has a blog and sends emails, not everyone has a branded podcast — some brands may perceive barriers to podcasting that are usually misconceptions, especially when you consider what a podcast allows your brand to do. The market is still ripe for the picking to not only gain brand awareness with your show but to grow your audience in ways traditional marketing channels have already tapped out.
New listeners continue to flock to podcasts every day. In fact, 37% of Americans listened to a podcast in the last month (up from 32% in 2019), meaning there’s continuous growth and enough potential that the market will only keep getting bigger. (Just consider where B2B blogs were 20 years ago…) Podcasting gives you an opportunity to reach a new and highly engaged audience by bringing your own perspective, voice, and expertise to a channel where new listeners are arriving daily.
Podcasts Are Rich with Content
Among marketing mediums, podcasting casts one of the widest nets for content reach, so don’t forget to include it in your evergreen marketing strategy. Whereas blog longevity may be limited to tweeting quotes or collecting backlinks, podcasts can be broken up into several other fresh resources to be repurposed later. Types of evergreen content you can create from show episodes include:
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- Blogs summarizing episodes or covering a certain topic discussed in episodes
- Transcripts for those in the audience who prefer reading
- Audiograms embedded in blogs, social media, and email
- Video clips embedded in blogs, social media, and email
- New podcast episodes (even mashed up with other existing content)
- Social media posts
- Video and webinars on YouTube
What lies at the root of all these rich evergreen content examples? It all starts with a good conversation. Listeners eat up B2B shows, not because they’re promotional or gimmicky, but because they’re authentic and chock full of genuine expertise from market leaders. And because conversations are naturally topic-diverse, so are the ways in which you can repurpose them for later use and increase ROI across all your brand’s channels. By the way, experts predict that podcasting will generate $4 billion by 2024.
Podcasts Keep Going and Going and Going...
As marketers, we care about getting the most bang for our budget. So we’re constantly after evergreen content that will continue to produce value long after being published. Take this post for instance; it was previously published yet so full of great evergreen content, we resurfaced it and updated where appropriate.
That’s the great thing about podcasts — they tap into real conversations, opinions, and perspectives from named experts (as opposed to a vaguely authored whitepaper or a webpage that goes stale quickly). Instead, podcasts create a fruitful backlog of content that remains fresh, relevant, and appealing for a longer period of time than most other kinds of content.
And given that you can repurpose podcasts into smaller chunks of content across all your channels, you’re able to steadily release content, providing a longer runway for each episode. Dan Misener, Head of Strategy and Audience Development at Pacific Content, knows this better than anyone as a producer of some of the best-branded podcasts out there.
“The thing about evergreen content that I have seen is that it in itself is an investment, and it is worth investing in the highest possible quality you can make,” Dan says. “Because when done right, it will continue to pay dividends into the future.
"So I think as podcasters, we often have this very natural, very understandable inclination to focus on the latest thing, the newest thing, the shiniest thing, what's the latest episode that we put out, or what's the latest guest that we had on our show, or what is the newest season that we're thinking about and really excited about? And we often maybe don't spend as much time thinking about the back catalog. And what I've seen firsthand is that when you make really high-quality shows designed to reach a specific audience and you make those shows in a storytelling way that has a shelf life that isn't going to expire quickly, that when well marketed can continue to deliver very meaningful results.”
Plant the Seed for Evergreen Content Now
Stories and conversations can live on forever. When you capture them in podcast form, it makes them that much easier to access and spin out in other ways. Proving podcasting’s ROI becomes easier when you consider its ability to produce evergreen content that can continually be repurposed, repackaged, and republished (something we call amplified marketing). And in an industry that’s still young compared to its counterparts, the opportunity to make a name for your brand with the unique, expert perspectives you share is yours for the taking. It kind of makes you wonder: Where will podcasting go in the next 20 years? We’re excited to find out!
At Casted, we believe in the power of conversations — and we want to help you share them with the world. As the industry’s first B2B podcasting and video platform, we understand the unique needs of branded shows, and we have the tools to help you manage, activate, and measure your content for the longest life and highest ROI possible. We make your evergreen content strategy easy with our transcription download option on our platform. Once you’ve decided to take the leap into podcasting, give us a shout. We’ll be cheering you on!
