Why You Should Start a Podcast for Your Business
Why You Should Start a Podcast for Your Business
Podcasting is one of the fastest-growing content types, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Every day, more and more businesses are launching a podcast as a powerful way to reach new customers. Not only can it be simple to start, it can be an ongoing opportunity to reach a new audience, personalize your brand, and become an authority in your industry. With over 55% of the US population listening to a podcast, there isn't a better time to start!
Listen to our most recent Business Builders episode where we partnered with Chris Heine, from SWFL Business Podcasts, to discuss the process and benefits of starting a podcast for your business. Check out some of the key points that we outlined from the episode below.
Increase Your Website Traffic and Search Ranking
Podcasts can bring a number of benefits to your website. When you release a new episode make sure to promote a link to your website so listeners can learn more information about your podcast and business. By doing so you can boost the number of visitors your website receives, and the average time spent on your site. Make sure to continue updating your website by adding all of the podcast episodes you publish, so users can begin to use your website as a resource to find the latest episode.
Another overlooked benefit of creating a podcast is all the backlinks the podcast episodes create for your website. Having your business information and website address on popular websites like iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts can help improve search engine ranking factors by Google.
Reach a New Audience
Podcasts provide an amazing avenue to reach a one-of-a-kind audience. They do very well at targeting niche audiences, based on the podcast topics and speakers. This gives you the opportunity to really narrow down your audience, and target individuals that will engage with your content.
Podcasts are also one of the best ways to target an affluent customer based versus other marketing channels. Did you know that in the US, 27% of podcast listeners have a 4-year college degree and 45% of monthly lisenters have a household income over $75,000? That means that by having a podcast, your able to target and audience that is more likely to spend money on your products and services due to their disposable income.
Make Your Business a Brand Authority
Your podcast can be a platform to speak about your industry and the unique knowledge and passion that you bring to your business. Starting a podcast about a topic you know will put you in a great position to begin to establish yourself as an expert in your field and attract new customers. If you're able to provide helpful tips, share success stories, and conduct interviews with other experts in your industry, you'll create a valuable community for your listeners. If people trust you and your brand, they will be more likely to buy from you and they will also be willing to pay more if you are an authority in your market.
Easy Way to Repurpose Your Content
Repurposing your content is when you take your existing content and reformate it so that it can reach a completely new audience. For example, if you spent a lot of time researching and writing a blog post that got a lot of engagement, you wouldn't want to let all of that energy go to waste, would you? Simply find another expert about that blog topic and invite them to record a podcast episode with you. In this case, you could even use your existing blog post as the notes for your podcast episode.
The reverse of this situation is also something you can take advantage of. If you have a podcast episode with a high number of listeners, you could take the key points from that episode and create a short video to promote on your social media channels. Now the audience that doesn't listen to your podcast but follows you on social media will be exposed to your content. When you repurpose your podcast episodes you breathe new life into your marketing and put it into the hands of a target audience who otherwise would have never found you.
Build Relationships with Your Customers
Starting a podcast is a wonderful way to build relationships with your existing and potential customer base. In fact, 41% of Americans listen to a podcast monthly. That means that a lot of your listeners will devote time every month listening to your podcast than they will spending time reading your website. This dedication creates a community for your brand that you can cultivate into customers. You can then reward those listeners with exclusive offers to get them to engage even more to turn them into loyal customers.
Podcasting is also a very intimate medium. By speaking directly into the ears of your listeners, you’re communicating with them in a powerful and personal way. Unlike traditional marketing channels which tend to be carefully scripted, podcasts are often casual and unfiltered. Your podcast is a chance to create an intimate connection and reach your audience in new and more personal setting, while also finding where your brand fits into your customers lives.
It's Easy to Get Started
Starting a podcast for your business has never been easier. There are a ton of free or inexpensive tools out there to help launch your podcast. For that we recommend Anchor, the podcasting platform that can help you create, distribute, and even monetize your podcast, all for free. It has built-in uploading, recording, and editing tools that allow you to easily create and publish episodes in minutes. It also allows you to distribute your episodes to the most popular listening apps with just a single button, and host unlimited content for free.
Anchor also provides advanced analytics and insights to help you understand and grow your podcast audience. It provides breakdowns on age, gender, location, and how your viewers are listening to your episodes. These insights can help you learn more about your listeners, so you can better tailor content to their liking.
Conclusion
The benefits of starting a podcast for your business are endless. The only thing you need to determine is how much time to spend investing on building your podcast. For that we recommend listening to our most recent episode on "Why You Should Start a Podcast for Your Business".
If you’d like to learn more from local industry experts about digital marketing, social media, technology and business development, check out our most recent podcast episodes here. To start promoting your business and connecting with new customers, join SWFL Inc. for free today!