Successful marketing in 2022 doesn’t involve flyers, billboards, and local TV ads. At least not if you want to reach a wide, modern audience. Marketing in this day and age is all about the digital world where millions of potential customers connect and explore. This makes publishing podcasts a fantastic way to advertise your business and expand your reach!
Nearly 400 million people listen to podcasts, and the numbers are growing every day. Reaching podcast listeners through your own show can do wonders for your brand! It’s not only a great marketing strategy because it reaches a wide customer base, but it’s helpful for other parts of your growing business as well! Here’s how you can use podcasts for marketing:
How to Use Podcasts for Marketing
Establish yourself as an authority in your niche.
When people are looking for a brand to support, they’re usually looking for a mixture of quality and affordability. However, if they can be convinced enough of your value, they’ll pay almost any price for your expertise! Podcasts are a great way to establish yourself as an expert.
Once your target audience understands you’re the ultimate authority in your space based on your quality content, they won’t look anywhere else for information on that specific topic. And, when they need your product or service, they’re going to you! So, ensure that your podcast includes lots of specialized information that proves your value in your niche!
Be authentic.
As much as you want to use expertise to drive your quality content, people don’t want their podcast hosts to be inauthentic personas. If you come off too salty or too much like a corporate caricature, people won’t connect with you or trust you, despite your knowledge.
Just be you. And, don’t be afraid to give personal anecdotes and reveal facts about your life. People will love to get to know you, and they’ll be open to hearing about all your expertise once they know you’re honest and trustworthy.
Push your episodes on social media.
If you’re running a successful brand, chances are you’re already on social media platforms. That’s great because those social media channels are a great place to promote your podcast. Really push those on your channel after each episode drops. Don’t see it as pushy or annoying, instead, see it as added value for your customer! They get all this great content totally for free!
Don’t forget the show notes.
Show notes should provide all the links you discussed in your podcast to make finding these products and services really easy for your audience. Don’t skip writing detailed show notes that will make it easier for your listeners to become long-term customers AND subscribers! They’ll follow your links to access your products or services and to explore your brand further.
Upload on a regular schedule.
Those who listen to podcasts prefer to listen to them on a schedule. That means, if you want to retain listeners from one week to the next, you need to upload your podcast episodes consistently. Subscribers will know when to tune in, and it’ll make promotion and SEO much easier! (More on that in a bit.)
Integrate calls to action.
Each episode should include a challenge or call-to-action for your podcast audience. Whether you want them to leave a 5-star review, join your email list, or share your episode, asking them to do something small like this usually produces excellent results! You can offer additional rewards for completing these calls-to-action like receiving a coupon, being listed as a podcast producer, or getting entered for a drawing!
If you can build your listenership or your email list, you can stay connected with your audience throughout the whole week. You can email and discuss both the podcast and general information about your business. This will help convert podcast listeners into paying customers.
Always search engine optimization.
Podcasts can do a lot for SEO! When your brand’s website is search engine optimized, you reach a much wider audience. This is simply because if they search your company type and you pop up on that first page of search results, you’re way more likely to get clicks.
You can transform your podcasts into blog posts as well as transcribe the audio to create a searchable version of your podcast episode. If someone searches your niche, they’ll find your blog post, episode, and finally your brand and what you do! There’s more you can do for podcast SEO too that you can read about here.
Use it as a training tool.
You already have this high-quality content created, you might as well make it multi-purpose! Rather than just using it for content marketing, use it for training too! Instead of sitting in front of a PDF manual or boring corporate videos, your employees can listen to practical podcasts that apply directly to your business. It’s a great way to double-dip and make the time recording and producing the podcast well worthwhile.
Engage with listeners to build relationships.
Your targeted audience isn’t just listeners, but hopefully long-time customers or followers. In order to capture this type of loyalty, you need to engage with your listeners. Reply to their comments. Make episodes in response to their questions. Execute giveaways. Give them access to a community Facebook group. And, even host exclusive events for your loyal fans.
This will not only make your podcast more popular, but it’ll also increase your sales! Once customers believe that you’re an expert who is authentic and caring, they’ll pay whatever price to make sure you’re the only one they turn to for your service. Your podcast creates more value for the customer and more opportunities to connect with you!
Track your analytics.
This is a relatively new marketing tool! You never know what’s going to work. So, track your analytics to see what upload times, guests, and content type get the best results. If you don’t have access to a ton of analytics, we recommend third-party analytics sources like the ones in this list.
Upload across all streaming apps.
Lastly, cast your net wide! To do that, make sure your podcast is widely distributed across multiple popular platforms. No one is going to download a new app just to listen to you! (Not yet, anyway.) So, make sure you reach your customer by meeting them where they already are. Here are the most popular apps your podcast should be on:
Using a podcast to market your business is a great way to increase brand awareness and sales!
We hope these podcast marketing strategies will help you launch your company to the next level. Remember to stay authentic, provide quality content, and to be mindful of the technical side of things. If you’re not sure about all the ins-and-outs of equipment, SEO, and other podcasts best practices, check out our blog! We’ve got the information you need to make this podcast a success!