Podcasts are fast becoming an important marketing tool for both small and large businesses. They are a direct way to connect with audiences and build a rapport with potential customers you’ve never met.
There are loads of reasons why your business should be podcasting. Here are some of the best reasons, and ways to make your podcast a huge online success.
1. Your Content Becomes A Story
As you talk, the story of how your listeners can solve problems will organically flow, and this makes your message more memorable. Stories within content are more emotionally charged and will grab the attention of your audience.
For instance, if you wanted to speak about when a patient should seek medical advice, you can discuss the symptoms as seen in case studies. If any member of your audience is experiencing a similar problem or does so in the future – they are more likely to remember your podcast than a written article on the web.
2. Podcasting Gives You Ways To Connect Your Marketing Campaigns
There are many platforms for marketing campaigns and they can often end up segregated. While these do announce your presence to the wider community, they are also less effective when they aren’t combined. Podcasting is a way to connect your campaigns together so potential prospects can interact with you over several channels.
In fact, podcasts have to be advertised through other marketing avenues. Google needs text to rank and list podcasts on a search results page, social media is great for promoting podcasts as it is an accessible medium, and email is perfect for getting news of your latest episodes out to regular listeners. As all of these can be connected, you could have a large, engaged group of potential customers.
You can also have each podcast episode on different podcast platforms, like iTunes and Stitcher, to increase your reach and give audiences a choice.
3. Podcasts Are More Accessible
Podcasts can be downloaded to numerous devices, including computers, tablets and mobile phones and can be played at any time. Some people will listen to their favorite podcast while they are commuting to work, relaxing in bed or while out for a run and this accessibility is likely to get you a larger audience.
4. Guests Can Expand Your Audience
One of the fundamental reasons why you should podcast is that it can be a great way to meet new people. These new friends shouldn’t just be potential customers; they could be other members of your industry or community who appear as guests on your episodes. These individuals can also be vital for the growth of your podcast; when they appear on your podcast, they will promote your brand as they promote their guest appearance on your show.
Guests aren’t so hard to find. Simply going on Twitter and LinkedIn can be a great way to discover potential guests and interviews can be conducted in person, over the phone or via Skype.
5. You Can Monetize Your Podcast
Podcasts can also be monetized to ensure you are earning money from your time podcasting. One way to monetize your podcast is to advertise your products. Another way to is to have affiliate products that you advertise on the podcast where you earn a commission on every sale.
A more common way to earn revenue from your podcast is to use advertising. The advertisers, who could offer complimentary products or have similar customers, will pay for space on your podcast episodes. Usually, this will constitute a price based on your average audience of the past few episodes.
How To Make Your Podcast A Success
Podcasting isn’t easy, many podcasters with great potential have failed. There are certain activities you can undertake that will make your podcast more successful. Here is a quick checklist of activities you should regularly be doing to ensure that you have the best chance of success:
Write A Blog Post: Each podcast episode you create should have an accompanying blog post that explains what the podcast is about, what information will be covered and key takeaways from the episode. While you might think that this ruins the value of the podcast, it is designed to increase exposure of your podcast through search engines.
Advertise On Social Media: Every new blog post should be advertised on social media for an extended period. You can determine what social platforms are best for your podcast, however, at a minimum it should be advertised on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
Email Subscribers: Email your subscribers when a new episode is available.
Work With Guests: Invite those in your industry to promote the podcast episode to their followers. This can be a clever way to attract new listeners.
Google Profile: Update your Google profile to include information about your podcast. This makes the podcast more relevant in search queries and increases the chance that you will have high search page ranking results.
Always Have Value: One of the biggest promotional tips is to always have your podcasts add value to your listeners’ lives. Solve problems, give advice and reduce the selling during the show. To promote the value of your podcast, ensure you have a good call to action on all your promotions.
If you are looking to get more interest and awareness of your brand, in the local, national and international fields – you can achieve that with the help of podcasting. You don’t need expensive equipment, most mobile devices and computers contain the equipment you need to start straight away.
In the end, your success will depend on whether or not you can add value to the lives of your listeners and how you promote your podcast. Think carefully about integrating it into your marketing campaigns to grow your client list.
Are you looking to develop a podcast? Have you discovered a way to monetize a podcast? Let us know in the comments below or contact a member of the Ragain Financial Team; we’re always happy to talk to our readers.
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