It can be a challenge to identify the best places to promote and highlight who you are, what you do and why there is value in listening to what you have to say.
This is especially true if you have a product or service with a niche audience. The competition for attention is fierce and podcasts can provide excellent opportunities for a brand to regularly engage with its target audience.
Being seen and heard regularly is essential when a brand is building credibility. Social media has provided an excellent alternative way for companies to engage with their audiences at any given time, but social media messaging can be very brief and impersonal.
Podcasts offer another alternative to constantly battling for attention and engagement. In a podcast, you can have a more detailed conversation and paint the story of your product or service and with precise brush strokes. The advantage of a podcast is that listeners will be uniquely interested in your specific story. If they have tuned in to your podcast, the chances are that they are already part of your target audience.
People with shared interests often congregate together. Podcasts benefit from a snowball effect in building their audience. When one person enjoys your podcast, they might pass that message on to their network.
Listeners can tune in at their convenience. Podcasts create a community feeling. Audiences will often feel like they can engage more readily with podcasts and that the hosts are their friends. Also, podcasts can stand up on more than the attraction of the topic. For example, in the hugely popular “Off-Menu” podcast, where two comedians interview guests and discuss their favourite meal choices, people are interested in the entertainment provided by the hosts, rather than just an interest in the food they are discussing. By creating an engaging podcast, regardless of the topic, people will develop an interest in your product or service by being present and feeling part of the community.
Also, audio content is highly engaging. It feels more personal. People often consume it as a media format along with other activities such as driving, exercising or doing chores. As a result, listeners tend to engage with podcasts for longer periods, which creates a more intimate relationship.
Podcasts can also help to promote you or your company’s profile as an expert in your industry. Typically, if you offer a service or product, you’ve spent countless hours in that space. By providing your insight and experience, you can position yourself as an authority that people will listen to and seek out for advice.
Simply put, a podcast can be a great way of attracting your target audience to congregate around a flagpole you’ve set in the ground, with little influence from others. It can tell your unique story and can attract and engage a new audience through the strength of its quality.
