5 Proven Ways to Boost Brand Awareness With Podcasts
You may be familiar (or not) with Only Murders in the Building or its namesake podcast as part of the show. The podcast's popularity here is just a fictional ruse but not far from the emerging reality of the day: that this marketing channel is all the rage right now.
Numbers validate the same. Almost 75% of the US population is familiar with the term. Half of the US population has listened to a podcast. Almost one-fourth listen to one podcast per week.
With such a vast audience engagement, brands have started using it as a marketing tool to improve awareness and branding.
In this blog post, let’s find out how podcasts work for marketing success.
Digital Marketing and Podcasting
Podcasting started as a casual portmanteau of 'broadcast' and 'iPod.' But its popularity bears repeating.
Currently, there are nearly a quarter million active podcasts and 29 million podcast episodes available. The meteoric rise of podcasts can be attributed to the following:
- Podcasts target well-defined audiences and are nearly perfect for marketing certain brands. Like the podcast GirlBoss, which covers women's issues, is an excellent place to promote brands and products for women.
- Most listeners tune in to their favorite podcasts at their preferred place and time. For instance, almost 25% of the podcast audience listens to their favorite episodes while driving.
- Also, listeners do pay attention to podcast ads, and 3 out of 4 times follow through on a brand's call to action. Hence, a great way to spark engagement and magnify brand visibility.
In short, the power of a podcast cannot be underestimated.
Different Types of Podcast Ads
Brands can choose one of the two ways below to promote their products in a podcast:
- First, the baked-in ad. The host reads out the ad script during the podcast in this format. This kind of ad stays in place even after the podcast is downloaded.
- The second is the dynamic insertion. Here, the podcast uploading tool such asCaptivate is used to restrict areas for pre-recorded ads. These ads could be a recording of a baked-in ad or ones explicitly made for a podcast by an ad agency or partner.
These ads can be removed or replaced. For example, you can stitch a new ad in an episode recorded years ago.
Podcasts for Increased Brand Awareness
Product placements in podcasts are nothing new. Take, for example, the popular podcast "lif-e.af/ter." A low-level FBI employee, Ross, uses real-world technologies to decipher puzzling messages from somewhere, which at the same time, also comes together as a mystery of personal significance.
This podcast is also a clever product placement strategy of the popular appliance brand GE.
Unlike traditional pushy advertising, it subtly gives GE a voice and lets the company build an authentic relationship with its customers.
Here are some other benefits of using podcasts:
How Podcasts Benefit Your Brand
1. Provide the Easiest Way of Marketing
A podcast is one of the most affordable ways to increase your outreach. All you need is a microphone, a quiet room, a recording device, and editing software.
If you are not creating your own podcast, you can always be a guest at a popular targeted podcast or place your product through native advertising or sponsor segments and episodes.
As many podcast listeners are avid fans, they also post their favorite podcasts on social media, thus increasing your brand visibility on other channels for free!
2. Boost Lead Generation
The highly engaging nature of podcasts cannot be understated. When 54% of podcast listeners buy the products advertised on podcasts, its deep connection with its audience is one of a kind.
Podcasts give you access to relevant audiences and increase your web traffic through exciting offers and calls to action. The podcast episodes and ads help its listeners know your brand, mission, and products in detail.
3. Build Authentic Relationships
According to research in behavioral psychology, podcasts serve an important social function with their informal and intimate conversation setup, appealing to those who need to belong.
This relationship-building feature of a podcast carries forth in whatever brand gets promoted in its audio space. When the audience hears about a brand, product, or service in a podcast, it increases the product's credibility. It furthers the trust between your potential client and product and strengthens this relationship.
4. Drive Better Conversions
When you listen to the BlueApron's podcast "Why We Eat What We Eat," you learn more about the origins of food trends and cultural and social eating habits than the brand itself. BlueApron has mastered the art of having better conversations with its audience by providing helpful information without aggressively talking about themselves.
This podcast makes the audience forget that they are listening to a meal kit company through their edifying investigative journalism approach on all things food.
This clever strategy positions BlueApron as a thought leader in the latest food trends and cultural and social eating habits. It also makes itself relevant in the lives of its listeners leading to better conversions of its audience. This positions BlueApron not only as a knowledge source related to food but also as a company that delivers quality eats.
5. Establish You As a Thought Leader
Podcasts provide ways of learning about your customers and other experts in your field, just like BlueApron. Whether advertising on a podcast or creating your own, you can test different marketing offers and calls to action.
Take the example of a well-known anti-virus software maker McAfee and their podcast, "Hackable?" McAfee has smartly used its brand identity to become a subject matter expert on a current and relevant topic: cybersecurity.
Through clever educational content, this podcast busts myths about hacking and teaches listeners about cybercrime and how to be safe on the internet. The trust and authority that McAfee has built over the years in cybersecurity are further consolidated by its podcasts.
Best Practices and Tips to Build Effective Podcasts
So what are you waiting for? Begin your marketing sojourn on a podcast today. But before you start, keep these best practices in mind:
- Be Mindful of the Podcast Duration
Everyone loves the sound of their voice. The trick is to keep it entertaining and interesting for your listener. One obvious but overlooked pitfall of podcast marketing is episode duration.
If you are making your own podcast, keep it short and leave actionable steps while discussing intriguing topics and content that people cannot find elsewhere.
- Create a Content Plan
Before you begin hosting your podcast, remember the tone you would take to put forth your stories. Do you want it to be educational with your brand ads? Or is it an investigative form like "lif-e.af/ter" that engages listeners with its hidden role in the distant future?
Once you plan your content and its framework, you can leverage podcast marketing effectively.
- Have an Effective Promotion and Distribution Strategy
Your podcast marketing should sync with your overall strategy. Like all your marketing promos, promote and distribute these episodes according to your content calendar.
Identify ways to help your listeners find podcast episodes through your existing channels. Find ways of distributing your podcast episodes in your marketing micro-content. This could include social media posts, memes, gifs and videos, infographics, illustrations, and rich snippets.
- Emulate and Improvise
Keep an ear to the ground to know how brand promotion is evolving in the world of podcasts. The other (metaphoric ear) should be testing and improvising new advertising and brand promotion methods for your podcasts.
This way, you can overcome your blind spots, improve your content, and create your brand signature that works for a podcast and beyond. For example, famous catchphrases from movies, musical scores of popular TV shows, and ad jingles.
Strive to make your podcasts such that the moment someone listens to it, they instantly associate it with your brand. Your unique and customized approach will only add to your brand awareness and value in the long term.
- Use High-Quality Tools
You followed all the above steps and practices. Your podcast marketing may still be ineffective for the lack of high-quality audio and other tools used for its creation. Your audio quality should neither be a stumbling block on the road to communication nor a hindrance to your message. Use the latest tools such as a preamp, reaper, condenser microphones, and other related software solutions to aid this journey.
Conclusion
Your first step to drawing more customers begins with brand awareness. A podcast is an accessible pliable channel to help you do exactly that. With a 300% increase in the number of listeners over the last decade in the US alone, the popularity of this channel will continue to grow in the foreseeable future.
A podcast is a great marketing asset that helps you communicate effectively with your customers. It also builds brand credibility while allowing you to learn more about your own brand along the way. So, when you create a brand podcasting strategy for your business, it effectively builds new outreach methods.
Incorporate podcasts in your marketing strategy today! Growth Natives is listening and is aware of your brand needs. We would love to hear from you! Write to us at info@growthnatives.com.
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