Brand Awareness

According to a study done in 2021, 50% of American households are "fans of podcasting" (Podcast Insights). I recognize that statistic feels a little nebulous so let me offer another. Edison Research presented in The Infinite Dial 2021, indicates that 28% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly. Again, that number might seem insignificant but when placed in the proper context, it demonstrates that weekly podcast listenership in households across the country has been steadily increasing since 2013 where it rested at a mere 7%.

More and more people are turning to podcasting for everything from entertainment to education and companies are beginning to discover the medium as a great place to promote their products and services in a way that not only connects with their existing customers but also brings greater awareness to their brand.

Customer Loyalty

Speaking of education, approximately 75% of podcast listeners say they listen in order to learn something new. Now that number is significant! That means tens of millions of Americans are now turning to podcasting as a legitimate source of researching topics they are interested in. With that being the case, tech companies are now podcasting to inform listeners of new gadgets to look for and what to avoid, financial institutions are podcasting to educate listeners on the ups and downs of the market and how to best invest their money, and even small businesses like mine are podcasting to help others learn how to podcast!

So what do all these educational podcasts have to do with customer loyalty? I'm glad you asked! With more people listening to podcasts and a majority of those listeners doing so with a desire to learn something, your company's podcast has the potential to position yourself as a trusted voice and expert in your field. So when the time comes when that faithful podcast listener needs that product you sell or that service you offer, they already know your brand, what you offer and how to find you. And when you deliver like your podcast promised, you will have gained another loyal customer.

Professional Development

Let's now turn the focus from external ears to those already inside our companies, the one's who really make things happen. That's right, a podcast could be of great benefit to the development of your employees. I believe this is a tremendously overlooked benefit of podcasting. Hear me out... every company wants their employees to be knowledgeable about the products and services they offer, to get better every day and to offer the best customer experience possible. And to do that, employee training is essential. However, recent shifts to a more mobile workforce present new challenges to traditional methods of doing so. That's where a podcast could be just the thing to fill in the gaps. Think about it, new policy information audibly distributed to all employees, new product information shared during the morning commute, and the stories of exemplary employees highlighted for all to hear. Sure, you could share all of that in an email but we both know fewer and fewer people are reading those emails. And if your content truly is to remain in-house, many podcast host sites are now even offering the option of private podcasting which simply means the podcast feed you create is only distributed to those to whom you've given permission to listen.

The truth of the matter is that we are just scratching the surface of possibilities of how we might leverage the podcast medium to serve our customers and our employees. Hopefully this article has given you a few ideas that will help you get started. But before you do, let me offer a couple pieces of unsolicited advice:

1. If you are going to do it, do it right.

You should definitely put some strategic thought around why you are podcasting, who your audience will be, and what your content will deliver. But I'm also talking about doing it technically right as well because regardless of how great your content is, no one is going to listen if it suffers from poor sound quality. And it might not take as much as you think to do it right. Which brings me to my next bit of unsolicited advice...

2. Don't spend thousands of dollars on equipment trying to do it right.

Even if you have the money to build a new state of the art podcast studio in your office building, doesn't mean you should, especially if you are just exploring the possibilities. All you need to create a professional sounding podcast is a $200 usb mic and a few sound dampening hacks. The key is from there is having a quality editor/producer - someone who can cleanly edit out all the unnecessary "ums" and unwanted bits of dialogue and skillfully engineer the recording to meet industry standards. Once you have that in place, and know you're in it for the long haul, then you might consider upgrading from there.

If you're interested in getting started and need recommendations on quality, affordable equipment or someone to edit and produce your podcast, send me a message. I know a guy.