Triton and Edison Research noted that more than 75% of Americans over the age of twelve are familiar with podcasting, as of 2019. These statistics demonstrate how widespread something that was once a fringe concern has become. It's become such a popular method of content marketing that brands like GE and Shopify have fully embraced the medium. But what does a company need to capitalize on the podcasting phenomenon? Is it too late to get started and develop a significant following? This article will look at how a company can implement a successful podcasting strategy in 2022.
What Makes Podcasting So Attractive?
Podcasts came to prominence in the 90s, when Apple incorporated the format into their music software. Forbes notes that the pandemic created a fertile ground for podcasts to shine, as more people tuned in to distract themselves. With platforms such as Spotify now supporting the format, there are now several ways for a small company or brand to deliver their podcast to a ready audience. The downside is that some of these podcasts don't have the marketing muscle behind them that major brands can manage. Still, podcasts are easy to produce and allow a low barrier for entry to interested companies or brands. If a brand really wants to make a splash, they can turn to social media ads to get the word out there about their podcast. Combining a potentially large audience with a small cost of entry makes for an attractive content marketing channel that brands should explore.
Developing a Podcast in 2022
If you've decided that podcasting is a legitimate method for getting eyes on a product, the next step is figuring out what you need to do to get started. For businesses first getting into podcasting this year, the first step is planning.
Step 1: Business Objectives
Many businesses who want to podcast aren't sure what they want to achieve with it. Maybe they want to develop an audience to direct to their retail outlets, or perhaps they just want to position themselves as experts. Setting a solid business objective for the podcast allows a company to center its podcasting around that central idea. By design, podcasts are unique in generating awareness and building thought leadership within an industry. Once a business has decided what it wants to accomplish, it needs to figure out how it'll do so.
Step 2: Standing Out in a Crowd
Podcasting is already a saturated field. There are a few different ways a business can approach podcasting to make it more approachable to new listeners:
Ø Offer a different tone: Some topics may be spoken about a certain way, but approaching them from a different perspective creates a new take on the same subject.
Ø Develop a new topic: There are many ongoing discussions within an industry, and some get more coverage than others. Covering obscure industry topics is a valid route to go.
Ø Show off strong opinions: Podcasting allows a business to delve into a topic and express its strong opinions about them. These may lead to controversy, but they can also lead to publicity.
Ø Create a new format: There's no hard-and-fast rule to how a podcast should go. By experimenting with structures, a business can stand out as doing something new and fresh.
Step 3: Deciding on Production Values and Distribution
The material you'll need to make a half-decent podcast will cost you next to nothing. You can potentially record a podcast on your smartphone and edit it right in the included sound editor. However, as production values go up, the type of audience you attract goes up as well. Hosting solutions are also a concern since podcasts need to be kept somewhere to serve them to listeners. Podcast hosting sites allow clients to upload files, and some offer package deals that include analytics. Podcatchers (podcast directories) pick up these new podcasts and syndicate them for free via RSS feed.
Step 4: Creating a Podcast
The final step is setting up a podcast schedule. Just like a content production plan, this schedule will help to sort out what podcasts you intend to have and when they'll air. It's important to remember that a podcast is more than just recording. It includes editing and cutting down the stuff you don't want on the track. Editing could take a long time, so leaving at least a week for editing time would be sufficient to ensure you have a quality product at the end of it.
Modern Audiences Need Modern Content
Content production and brand management can be tricky things for a business to manage alongside its regular workload. Some companies are content with not pushing their brand, but others can gain a lot of traction with the right content. Podcasts are one way to reach out to a new sector of society. As we covered before, creating more content might not help your marketing if it does not represent your brand image. Iris Content can advise you on what type of content best suits your needs. Contact us today, and let's help you sort out your content strategy for 2022.