For a lot of busy people, listening to a podcast has been the go-to strategy for learning new things and keeping up with industry changes during otherwise unproductive stretches on planes, trains, and buses. Podcasts are also becoming popular for people who wish to reduce the time they spend staring at a screen during the day.
The market for podcasts has been steadily growing as people’s lives get busier, forcing them to search for alternative ways to learn new things while doing mundane tasks such as mowing the lawn, or while travelling. This has led to podcasts becoming a fresh new marketing strategy for companies to expand their customer base or increase their engagement with existing customers.
What is a Podcast?
A podcast is an audio file submitted in a format which users can subscribe to through specialised podcast apps. Each new episode is downloaded to the device, ready for the user to listen to at their convenience.
The advantage of podcasts is that people don’t have to look at a screen to consume information, which means they could be sitting on a bus, washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, or exercising while gaining new knowledge and keeping up with the latest happenings in an industry.
Podcasts are the perfect complement to busy professionals who need to account for every minute of the day. Google and iOS both have a recording app you can use to create your podcast right from your mobile device. It’s now easier than ever for a business to take advantage of the extra marketing reach and engagement podcasts can provide.
Why Create A Podcast?
Organisations can benefit from podcasts in many ways. A podcast can:
- Provide valuable content that is easy and convenient to consume
- Be cheap to produce
- Keep listeners actively engaged with your message
- Provide another avenue for reaching more leads
Customers requiring information to solve a problem or wishing to learn more about a subject find that podcasts are an attractive and convenient option. It’s at this point that a business should take the opportunity to get their podcast in front of highly-qualified leads seeking information and making sure to include calls-to-action in every podcast.
How Podcasting Can Improve Your Business
1. Podcasts are Quicker and Cheaper than Videos
Cost wise it’s more affordable to produce a podcast than it is to create a video. Plus, you need little to no specialised equipment to end up with high-quality production. While the same can be said for video, film production does require a certain level of skill if its to achieve any level of professional polish.
However, with podcasts, all you need is to have downloaded your podcast maker app of choice and installed a reasonable quality microphone before you are good to go.
2. You Can Make Use of Outside Expertise
Interviewing an expert in any field is easy with a podcast recorder on your phone. Simply call them up and interview them on the spot. There are respected names in every industry, and when your prospects are searching for those names, your podcast has a good chance of appearing in the search results when you have optimised your podcast description and tags.
3. Podcasts Foster Engagement
A well-produced podcast can make the listener feel as if you are talking directly to them, which can dramatically affect the relationship they have with your organisation. When customers feel a connection, they are more trusting and more likely to do business with you rather than one of your competitors.
4. The Podcast Audience is Growing
Podcast listeners have proven themselves to be very engaged with the content they choose for listening.
Most podcasts apps such as iTunes will automatically download new episodes so they ready and waiting for the listener whenever they have a spare moment to tune in.
Australian numbers aren’t in yet, but the American podcast audience listens to more than an astonishing 21 000 000 hours of podcast every day.
How to Start a Podcasting with a Podcast Recorder?
Start with a Free Recording App
While you are getting a feel for the new medium, there are free options that will help you get started with podcasting at no extra cost.
Voice Memo – Free for iOS Users
If you want to get started recording a podcast on phone and mobile devices, then iOS Voice Memo, which comes free with the device, may be worth trying.
You will want to do some post-processing which means you will need to have a system for getting the recording off the device and onto a computer. You will also need to find a service to host your podcast.
If you are an Android user, there are quite a few cheap and free voice recorders you can download and use to start the ball rolling, and the same goes for iOS if you need something more advanced than Voice Memo.
Spreaker – Podcast Recorder for Android and iOS
Once complete, your podcast will automatically upload to Spreaker’s hosting, although this is optional if you want to use a different provider. You will get to add an image, edit tags, and set a description when uploading.
Once your podcast is in the cloud, you will then have the option of sharing to YouTube and iHeartRadio. The latter option does require a premium subscription, however.
SoundCloud for iOS
SoundCloud is an audio hosting solution and comes with a full-featured API that will allow you to integrate a variety of applications for creating a podcast from any desktop, smartphone, or tablet.
Keep it simple at first by using the core SoundCloud podcast maker app. You can start adding in applications to give you more functionality such as cutting, pasting, and editing once you reach a higher level of proficiency.
SoundCloud is free to start, but if you need cloud storage for your podcasts, then you will need to spring for a premium account.
Where to Next?
The above podcast recording apps are all excellent springboards for discovering and learning the art of podcasting. However, once you’re fully committed to creating a quality Podcast on a regular basis, you will need to ramp up the quality with a decent microphone. Many of these can be quite expensive, which is why we recommend you try out Podcasting on the cheap first.
Once you have a few podcast episodes under your belt, it will then be time to start building your lead base and reaching more customers by promoting your podcast to the world.
