5 Ways That Podcasting Is a Powerful Marketing Weapon Podcasting has seen a meteoric rise over the past several years, boosting many entrepreneurial personalities into the national spotlight.
By Matthew Toren •
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Podcasting is quickly morphing from an emerging phenomena to a powerful and commonplace marketing weapon. Early adopters started podcasting only about a decade ago, but podcasting has seen a meteoric rise over the past several years, boosting many entrepreneurial personalities such as Pat Flynn, John Lee Dumas and many others into the national spotlight.
So what can you learn from podcasting and why should entrepreneurs consider getting into what may already be seen as a crowded market? Here are five ways that podcasting is a powerful marketing weapon for you and your business.
1. Trust
Podcasts are a great way to build trust and put yourself in front of a larger audience. When you create a podcast that is packed with real value, listeners will share it and your numbers will grow. With a broader audience base you get the added benefit of creating fans of your business through your podcast.
Related: How Podcasts Can Attract Leads and Drive Sales
Podcasts allow listeners to get an inside look at how your mind works and gives them a sense of who you are as a person. People are more inclined to buy from someone they know, and especially want to buy from someone they trust, and creating a valuable podcast can create strong relationships between you and individuals around the country.
2. Search rankings
When done properly, your podcast can actually help your website with increased activity, linkage and potentially boost your search rankings. There are some best practices here you should know about. For example, while your podcast episodes will be downloadable through digital mediums such as iTunes, you can offer show notes, episode summaries and full transcripts of each episode on your site. Doing so provides you with opportunities to link to the topics or individuals you interview, post more content and thus, increases your search-ranking strength.
3. Connections
Interviews are a common aspect of podcasts. While lining up weekly interviews will certainly challenge your organizational skills and ability to line up great guests, interviews will give you an added benefit of making deeper connections with influencers and leaders you'd like to know better.
Most podcasts are 30 to 60 minutes and that means you have ample time to really open up a meaningful dialogue with your guests. That creates a new relationship for you, which deepens your connections. Podcasts also help you create connections between yourself and your listeners, as previously mentioned, which is equally important. As they say in the real-estate industry, it's all about relationships.
Related: Start a Podcast That Attracts Thousands of Listeners in Just 5 Simple Steps
4. Supplemental income
Should you be able to grow your podcast audience enough, you'll be able to choose whether you'd like to monetize your podcast through sponsorships, product endorsements or even ads. It will ultimately be up to you whether these types of monetization align with the essence of your podcast, but it's an option.
Regardless of sponsorship options, as you grow your list, you have a captive audience of fans you can thoughtfully market product offerings, events or affiliate products to. That's another great opportunity for supplemental income to your business.
5. Content
When you have a regular weekly podcast you'll have something every marketer needs and covets: regular, valuable content! By transforming each week's episode into a new content post that includes the best practices of the already-mentioned transcripts and show notes, you have a vast library of content to give your audience.
Keeping the cadence of your podcast regular will give you fresh content that your audience can rely on and seek out from you. You can also build out a powerful list that you can push content to in order to keep nurturing the important relationship with your subscribers.
