Top 5 Reasons Why Having a Podcast Can Strengthen Your Brand

The podcast boom that is currently rocking the landscape of digital media is real, and if you and your brand are still sitting on the sidelines, it may be time to get involved.

When discussing the value of starting a podcast, it is useful to first establish the basics of why podcasts are so popular right now in the first place.

In his 2017 Forbes.com article, Why Millennials Are Choosing Podcasting Over Blogging To Build Their Personal Brands, Andrew Arnold reminds us:

“Podcasts are great media for those with short attention spans. And today’s consumer of information has that. With their headphones, listeners can do laundry or yard work while they listen. With their earbuds, they can work out, drive to and from work and walk their dogs. Video, which requires eyes as well, does not always work in these environments. And blog posts, which usually comprise of text content, just cannot work.”

In addition to the psychological and logistical aspects of why podcasts are so hot right now, here are the top five reasons why having a podcast can strengthen your brand:

The Startup Costs of a Podcast are Low

Podcasts have little to no overhead costs associated with launching them. This proposition becomes even more interesting when you compare them to more traditional forms of advertising and marketing.

For example, if you’re hosting a podcast on Podbean.com, the first five hours will be free, and after that the cost is about $9 a month in hosting fees. You’ll also need a USB microphone, a standard laptop computer, and a free audio recording/editing software called Audacity. It’s free to submit a podcast to iTunes.

If you already have a laptop, here’s a breakdown of a podcast’s startup costs:

Roughly $9 a month to use a podcast hosting site such a Podbean or SoundCloud.
Roughly $50 for a USB Microphone..

That’s pretty minimal, but of course you’ll also need a to invest in the time to plan out, record and edit these podcasts as well.

2. A Podcast Can Have a Finite Lifespan

According to his recent book, How to Podcast When You Aren’t Tech Savvy, author Casey Callanan put it best this way:

“A common misconception about podcasting is that you need to update it regularly and forever. Some people think that once you start a podcast, you better keep feeding it. That might be true when it comes to a blog or even a social media account but not a podcast.

You don’t have to keep feeding a podcast. A podcast can have a lifespan. You can create a small series for a podcast (much like a miniseries on Netflix) with six episodes and then call it quits. Then that podcast is out there forever, and anything is possible once you’ve made the effort.”

3.It Builds Trust in your Brand

A podcast brings with it an opportunity for your brand to engage in content marketing.

As defined by the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

A podcast can help you build trust in your brand when you use it for content marketing. For example, a good podcast will give your audience something valuable that will attract them to your podcast organically. It will also help build trust that your brand cares about them and isn’t just interested in selling things to them.

A podcast supports author Gary Vaynerchuk’s and his widely acclaimed “give, give, give and then ask” philosophy towards marketing. This approach recommends that marketers continuously give, give and give to their audiences before asking them to make a purchase. A podcast is a nice way to give.

To learn more about Gary Vaynerchuck’s philosophy on “give, give, give and then ask,” make sure to read Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World.

4. Support is Everywhere

By its nature, the podcasting community loves to see each other succeed. It’s really important for podcasters (and potential podcasters) to understand that unlike other highly competitive forms of media, podcasting is very supportive and folks are here to help each other.

It will be to your benefit to take advantage of the support within this community! It is common for the top podcasters in the world to typically appear on other highly popular podcasts. There also exists a vibrant community of support (message boards, YouTube videos, etc.) available free to podcasters who are learning the ropes.

5. Podcasts Aren’t Going Anywhere

If you utilize the highly helpful Google Trends tool, you will notice that “podcast” is on its way up as a trend, while “blog” is heading down.

Of course if none of the above is convincing enough for you, or you don’t want to create a podcast yourself, consider investing some of your advertising budget into buying ad space on one.

According to Megy Karydes, and her article “How to Use a Podcast to Reinforce Your Brand:”

Podcast listeners are a captured audience, which is ideal for any company seeking to reinforce its brand and message with its customers. For marketers and business owners, it also provides powerful analytics to help them better craft content that will resonate with their customers and listeners.

The world of audio as marketers currently know it is changing, and it is changing fast. To learn more about audio and the impact it has on brands, check out our blog post, The Sonic Revolution: 3 Tips Brands Need to Know.