How can a podcast help your business?

If you're looking for a way to reach your target audience and build lasting relationships with potential customers, then podcasting could be the perfect addition to your marketing efforts.

Podcasts are becoming an increasingly popular way for businesses to reach potential customers by offering a unique platform to promote their brand and engage with their target audience to establish long-term relationships. Additionally, podcasts are a great platform for delivering detailed and timely content which can be used to educate listeners and create an emotional connection with your brand or business.

Let's take a closer look at how podcasts can be leveraged as a marketing tool for your business.

Target specific audiences and build relationships

Podcasts are a great way to reach your desired target audience. This can be achieved by carefully selecting the topics of discussion, the guests being interviewed, and the ways in which the podcast is promoted.

This hyper-focus towards a specific target audience allows for greater segmentation of your audience and enables marketers to hone in on the specific segments that are most likely to become customers and can begin to build a relationship with them. As your podcast grows and you build a community around it, you can create a stronger connection between your company and your customers. This connection goes beyond traditional marketing efforts and can give you an edge over your competition. The nature of podcasting is such that listeners tend to be highly engaged with the content and more likely to take action to purchase if they feel connected to the hosts and their message. Your podcast becomes a platform for engagement, where your audience can interact with you and feel a sense of belonging to your brand.

Podcasts are also an effective tool for building a relationship with your audience, which can help to increase customer loyalty and make it easier to upsell and cross-sell your products and services. With every episode that your target audience listens to, you continue to build and cultivate a relationship with them. A relationship that allows your target audience to understand your business, your values and your expertise.

Podcasts also provide an opportunity to build relationships with other businesses and influencers in your industry. Start talking to people that you want to develop a business relationship with and ask them to be a guest on the podcast. By inviting guests onto your podcast, you can reach a larger and more diverse audience, as well as build valuable connections with other industry players. This is a great way to increase visibility and connections.

Moreover, by framing your discussion with the guest as a promising opportunity for them to spread awareness of their own business or expertise, not only is it now much more likely that you’ll receive a positive response, but following the recording, you can continue to nurture that relationship away from a podcast setting.

Help you achieve your wider business goals

When you think of the parameters for what could be considered a successful podcast, you may instantly think of the number of downloads each episode receives. While it can feel great to have hundreds or even thousands of downloads, in our experience they are little more than vanity metrics and don’t necessarily indicate a quantifiable impact that the podcast has had on your marketing efforts. They give you an idea of how many people have listened to your message, but how many actually engaged with it? Instead, consider a different metric, like a measurable call to action within the episode. Maybe your listeners could access an exclusive resource on your website, book a consultation or sign up to your newsletter. If you use your podcast properly, it can help facilitate your goals, and provide measurable results.

Become a known expert in your field

By hosting a podcast on a topic related to your field, you have the opportunity to cultivate your image as an expert in your industry. Given sufficient time to grow a community, your podcast has the ability to build a connection between your company and your customers that can put you ahead of your competition.

Moreover, by facilitating conversations with industry experts on your podcast, you not only provide valuable content to your listeners but also position yourself as a thought leader in your field. Over time, your host persona becomes synonymous with expertise, further enhancing your reputation and influence.

Podcasts are a cost-effective marketing avenue

You can produce a podcast yourself or employ an external production company like us here at Story Ninety-Four, who can take on the bulk of podcast production. While creating a successful podcast is a significant time commitment, the operation costs are relatively cheap compared to other marketing streams and one major benefit is that a podcast can be hosted indefinitely for listeners to find and so if the content is timeless, you have an evergreen marketing asset for years to come.

Conclusion

By targeting specific audiences, building relationships, achieving wider business goals, opening lines of communication, and developing your image as an expert in the chosen field, businesses like yours can use podcasts to cultivate a loyal following and increase visibility within your industry. With relatively low costs and the ability to provide evergreen content, podcasts can be a worthwhile investment for any business looking to enhance their marketing efforts.

If you want to find out more about starting a podcast for your business, check out our other article - B2B Podcasting: Benefits, Best Practices and Statistics.