Radio listeners are beginning to fade out and easing themselves to podcasts for many practical reasons. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, everyone was on the move trying to be faster than the other. Even though our movement has drastically reduced, the constant need for information and learning has not stopped. Podcasts are now a companion to anyone interested to listen at their own time.
That explains the rise of podcasts! According to the statistics in April 2020, there are more than 1,000,000 podcasts out there, making up the episodes to be over 30 million episodes. Bridge Ratings have projected that expenditure on podcast ads will hit approximately $500 mil this year. Within the Asian region, the number of podcast listeners increased by 33% from 2017 to 2018.
Podcast listeners are increasing due to the increased time spent on their mobile phones and the eagerness to learn. According to research, auditory learning is found to have a higher retention rate than reading or physically attending a lecture.
How does advertising fit into a learning environment like these? Effective advertising summarises itself as advertising that reaches its target audiences with information about their brand or product which will, in turn, educate, persuade and constantly remind them of your brand. This could be easy if you have done digital marketing before. The same rules would apply for podcasts – with more specificity.
Let’s breakdown the basic rules in digital marketing and apply them to advertising via podcasts.
- Understanding your audience
You need to study your audience demographics and interests. This may be difficult initially as you may not be able to read your audiences’ mind. You can run some polls on your social media platforms, ask questions and align your best efforts to their expectations. Take an extra step to not only identify people who would listen to podcasts but try to also identify why they listen to podcasts. This would give you an edge when creating content.
- Take advantage of podcast directories.
You know that people are listening to podcasts and you have identified some key reasons why your audiences listen to podcasts. Where, then, are they listening to these podcasts? Leverage on the available platforms for your research. It will help you make a list of suitable podcasters if you are looking at using native ads and it will allow you to analyse what is around if you are planning to upload your podcasts. There are many platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, or PodNova and PodBean.
- Shoutouts!
Did you think that it only works for Facebook and Instagram? If you are creating your own podcasts for your brand, don’t forget to shoutout your collaborators and have them do the same for you. That way, you will both receive more listeners and audiences. It is important that you keep these relationships going and active.
- Social media promotion
If you are using native ads on podcasts, it will be helpful to promote your selected podcaster on your social media pages. You may also reel more listeners for the podcaster, and they will, in turn, be listening to your ads on his or her podcast, talking about a tremendous win-win situation? This is it!
These are some simple steps you can take to begin thinking about your podcast ads! Currently, it is still rather difficult to track conversions for podcasts – this is similar in other platforms. However, keep in mind that you are investing for people to be thinking about your brand. It also makes your presence known to your audiences!
Let us know if you have any questions regarding podcasts! If you have much better ideas, speak to us too! Have a good time trying out creating your podcast ads! Keep us in the loop by letting us know on any of the social media platforms or via e-mail at info@magnicos.com. See you soon!
