Why You Should Start a Podcast To Grow Your Brand/Business
If you read my previous article about branding and promoting yourself, then this next article shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Though I’m sure some of you are reading this critically. You, start a podcast? Well, if you want to grow your brand or your business, or if you’re in sales at all, then yes, you should start a podcast.
When I tell clients this, they often give me a look like they aren’t made for TV, or for radio, and they don’t want to be on camera - or even behind a microphone. But, having a podcast doesn’t have to come from a place of wanting to be in the media or wanting the spotlight on you. There are many people who of course start a podcast just because it’s fun to do around a passion or a hobby, but this article is going to focus on why it’s good for your business or brand. (Spoiler: those two things can easily intersect!)
In the ever-increasing world of content creation and the need for content, audio content is now drastically on the rise as audio consumption and audio usage is on the rise.
There’s a good chance you recently asked Alexa something, as roughly 1 in 4 U.S. adults now owns a smart speaker, according to new report. More smart speakers, more audio.
Spotify recently struck a deal with Joe Rogan worth more than $100 million. Let me say that again differently. Spotify just bought a podcast for $100 million. Why? Because of the value a podcast can have. For Spotify & Joe Rogan, the value on this particular podcast is $100 million.
Speaking of Spotify, it was just last February that they bought podcast networks Gimlet and Anchor for just shy of $340 million dollars!
There’s no questioning the rise in and around the value of audio, yet many still question jumping into creating and distributing it. If you read nothing else in this article, know that in many ways, having a podcast is simply like having an Instagram or Facebook account except instead of visual content (written word and photo), you’re creating and sharing audio content. It’s not as easy, but it’s for sure as fruitful! So, why should you start a podcast? Let’s buckle down
It’s Fruitful to Build Audiences Wherever You Can
When it comes to marketing, it’s always great to build an audience. The bigger your audience, the bigger your reach is to communicate a message and/or to advertise something. Put even simpler, the bigger your reach, the more value you have from a marketing standpoint. This is where influencers come into play - they have big audiences, so they have lots of value $$. If you’re in sales, look at it like this: every new person who follows you, is someone you could potentially sell to now or in the future. This is why many are on Facebook, Instagram, etc.
If you’ve ever tried to grow your brand, whether it’s a personal brand or a company - you’ve likely thought about why it’s important to have a Facebook page, AND an Instagram account, and maybe you’ve even recently dabbled with growing a Tik Tok account. Why? Because you can’t put all of your eggs in one basket(/platform). Remember MySpace? You have to diversify. A platform that is here today could be gone tomorrow. Again I ask, remember MySpace? And, in 2020, when you’re diversifying building an audience, an audio platform is a must.
I always tell clients they want to at a minimum be on Facebook and Instagram because that’s where their customers are.
A big takeaway from this article: Where your customer's attention is, is where you want to be. You always want to follow the attention. I remember telling my chiropractor when he was mentioning that nobody takes pamphlets anymore that it was because nobody was reading that way. We walked into his waiting room and everyone had their head in their phones. Where is their attention? Their phone. Where does that valuable content need to be? Their phone. Sticking with that theme of going where the attention is, think about how much attention is going to audio right now. Want more attention from who you’re trying to sell to? Be in their ears. How? Podcast.
It’s a Relationship Building Tool
In a little over a year, I’ve published 89 episodes of the Baschamania podcast. It’s a wrestling podcast featuring the best wrestlers in the world. From Cael Sanderson and Kurt Angle to Helen Maroulis and Jordan Burroughs - and everyone in between. And, I have an absolute blast doing it. One of the best parts of hosting the podcast? The relationships!
Growing up a huge WWE guy, it was a dream come true to get to have an hour-long conversation with Olympic Hero, Kurt Angle - oh it’s True! It’s Damn True! How did I get to do that? Having the podcast, building it up, and getting the intro and opportunity to have him on. A new opportunity, a new relationship that I have a foot in the door in that would’ve (likely) never happened without the podcast. And, just a super cool moment I may have never gotten otherwise!
Speaking of Olympic Champions, Brandon Slay came on the podcast as well and we’ve since developed a great relationship both personally and professionally. The bridge? The podcast. And, it doesn’t stop there. Brandon Slay and Kurt Angle are just two quick examples of many where the podcast served as the bridge to something new.
They Generate Monies $$
I could write a whole article on monetizing podcasts (and I just may), but the cliff notes:
Those New Relationships
Who’s listening to your podcast? Who’s on your podcast? What do you do for a living? Bridge those questions. I met a great guy who listens to the podcast from Arizona, Kendall Bryant, who runs Snowflake Smokehouse. As we developed a relationship (again, create opportunities, engage with your audience), we both knew he needed a better website that did his business justice. He ended up hiring Basch Solutions to build him a custom website and we, as I said earlier about Brandon, have developed a great relationship both personally and professionally. A client & a relationship that wouldn’t be without the podcast.
Who’s listening to your podcast? Who’s on your podcast? What do you do for a living? Bridge those questions. I met a great guy who listens to the podcast from Arizona, Kendall Bryant, who runs Snowflake Smokehouse. As we developed a relationship (again, create opportunities, engage with your audience), we both knew he needed a better website that did his business justice. He ended up hiring Basch Solutions to build him a custom website and we, as I said earlier about Brandon, have developed a great relationship both personally and professionally. A client & a relationship that wouldn’t be without the podcast.
Sponsorships
Podcast sponsorships are no different than TV & radio advertising. Companies pay you money to sponsor the show. Your audience and numbers will determine the value, but whatever you and a company agree on, can fly! They’ll pay you X amount of money to talk about their brand, or read an ad about their brand at a predetermined, agreed upon time in the show. If you host a podcast that’s not directly around your company/product/offering, you can also use the sponsorship window for your own business. For example, even though Baschamania is a wrestling podcast, just last week I decided to start the podcast off with a quick 60-second message on my marketing company, Basch Solutions.
Podcast sponsorships are no different than TV & radio advertising. Companies pay you money to sponsor the show. Your audience and numbers will determine the value, but whatever you and a company agree on, can fly! They’ll pay you X amount of money to talk about their brand, or read an ad about their brand at a predetermined, agreed upon time in the show. If you host a podcast that’s not directly around your company/product/offering, you can also use the sponsorship window for your own business. For example, even though Baschamania is a wrestling podcast, just last week I decided to start the podcast off with a quick 60-second message on my marketing company, Basch Solutions.
Sales Through Exposure: As I just alluded to, you can use your podcast to create exposure for your brand, whether it's directly through an ad form like I just mentioned, or casually in conversation. I have 1,000’s of people that listen to Baschamania every week now and throughout the course of the podcast, they hear about my company Basch Solutions multiple times. See below actually. This came in yesterday to Basch Solutions from an avid podcast listener.
If you sell mortgages, you can create awareness and exposure to your audience about mortgages. Doesn’t have to be a mortgage/finance podcast either. I run Basch Solutions, a marketing agency, but my podcast is a wrestling podcast. Not to say you can’t create a podcast around your company, but you don’t have to in order to create exposure about what you do and what you can offer/sell your audience.
It Generates Exposure For You
Similarly to creating new relationships, having guests on your podcast creates exposure for you. When people come on Baschamania and I give them a platform to share their story, they typically want to share that podcast episode out to their audience. As these wrestlers and guests share these episodes out, it’s a win-win for both of us. I’m not only pushing out their story to our audience, and I’m not only helping put their story in an easy to listen to audio format, but they’re helping give me exposure. When a Penn State guy comes on and reshares that episode on social media, it creates more exposure for me to his Penn State audience. When an Iowa wrestler comes on and then reshares the podcast, it creates more exposure to his audience in Iowa and wherever else all of his fans are listening from. It ends up creating exposure across the country that otherwise would be pretty expensive to replicate!
Same goes for businesses. I know I have a wrestling audience so I’m talking a lot in terms of wrestling, but every local business should not only have a podcast, they should have guests on their podcast. Have industry experts on. You’ll give your audience value and access to someone great, and you’ll give your guest value that they’re likely going to want to reshare to their audience. Creating content is huge for everyone right now. When you have someone on your podcast, you’re creating content for them. You’re giving them value. And, they’ll likely want to share that content out and in turn, create that exposure for you. Along with industry experts, have other local business owners on. Own a pizza shop? Have other restaurant owners on and talk about the ins and outs of running a restaurant.
Even if you aren’t looking to immediately leverage a podcast by monetizing it in one way or another, it’s a great idea to start one to build up the audience to leverage when you’re ready. I think it’s going to become more and more normal to see athletes starting podcasts and building an audio audience to monetize and leverage down the road just as they do with traditional social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
For example, Spencer Lee could start a Pokemon podcast tomorrow. Spencer may not want or need to monetize it right now, but growing an audience would be fruitful down the road. Bo Nickal loves to cook, how about a cooking podcast? Interviewing other chefs and athletes and talking about recipes and dining experiences and what not? If you listen to the Baschamania podcast, you heard Bo talk a few weeks ago about his seasonings company he’s launching. Would only help to have a cooking/food-centered podcast when launching those rubs!
There are so many benefits to starting a podcast. I wish I knew what you did for a living and what your goals were because I’d love to try to make the context hit closer to home, but I promise you if you are looking to grow your brand, running a company, or in sales of any kind, starting a podcast should 100% be on your radar.
I know it’s not the easiest thing to do, as we literally help people create content for a living, but thankfully there are many people out there who can help you, myself included. You don’t need me or my team, trust me, but if you do want my help, my company helps individuals and businesses get going all the time. And remember, if it was easy, everyone would do it.
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