Based on our 2022 Advertising Tendencies Survey report, 34% of entrepreneurs plan to cease leveraging podcasts or different audio content material in 2022.
It’s possible due to the key roadblocks that entrepreneurs nonetheless face within the podcast advertising area. Two podcast specialists weigh in on the most important challenges and methods to sort out them.
Natural Discoverability
Presently, there are two foremost methods to find podcasts: Search by way of top-ranking podcasts in numerous genres or get suggestions primarily based on what you’re already listening to.
This makes it very laborious for lesser-known exhibits to get found organically.
“It is actually laborious for podcasters who’re creating wonderful content material and are nice creators to determine methods to get in entrance of their viewers,” says Alanah Joseph, head of creator partnerships on the HubSpot Podcast workforce.
At HubSpot, Joseph says our podcast community addresses this by leaning into our cross-promotion technique – this implies putting adverts throughout numerous exhibits throughout our community whereas guaranteeing viewers alignment.
“As an alternative of going out and looking for new audiences, we’re leveraging the audiences that we have already got and sharing these audiences in a approach that helps increase discoverability for the podcasts,” she says. “After which, additionally as a result of we’ve a group, we will leverage that advert stock.”
Nonetheless, not each model can go this route. Companies with entry to a big advert funds go for paid promoting, as that ensures you’ll achieve extra publicity and attain your required viewers.
“Brief-term [discoverability] methods will most frequently be paid media, like selling on a podcast participant or operating Fb adverts,” says Principal Podcast Producer at HubSpot Darren Clarke, as a solution to sort out discoverability. “These performs often give nice outcomes, however will not essentially be ‘sticky.’”
Different ways embrace cross-posting on a number of channels and rising your social media presence. Many podcasters submit the video model of their content material on YouTube to broaden their attain and get an search engine marketing increase.
On social media, discovery is far simpler. You possibly can construct a group there, market your podcast, and direct site visitors to your collection.
“A lot of these natural development methods take a very long time to register any important outcomes, however over time, if finished properly, will primarily provide you with way more management over your distribution,” he says.
Rising a group is one other key approach to assist with discoverability. Issues like attending podcasting occasions and reaching out to fellow podcasters will enable you to construct a community of people that can share their audiences with you.
As an example, being a visitor on one other podcast whose viewers aligns with yours will be extremely precious for manufacturers with restricted assets.
“The viewers will get to fulfill you, will get to study you, get to grasp your values, [and] why you may have a podcast,” Joseph says. “All of these issues are essential for not solely driving site visitors but in addition constructing retention and loyalty.”
Clarke echoes this sentiment, saying that whenever you visitor host, having a compelling message and an inviting name to motion is important for it to function a development lever.
He additional cautions that promotion, advertising, viewers constructing, and group improvement are all development mechanisms that require totally different approaches. As such, they’ll require a distinct set of expectations and ROI.
Knowledge Insights
As entrepreneurs, knowledge is our lifeline. It tells us who our viewers is, what they’re responding to, and way more. Joseph says with podcasts, knowledge insights are restricted.
“With monitoring and reporting, the most important subject within the podcast trade is as a listener, you aren’t capable of settle for cookies,” she says.
Which means podcast entrepreneurs are restricted within the info they’re capable of collect on their viewers, significantly monitoring how they’re behaving after listening to an episode.
What you sometimes get is the next:
- Geolocation
- Listens (distinctive listens, common listening time, and so forth)
- Subscriber depend and tendencies
- Downloads (whole downloads, common downloads, and so forth)
And infrequently, Joseph says, it’s a must to compile knowledge from a number of sources which isn’t at all times correct or dependable.
One key piece of knowledge that’s lacking is listener demographics, equivalent to gender, age, and schooling. Because of this, constructing out a powerful social media presence turns into much more essential in understanding your viewers.
From LinkedIn, as an example, you possibly can uncover an individual’s title, establish the place they’re of their profession, and why they’re tuning into your podcast.
Regardless of these roadblocks, Joseph believes that tech is lastly catching up with the world of podcasting.
“There’s a whole lot of innovation proper now and lots of people are creating cool know-how to assist this huge group of creators,” she says. “So, I really feel optimistic that a few of these issues shall be solved.”
Variety in Voices
Whereas this problem isn’t particular to podcast advertising, it does have an effect on the trade as an entire.
Joseph mentions that there’s nonetheless a whole lot of work to be finished relating to the variety of voices in podcasting.
“At first [of building the HubSpot Podcast Network], extra so than now, that was the massive problem that I confronted,” she says, “How do I create a community that is reflective of the American workforce?”
That is very true within the enterprise style, the place top-ranking exhibits should not led by BIPOC creators. As a community, you wish to have a listing of robust exhibits however you additionally wish to be sure that it’s balanced in illustration.
“I might like to see extra girls and extra individuals of shade rise to the charts in our style particularly,” she says. “That is one thing that we’re actively making an attempt to work by way of and have been for some time.”
There’s little doubt that there are nonetheless a whole lot of challenges inside podcast advertising, as platforms and search engines like google and yahoo catch as much as this thriving trade. Nonetheless, there are nonetheless many workarounds that manufacturers can leverage to achieve their goal listeners and develop their subscriber base.
