According to statistics shared by SEMrush and Influencer Marketing Hub, nearly 20% of people are more likely to consider supporting a brand if it is advertised on their favourite podcast. What’s more, 60% of listeners revealed that they searched for a product after it was mentioned on a podcast.
Here are just a few reasons why we believe podcasts should be part of PR marketing and content led campaigns.
Longer shelf life for your coverage
Podcasts themselves have a much longer shelf-life than traditional broadcast coverage. The way they are consumed by audiences lends itself to more evergreen content as they are not dependent or governed by the news cycle. This longer lifespan means that the window of exposure to your target market is extended ten-fold.
Joining in the discourse
Podcasts are all about digging deeper into a subject or topical news story. This means if you or your client has a particularly strong opinion, it is a great platform to get across their view and weave in the all-important key messaging. When used in conjunction with bylined articles, a well-timed podcast guest appearance can really bolster an individual and/or company as a true thought leader in their respective space.
The podcast is only becoming more popular
Even as little as a few years ago, podcasts were not seen as a threat to traditional radio, let alone television. However, as massive success stories continue to flourish in the podcast world, audiences are growing exponentially, which is competing with traditional media. According to Exploding Topics, and the latest available data in 2023, there are 464.7 million worldwide podcast listeners. That equates to 22% of all internet users. The number of people that listen to podcasts has increased by over 40 million in the last year.
As a lot of the best marketing podcasts originate from passion projects and are not necessarily married to large networks or companies, like traditional broadcast programming is, an environment is created where they can become a lot more niche. This means that although an audience of a particular programme may be smaller than the reach of a traditional online site, the quality of listeners in terms of your brand’s messaging can be much more in line with the end goals of your overall PR strategy.
Podcasts are more efficient
In terms of sharing your story/brand values with an audience, voice and conversation can get across more information in a much shorter time; we tend to talk a lot faster than we read or write. We also speak more naturally than we write, using shorter words and more direct language. We can put emphasis, nuance and humour into a sentence that may not come across on the page. All of this helps with understanding, not just of your message but of your brand’s personality.
A podcast is more personable
The most effective podcasts involve two or more participants, so you get the feeling of being involved in a real conversation rather than a stilted monologue. Things do not always go to script, just like in a real conversation, and this lends a degree of authenticity to your brand that cannot be achieved in print or the traditional talking heads video. Podcasts are also edited in post-production, so you do not need to worry about fumbling words live on air.
Low cost, low resistance
Best of all, podcasts are not expensive to produce. The basics you need are a decent portable sound recorder, which you can pick up for under £300, and some editing software. You may decide to invest in a good microphone like the UM range from CHERRY. And it is easier to get senior execs to take part in a podcast rather than appear in video. There is something quite intrusive about video and we are not all blessed with the good dashing good looks of BBC Presenters.