These days a lot of small business owners are asking themselves whether starting a podcast could benefit their business. At first glance, the benefits of starting a podcast may be obvious, but if you’re like most of us, you have to carefully weigh the benefits of any business-related activity against the potential costs.
It isn’t necessary to make a tremendous financial outlay to begin a podcast, but if you want to do it properly—which will set you up for success and give you a leg up on the competition—you should expect at least a few hardware-related costs.
But your primary cost will not be financial, it will be time and energy. Committing to a reasonably consistent podcast production schedule is a commitment of time. So the first question you should ask yourself is whether you can make the time to keep a podcast going past the first few episodes.
Consider These Podcasting Statistics
If you’re not quite convinced that a podcast can help you reach potential customers, consider this:
- 48 million Americans listened to a podcast this week. 73 million listen at least once a month. Those weekly listeners listen to an average of seven different podcasts, averaging six and a half hours of listening time each week.
- Commuters are even more likely to listen. An Edison Research study says that twenty-five percent of survey participants who commute for more than 20 minutes listen to podcasts and streaming audio.
- Social media usage is on the decline for the first time in a decade, but podcast downloads are increasing on an average of 3% a year.
Those numbers should make it pretty clear that accurate mobile phone number list podcasting has found an audience. Perhaps the most interesting fact to take away from the statistics is that the podcast audience is growing while social media audience is decreasing!
The Podcasting Field Is Not Crowded
You may have read that there are more than 600,000 podcasts listed in iTunes and thought to yourself that the field is too crowded, that against that kind of competition you will never be able to produce a podcast that could get noticed.
Not true!
Nearly half of the 600,000 podcasts out there era prasejarah anu hilap haven’t released an episode in the past year.
And 90% of the podcasts that have put out an episode in the past year are fading or already gone. The reality is, there are fewer than 100,000 active podcasts that are consistently producing episodes.
If 100,000 still sounds like a lot, look at it this way: the last time there were only 100,000 sites on the web was all the way back in 1996. Would you rather launch a new business website now, with a billion other sites as competition, or in 1996, when only 100,000 sites were on the playing field?
The question really isn’t, “How can a podcast help b2c fax my business?” but rather, how can it not? It isn’t, “Why use podcasting?” but, why on earth wouldn’t you?
It’s fertile new ground, and the sooner you begin to work it, the more established you will become, and when the field does eventually become crowded, you will be a seasoned, respected veteran with a backlog of episodes ready to be discovered by new listeners.
The Benefits of Podcasting for Business
One of the greatest benefits of starting a podcast is the opportunity for Relationship building. Podcasting is a very personal medium, and it fosters familiarity and trust.
If you can become a listener’s friend or trusted advisor, they are much more likely to buy your product than they would be based only on advertising. Nielsen surveys show that podcasts not only raise awareness of products discussed but also increase the intent to purchase by as much as 14%.
One pitfall that it is essential to avoid however is the temptation to make your podcast too promotional. People will not tune in repeatedly if all they hear is a sales pitch. There has to be a value proposition.
To that end:
Look at Your Podcast As a Thought Leadership Activity
Thought leadership is simply the act of passing along your knowledge. Like a conference keynote speech or a TED talk. Try to remember that the purpose of your podcast should be to educate your audience. Provide value and they will keep coming back.
Produce a Podcast That Is Advice and Knowledge-driven
The key thing to remember here is simply to talk about what you know. The more you share your knowledge, the more relationship building you’ll do, and the value proposition for your audience will be clear.
Put the Focus on the Problems You Can Solve for Your Listeners
Talk about the kinds of problems that you can solve, tell stories about how your product helped a customer. If you can make them relatable, your stories will lead customers to you. Remember to “sell without selling” and respect the intelligence of your audience.
