Reading blogs or watching videos requires focused screen time. Who has spare time for adding more screen time into their day?
An audio-only format allows your audience to consume your content whilst they are at the gym, out walking, in their car, folding washing, preparing the evening meal or whatever other multi-tasking activity they choose to undertake whilst focusing on your every word.
Podcasts can reach your audience where they want to be reached
Podcasting is a self-selecting audience.
People consume your content because they want to, when they want to and not because it is the best option available to them at the time, as is often the case when choosing a traditional radio station or listening to their music collection.
As your audience has self-selected themselves as being interested in the content you are providing, they are more likely to be your ideal audience.
But what is really powerful is the fact that they are listening when they want to.
Perhaps it is because they have a real need for the information you are sharing at that specific point in time (even if the particular episode they are listening to is from your archives). This makes them more likely to respond to any of the call-to-actions you include during that episode, therefore increasing your ability to influence.
Once someone subscribes to your podcast, you are in their podcast feed.
There is no algorithm applied at that point that determines whether or not they will see your future episodes within their podcast listening app of choice.
It’s just there. Waiting for them to listen when they are ready, in a similar manner to how an email will sit in someone’s inbox waiting for them to open it.
Most apps also automatically download your most recent episode for subscribers by default.
Therefore, as you continue to build your audience, your potential reach will also start to increase.
Intimacy
By inserting your voice into the ear buds of your ideal audience on a regular and consistent basis, you have the opportunity to provide value to your audience in an intimate setting.
The human voice is powerful, allowing you to connect on a much deeper level than what you would achieve if someone was just reading one of your blog posts. If done correctly, it can seem like you are speaking directly to the listener and the listener alone.
If you share your story and experiences as part of the narrative of your podcast, your listeners are going to get to know you personally, perhaps resonate with your messages and feel like they know you intimately. This can do wonders for speeding up the process of getting your audience to know, like and trust you so that they are more likely to want to do business with you (and sooner).
When you create a podcast, it’s your podcast!
That means you set the rules.
You decide what topics you will cover. You decide what guests you will have on the show (or even whether or not you have guests). You decide how you wish to position yourself.
By choosing to position yourself as an expert in your field, you have the ability to propel both yourself and your business to the next level (and beyond).
Your podcast will provide you with the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and showcase your skills, vastly increasing the chances of you receiving a significant return on investment for all your efforts.
You should not underestimate the value of creating a podcast platform for your business.
This is not only of high value to your business, but also to potential guests who would benefit from gaining access to the audience you have built around your podcast.
It is a complete win/win relationship for both parties.
Your guests win by receiving all of the benefits listed above with an audience they otherwise may not have had access to, without having to do all the “hard work” that goes on behind the scenes in putting a podcast together.
This is even true for those people that have their own podcast, because it becomes another opportunity to promote their podcast to other people that they already know listen to podcasts.
It is also a major win for you, as you gain quality content for your podcast and then you gain even further exposure into new audiences via their social sharing once the episode goes live.
Podcasting is not at all new.
It has been a slow burner for some time now, but it is now gaining traction at record breaking speed.
Most of us are never more than a metre away from our smartphone, which in the case of an iPhone comes pre-loaded with a podcast app (that you can’t delete even if you want to).
Despite all of these benefits, there are still few businesses that are using podcasting as a business advantage.