Podcasting is not for everyone. Despite the many experts, gurus, rockstars and ninjas within the content marketing space moving their voice to the podcast format, podcasting will NOT work for everyone.
I don't want you to waste time creating iTunes podcasts if they're not going to work…
…because it does take hard work to create podcasts. Launching a successful podcast isn't as easy to purchasing a domain name and hitting the one-click install button for WordPress. {Ms. Ileane shares the basics of “How to Make a Podcast” here}
Creating a successful blog doesn't guarantee success in the podcast format either.
Podcasting is long-format content marketing, which means the audience expects you to dive deeper into your area of expertise.
Ms. Ileane does this well with her Ms. Ileane Speaks Podcast.
My own Content Warfare {view the episode index} addresses How to Win the Battle for Attention Online.
Both shows run 15, 30, even 45 minutes in length depending on the topic being addressed.
Here's the deal, podcasting is not for everyone, so I outlined seven reasons you should NOT start podcasting. This serves as a guide to excuse yourself from moving into the audio format of content marketing.
1) You're not trying to build authority online
Podcasting allows you to dig deep into a topic. It also allows you to use words apply inflexion to certain words that delivers your message with a cadence that a text-based blog post is not able to do. Podcasting puts you on display as an expert. There is something about delivering your message in audio that adds a level of authority to what you’re saying.
See anybody can copy and paste thoughts from another blogger. But it takes a true authority, a true expert in an industry to deliver a podcast and talk for 30 minutes on a topic.
The psychology behind your audience applying authority to you from hearing you talk about a topic is incredible powerful.
2) You’ve no need for a deeply invested audience
Think about the amount time that the average person spends on your website. Go to your Google Analytics reports and look at the time spent on your website right now. It most likely is somewhere between 45 seconds and two minutes.
Contrast this with the fact that with the Content Warfare Podcast where the average show length is 30 minutes, the average listener stays on the line for 24 minutes. In which form of content marketing do you think I am building a deeper relationship with my audience? The three minutes that my audience spends reading one of my blog posts or the 24 minutes that they spend listening to my podcast.
3) You have no need to expand your audience
There are many people who are not interested in reading text-based blog posts. This is the built in podcast audience. These are people who want to consume the content you in audio and podcasts. Services like Stitcher, Blackberry, iTunes and Zune provide you with a way to reach a group of people who could become potential clients that you would never be able to reach with a text-based blog post.
Podcasting allows you to expand your audience and reach a whole new market of consumers.
4 ) You do not need additional sales from a podcast
As discussed above, people who come and listen to your podcast see you as an authority, consume your content for a long period of time and become deeply invested in you as a content creator. This provides the ideal opportunity to create leads and sales. Podcast listeners interested in your product or service become very qualified leads as they’ll have listened to you for a long time and made up their mind to buy.
This is very different from the text-based funnels and squeeze pages used to capitalize on a consumers compulsion to buy. Add in the fact that services such as iTunes and Stitcher and Zune and Blackberry have a built in audience that you’re not currently reaching and you have now increased the pool people who could potentially buy from you.
5) Your audience would not benefit from an alternative form of consuming your content
Whether you're Shakespeare or John Grisham or just the average blogger there’s a decent chance that the people who read your text-based posts on a daily, weekly or monthly basis would be interested in consuming your content in a different form or fashion.
Podcasting allows you to add variety to your content marketing strategy and subsequently a deeper relationship with your audience. Once people begin listening to the sound of your voice they will remember hearing the words in the way that you speak.
6)You're not interested in standing out from crowd
Depending on who's figures you read there are somewhere in the vicinity of 156 million blogs between WordPress and Tumblr.
This number does not include all the blogs from other platforms like Blogger, Joomla, Drupal and HTML blogs.
There are only a couple hundred thousand podcasts.
So if you’re trying to stand out from the crowd… if you’re trying to have your voice heard above all the other voices online do you think you have a better chance of doing that with a simple text-based blog post or on a podcast where you only have a couple hundred thousand competitors?
7) You have no interest in networking with other experts in your industry
One of my personal favorite features of the podcast format is interviewing other experts in the marketing industry. You can certainly interview people using text-based posts as well, but it's harder to get a feel for the guest with simple text. The audience also doesn't get that personal feel of back and forth between interviewer and guest.
Plus, the relationship building aspect of having another professional come on your show and deliver their own value to your audience. You're giving them an opportunity to increase the size of their own audience and in the long game that pays dividends. I've had the opportunity to interview the likes of Mark Schaefer, Danny Brown and Marcus Sheridan just to name drop a few.
The Podcasting Rub
When I started the Content Warfare Podcast as format to explore how to win the battle for attention online, I honestly had no idea what to expect from the experience. I saw some of the elite content marketers joining the podcast bandwagon, names such as Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, Mike Stelzner from Social Media Examiner and even Ms. Ileane and I saw power in the breadth and depth of information that they were able to deliver to a podcast. After eight months of podcasting, producing over 20 episodes, I can honestly say that creating the Content Warfare Podcast has been one of the best decisions I've ever made for my business.
The only real reason you have for not moving forward with a podcast is if you don’t believe you have the fortitude to stick with it for the long term.
But I know you do. I highly encourage you to look into Ms. Ileane and her Ms. Ileane Speaks Podcast, as she is a content marketer at the top of her game.
If you'd like to learn more about my show, you can find it at Content Warfare Podcast | Win the Battle for Attention Online
Thank you and good luck,
Ryan Hanley
Recommended reading:
- The Naked Truth About Your Podcasting Stats And Why You Should Host Your Show on Libsyn
- Podcast Strategies: How To Podcast – 21 Questions Answered
- Podcasting Good to Great: How to Grow Your Audience Through Collaboration
What are YOU doing to promote your podcast?