Why Create a Branded Podcast?

Why create a branded podcast? The short answer is because it is awesome for your business. 🤩

The long answer is composed of four sections:

Build Your Brand
Grow Your SEO
Generate Leads
Maximize Assets

In this blog we are going to dive into each one. We’ll show you why you should integrate branded podcasting into your marketing strategy. It is a great opportunity for companies looking to grow!

As you read this, keep in mind that podcasting can be a relatively inexpensive. That means your ROI has the potential to be quite substantial. The only thing better than a good idea is a low-cost good idea!

Ready? Let’s start! 👟

Why Create a Branded Podcast Reason #1: Build Your Brand

The first reason you should launch a branded podcast for you company is because it is a powerful way to build your brand. 🧱

“Building your brand” can sound pretty vague so let us break it down for you.

Power of Audio

Companies’ brands are their public-facing identity. Through brand colors, fonts, logos, designs, and written tone of voice, brands tell potential customers who a company is. But visuals are only one facet of brands. Podcasting adds a deeper element to them.

Podcasting adds an audio element to your brand. If you have ever felt big emotions from a song (and who hasn’t), you know the power of audio on the mind and heart. When people hear something, it reaches them in a unique way. 💆

That’s why one quality of podcasting is that it can evoke a sense of closeness with its audience, especially when the content is thoughtfully chosen and presented. One research study said podcast listeners felt “softness” and “optimism” from podcasts.

Why? The audience is present in the moment. They learn about the podcasts’ storytellers, conversationalists, or teachers through the way they talk about the topics. 😌

Position as Thought Leader

A successful branded podcast will establish your company as a thought leader in its industry. You can achieve this a couple different ways.

First, it can share your organization’s success stories. This is great if you want to do a narrative podcast. You can stick to the traditional storytelling structure of discovering a problem, working on a problem, and solving a problem. The more your listeners can learn about the characters in the story, the better. That way, they buy into the story, increasing your brand awareness. They also soak in your brand messaging that your team is full of awesome people who are achieving cool things. 🏆

Second, you can go with the popular podcast structure of interviewing people. By interviewing other experts in your field, you show that your company networks with the best and the brightest. One example of this is “Dior Talks.” Dior’s podcast created intimate, engaging conversations with leaders in the industry, positioning Dior as an industry leader.

Finally, you can go with the format of interacting with your listeners. Answering your listeners’ questions is an obvious, but powerful way to show your target audience that you know what you are talking about. An example of this is “Dear Headspace.” In this podcast, team members at Headspace, a mental health and meditation platform, answer questions and give advice to their listeners. 🧘

The Reach of Podcasting

No matter how good your podcast branding is, if your target audience isn’t exposed to it, it won’t grow. That’s why leaders in the marketing industry are always looking for new, unique ways to put their brand in front of folks. 📣

Brand podcasting is a phenomenal way to get your brand in front of people. You can reach them while they are doing household chores, on their commute, at their kid’s soccer practice… the list goes on.

Because of how podcast listening platforms are engineered, often episodes are automatically downloaded. That means a listener does not even need to be “on the grid” to listen. No wifi? Bad phone coverage? No problem. 🏕️

Also, in a world where our eyes are constantly straining while staring at screens, folks can tune into a podcast and get engaging content without the literal headache. In fact, your audience may start to physically feel better as they listen to your company’s podcast and they relax their eyes and their posture. You really can’t beat that branding!

The topic of reach actually leads us to the second answer to “why create a branded podcast…” ⬇️

Why Create a Branded Podcast Reason #2: Grow Your SEO

There is a reason that there are entire businesses in the marketing industry that solely focus on search engine optimization (SEO): Everyone finds businesses through internet search engines. 🔍

In fact, people navigate their whole lives through search engines: driving directions, health info, TV shows, everything!

There are two main parts to growing your SEO: Producing content and getting referenced on other sites. 2️⃣

Here is how podcasts help in each one of these:

Producing Content

If you are new to podcasting, you may think that the only content you produce with a podcast is audio files. Not true! With a podcast, you can produce a lot of different content that will directly boost your SEO. 📚

First and foremost, show notes and episode notes summarize what you cover in your show. These can be rich with keywords. Not only are these spread out to every listening platform you distribute your podcast to, but they can be put on your podcast’s website.

Speaking of, yes you need a podcast website. If you use Ausha as your hosting site, we automatically make your podcast a website. We design the website in a way that search engine bots love to read. This ensures your website content gets picked up by them and is listed high on search results. 📈

Another type of podcasting content that is great for SEO is episode transcripts. (Note: Ausha can automatically create these from your episodes audio files). Transcripts are full of keywords and context. They definitely boost the chances that potential audience members find your show on a search engine.

Referencing

The second part to a good SEO strategy is increasing references to your show and website across the internet. Search engine bots want proof that everyone loves you and thinks you are important. 😎

Branded podcasting is very good for this.

First, your podcast will be referenced on all podcast listening platforms that you distribute your show to. If you are an Ausha customer, that is over twenty platforms across the world, automatically. 😮

Second, everyone associated with the show can reference it. This is especially powerful if the show has guests who can post about the episode they were in. But it also includes people who are part of creating the show. They will list the branded podcast on their LinkedIn profiles, their own websites, etc.

Third, your podcast can be a helpful resource that other organizations and individuals point their followers to. For example, let’s say you are a frozen food company. You want do an episode on how to interpret food labels like “organic,” “non GMO,” and “no antibiotics.” Organizations that focus on gut health might reference your episode on their website and online materials. 🥦

Finally, really great branded podcasts generate online conversations from listeners. These conversations can happen all over the internet in very organic ways. Search engine bots love organic content. These conversations can happen on review sites, social media, blogs… really anywhere!

That leads us to the third part of the answer to “Why create a branded podcast…”

Why to Create a Branded Podcast Reason #3: Generate Leads

What if a marketing product could not only grow your brand’s presence and reach, but generate actual leads? That’s what branded podcasts can do!

Unlike most other advertisements, podcasts can pull potential customers into your funnel and instantly surround them with easy ways to get in touch with you. 📲

First podcasts attract potential customers, then they convert them.

Attract

We’ve talked about how podcasts can boost your brand, but now let’s talk about how they can go a step further. Branded podcasts can really position you and your business as experts in your field or industry. 🧑‍🔬

On a branded podcast you get to display your company’s knowledge and experience in a way that does not come off as showing off or fake.

If your podcast format is a storytelling one, you can make sure to include details in the story that show you know the topic well. 🤓

You can also introduce your audience to needs they didn’t even know they could have. For example, OnStar, the in-car safety service, has a branded podcast called “Tell Me What Happened.” On it they showcase all the emergencies they have been heard about. Plus, without directly saying it, the podcast tells listeners “there are a lot of emergencies out there that you should prepare yourself for by buying our service.”

If the podcast format is interview based, you can invite coworkers onto the show and ask them about their areas of specialty. Sprinkle in questions about their journey to getting involved in the specialty, their favorite part of it, etc. so that the audience can connect with them and stay interested. 🤝

You can also interview other experts in the the field to show that you have an extensive network at your fingertips and keep you fingers on the pulse of the industry. Your guests’ credibility will boost your own.

Finally, it the the podcast has a monologue format, you can directly teach your listeners about your area of expertise. This is the very clear cut way to show listeners that you know what you are talking about and that you would be fantastic to work with. 🤘

Convert

Once you have proven to your listeners that your company is awesome, it is the perfect time to convert them into clients, or at least contacts. At the end of a podcast episode, and sometimes even throughout the episode, plug your calls to action (CTAs). ☎️

A CTA is when you invite your audience to take a step that increases their interaction with your company. In other words, it is when you convert a listener into a contact or client.

One excellent CTA is asking you listening audience to sign up for an email newsletter that acts as a supplement to the podcast episode. Not only do you get the person’s email address, but you establish another method of communication with them. ✍️

Another good, bold CTA is for a listener to schedule an introductory call with you using an easy to use link in the show notes. That way you secure their phone number and their commitment to have a one on one conversation with you.

One of the best CTAs is just inviting listeners to go ahead and buy your service or product. Of course you need to word this tactfully so listeners aren’t turned off, but if done right, it can bring in revenue without any other marketing or administrative work! 🤑

Finally, a common podcast CTA, whether it is a branded podcast or not, is to follow the podcast on social networks. This brings us to the fourth part of the answer to “why create a branded podcast…”

Why Create a Branded Podcast Reason #4: Maximize Your Assets

No matter what kind of company you are, you have assets. Yes, that includes solopreneurs who only have a cheap laptop to their name! 😁

Some are intangible. For example, the knowledge and stories that you, your team of coworkers, your network, and your clients have.

Some are tangible. For example, your laptop, internet, phone (and its camera), the content you are creating or collecting for your social media, etc. 💻

The key to success as a business is to use all those assets in overlapping ways in order to maximize their quality and impact. A podcast can do this numerous ways.

Branded Podcast + Social Media

One of the most natural places in your marketing strategy to integrate your brand podcast is in your social media cycle. 📆

If you already have social going for your company, you know the process of having a content calendar, producing and sharing content, etc.

With a branded podcast, you can pull ideas and themes from your social media calendar, use those to create a podcast episode, then use pieces from that podcast episode for your social posts. 💪

If you have a smart phone that is good enough to power your social media, you have a smart phone that is good enough to power a podcast recording. While it is great to get a nice microphone and even a nice video camera to record your episodes, if you work carefully, you can create a good quality podcast episode with just that phone.

Keep in mind that just like there are a lot of free tools and software to create social media graphics, there are also a lot of free tools and software to edit your podcast. Here’s a piece we wrote about free software for recording and editing podcasts. ⬅️

Example:

Here’s an example: Let’s say you are a nutrition coach. You sit down to map out your content marketing for Q4 and you see Thanksgiving on the calendar in November. You know that’s a time when food is going to be on your potential clients’ minds. So you decide to make an podcast episode about the best nutrient rich food that your audience can pile on their plate at a traditional Thanksgiving meal. You release it the week before Thanksgiving, but you start using clips of it to preview the episode in late October. Some posts can be video clips generate from the actual episode. Others can be pulled quotes that you turn into nice graphic designs. Posts can also be photos from behind the scenes recording the episode. 🍁🦃

See how by making a branded podcast, you can do less social media work while still keeping engagement strong on your platforms?

Branded Podcast + Email

Email strategy is another marketing piece that dovetails nicely with podcasting. 💌

From the email perspective, you want increased email sign-ups, high open rates, and high click through rates of your emails. If you can get actual engagement in the form of potential clients emailing you back, then that’s even better.

Brand podcasting can bring you those results. 💯

In your episodes, you can tell your audience they can learn more about a topic through links sent out in your emails. This can drive email sign-ups and open rates.

You can link your podcast in your email, so interested folks can click to listen to it. This can increase click through rates. 👍

On the other hand, emails then help your podcast numbers. A short email in their inbox can remind folks there is a new episode to listen to. Give little teasers to get them to click play.

Some people may have never listened to a podcast in their life, but because they see it in your newsletter they give it a try! 😍

Also, on your podcast you can ask for listeners to email you feedback. That kind of direct email communication is one of the highest forms of engagement you can get!

Branded Podcast + Networking

The last section we’ll talk about in terms of maximizing your assets through a branded podcast, is integrating it with your network growth strategy. 👥

First, let’s look at how a podcast helps your networking.

Cold calling someone and just saying “hey let’s network” is super awkward and won’t work. But if you call someone and say “I’ve seen your work and would love to talk to you about being on my podcast,” that’s enticing! 📞

You have an excuse to meet with them and learn more about them. They also get to know you. Since your podcast is clearly about your brand, you can talk business.

If the meeting goes well, great! If not, no biggie.

Then you strengthen that new relationship by scheduling them as a guest on your show. Through the prep and the show itself, you will strengthen that connection. Plus, you are giving guests the gift of getting in front of your listeners. Everyone loves free marketing opportunities! 🥳

On the other hand, networking helps brand podcasts.

After you are in an industry for some time, you naturally build a network. While you have probably already thought about using that network for things like referrals, there is something else you can use it for– podcast content and cross promotion! 👯

Especially if your podcast format is interview based, one business network contact can be a whole show. Not only is this easy content, but you also have the opportunity to get your podcast exposed to their audience. Just make sure they share the episode with their social media networks and email lists!

Summary

Branded podcasts are a powerful, affordable way to boost your business. 🏆

Quality content can be repurposed across platforms and strategies. Each member of your team can contribute without adding too much to everyone’s plate.

You can do a narrative structure, interviews, or even interact with your listeners by answering audience questions.

Plus, if it is ever not working for you, you can simply end the series without a fuss. The podcast series will still stay on podcast listening platforms for a long, long time. Potential clients will be able to find them for years to come. 👵

To sum it up: There is basically no risk to branded podcasts and a really high chance of success and rewards!

Thanks for giving this blog post a read! And as always, enjoy the podcasting journey! 🚀