Personalising your content: Try Podcasting!

By Stef Pesic

Cutting through the noise

In 2022, we believe that embracing personalization will be the key way in which your company can stand out when it comes to marketing content. There are more and more channels for customers to consume — videos, online articles, podcasts, and so on, you name it, there’s a channel for your content to live! This variety of channels brings different ways for brands to communicate with their customers and engage them in their message. So through the noise, how does your brand stand out? How does your content speak to your audience rather than at them?

Rapport, retention and readily available!

Building a rapport with your audience is perhaps one of the hardest things that you can do. Sure, blogs have a ton of advantages, including; increasing your SEO, driving traffic to your website and, as a bonus, you can repurpose blog content for social media…WIN! But, do they have the rapport to build retention? Well, maybe, but podcasts? They definitely do.

Audience retention is key, and as of late we’ve been researching podcasts and how businesses can seriously benefit from tapping into this potentially large audience, who are all ears for your content, literally! As a medium, podcasting has been enjoying a revival for the last few years and, as a result, has been attracting steady listeners and gaining subscribers.

As a bonus, listening to podcasts has never been easier! Bluetooth technology allows people to easily listen whilst driving (hands free of course) and iPhone users have a pre-installed app on every device – it’s just a click away. The range of audiences you could attract are endless!  

But what about the written word we hear you cry?!

Written content can be immensely insightful, but it can’t compare with your physical voice! Do you feel like you have strong people skills? Do you have “good chat”? Well building a connection through an actual dialogue is incomparable and podcasting could be for you!! You can really let your personality shine, let your audience get to know the real you, rather than the more curated persona that you can share on your other socials. Podcasts allow you to riff on a topic of your choice and really showcase your communication chops! 

 Podcasts provide you with a platform that has true transparency – there’s nothing more authentic than you having running inside jokes in your podcasts that your listeners are in on. Your audience will latch on to this, and feel like they are part of your journey! Listeners can really get to understand your personality far more than any written blog (unless you’re a witty writer 😉).

This all helps with building a more personal relationship with your listeners. And you’re all about that right? When you’ve established a strong rapport with a listener, as we’re sure you will, whether that’s just one person or 10 people – they become more emotionally invested in you as a person, which trickles down to them investing time into your business. 

Simply put, people are more likely to sign up to your newsletter when they’ve felt like you’ve provided them some value – whether they listen for purely entertainment or for educational purposes, listeners will feel like you have earned their loyalty, since you haven’t been forcing and selling on repeat your product/services like a broken record. 

Now you’re all ears…

Now that we’ve converted you to the idea of podcasting *wink* *wink*, (once you’ve done some research etc)Maybe there’s a podcast that you listen to privately that perhaps you can find some inspiration that you previously didn’t pay attention to. Remember, podcasts are often on a particular niche – so if you’re offering business advice or any kind of educational content, chances are that people who do tune in will be actively looking for exactly that thing!.  

Need more convincing?, there are currently 2,000,000 Apple podcasts with over 48 million episodes as of April 2021. This number will only continue to increase.

Here are some Podcasts that you can sink your teeth into – all of these podcasts provide both business advice whilst also having a focus on self-development and mindfulness. They all are effective in creating a balance when it comes to the themes and topics they discuss on their shows.

The Garyvee Audio Experience – https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/podcast/

Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman – https://mastersofscale.com/

The Tony Robbins Podcast – https://www.tonyrobbins.com/podcasts/

But how do I actually start?

Of course, having a topic in mind is not the only thing that you would need to consider when starting a podcast. There are many logistical things that need to be considered such as equipment, length of each episode, what music you could use, and what hosting platforms you could choose from. When you’ve narrowed down your niche, and have an outline for your first episode – thinking about how you present your show is important. Will it be in an interview style? Or simply a solo show?   

If you choose an interview style format, the pros are that interviews can be a great way for you to extract information and collect some amazing stories that you alone couldn’t provide to your audience. On the cons however, scheduling interviews and coordinating it all can become time consuming and stressful. 

One thing that an interview style podcast can do that a solo one can’t, is build a rapport and relationship with your guest right on air. You’ll be having a good conversation for several minutes, sometimes even over an hour, and there are times when you can’t help but get to know the person and become friends. Now as an audience member, this makes you come across as likeable and trustworthy. Your audience will feel like they have gained a friend, and are a part of your guests’ friendship since they’ve invested the time and have gotten to know you both. 

Solo shows have a different kind of energy and showcase a different side to you that an interview style perhaps wouldn’t. Firstly they show-off authority, you can build trust with your audience more directly, and you can plan a clear direction in which your episode will go – sometimes when you’re interviewing someone, you can’t fully plan it. That can be both a positive and a negative. With doing a solo show, you must keep in mind that you’ll have to be completely confident and rehearsed in order to keep your audience engaged at all times. There is more pressure on you since you are the only one on the podcast, and carrying the show. 

So now that we’ve covered some of the basics, here are a couple of resources that go into more depth on how to properly prepare for starting your first podcast such as The Podcast Host, Buzzsprout and Podcastinsights. 

To conclude, a voice can engage an audience much better than words on a page can. That voice builds trust and it’s trust that eventually sells a product or service.