8 Ways a Podcast Can Benefit Your Business

Podcasting became a thing in the early 2000s, and since then has grown in popularity. It is now an engaging and convenient way to consume information.

 Whether you are interested in behind-the-scenes facts about your favourite TV Show, cracking open a cold case with amateur detectives, or learning a thing or two about business, if there’s a topic you’re interested in, there’s most likely a podcast to go with it. 

If you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, you should definitely start a podcast. Your business most likely has something unique that it could teach people, while also subtly, or not-so-subtly, promoting your business. 

You might be thinking that podcasting seems like a lot of work for not a lot of reward but that’s not true.

Below I’m going to be breaking down some of the benefits that podcasting has for your business, so keep reading!

Access Valuable Clients

An article from Improve Podcast explains that the average podcast listener is affluent, highly educated, and has a steady income. This means that if you choose to start a podcast, the people listening will be a part of a valuable market for your business. 

This demographic of people are typically busier and would prefer to listen to something rather than read it. After all, you can listen to a podcast while on a walk, stuck in traffic, and doing mind-numbing tasks at your job. It’s a bit harder to read something while doing these activities. 

Build a Community

Podcasting is a great way to build a community of listeners. Throughout a podcast episode, you can lead listeners to check out your podcast’s social media and website.

This will make it easier to directly market your business towards listeners. Through a website and social media, you can start discussions surrounding your podcast, get listeners to sign up for email newsletters, and ask questions to be discussed on the podcast. 

Grow Your Audience

Podcasts are easily accessible to a listener. As long as they have their phone, laptop, or tablet with them, they’ll have access to podcasts.

Because of the easy access listeners have to podcasts, they may seek answers to questions on your podcast. Make your content on-demand to answer the listener’s questions.

Ways you can create on-demand content:

• Answer viewers questions that they asked via your website or social media

• Give shoutouts to the people who asked the question so they know their question is the one being answered

• Demographic research: Know your listeners and their interests so you can answer questions before they ask

Reach Listeners with minimal costs

Apple and Spotify Podcasts are the main way that listeners consume podcasts and both companies invest in podcasts to promote top shows. 

Take the time to see what the top podcasts are doing differently and then do that too. You’ll be able to reach more by using the same formulas that the best podcasts use.

It’s also relatively inexpensive to start a podcast. All you need is a couple of microphones (check out this article to find a microphone that works for you), a quiet room that absorbs sound, and knowledge of your topic. 

Efficiency

Podcasts are a lot less time-consuming to promote. As soon as listeners hit the subscribe button, they will automatically be updated when there is a new episode to listen to. 

This allows you to spend more time promoting your business and less time sending emails that will go unread updating listeners about your podcast. 

Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing, like podcasting, is a relatively new idea. It allows for consumers to be reached through multiple different channels of marketing. Podcasting could be one of them. 

Here are some other examples of other ways to reach potential clients

• Email marketing

• Video content

• Social media

• Traditional advertising

• Written content like blog posts

Adding podcasts to your marketing strategy can be an effective way to reach more people and grow your business.

Your podcast will allow you to have full control over what is discussed so you can easily promote your business within it. 

Enhance SEO

If your business is attached to a podcast, it will be much easier to find on Google. This is because Google indexes each episode of your podcast. This is so people can search for specific topics and find podcast episodes that relate to them. 

A good podcast will increase your chances of ranking higher on Google, which will lead to more traffic to your website. 

It is very simple to use SEO for podcasts. 

• Pick a keyword and use it in the title and description of the podcast

• Use the keyword throughout the podcast episode

• Add the correct ID3 tag

Get Personal with your LISTENERS

Maybe the best benefit of podcasts is that they allow you to get more personal with the listener than a blog post or an email. A good podcast makes the listener feel like they are part of the conversation.

Here are some things you can do throughout your podcast to make it more personal

• Ask the listener questions

• Speak casually

• Understand how your target market thinks

• Tell stories that are relevant to the topic

• Don’t use a script

If your podcast is more personal, listeners will be more likely to visit your website or leave comments on social media because they can relate to you and your podcast.

Written By: Leah Gerber

Conclusion

Podcasting can seem like a challenging thing to do at first, but with time it will create many benefits for you, your business, and your customers.

If you need help making your podcast sound amazing, we offer podcast editing, mixing, and mastering services that can elevate your brand and clearly share your message.

Learn more about all of our podcast production services and hear a sample of our work here. We look forward to adding massive value to your podcast development process.

Ready to get started? Find out the 17 Ways to Make Your Podcast Successful!

Benefits And Tips For Recording An Audiobook For Your Novel

After ebooks, audiobooks are now the next big thing. Sales in audiobooks have increased drastically over the past few years.

Audiobooks are extremely easy to access and listen to. With audiobooks being the next big thing in publishing, writers often ask themselves: how do I turn my book into an audiobook?

The points below will help you guide through creating an audiobook. It contains tips and lists the benefits of creating an audiobook.

Benefits of Recording an Audiobook:

Build your subscriber list

Recording an audiobook has many benefits that can be monetary and non-monetary.

They are the perfect resource for you to use to build up your email subscriber list. By providing an audiobook on your website for consumers to download after providing their email, your email list will increase drastically.

EARN MORE MONEY

Audiobooks are another source of income for you from a single piece of work. 

With the increase in the audiobook market, turning your novel into an audiobook also captures a wider audience. It will help you garner the attention of the audiobook lovers.

And lastly, profits from audiobooks are higher since the cost of production and distribution is low.

IT NEVER SELLS OUT

Unlike printed books, audiobooks don’t have a specific quantity that can be released. They are more like ebooks in this distinction and always stay in stock.

There are many different platforms to sell, market and record your ebooks as well.

IT’S FOR THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE TO LISTEN ON THE GO

For the people who are always on the run, audiobooks are a godsend.

It’s difficult for people who don’t have enough time in their days to sit down and enjoy a good book. That’s where having an audiobook version of a book comes in handy. Like mentioned before, these audiobooks will help capture this kind of audience.

IT’S FOR all types of readers

People tend to read a book at different paces. Some read them within a span of a few hours while others take years to finish a book. 

And although audiobooks cater to both types of readers, the high consumers love them more as it allows them to finish the book faster.

Another advantage of an audiobook is that it encourages slow readers to read more as it’s easier to finish a book when someone else is reading to you.

IT’S FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE TROUBLE READING/DON’T LIKE READING

Books are not enjoyed by everyone and that’s a fact. Reading a book can put them to sleep.

But, with audiobooks now available, these people have the option of someone reading the book to them. This opens up a wider audience for writers to capture.

Apart from people who don’t enjoy reading, some people cannot read due to disabilities. So for people who want to read but cannot due to blindness or dyslexia, audiobooks are a great solution.

NOT SO FIERCE COMPETITION

The audiobook market is fairly new. This reduces the amount of competition for you.

So what does that mean?: It’s easier to get your book noticed in an audiobook format.

Situations In Which You Shouldn’t Record An Audiobook:

AMOUNT OF DIALOGUES

If your book contains a lot of dialogues such as “he said” or “she said”, it could be off-putting to hear it again and again. Repetition of some dialogues or words could become annoying to listeners.

TYPE OF BOOK

Type of book means an instructional book or a novel. You should think to yourself if your book is more of a guide, cookbook or manual, and how it will sound to someone as an audiobook. An instructional book could be awkward as it lacks a flow necessary for an audiobook.

Recording Your Audiobook:

RECORDING it YOURSELF

Recording your audiobook yourself can be very cost-effective. It will also give you complete control over the final product, giving you a chance to make your vision come true as you see fit.

However, recording your own audiobook without any experience can make your final product seem unprofessional. You need time and equipment such as microphones, recording software, etc. to record your own audiobook as well. 

Check out Jony Studios blog Best Podcast Microphone to find the perfect professional microphone for you. Or checkout the Best External Microphones for Your iPhone to find a microphone you can attach to your smartphone!

Lastly, you will also need to learn how to record an audiobook. You will need to learn when to pause, how to use the software, etc.

If you are thinking about recording it yourself, you will be able to save a lot time and headaches by recording your audiobook with a reputable recording studio that has a wide range of experience. Also if you already have the recording they can help get the sound to a professional standard using mixing, mastering and other advanced audio techniques.

HIRING SOMEONE TO RECORD

By hiring someone else to record your audiobook, you won’t have to do the hard stuff yourself. Any professional you hire will know about creating an audiobook, have the time to create it and have the equipment and space to record it. All you’ll have to do is hire them.

But hiring a narrator can be expensive. Without knowing how much your audiobook will earn in sales, the cost of hiring someone could be scary.

If you do decide to hire someone to record your audiobook, you’ll be able to find someone on ACX. You can either pay the narrator upfront or share royalties that you earn from sales.

Recording Duration:

The time it takes to record an audiobook depends on your project. The length of your book, the narrator you employ/time you take to record your book yourself, duration of editing, all factor into the time it takes to complete your project.

ACX estimates that most narrators can read approximately 9,300 words per hour. A 65,000-word book may turn into seven hours of narration.

After you finish your recording and editing, it takes time to go over your final product as well.

Conclusion:

There are many benefits to recording an audiobook for your book. This blog gives you a few additional tips you might need to make your audiobook a success.

Did you find these benefits and tips helpful?

- By Neha Agarwala

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If you need help turning your book into an audiobook, we offer audiobook production services that will help you reach a wider audience and increase your book sales. 

Learn more here and listen to some of our audiobook samples.