Process, purpose and profit.
Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash
How branded podcasts work and how they work for you.
The best conversations have empathy at their heart. Sure, we can all impress (or distress) with our magnificent verbal dexterity, our subject matter expertise and ability to convincingly win an argument. So far, so good.
However, we can often lose our audience while winning the debate.
So figuring out the purpose of your branded podcast may lead to a whole different process and consideration set. And that would include consideration of how you might profit from a branded podcast. Profit may come in the form of financial gain, as it does for many branded audio creators.
There are more ways to benefit from your audio adventures.
Consider the connection you might make with existing fans of your brand. Deepening the relationship and opening their perception of your brand to new areas they had not been aware of before. And of course, with a publicly shared podcast, there’s the opportunity to cast your net wider to find new audiences, new customers and new partners who may become open to choosing you over the competition… maybe because it’s your brand that starts the conversation, leads the debate or just provides insight freely that nobody else has thought to do.
Maybe you have access to incredible guests that others don’t….
And we’ve not even got to the opportunities arising from company-wide and private internal podcasts. While connecting with your remote / hybrid workforce to build and nurture your unique brand culture, there’s a chance to include and involve your teams and employees in the making and sharing of ideas.
Beyond all the leadership memos and virtual town halls, this is an occasion to democratise your culture - on a channel that is freed from the shackles of the omnipresent screen (bear in mind, many employees don’t work at a screen), that does not require deep and detailed reading and writing, that is at once both social and incredibly intimate. Remember, most people listen to podcasts on headphones, alone, at a time and place of their choosing. It hardly feels like work at all.
Ask not what a podcast can do for you, ask what your branded podcast can do for your audience.
But before we get carried away with all wonderful benefits, it’s worth considering the core purpose of your branded podcast. And if this does not include your audience first, second and last,, then it’s time to think again.
This small shift in gaze will have an enormous impact on the quality, results and the substance of your branded podcast. So in your neatly numbered list of things to do first when creating a branded podcast, number 1 should be, ‘Who is it for?’. Closely followed by ‘What do they want or need to hear?’. Then you can start thinking about what kind of show would best suit them. Could be a 5 minute daily meditation. Could be a monthly documentary. Could be a grizzly crime drama series. Or a weekly news update. Podcasts, whether they are produced by a brand or broadcaster, come in all shapes and sizes.
This is the blessing and the curse of what remains a fairly nascent communication tool for brand marketers. Whatever rules there are, can be rewritten by you or anyone else making a podcast.
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Listen to our own podcast ‘Sounds Like…’ wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hear industry leaders, artists, scientists and therapists explore and share thoughts around community, conversation and inspiration.