With Podcasts, It's All About Intimacy

Listening to a Podcast

At a recent networking event, I was telling people what I do and many of them asked the same question, "what's so special about a podcast?"  A lot of these people were in the digital marketing space and played up the importance of blogging, social media, video, advertising, etc.  And their collective attitude towards podcasting was simply "oh, another marketing channel we have to put some effort into."  As if it was literally just the audio form of being on Tumblr or the same thing as posting a video on YouTube but without the pesky need to be in front of the camera.

But podcasting's strength as a communications medium is so much deeper than many people realize.  The true strength of digital audio is in its intimacy.   More than 50% of the podcast listening audience consumes this media on a mobile device (smartphone/tablet/portable audio player) according to the Infinite Dial report from Edison Research and Triton Digital.  Most of those users are probably listening with headphones or are simply alone with their device.  In essence, listeners are individual audiences of one for content creators, and, as a result, good hosts know that they have to talk to their audience, not at them.

When listeners find a podcast that speaks to them, they easily feel like they are part of a community of other people that are in on the same conversation.  For me, listening to podcast interviewers like Marc Maron or Chris Hardwick, feels more like a conversation between friends that I am privy to than a produced piece of content. I connect with the hosts and the guests, forming what feels like an emotional connection.  

And that emotional connection is not only going to help you grow your audience, it's what is attracting new sponsors to podcasts every day.  Digiday's Senior Editor Lucia Moses highlighted the power of that relationship earlier this year when she wrote about Slate's podcast strategy and why brands like Acura want to get in on the action.

“For us, podcasting is not just another form of audio, but a means for advertisers to break through clutter and for people to give just a few minutes of their day or week to connect on a more personal, meaningful level with media personalities and outlets they trust and are interested in,” [Jessica Fini, spokeswoman for Acura]".

Any brand can pay to get their name in front of you.  Some spend $3 million on a Super Bowl spot, others shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to appear in the trending section of Twitter and anyone can post a Facebook ad and beg for your money.  But for just pennies on the dollar right now (let's see how long that lasts) brands can become a part of that relationship that podcasters create with their audience.

Don't believe me?  Just ask the good people at Mail Kimp, err...I mean Mail Chimp, who saw their brand recognition explode on the back of Serial's success.

Anyone can publish content to the masses.  We can tweet, we can post on our Facebook walls, we can blog (present company included), we can post pictures on Instagram and fight for likes.  But if you really want to get intimate with your audience and you have the right message (see 'Should I be a Podcaster'), then this medium could be more fulfilling than you realize.





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