We could have talked about a time or two that podcasts are a wonderful means for B2B entrepreneurs to launch content material. However since my first B2B podcasting put up (manner again within the earlier than instances of 2018, how naive we have been), the panorama has modified considerably.
A part of the shift is as a result of pandemic and the distant/hybrid work increase that adopted. Individuals who used to spend hours listening to podcasts on their commute instantly discovered that the bed room to house workplace commute required much less leisure.
However the different half is just pure maturation and evolution over time. Podcasts have gotten much more plentiful, their creators extra various, and the promoting extra related.
Listed below are the most important developments that B2B podcasters ought to concentrate on for 2022 and past.
Listener Demographics and Habits Are Altering
First, the excellent news: The recognition of podcasts nonetheless reveals no indicators of waning. The truth is, there’s a big block of recent listeners which have been at it for lower than a yr! Individuals are nonetheless discovering and falling in love with the medium.
In line with SCM Media’s 2022 Podcast Report, these listeners have some necessary distinguishing components, in comparison with the outdated guard. First, they’re youthful: Over 66% are beneath 35 years outdated. Second, they’re cut up 50/50 gender-wise (the survey assumed a binary), versus the outdated guard’s 70/30 male cut up.
Podcasts are additionally diversifying, and audiences are as properly. Black and Latine listener swimming pools are rising quick. These teams are drawn by topical pursuits, but in addition by creators who share their life experiences. For instance, over half of Black listeners say it’s necessary their content material be introduced by a Black creator.
These listeners are placing in fewer hours per week — 4.4 versus 7.1 — however they’re additionally listening to extra episodes of various podcasts. Whereas the outdated guard used to pay attention to each episode of their favourite podcasts, the brand new people usually tend to podcast hop based mostly on topical curiosity. That is probably as a result of…
Podcasts Are Getting Simpler to Discover & Search by Subject
For anybody who has ever hosted a podcast, let’s hear an important large, “FINALLY!” As main gamers like Apple, Spotify, Google and YouTube lean into podcasting, we’re beginning to see higher serps and smarter suggestions. Like all machine studying implementations, these algorithms will proceed to enhance over time.
In his podcast predictions for 2022, iHeartMedia’s CEO Conal Byrne explores the implications:
Podcasting will profit from the engineers of those platforms [Google, Youtube and Facebook] aiming their best-in-class search and discovery instruments on the podcasting medium. Lengthy-tail reveals might be found. Evergreen episodes might be highlighted each time related. Maybe greater than something, newsworthy podcast content material will start to floor extra usually in search outcomes and proposals on the platforms all of us use on a regular basis to remain in control.
This growth has two main implications for B2B podcasters: First, podcast search engine optimization might be crucial to seize “podcast hopper” consideration. Meaning each episode ought to have related key phrases within the title and outline for max findability.
Second, your podcast archive could also be extra invaluable than you assume. If podcast platforms might be recommending your older episodes, it’s value ensuring every episode is optimized for search and sounds its finest.
There Are Thrilling New Methods to Monetize & Repurpose Podcasts
Who says podcasts need to be a price heart in your model? It’s getting extra easy to serve related promoting to your podcast viewers—including income whereas your model nonetheless will get the enhance from the podcast content material.
New podcast listeners are 19% extra open to promoting than the outdated guard. So long as advertisements are related, they are saying, it’s okay to interrupt the content material with promoting. That is partly as a result of emergence of DAI (dynamic advert insertion) know-how, which makes it straightforward to custom-fit related, well timed advertisements into current content material.
Livestreaming is one other strategy to monetize an already fashionable podcast. Consider it as internet hosting a webinar, however with extra viewers participation and fewer slideshows. Some dwell podcast occasions (albeit for the most well-liked leisure podcasts) can promote tickets for upwards of $50 a session. Presently, solely 10% of podcasters reap the benefits of livestreams, so it’s a great way in your model to make a splash.
Analysis reveals that listeners are hungry for podcast content material exterior of the podcast platform, too. Instruments like Wavve, which helps create video from snippets of audio, have seen an explosion in reputation, with Wavve itself seeing 7000% progress since 2019.
Brief clips of your podcast on social media are an effective way to reveal your podcast to a brand new viewers, and to provide your current subscribers one thing to snack on between episodes.
Creating and Enhancing Is Simpler than Ever
The previous couple of years has seen the rise of all-in-one podcasting platforms. Not like providers that merely host your content material and syndicate it, these new instruments function audio and video calling capabilities, recording choices, and even modifying instruments proper in your browser.
Instruments like Riverside.fm and Zencastr make it straightforward to seize high-quality audio and get it prepared for publication.
One new participant that’s already getting a ton of consideration is Descript, an all-in-one that generates transcripts routinely and allows you to edit audio by modifying the textual content.
There’s Nonetheless Loads of Room for Progress
There are at present over 2 million podcasts on this planet proper now. However there’s at all times room for extra. Even with the present surge in new listeners, there’s nonetheless 50% of the grownup U.S. inhabitants which have by no means listened to a podcast. They’re simply ready for the correct sound or video clip to talk on to their needs and wishes.
In case you’ve been fascinated by launching a podcast in your model, now is a good time to begin. And we may help! To get began, learn how we helped SAP launch a podcast that smashed benchmarks with each episode.
