How to Monetize a Podcast

What happens with all internet based entities has finally happened to podcasts, after years of people screaming “how can we make money off this?” multiple revenue streams have showed face. Many of these terms will be familiar, as podcasts are now being regarded as content worth paying for. These are the same ways that radio shows, television shows, and online content is made profitable. Take all of these ideas into account when creating your podcast.

Sponsors

Simple and straightforward, if you have the ability to attract sponsors to your series, do it. Remaining an independent endeavor funded by outside companies will allow for your creative freedom to remain unimpeded. Proving the value in your podcast can be rather difficult, but the growing popularity of podcasts helps your sales pitch. Think locally if you’re hyper-focused locally. Think internationally if you have a wide audience. Be creative. 

Media Companies

There’s a mad scramble by media companies to scoop up valuable content. Reach out to media companies in your area. Speak to radio stations, newspapers, podcast studios, and anyone collecting content to see if their interested. This allows a media company to signal boost your series, provide validity, and offer expertise on the production side. 

Coincidentally, this is a great turnkey solution for media companies. Rather than developing a series from scratch they can signal boost an already established brand, attach ad partners, and rake in profits.

Events & Merch

Live podcasts exist. They are high energy events full of surprises and production value. Nobody wants to see one guy quietly talk into a mic, figure out how you can bring your podcast to life. Get involved with events that are already planned or book a stage and make your podcast a live event. 

Merch is a money machine. The host of Comedy Bang! Bang! Has an on-going bit, whereafter a comedian says something funny he’ll say “That’s a shirt.” This became such a ubiquitous catchphrase that he eventually sold “That’s a shirt!” printed on a shirt. Mugs, pens, magnets, and shirts, can all be created and sold through online platforms without podcasters having to do much more than designing the product.   

Paywall

The paywall is a newer concept. HBO and Netflix popularized the subscription service model, but podcasters have been keeping “premium content” behind a paywall as a way to profit off a larger fan base. This can be tricky, because oftentimes producers over value content. Make sure you incentive people to pay, or else you’re just burying your content to never be seen. 

Product Placement

Unlike a blockbuster film, you cannot simply sprinkle Coke cans throughout your set. Product placement is done subtly within a podcast format. Talk about trending topics often? Slip some sponsored talking points into the mix. This is prevalent in radio, for example, Popeye’s could sponsor a radio show frequently and make sure the hosts talk about their new chicken sandwich. This can work for movies, products, other content platforms, and has the added bonus of hitting the listeners with an ad that doesn’t feel like an ad.

Single-Sponsor

Sell out-right. Only needing to conform to one sponsor has its ups and downs. While it provides a steady flow of income, it may give a single sponsor too much control over your production. However, the benefits include partnering with one company heavily invested in your success. Look for like-minded companies with similar demographics that you can reach. 

Lastly, it’s only going to get easier to profit off of your creations in the near future. Creative ideas take the cake, think outside of the box, hone your craft, and recognize what you bring to the table. 

E-Commerce Explosion A Dream Come True for Podcast Advertising

Digital advertising has long held significant advantages over traditional advertising mediums because of its ability to geo-target by location, age, demo, etc. Conversely, podcast advertising wasn’t built on the back of targeting, despite the fact that ads can be auto-inserted into podcasts.

Targeting is Evolving, Especially with Long-Tail Podcasts

Yes, scaling campaigns on a very targeted level has been embraced slowly due to staggered delivery methods across thousands of shows in all geo’s around the country. But, with all the evergreen content available with long-tail podcasts, we’re starting to see a pivot and AdsWizz is all over this technology.

But today, let’s look at how e-commerce and podcasting advertising work together. The explosive rise of e-commerce & retail technology is playing right into podcast advertising’s hands. A small business with a one-storefront shop should find podcast advertising highly valuable, especially if they have built out a powerful e-commerce platform to deliver their products to a targeted online audience.

e-Commerce Plays Into Podcasting’s Hands

Simply look inside the e-commerce numbers and you will see an ‘oil well’ of opportunity for any podcast publisher to drive revenues. Cyber Monday sales this year set a record, delivering $3.5 billion in sales. That’s a 12% increase over last year, with smartphones accounting for more than one out of every five sales. Better yet, from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, according to Adobe Digital Insights, consumers spent $12.8 billion online. That’s right, $12.8 billion with a b. Many online merchants advertised and offered substantial discounts several days leading up to Black Friday.

These marketing strategies, via e-commerce, sync up perfectly to the podcasting advertising industry, and we need to make noise within the digital buying community to better educate them!

As e-commerce continues to increase its share of total retail, the podcasting industry must penetrate this market with fervor. We must educate the buying community on the power of podcast advertising in order to increase our share of any digital budget. The rapid migration to e-commerce provides unprecedented sales opportunities for the entire podcasting industry. Have we done anything, in a unified voice, to untangle the web of choices for small to mid-size businesses to place podcasting buys? Not so much. We need to amplify our strengths, demonstrating together just how fervent and loyal our audiences are. Bottom line, podcast listeners are an e-commerce advertisers dream.

e-Commerce is a dream for the podcasting industry.

No longer do people fear entering their payment details to virtual merchants. Omni-channel marketing has become a major part of any brand strategy. And the speedy delivery of online retailers, logistically, has evolved into infinite choices for consumers. Through advocacy & education, controlling the narrative, and untangling the vast choices businesses have, the podcasting industry should take major strides forward in 2017 and beyond, driving ad revenue. I truly believe, once we finally control the narrative within the digital buying community, we can surpass $1 Billion in ad sales by 2021.

But we must integrate podcasting into the daily digital conversation of e-commerce prospects, as well as the digital buying community…first, by educating ourselves on the complex integrated e-commerce strategies businesses are using. And then, by telling our story on how podcasting advertising syncs up perfectly to any e-commerce marketing strategy. The rise of e-commerce is an oil-well of opportunity for the entire podcasting community.

It’s time to tell our story, in a unified voice, gaining the digital market share we deserve.

New Podcasters Ready to Promote Shows? A Look at Facebook Advertising

With social technology expanding every day, it has never been easier to connect with your customers and clients. For content creators, the era of social media allows small content providers to effectively promote and market their podcasts in an economical way to a very targeted demo, ultimately incrementally growing your listener base.

For independents, entering the realm of content creation, Facebook advertising has provided a powerful marketing platform to deliver their content in front of their exact demographic.  Targeting via likes, interests, hobbies, age, demo, etc. provides a broad target to choose from.  If you’re ready to experiment in expanding your podcast into uncharted territory, then Facebook advertising may be your answer.

Are you ready to have others discover your podcast?

The first thing you have to ask yourself is ‘are you really ready’ for others to discover your podcast?  For the new podcaster, it’s important to have a number of shows already ‘on the books’ as well as a consistency on when you will push out your next show. Obviously, one of the most important goals is to get more people to listen to your content, but until you are fully prepared with a consistent plan of distributing new content, don’t bother investing in a marketing strategy.  Before you can start any marketing campaign (podcasts or otherwise), make sure to quantify exactly what your goals are. A generic goal such as “get more listeners” will invariably lead to failure because you won’t be able to move forward afterward if you don’t have a consistent plan on distributing future shows. Be overly prepared before attempting a marketing strategy.

Are You Going to Measure ROI of Your Advertisement?

What is the cost-justification of placing a Facebook ad to promote your podcast? Are you setting a target goal for new listeners to subscribe to your email list or RSS feed? Facebook ads are an analytics dream, as you are able to monitor and track how well your ad does. Facebook allows you to experiment with targeting, and you can easily track your progress. But you need to set measurable goals to justify the opportunity cost of investing in Facebook ads.

Facebook ads easily track how many visitors clicked through to your site after your ad went live. For podcasts, the primary way of measurement is to track daily downloads. Be sure to monitor your average daily downloads prior to your ad so you can make an assessment of success. This way, you will have reliable data from which you can analyze the success of your campaign.

Why Not Set Up A Trackable Landing Page?

To get a clear understanding on measurement, we recommend setting up a campaign to a vanity url where your podcast can live. In this case, it will be “clicks to website.”  On your landing page, you can have detailed information about your podcast, scheduling, opt-in emails, and a link to iTunes. This way, by having a landing page and driving your ad to a specific URL, you can easily track the success of your campaign.

Facebook provides you detailed reporting on clicks you to your site. You can then create a metric based on web visits & contract it to the number of downloads. For example, if you have one hundred people clicking on your podcast URL and 35 downloaded the show, you can measure success as a 35% download rate. From there, you can tweak your content or your ad targeting, based on the success of your campaign.

Mobile vs. Desktop Ads

When creating a new marketing campaign, it’s important that you know where to reach your audience. While desktop ads can be effective, far more Facebook users are accessing their feeds on a mobile device. Think about it, do you normally check Facebook on your computer or your phone?

Similarly, podcast listeners will usually listen to content when they’re out and about, on-the-go…while waiting in line, riding the bus, etc. So that means that it’s imperative that you reach out to your new customers where they are swimming. That means focus on mobile ads, not desktop. Additionally, you can go one step further and limit your ads to iOS or Android devices, depending on who hosts your podcast.

Targeting Your Audience

Back in the old days, you would run an ad campaign that would target as many people as possible, with the hope that a certain percentage would pay attention and act on the ad campaign. These days, however, you can target specific demographics in a way that was not possible before. Thus, depending on the content of your podcast, you can potentially find everyone who would thoroughly enjoy it, thus creating higher conversion rates.

For example, if your podcast is about the aviation industry, you will want to target people who have interests within that industry. If you talk about movies, then you will want to target cinephiles and movie buffs. No matter how niche your content is, you can find a market for them. That makes Facebook ads so appealing…the targeting aspect.

If you want to cast a wider net, then Facebook will allow you to market to people based on a vast array of interests. If a specific episodes covers a unique topic (or interest), you may change the targeting based on the episode & the target.

Ad Type & Images

So now that you know who to target and how to track your progress, what do you do about the ad itself? There are two options available to you: image and video ads. Both of them have their strengths and weaknesses, so let’s break them down.

If you have a logo for your podcast, then be sure to use it for branding purposes. However, a logo is not enough to grab people’s attention. You can use images of yourself, your podcast setup, and possibly your guests if you interview other people. If you manage to get a high-profile guest, then use a picture of your guest embedded with your logo.

For the most part, though, image ads have to be bold and captivating to get your audience’s attention. You may want to have a graphic designer create a Facebook ad that elevates your messaging.

Video

As far as advertising goes, video ads are becoming much more popular on Facebook. Perhaps the prevalence of clip-based media such as Snapchat and Instagram is helping to drive this trend, but nonetheless, videos are hot right now.

The best way to create a video ad is to follow this simple formula.

  • Keep it short (10-15 seconds)
  • Talk to your audience directly
  • Pitch your podcast as if you’re selling it as a product
  • Show some behind the scenes footage
  • Make yourself the star

Overall, as long as you can make your video ad engaging and compelling, then your audience will be more apt to tune in. If you are boring or unimaginative, then you will turn people off, which could wind up hurting you more as you become more infamous than famous.

Conclusion

When it comes to making sure that your podcast stands out from the crowd, Facebook advertising can help drive a new loyal audience, and it can help put small independent podcasters successful. At the very least, it will provide you online relevancy…which won’t hurt!  However, the most important thing to remember is that your content has to be ‘ready-for-the-public’, and must have consistency in distribution to provide sustainable value. If you have a terrible podcast or don’t consistently upload fresh content, then no amount of advertising will help you.

In short, produce excellent content on a regular basis, and your audience will grow naturally while using Facebook as a marketing tool.

Entercom’s Pact with ‘Cadence13’ Changes Podcast Trajectory for CBS Radio’s Talent

It will be a new day for CBS Radio and their podcast platform, pending final Justice Department approval (expected November 17) with their merger with Entercom. And let’s just say it’s an unprecedented opportunity for Entercom to harness the personalities and assets CBS Radio delivers. With iconic spoken word stations across the country, formats that align organically to the podcast industry, they’ve admittedly struggled in driving podcast ad revenues despite a vast roster of shows.

Their top executives (I know, because I used to work there) will be the first to admit that they’ve had a limited ‘podcast strategy’ and have yet to allocate enough resources to thrust the platform forward. Understandably, there’s been a wait-and-see attitude until the merger goes through to figure this ‘podcast thing’ out. <Full Disclosure: I turned down the opportunity to oversee the Podcast Sales Division at CBS Radio in April 2016, leaving to start TopPodcast.com and have massive respect for the current Digital leadership at the company> 

In what was a bold ‘pre-merger’ move, Entercom invested in Cadence 13 (formerly DGital Media), a move that will surely change the podcast landscape for the new company, bringing in an experienced team that accelerates podcast curation and surely revenues.

Entercoms Partnership With Cadence 13 Is A Big Deal For CBS Radio Talent

Entercom executives have been aggressive in shaping the future of the new company. The move (announced in August) in acquiring a 45% stake in the company for $9.7 million sent shockwaves throughout the podcast community.

Click To Visit Site

Not only does Entercom see an obvious opportunity to drive podcast advertising revenue, it is an acknowledgement that a vast media organization like CBS Radio provides a seamless transition to the podcast evolution. Why it has taken this long for radio to make a dominant move into the space (other than NPR and more recently iHeart Radio) is surprising…but better late than never!

A couple observations:

  • The partnership sends a clear signal that the podcast platform is one that Entercom and their executives takes very seriously
  • Entercom’s $9.7 million investment highlights a realization that they are salivating over CBS Radio’s unlimited podcast revenue potential via their spoken-word news & sports stations (and the powerful personalities within)
  • The move is a clear signal that Entercom is willing to invest in the podcast platform the that way NPR & iHeart have done (iHeart made big moves a year ago, bringing in SVP Chris Peterson to lead their aggressive podcast strategy)
  • Cadence 13 brings the experience necessary to control all facets of execution, from content curation, to production, to marketing…and most importantly, experts in the podcast field to help steer the strategy
  • CBS Radio made their own preemptive move, scrapping their confusing Play.it podcast network (thank god), and completely overhauling their Radio.com website and app (a great move by current CBS Radio Digital execs who have made tremendous strides over the last year prepping for the merger) – check it out by clicking on the banner below.
Check it out!

NPR Is The Perfect Podcast Mentor for the Newly Merged Company

In the same capacity that NPR is a news-gathering organization, CBS Radio is also a premier ‘news-gathering’ organization with their aforementioned iconic spoken word format (News, Sports, Politics)

An analysis of the success that NPR has had, with limited resources, turning their ‘news-gathering’ organization into a revenue-generating podcast powerhouse, must excited Entercom executives in regards to the assets they now control.

Even what was once considered an ‘old-school media outlet’, the New York Times has reinvigorated their digital properties, along with successfully capturing a massive loyal audience through their podcast “The Daily”.

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Why has NPR cracked the code in driving a tremendous podcast revenue strategy, one that other Radio publishers have yet to capture?

Click to Listen!

Here’s a few reasons:

  • NPR has been able to significantly monetize their podcast platform, using a formula that allows their ‘reporters’ and ‘spoken word’ formats to thrive in a new age of on-demand digital consumption
  • The podcast platform is one that is embraced at every level within the company, from programming to sales to marketing…it’s an all-in strategy 
  • Most importantly, they’ve significantly invested in the platform, nurturing and testing shows, all of which align with their audience…and they’re not afraid to have a bogey once in a while.
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In my article “NPR: An Authentic News Gathering Organization That Has Always Leaned In”, I highlighted just how exceptional NPR has been on the podcast side of the table and why other Radio organizations could have mirrored their formula earlier.

NPR has clearly figured out the podcast formula & the execs at Entercom must realize the untapped opportunity CBS Radio delivers with their talent of on-air personalities.

Entercom Sees Significant Value in Spoken Word (especially Sports)

What does CBS Radio have that most Radio brands don’t? News reporters & sports radio personalities scattered across the country that come with their brand! They also partner with The New York Yankees, The Philadelphia Phillies, The Philadelphia Eagles, and the Chicago Cubs, to name a few of the powerful Sports Radio Networks they have.

The combination of news and sports stations provide an unprecedented opportunity to curate new custom podcast content, not just re-purposing current popular radio shows, of which CBS Radio primarily relies on.

It’s apparent that ENTERCOM  sees a major opportunity to drive podcast ad revenues. And that means that the best is yet to come for CBS Radio & their on-air personalities. 

The question will be how fast can Entercom capitalize on the reach and power of local personalities that dominate local conversations, curating content beyond the limitations of traditional re-purposed radio. And can they get their sales teams  to execute a revenue generating strategy that works or will they simply rely on Cadence 13 to drive podcast ad sales?

Local, Local, Local –> Personalities In Local Markets Will Drive Podcasting

A few weeks back, we featured both Wayne Cabot & Patti Steel, two on-air  CBS Radio personalities who host “News on the Rocks” on what used to be called Play.it — now Radio.com.

#TopPodcast Podflueners Wayne Cabot, morning news anchor at WCBS-AM 880 and Patti Steele, co-host of The Scott Shannon in the Morning Show on CBS FM, have taken it on their own to get their podcast off the ground. It’s just one example of the in-house talent just waiting for an opportunity to blossom.

Cadence 13 brings legitimate podcast expertise to the new company, delivering the much needed resources ‘in-house’ to catapult podcasts like News on the Rocks forward.

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‘Building a Bridge Between The Old & New Media World’ – The Conundrum Cadence 13 Can Help Solve

The podcast conundrum is just a microcosm of what has been a slow evolution for Radio organizations to embrace digital change, top to bottom. But the partnership with Cadence 13 changes the narrative for a major publisher and they bring immediately the following tools:

  • Original Content Creation Opportunities
  • Monetization of the Podcast Platform
  • Multi-Platform Distribution & Cross-Promotion

As podcast industry expert Nick Quah mentioned in his newsletter HOT POD, just after the DGital Media (Cadence13) partnership was announced:

DGital Media has always struck me as fascinating, exhibiting a blend of old- and new-school that turned out to be somewhat effective. Founded and built by Westwood One alums — a cadre that includes CEO Spencer Brown, President David Landau, and Chief Content Officer Chris Corcoran, along with many other imports up and down the staff directory — the podcast company has firmly worked off what you could call a familiar playbook: build a roster of personalities across well-validated genres (business, sports, comedy, politics), develop a portfolio of talk programming on top of them, and leverage their advertising expertise and relationships carried over from their radio days.

In a nutshell,  yes Cadence 13 “allows CBS Radio & Entercom to build a bridge between the old and the new media world, as Nick stated…but most importantly it implements a strategy that firmly aligns with the changing consumption habits of their loyal listeners”. 

And it’s about time…

 

 

 

 

10 Trends That Make The Podcast Medium Great Again

Wow, we’re already half-way through 2017 and it has already been a ‘HUGEEE’ year for on-demand audio as publishers continue to fight for your loyalty & listenership. We’re likely to see more industry consolidation too, which ultimately should make your choice of discovery easier.

The team at TopPodcast.com wanted to take a moment and review, from the perspective of a digital marketer, what we believe are the Top 10 Podcast Trends that are helping make podcasting great again (excuse the non-partisan pun).  Here goes nothing:

1.  Mobile is King, making listening at your fingertips

It’s undeniable the impact the smartphone has had and continues to have on the podcast medium. This certainly has made podcasting readily available to the masses.  Mobile accessibility has exponentially enhanced the trajectory of the industry, with Podcast consumption on smartphones reaching over 80%. This means listening is literally at everyone’s fingertips, where just a few years ago podcast discovery was way more cumbersome.

 

2. Consolidation, Speaking in a Unified Voice, and the Top dogs

With so many confusing choices for audio consumers to stagger through, industry consolidation is upon us…and it’s just a matter of time until dominos start to fall (tick tock tick tock). Just as important will be watching what the big audio and streaming players do (Spotify, Apple, Pandora, Sirius, etc). We already saw Sirius taking a bite out of Pandora (incremental consolidation). Apple has stepped up, announcing that analytics are finally coming. And it’s great to see Spotify curating custom podcasts while watching iHeart invest in people and the platform. Then, there’s the ‘Air Force One’ of the industry , NPR. No matter what the audio powerhouses end up doing, look for the industry to eventually begin to move in a unified voice, consolidating for the better. I also liked the effort of #TryPod, as far as 37 publishers coming together to finally promote the industry…as one! At least that’s a small step in the right direction.

3.  More Reputable Broadcasters from TV & Radio Enter the Podcast Industry

Seeing what broadcasters like Mike Francesa do after his contract ends at WFAN bodes well for podcasting. As mainstream broadcast influencers continue to jump head first into the industry, they’re going to bring ‘tons’ of newpods with them (first-time listeners). Reputable, established broadcasters want relevancy and the clout of having control…hence, creating their own podcast only makes sense. As they jump in (like Bill O’Reilly did), they bring with them massive social media reach. This trend will only enhance podcast listenership, driving revenues, as new broadcasters enter the vast field of podcasting. It’s the ‘monkey-see monkey do’ attitude that is taking hold of the industry.

4.  The Impact of Live Audio & Video

While live audio, via Facebook, provides an opportunity to drive discovery, the question is whether the industry wants to allow Facebook to control delivery. As we know, Facebook often changes algorithms to best impact their selfish revenue streams, so this is a bit of a wild-card. However, YouTube, and repurposing audio continues to be explosive since podcasters & publishers alike can share in the revenue. Any way you slice it, video will impact on-demand audio, especially when it comes to discovery, distribution, and revenue.

5.  Voice Technology Devices Are “Hear” to Stay

How many of you purchased Alexa over the holiday, or the Amazon Echo? There’s no denying the trajectory of voice command technology, and podcast publishers all will align with this technology. Whether it’s speaking to Siri, listening to a podcast on Amazon Echo when you cook, voice technology is here to stay…or should we say ‘hear’ to stay.  And yes, all this voice-activated technology will be available on the dashboard of your car. So, the industry must align with it! And it will enhance discovery, making it less cumbersome to listen and discover your favorite podcast.

6.  Radio & TV Incorporate Podcasting With Their Long-Term Vision

Innovation starts with an entrepreneurial spirit and terrestrial radio companies have found it painfully difficult to embrace change. Watching Spotify, Pandora, and other audio companies drive a digital narrative has been painful for many in the industry.  Our prediction is that you’ll finally see Radio put digital innovation at the top of the food chain, giving them a seat at the table, demanding old-school programmers pivot to where consumers are discovering content. We like what we see at iHeart, especially with the roll-out of their premium app & their focus on a podcast strategy.

In addition, the ‘mainstreaming of podcasting’ is hitting Broadcast Television too. Have microphone, will podcast. Shows like 60 Minutes, Meet the Press, CBS Sunday Morning News, The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and 48 Hours are giving a shot in the arm to the industry. Content can easily be re-purposed, via a podcast. If Radio & TV  promote the hell out of the platform, there’s no limit on how successful they will be in capturing an already large audience to explore their on-demand platforms.

7.   Programmatic Becomes Real in Podcast Advertising Especially for Evergreen Content

There’s no holding back the digital trend towards programmatic advertising, dynamically inserting one-to-one targeted ads, regardless of device, into a show. Spots will be pre-recorded segments that can easily fit into any podcast listening format. Companies like Adswizz are bringing dynamically inserted ads to podcast advertising, strengthening value and life of long-tail podcasts.

Despite incremental advances in programmatic solutions, this is where podcast advertising loses its endearing charm, the one-to-one personal engagement with the host. However, programmatic can help solve delivery problems for shows with long-tails and drive revenues for shows with evergreen content and excess inventory. It can fill capacity, driving revenues effortlessly for the industry. There’s no denying the evolution towards programmatic and the digital demands calling for geo-targeted dynamic inserted ads.  The fact remains that these ads won’t have the same clout of live native ads, but it will help solve inventory issues for long-tail shows. Bottom line, we hope the industry controls access points to this type of advertising as not to diminish CPMs or dilute the live-read charm.

8.  Experiential Marketing & Live Podcasts Work Together

 

Brands love creating compelling content, and nothing does a better job than using live experiences to capture and deploy one’s brand message, which then can be shared virally via social platforms.  Using podcast influencers (podfluencers) makes sense for brands, having ‘live podcasts’ on site. Bringing an ad campaign to life through the extension of traditional advertising syncs up perfectly to podcasting, and the PR & influencer engagement, on-site, adds substantial value that certainly will ignite social sharing.

9.  Native Advertising Continues to Grow

Major brands have embraced native advertising strategies, and nothing works better in the podcasting industry than organic, live reads (endorsements). Brands like Mac Weldon, Blue Apron, and Wix view podcasts hosts as brand ambassadors, to deliver messaging to an audience that wants to hear what the podcaster is saying. The growth of native advertising and driving integrating messaging succinctly across multiple platforms will continue to make podcast advertising highly attractive in 2017. We just have to make some major noise within the digital buying community, advancing a narrative must be heard.

10.  Custom & Branded Content Strategies

Big brands are getting so comfortable with the concept of podcasts, that they’ve started to literally produce their own. Companies like, Netflix, and Prudential have successfully done it, and Slate and Panoply have teams that work with brands to execute this strategy. GE has one of the more established success stories in this space (yes, a 100-year old company like GE), created an eight-episode sci-fi series called The Message. They’ve continued to shape their brand message with another series called “LifeAfter. When companies like GE see the value of podcasts, you know the herd will start following soon.

Final thought, there’s another IMPORTANT fact that is making podcasting great again. As much we are exhausted with the political discourse in the country, it is driving demand for political podcasts like POD SAVE AMERICA. There’s no doubt that news gathering organizations are thriving. Traditional media outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and of course NPR! I could have easily put this paragraph at the top of the list, and made 11 items a part of this story…but 10 made for a better title.

If you’d like to learn what podcast advertising can do for your business, please check out our Podcast Business Center. We’re just getting started!

The Impact Facebook’s Live Audio Might Have on Podcasting

Let’s think about this concept; Facebook executives have gone on the record in saying that in five years, there’s a chance that the platform as we know it will be all video and no text.  While I personally think that’s aggressive thinking, what does this mean for audio, text, and content distribution?

Last June,  Quartz reported:

In five years time Facebook “will be definitely mobile, it will be probably all video,” said Nicola Mendelsohn, who heads up Facebook’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, at a conference in London. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has already noted that video will be more and more important for the platform. But Mendelsohn went further, suggesting that stats showed the written word becoming all but obsolete, replaced by moving images and speech.

What about audio?

Back in December, Facebook announced a new feature called Live Audio. This delivers an easy interface for those delivering book readings, interviews, and news radio, through ‘live audio’ on Facebook. Contrast this to the Live Video feature that has exploded on Facebook. Similarly, listeners/viewers to live audio sessions can leave reactions in ‘real-time’ to the audio.

Facebook stated in their blog:

We know that sometimes publishers want to tell a story on Facebook with words and not video. We’ve even seen some Pages find creative ways to go live and reach audiences with audio only by using the Facebook Live API or by adding a still image to accompany their audio broadcast.

 

Our new Live Audio option makes it easy to go live with audio only when that’s the broadcaster’s preferred format. We also know that publishers sometimes go live from areas that lack strong network connectivity. Though we alert the broadcaster if their signal is low, Live Audio presents another option for connecting with audiences in real time from low-connectivity areas.

With the explosion of Facebook Live, I’m curious to see the evolution within the podcasting realm and will the podcasters use the platform to their advantage? Is it possible that Facebook could actually transform into a relevant podcasting platform? In our opinion, maybe. But it’s way too early to make any determination as it’s still in the top of the first inning.

There’s no doubt that it has the opportunity to disrupt the industry…favorably. But it comes down to whether or not content creators are going to actually aggressively use the Live Audio platform, thus encouraging new consumption habits. Bottom line, it can expand podcasting to a new audience, for sure, via social methods. Most importantly, it will deliver audio-first content into the newsfeeds of a prospective new audience.

For the time being, only Android products allow a listener to leave the app or lock your phone and continue listening. iOS listeners are only capable of listening while on Facebook.

As Mashable noted,

The concept of broadcasting live audio isn’t new to Facebook. Some publishers have already found ways to do live audio  simply by leaving a still image up on a live video stream on the platform.

In addition, according to publicly released information, publishers are anxiously awaiting to align with Facebook. Radio shows such as “BBC World Service” and “LBC (Leading Britain’s Conversation),” publisher Harper Collins and authors Adam Grant and Britt Bennett will be partnering up with Facebook to test this new feature.

Live Audio Brings Limitless Opportunity for Wide-Range of Content

Techcrunch.com highlighted the impact Live Audio could have:

  1. Radio stations could broadcast their programs
  2. Podcasters could find new online distribution for their episodes
  3. Authors could do live readings of their books
  4. Celebrities could do Q&As without worrying about how they look on camera
  5. News anchors could broadcast audio from disaster zones or areas of crisis where bandwidth may be too overloaded for video streaming
  6. Musicians could broadcast concerts or studio sessions

In our eyes, this looks like a tremendous opportunity for the long-term ability to push podcasting to an entirely new audience. Again, it takes effort and focus, and the industry must expand beyond its comfort zone of distribution platforms. Independents may be more aggressive more so than large publishers, looking for you to utilize their platforms.

Finally, this appears to be a huge opportunity to drive revenues as Facebook develops a revenue sharing platform with publishers & podcasters.  The industry is waiting for a ‘big player’ to make a move. Could this it? Let’s hope it incentives Apple to get moving too!