Listen Up! How to Reach Audiences with Audio

What have you listened to lately?

If you are like most Americans, you’ve tuned in to an AM/FM station at least once in the last week. But there is also a growing likelihood that at some point you’ve accessed a podcast.

More than half of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast at some point, whether it was focused on news and politics, society and culture, comedy, sports or some other topic. In fact, according to the statistics gathered here by Transcription Outsourcing, 104 million Americans ages 12 and up listen to podcasts each month.

It makes sense—while we have a desire for content, many of us are looking for ways to break away from the screens that have dominated life, especially in the last two years. Podcasts fit that niche of providing valuable information or entertainment, without being chained to a screen, yet they offer the on-demand flexibility that can’t come from radio.

Listening habits are shifting in other ways as well: more time spent with the spoken word and less with music. That tells me listeners are looking for more than entertainment to pass the time.

What conclusions do you draw from the audio marketing statistics listed below?

I see an opportunity to continue to extend content marketing to meet the different ways in which audiences prefer to gather information—including B2B decision makers.

Forbes recently suggested 11 great podcasts for businesspeople and entrepreneurs. The topics range from motivation and personal development to detailed “how-to” guides to develop specific business models.

Think about the content you may already be creating as part of your integrated B2B content marketing strategy. Those webinars could yield short informational podcasts. Your thought leadership blog posts could be translated to audio. If a written Q&A sharing a customer success story is powerful, think how much more powerful and authentic the story will be when your audience hears the actual voice of someone like them who is leading the way in their industry.

As you plan your 2022 content marketing calendar, consider whether there is a place in it for podcasting. Use the same criteria of identifying a topic, customer persona and pain points, and stage of the sales cycle as you would in any other content.

Is it time for a little outside perspective or assistance to bring your content marketing goals to life? Let’s chat about how JONES may be able to leverage expertise and experience with a range of B2B content marketing to help you achieve your goals. Schedule a no-obligation consultation here.