Wonder why you should podcast? Let me ask this: Do you enjoy listening to an interesting story? Like learning new things? Enjoy hearing other people’s perspectives on things? If you do, THEY do – so tune in to the why about digital podcasts starting now!
According to Convince and Convert president Jay Baer, 112 million Americans listened to podcasts as of March 2017. That means 40% of Americans age 12 or older tuned in to podcast shows. Separated into smaller numbers, 68 million Americans listen to podcasts monthly, and 42 million Americans listen weekly. Are you getting in on the boom for your business? It’s so easy to do. Essentially, you just need to get started.
People Love to Listen, and that’s Just One Reason Why You Should Podcast!
Julia Roy on Workhacks describes podcasts as “magazine subscriptions for your ears.” Why? Once you subscribe to a podcast channel or show, you automatically receive the show’s next episode. Only unlike paper magazine subscriptions, podcast shows are FREE!
When Compared with Reading Text to Get Information, People Naturally Enjoy Audio More
Biologically, people love to listen to what other people are saying. In short, it’s a natural part of the brain’s communication design, as revealed by a study done in the 1970s by Dr. Albert Mehrabian.
Briefly, Professor Mehrabian’s research revealed the 7-38-55 communication model findings. During his research on non-verbal communication, many discoveries surfaced about communication in general. Here are some interesting findings:
- Only 7% of human communication consists of the message’s literal content.
- The larger percentage of communication, up to 38%, uses a person’s voice, voice tone, intonation, and volume.
- Body language makes up about 55% of communication.
What does all this mean regarding podcasting? Human nature drives us to prefer processing communication verbally (listening) and looking, then reading, when compared with just reading. Therefore, it just makes sense that people naturally want to listen to podcasts!
Listening to Podcasts Engages the Listener
People love listening to digital podcasts because the broadcast intimately engages the listener. Listeners develop relationships with the broadcaster. How? The podcast show host becomes a familiar voice. The things that feel familiar to the brain encourage a secure feeling. We create a habit by repetitively doing the same thing. This also applies to listening to the same podcast personality on a regular basis. So, the more that people habitually listen to a podcast, the more they want to continue tuning in.
Even More Reasons Why You Should Podcast…
The following list highlights various reasons people like listening to podcasts:
- Listeners develop an emotional bond to the show host if that broadcaster shares personal experiences to which the listener can deeply relate
- By making a personal connection with the podcast show’s host, listeners become loyal and open to listening to future show episodes
- Listeners can relate to the show host’s beliefs/interests because those topics are the same or similar to those of the listener
- Podcasts run by 1 or 2 hosts familiar to the listener become like personal communications from a trusted friend
- Regular listeners become emotionally connected and invested in the friendship between listener and host(s) if listeners can share relevant podcast topic comments and feedback, or perhaps be part of the interview. In other words, give your listeners a way to connect with you and they will!
- When the host speaks about the kind of problems he/she experiences during work, such as talking about the salesman who wears a Pigpen-cloud of irritating cologne, and how the host handles/deals with it, or why the host feels excited about an upcoming event, the listeners will relate. Because listeners relate emotionally to what’s being broadcast, they feel passionately driven to keep listening to their favorite shows
- People learn something new by listening to podcasts they find personally relevant to their relationships, situations, and experiences
- When listeners hear something they find interesting, they want to share what they discovered with friends, family, and business colleagues
- People LOVE to be entertained. Serials work very well to entertain people. It’s up to the podcast host to regularly talk about ideas that engage others, and this converts listeners into long-term fans
- Listeners like to hear other people’s perspective about things
The Simple 1-2-3 of Why You Should Podcast
People are regularly tuning in to podcasts. Businesspeople now use podcasts to stay engaged with their target market for these reasons:
1. Listeners become subscribers.
Often, a podcast audience subscribes and downloads business podcasts without even visiting the company website. This means if they already like what you are saying in your podcast, you don’t have to force your presence in front of them on FB, Twitter, etc., using remarketing ads. Subscribed fans automatically receive your latest content on their favorite digital device. It makes economic sense to produce podcasts.
2. Podcasting is easy to do for virtually anyone.
Are you intimidated by technology? Doing podcasts is easy for just about anyone. Podcasting software is affordable. Afraid to perform publicly? You can actually hire coaches to help you overcome your fear of speaking and public performance. Basically, just write out some questions to ask your guest interviewee and then be yourself. Listeners prefer conversational, natural, easy-going podcasts.
3. Podcast advertising sells well.
According to a recent survey of 300,000 podcast listeners, 63% of listeners bought a product promoted by the show’s host.
And if You Still Need Convinced… Here’s a Podcasting Infographic
Infographic courtesy of Concordia University – Saint Paul
Now that YOU See Why YOU Should Podcast – Hop Off the Fence and Get Started!
If you’ve been on the fence about producing your own podcast show, there’s no time like the present! Just imagine all the client possibilities you can realize by becoming a podcaster, and get started.
Still debating about why you should podcast? Or have a podcast tip to share? Put the comments to use!
