In keeping with our 2022 Advertising Traits Survey report, 34% of entrepreneurs plan to cease leveraging podcasts or different audio content material in 2022.

It’s possible due to the most important roadblocks that entrepreneurs nonetheless face within the podcast advertising and marketing house. Two podcast consultants weigh in on the most important challenges and methods to sort out them.

Natural Discoverability

Presently, there are two principal methods to find podcasts: Search via top-ranking podcasts in varied genres or get suggestions based mostly on what you’re already listening to.

This makes it very laborious for lesser-known exhibits to get found organically.

“It is actually laborious for podcasters who’re creating wonderful content material and are nice creators to determine methods to get in entrance of their viewers,” says Alanah Joseph, head of creator partnerships on the HubSpot Podcast group.

At HubSpot, Joseph says our podcast community addresses this by leaning into our cross-promotion technique – this implies inserting advertisements throughout varied exhibits throughout our community whereas guaranteeing viewers alignment.

“As a substitute of going out and looking for new audiences, we’re leveraging the audiences that we have already got and sharing these audiences in a method that helps increase discoverability for the podcasts,” she says. “After which additionally as a result of we’ve a group and we will leverage that advert stock.”

Nonetheless, not each model can go this route. Manufacturers with entry to a big advert finances go for paid promoting, as that ensures you’ll achieve extra publicity and attain your required viewers.

“Quick-term methods will most frequently be paid media, like selling on a podcast participant or operating Fb advertisements,” says Principal Podcast Producer at HubSpot Darren Clarke, as a approach to sort out discoverability. “These performs normally give nice outcomes, however will not essentially be ‘sticky.’”

Different ways embrace cross-posting on a number of channels and rising your social media presence. Many podcasters submit the video model of their content material on YouTube to broaden their attain and get an web optimization increase.

On social media, discovery is way simpler. You’ll be able to construct a group there, market your podcast, and direct visitors to your sequence.

“Some of these natural progress methods take a very long time to register any vital outcomes, however over time, if executed properly, will basically offer you far more management over your distribution,” he says.

Rising a group is one other key method to assist with discoverability. Issues like attending podcasting occasions and reaching out to fellow podcasters will allow you to construct a community of people that can share their audiences with you.

As an illustration, being a visitor on one other podcast whose viewers aligns with yours may be extremely useful for manufacturers with restricted assets.

“The viewers will get to satisfy you, will get to study you, get to know your values, [and] why you have got a podcast,” she says. “All of these issues are necessary for not solely driving visitors but additionally constructing retention and loyalty.”

Clarke echoes this sentiment, saying that while you visitor host, having a compelling message and an inviting name to motion is important for it to function a progress lever.

He additional cautions that promotion, advertising and marketing, viewers constructing, and group improvement are all progress mechanisms that require completely different approaches. As such, they’ll require a unique set of expectations and ROI.

Information Insights

As entrepreneurs, information is our lifeline. It tells us who our viewers is, what they’re responding to, and far more. Joseph says with podcasts, information insights are restricted.

“With monitoring and reporting, the most important challenge within the podcast business is as a listener, you aren’t in a position to settle for cookies,” she says.

Because of this podcast entrepreneurs are restricted within the data they’re in a position to collect on their viewers, notably monitoring how they’re behaving after listening to an episode.

What you sometimes get is the next:

• Geolocation
• Listens (distinctive listens, common listening time, and so forth)
• Subscriber depend and tendencies
• Downloads (complete downloads, common downloads, and so forth)

And sometimes, Joseph says, you must compile information from a number of sources which isn’t all the time correct or dependable.

One key piece of information that’s lacking is listener demographics, equivalent to gender, age, and training. Because of this, constructing out a powerful social media presence turns into much more necessary in understanding your viewers.

From LinkedIn, as an example, you may uncover an individual’s title, determine the place they’re of their profession, and why they’re tuning into your podcast.

Regardless of these roadblocks, Joseph believes that tech is lastly catching up with the world of podcasting.

“There’s numerous innovation proper now and lots of people are creating cool expertise to assist this huge group of creators,” she says. “So, I really feel optimistic that a few of these issues can be solved.”

Variety in Voices

Whereas this problem isn’t particular to podcast advertising and marketing, it does have an effect on the business as an entire.

Joseph mentions that there’s nonetheless numerous work to be executed relating to the range of voices in podcasting.

“To start with [of building the HubSpot Podcast Network], extra so than now, that was the large problem that I confronted,” she says, “How do I create a community that is reflective of the American workforce?”

That is very true within the enterprise style, the place top-ranking exhibits aren’t led by BIPOC creators. As a community, you need to have an inventory of robust exhibits however you additionally need to be sure that it’s balanced in illustration.

“I might like to see extra ladies and extra folks of coloration rise to the charts in our style particularly,” she says. “That is one thing that we’re actively making an attempt to work via and have been for some time.”

There’s little question that there are nonetheless numerous challenges inside podcast advertising and marketing, as platforms and serps catch as much as this thriving business. Nonetheless, there are nonetheless many workarounds that manufacturers can leverage to succeed in their goal listeners and develop their subscriber base.