The real benefits of starting a podcast

Every marketing person in the world has heard the all-too-familiar phrase, “should we start a podcast?” at this point. Before you start buying equipment, however, you should know the benefits of starting a podcast. Like every other marketing or communication effort, no plan = failure.

As a pro podcaster, I can tell you the benefits of starting a podcast aren’t immediately obvious. After years of developing my own show and doing live radio did I learn.

What are the benefits of starting a podcast?

The benefits of starting a podcast are boosting your authority in your niche, gaining access to incredible individuals, creating an endless flow of great digital content, and dramatically increasing inbound web traffic via rich unique search-engine-optimized content. Let’s dig in…

Improve authority in your niche

Without a podcast, you’re a no-name rando that no one knows. But with a podcast, people can get to know you and understand how you think much faster. Podcasts give you an opportunity to flex your wisdom in your space in a way that connects with people on a deeper more emotional level.

For the same reason some people choose audiobooks over print books, they’d prefer to get to know you through an audio form. A podcast gives you the opportunity to connect with people and demonstrate knowledge in your area in a platform that increases the accessibility of your message and ideas.

Open access to incredible people

Connecting with influential people is difficult. People only form new relationships via trust channels like friends, member organizations, groups, or conferences, etc. Most people don’t intentionally seek out relationships for the fun of it. They do so to fulfill their own goals in life, they do so because there is a purpose.

Podcasting can be your purpose. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie taught us the key to forming new relationships is to get people to talk about themselves. Podcasting is the perfect tool for this. Reaching out with a podcast invite opens up access to incredible people you’d otherwise not have access to.

Create an endless flow of great digital content

Of all the benefits of starting a podcast, a big one is a never-ending flow of incredible digital content. The amount of unique, original content that comes from a podcast discussion is extremely valuable to digital marketers. It’s the foundation of great social media posts, clips, and other engaging content.

Just the transcript alone is incredible content that you can publish on LinkedIn or other platforms. The audio can be pulled from the show in 1-2 min clips and paired with video to create non-stop engaging social media posts. If it’s good stuff, it will be shared everywhere.

Increase inbound web traffic to your site

The benefits of starting a podcast exceed guest access, creating content, and authority, however. Attracting inbound traffic to your website is, by far, the greatest benefit. This obviously requires publishing each podcast episode to its own unique web page.

Brands that create a podcast with hopes of seeing their subscribers grow organically are living in a dream world. Podcasts are much better used as tools to attract inbound traffic. To see a big benefit here, create a 300-word summary for every podcast, and publish media like audio clips and even video to each page. If the content is unique and thorough, it will be indexed by search engines and appear when potential customers search for problems you address. Did you catch that?

Bonus: The real benefits of starting a podcast come only when your podcast is focused on the top three most important aspects of growing a podcast: audience, audience, and audience. If you create content for your audience and focus on their needs. You’ll do quite well.