By Rex Hammock
Last year I wrote, “Despite a constant stream of predictions from experts that ‘podcasting is dead,’ I still believe the golden age of customer-focused podcasting is ahead of us.”
Since the earliest moments of podcasting, I have been a true believer in its long-range potential as a cornerstone of any content marketing strategy. But until recently, I’ve been cautious about advising clients to make the medium the central focus of their content market strategy.
However, a 2019 survey from Edison Research indicates that podcasting has slowly built an audience and is on its way to becoming a major marketplace medium serving a wide variety of business models. Here are some findings from the survey:
50% | Over half of the U.S. population (over 12 years old) listened to a podcast for the first time last year.
33% | Percentage of the U.S. population who listened to a podcast during the last month, representing 90 million monthly listeners.
40% | Percentage of population between the ages of 12 and 24 who listened to a podcast last month—a 10% jump from 2018.
(Source: The Infinite Dial, Edison Research and Triton Digital)
For marketers, it is worth looking at two recent podcasts to see how the medium is reaching, even surpassing, its potential as a break-through medium.
The BBC’s 13 Minutes to the Moon is an example of a podcast series that is the centerpiece of the production. Not only is the series boosted by the BBC’s near century of experience in telling riveting audio stories, but the production also commissions a score by the Oscar-winning Hans Zimmer.
And The Chernobyl Podcast supports HBO’s new feature on the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. This podcast goes backstage to explore each episode with the show’s creators. While the method has been used before, the execution is as riveting as the program itself.
Listen up: Podcasting is big. But it’s about to hit an even-more dramatic tipping point. Your customers know that. Do you? How can podcasting help your content marketing strategy?
Image: Getty Images
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