The untapped value of podcasts for subscription services

Rather than getting a slice of airtime on someone else’s podcast, why not host your own?

How many times have you heard an advert on a podcast for a recipe kit, a beer club or razor delivery? We imagine the answer is, “lots.” You might even be advertising your subscription service on a podcast or two. And they work. In fact, 76% of UK podcast listeners have engaged with an ad, according to Acast.  

But why not take it a step further? Rather than getting a slice of airtime on someone else’s podcast, you can host your own.  

Podcasts and subscription services are a match made in heaven — both nurture ongoing relationships with consumers who come together over a niche interest.  

A podcast is the perfect platform for you to engage, expand and educate your customer base. Here’s how.  

Engage: strengthen your relationships 

As Fast Company put it, branded podcasts are “the ads people want to listen to.”  

So, if you’re searching for a way to engage your subscribers’ attention, then look no further, podcasting is for you. 

That’s because they’re informative, entertaining and engaging — in other words, they don’t sound like your typical advert. They blend intriguing narrative or gripping conversation with music and sounds to keep the ear hooked. They keep you company during routine activities like doing the dishes or commuting. They create the sense of an intimate and informal connection between the listener and the host.  

That last one is possibly the most important factor for a subscription service podcast because having a close relationship with your customer is so important. If providing extra, bespoke content for loyal subscribers is your way of making sure they stick with you and your service, then a private podcast feed can help.  

Did you know you can host a podcast for your members’ ears only? What better way to show your members that you’ll go the extra mile for them.  

Expand: help new subscribers find you  

But what if you’re hoping a podcast could help you reach new audiences?  

Have no fear, podcasts are a growing trend with one in eight people in the UK now listening to a podcast every week. You can tap into that market by hosting a publicly accessible podcast, rather than a private one. As your podcast grows in popularity, word about your subscription service will also spread.  

Creating unmissable content for your market niche or interviewing amazing guests will help you to direct conversation and become the leader in your industry. Great guests are extra helpful because they can bring their following to your podcast and introduce new audiences to your brand.  

While advertising on someone else’s podcast may help to get your name out there, hosting your own gives you more control over your brand message. Rather than figuring out which podcasts you’d like to be associated with and finding out where your audience is, you can grow your own listener base, perfectly aligned to your niche. As the BBC’s Jamie Robertson says, “podcasts offer a chance to speak intimately to a very precise selection of people.”  

Educate: build brand awareness  

A podcast will give you the time and creative space to craft your message exactly how you wish it to be. There are several ways you can use podcasts to educate listeners about your brand so feel free to get inventive.  

Your podcast series could be a how-to guide for making the most out of your product or service. It could be a conversational podcast including interviews with staff, customers or inspirational figures in your field. You could use the podcast to share the stories and ideas that make your company tick. It could even be an audio accompaniment to your service - something enjoyable to listen to while you use the product.  

Whatever you decide your podcast should be, and the possibilities are endless, it will help your subscribers to gain a deeper understanding of your brand and what it can offer them.   

Want to learn more? At Message Heard, we make podcasts that help your brand reach new audiences. Find out how we can help you by getting in touch. 

Podcast KPIs: How to measure the success of your podcast

Podcast KPIs: How to measure the success of your podcast

When it comes to making a successful podcast, download numbers aren’t everything. Here’s the KPIs you should really be measuring.

Here at Message Heard, we preach the gospel of measuring podcast performance. It helps us learn, iterate and improve from season to season. 

When we’re talking with clients and partners, we also encourage them to set goals to measure performance against. However, we too often see people hung up on one particular measurement: number of downloads. 

Whilst the reach of your podcast is important, it's definitely not the only measure of success and should always be looked at in the context of other metrics. 

To avoid being blinded by the light of download numbers, you should set out clear goals at the start of the podcasting process that align directly with what you want to achieve. 

Using KPIs to set strategic goals 

So, how do you go about figuring out the right numbers to pay attention to?

When we launch a show, we like to think about who we’re trying to reach and how we want them to react and engage. We then select 3 or 4 key metrics which to track closely through the season. 

For example, if your show is about something niche or aimed at an internal audience, there are natural caps to listener numbers but audience engagement levels or listen through rates might tell you more about what you're actually achieving with your podcast. 

Or if you're looking to grow your personal brand, press hits and invites onto other media would be a good measure of success. Want to grow an engaged audience? Why not create a Facebook or LinkedIn group, promote it in your podcast and track the growth. 

What success looks like for branded podcasts

The takeaway: success looks different for everyone. 

As an example, let’s compare our show we measure the success of Conflicted versus how Buffer measured the performance of Breaking Brand.

With our show Conflicted, we boiled down success to three KPI’s (key performance indicators): 

1. Download Numbers - Listener reach is important to us as this is a general interest show where we’re looking to reach as many ears as we can. 

2. Revenue - We wanted to generate revenue via ads and sponsorships to create a sustainable show. 

3. Engaged Audience - We wanted to build an engaged audience across various social channels so listeners could become more involved in the show. 

As an independent show, these are quite direct, mercenary concerns. However, a branded podcast with broader goals of building brand and raising awareness would naturally have completely different measurements of success. 

Ash Read, Head of Editorial at Buffer, told us their key measurement was how long listeners spent listening to the show. And Breaking Brand saw strong completion rates — on average, people are listening to 83% of each episode. 

Message Heard · Buffer - Breaking Brand - Results

Hear more about how Buffer measured the results of their podcast.

This means that the audience isn’t just showing up, they’re sticking around and engaging with the content. For Ash, this has a lot of potential: “If we continue to publish content in this feed, they’ll continue listening. That feels really valuable for us.”

So what are the metrics you should use to measure success? 

What KPIs should I actually be measuring?

Again, it's all about selecting the right metrics for your podcast strategy. So as you read this list, ask yourself why you're making a podcast and what you want to achieve. 

These are all great metrics to select as your key performance indicators, but yet again, they need to be tailored to your individual podcasting goals.

• Downloads - Do you want to reach the broadest, largest audience possible?

• Demographic data - Are you trying to reach a particular group? Can you see that audience growing?

• Consumption Rate - Arguably the most important stat as it measures depth of engagement. How much of each episode are the audience listening too? Are people not just coming but staying till the end?

• Social following - Do you have an engaged audience that are sharing?

• Mailing list - Similarly, have you a dedicated audience engaging with your content?

• Group members (eg. Facebook, LinkedIn) - Are you looking to have a conversation with your listeners or build a community? Groups are a great way to do that. 

• Press - Are you looking to raise your hosts’ profile? What coverage has your podcast achieved and has it put you in front of new audiences?

• Inbound leads - If you’re an agency, maybe you’re using your podcast to draw in leads. If you haven’t already, could you start tracking where leads, asking specifically about the podcast come from??

• Revenue - Are you looking to monetise your show? Is the revenue covering costs? 

• Engagement with sponsors - Are you driving a good amount of traffic to your sponsor? This might be important for keeping them onboard. 

• Engagement with a competition - Are you running giveaways or competitions? You should track social shares and entries.

• Website traffic - Is your podcast driving a large amount of traffic to your website?

Have we missed anything off this list? I’m sure we have! There are going to be even more specific things which will tell you if your podcast is working for you.

Send any suggestions this way, and we can continue to expand the list.

Want to learn more? At Message Heard, we make podcasts that help your brand reach new audiences.

Want to create a podcast that exceeds your brand KPIs? Get in touch!

What's your perfect podcast marketing mix?

Grow your podcast audience by creating a tailored marketing plan.

When we get asked “What is the best way to market our podcast?” 

The answer is always: “Well, that depends…”

Very unsatisfying we know! But it’s true. 

For some clients the budget for splashy ads might not be on the cards, or others might have existing channels we can cross-promote - like a blog or a youtube channel. Some podcasts have a very niche audience, and others have a mass appeal. With so many factors at play, every marketing plan has to be bespoke. 

So, the bad news is: there is no one size fits all solution. 

The good news though: there are repeatable tactics and approaches. You just need to select the right ones for your podcast. 

In this post, we’ll give you the building blocks of a podcast marketing plan that is built with purpose. 

But first, let's talk choosing the building blocks that work for you. 

What is a podcast marketing plan?

Having a strategic marketing plan is key to growing your podcast audience. And, to build these plans for each of our shows, we first ask:

• What is your marketing resource for this project?

• Who is your target audience? 

• And, how will you measure the success of your podcast?

With the answers to these questions in mind, we start to create a marketing mix that will help you build the audience you want, and deliver against your goals. 

This is when those key ingredients we mentioned earlier come into play. 

Your Perfect Podcast Marketing Mix

Whilst every podcast needs a bespoke plan, you don’t need to start from scratch for each show. 

We think about a marketing mix in three channels: paid, earned and owned: 

• Paid is anything where you exchange money to secure promotion, namely advertising. 

• Earned is where you depend on someone else’s curation to gain coverage or promotion - like a feature on Apple Podcasts or a review in a newsletter. There are sometimes external costs involved with this, such as award entries. 

• Owned covers the activities conducted on your channels like your website or social media. 

With these channels in mind, as well as the budget, audience and goals for the podcast, we then pull out different tactics from each channel to build the perfect marketing mix. 

Here are all the different channels and tactics to consider: 

This is by no means an exhaustive list! All podcasts will have unique real-estate they can use for promotion. Do they have an app they can promote on? A print magazine? For example, our client Buffer uses their login page to put the podcast front and centre:

I love this so much. @buffer putting their podcast front and centre on their login screen. The show is the best expression of their brand and they're committed to growing an audience of raving fans. Raving fans = lifelong customers. More brands should do this - especially now. pic.twitter.com/Ov1e1Shryc

— Harry Morton (@podcastharry) July 11, 2020

These are simply the building blocks we use to create a balanced marketing mix that will allow you to grow your audience strategically. This is also an ever growing list, have we missed any key ways you grow your audience? Let us know!

Want to learn more? At Message Heard, we make podcasts that help your brand reach new audiences. Find out how we can help by getting in touch today.

Two Seasons In, Here’s What We've Learned About Podcast Marketing

When it comes to podcast marketing, do you feel like you’ve tried everything, or that you don’t even know where to start? 

Frustrated your podcast isn’t getting the audience it deserves? Confused as to why your downloads plateaued? We know the feeling… we know all the feelings.  

We have been creating and releasing our podcast Conflicted since February 2019. It’s taught us first-hand how hard building a podcast audience is — it’s not enough to make great content (if we say so ourselves) and throw it into an RSS feed.  

But, after two seasons, we’re feeling positive about the progress Conflicted has made:  

• We’ve received coverage in The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Times.  

• 99.6% of listeners say they would recommend it to a friend, family member or colleague. 

• For Season 2, average listenership over the first 7 days has grown 62% compared to Season 1 for the same time period.  

• We’ve grown an engaged listener community — 96.3% of the members of our Facebook Group have actively posted, shared or reacted.   

• And the cherry on top: we were nominated for an ARIAS (the Audio Oscars) for Best Independent Podcast alongside  some of the world’s biggest podcasts. 

We know there is still work to do, but at this juncture we wanted to share a whistle stop tour of what we’ve learned over the past two years of distributing and marketing our flagship podcast.  

Our growth: Season One compared to Season Two.

Plan, Plan, Plan

For every podcast we make — either under our Originals umbrella or for our clients — we preach the gospel of strategy.

Thinking critically about who your podcast is targeted at and how you plan to reach them is vital, as is adapting that plan as you release your podcast and learn more about your audience.

We have tried different tools for planning, including Trello and Monday.com, but for Season 2, it was a good old fashioned word doc which really helped capture our strategy as well as the tactics we’d use.

How we map out our thinking.

We also recommend creating a master copy document to create consistency and make sure you tailor your messaging to each channel, including your podcast’s metadata. This metadata includes your podcast title, podcast description, episode titles, show notes and other data like tags you input when you upload episodes to you podcast hosting platform. Using a master document helped us keep our language consistent but also acted as checklist prompting us to input all the data correctly each episode.

Marketing Needs To Be Baked into Production

Before you even press record, you need to have a production and marketing strategy in place – especially if the people producing and promoting the show are in separate teams.

Why? There are so many marketing considerations which overlap with the way your show sounds and what you capture during recording:

• Audience Development - Who is this podcast targeted at? Who are you actually speaking to when you step behind the mic?

• Audio Branding - Theme tunes, music beds, jingles, archival tape. What audio-materials will you use to create your distinctive sound?

• Visual Branding - How will the look of the show capture the podcast’s tone and attract your target audience? A consistent visual identity across all brand touch points will professionalise your brand and attract new listeners.

• Tone of Voice - Again, your show’s voice needs to be consistent across all touch points. The language of the show and language used in marketing need to complement, not quarrel.

• Call to Actions - How do you plan on engaging your audience? Are these CTA’s scripted? Will they cut through?

• Social Media Assets - Are you capturing the assets you need to promote the show during production ?

• Trailers and Teasers - What are you sharing? And when are you sharing it? Do you need extra voice overs for your trailers? How are you building excitement?

• Guest Engagement - How will you work with the guests on your show to maximise your combined reach?

• Press Assets and Reels - What sizzlers do you need to sell your show to the press?

Cover The Basics

Making sure you are covering the basics is key before you start exploring marketing approaches tailored to your show.

As a company, we are now at a place where we have a best practice approach for all the shows we produce and release.

How to build your own best practice? When something works - write it down. Build a checklist as you learn. And execute that checklist. Every. Single. Time.

Doing core promotional activities for each episode also helps you spell out what actually works, as you can compare and see how things like content, topic and guests affect downloads or engagement. It’s about tracking the individual items AND the combinations of items to create a clear picture of what actually works.

Engage Your Audience

Tailoring your engagement strategy to your audience means finding the right channels for your podcast.

For the launch of Conflicted Season 2, we have focused on building a Facebook Group and running weekly giveaways. We’ve also started to see the benefit of having distinct social channels for each show, especially on Twitter, we’re people can tag, share and recommend the show to others.

An example of listeners engaging with the hosts via our Facebook group.

These were invaluable step for us in creating a dialogue with our listeners — but for your show the best channels and tactics may be different. Think about who your audience is, what engagement you want from them, and how to reward those who interact, share and feedback.

Test, Iterate, Improve

There is no silver bullet. There isn’t one scalable, repeatable thing that will get you a committed audience of millions overnight.

We do believe however, that there is a cocktail of things that will get you there one day. Working out that magic marketing mix involves testing, iterating and improving.

That is why we conduct thorough retrospectives after each season of the show. This entails:

• Reviewing the Data – Dig into your analytics. Examine your growth, listenership trends and demographic data. Don’t just focus on the numbers —make sure to factor in any qualitative insights from Apple podcast reviews, emails and tweets, too.

• Collecting Audience Feedback – We did our first audience survey for the end of Season 2. This has become an incredible resource for data about what our audiences enjoys and what they want to change. You can see our survey here, and Bello Collective also have a great resource on making an audience survey.

• Doing a Team Review - We asked: what we do well, what went wrong, and what we could improve when it comes to marketing, production and monetisation of the show. Out of this process we have an actionable list of improvements to take forward.

Some of the results from our Audience Survey.

What isYour Unique Opportunity?

Every podcast needs to play to its strengths, as well as the resources you have at your disposal. 

In this example, Conflicted is a discussion show so it made sense to focus on platforms that allow listeners to engage more deeply and run giveaways that provide ‘further reading’. It’s also personality-led, so we wanted our content and coverage to profile our hosts and allow their personalities to shine. 

Ask yourself what unique opportunities your podcast has — is it the profile of your guests, your social media reach, your connection with listeners? These are the building blocks you need to grow your show.  

If you want help developing a podcast marketing strategy that plays to the strengths of your brand and speaks directly to your target audiences — get in touch.

Click here to contact us about our services!

How Podcasts Can Help You to Reach New Audiences

The Age of the Podcast has arrived. Just as the internet disrupted the monopoly of the print media, podcasts are now disrupting the dominance of on-screen content. This audio format is expanding rapidly — both in terms of listener numbers and in share of ad spend.

The trend is only set to grow. That’s why now is the time to get ahead of the curve; to understand why this medium can add so much value to your business and to find your brand’s podcasting voice.

Ready? Read on.

• Who is the podcast audience?

• Why do they matter?

• How do podcasts help you to reach new audiences?

Who is the podcast audience?  

The podcast audience is growing fast. Worldwide, the research company Omdia (formerly Ovum) estimates that the global monthly podcast listening figures will hit 1.85 billion by 2023 (a six-fold growth from the 2016 figure of 287 million).

In 2019, Ofcom said there were 7.1 million regular podcast listeners in the UK. The global measurement and data analytics company Nielsen estimates that within just three years – by 2022 - that number will have doubled.  

The latest statistics (2018) show that there’s currently a gender split amongst UK listeners: with men representing 63% of the podcast audience and women 37%. There’s an age bias, too. The early adopters of podcasts are young: 14% are aged between 15 and 24; 38% between 25 – 34 and 29% between 35 – 54. 

One other point to note? Figures show that podcast listeners tend to be affluent. While only 29% of households across America earn more than $75,000 or more per year; that rises to 41% amongst podcast listeners.

Why does the podcast audience matter to your brand?

Podcast listeners matter to brands because:

• They’re young (they’re your current and future potential customer base).

• They have spending power.

• They are early adopters: helping to influence the behaviour of others.

The data says that the podcast audience is also engaged and loyal. That loyalty translates into consumer activity. According to the Stockholm-based podcasting platform Acast, 76% of this audience will follow up on the services or products discussed during a podcast: whether that’s linking to a website; making a purchase or taking out a subscription.

So, how do podcasts help you to reach a new audience?

There are three keys ways in which podcasts help to raise awareness of your brand, reach new audiences and convert listeners into customers and clients:

• Visibility

• Diversity

• Connection

Visibility

You can choose to sponsor a podcast; run podcast ads or create your own branded podcasts. This audio content helps to promote your business and build awareness by providing visibility for your brand across a host of new channels.

Podcasts are hosted on networks. Some are small, independent platforms and some are huge global players (think iTunes; Spotify; Audible and Luminary). Once your podcast is made, it can be listed on different networks. And you can link your podcast back to your website on every distribution network you use – reaping SEO benefits , increasing your website traffic and building brand awareness.

Branded podcasts sit on the same platforms as podcasts from big name providers (like the BBC). Content isn’t separated: if you’ve got great audio you will rise to the top of the chats, increasing your visibility as you go.

And because your podcast is hosted on these distribution networks, users can find your content without having any prior knowledge of your brand. The result? These new channels give you an online presence that help you to reach a completely new audience.

Diversity

Podcasts are incredibly versatile: both in form and content. That means they can reflect your brand values and messaging and offer innovative, immersive ways of aligning your business with the base you want to reach.

They’re a tool for humanising stories; showcasing different voices; exploring new angles and aspects of your industry and identifying and discussing different points of view. And that’s just the start of what they can do. Here are some examples of the ways in which brands have used podcasts to raise their profile:

General Electric and The Message. The manufacturing and tech giant branded this mega-successful science fiction podcast series, subtly linking the business with its purpose: scientific innovation. 

Buffer and Breaking Brand. The software company commissioned this five-episode narrative series following a New York brand agency as it relaunched itself as the home for a family of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands. The audience the series was created to attract? Marketers and founders of DTC brands.

“We’ve noticed that this is a medium where our DTC customers are investing money themselves, and there appears to be great synergy between the age, interests, and aesthetics of the people who work at these brands and the type of content available through podcasting.”

— Ash Read, Buffer Editorial Director

Selfridges and Hot Air. The high-end department store created this multi-episode series that examine a contemporary issue: how can we enjoy both luxury and sustainable living?  The message was aimed at ethically-minded, wealthy consumers: at Selfridges they care about the world and about living well – and the store’s products marry those two concerns.

Connection

The key to successful podcasts is that they build a direct relationship with their audience. They talk to - rather than at - their listeners. That connection builds trust, which extends to the associated advertising. Research from Nielsen in the US found that 57% of the podcast ads that they tested outperformed pre-roll video advertising in driving purchase intent.

This sense of connection is an indirect way of gaining new audiences. It familiarises your brand and gives it a voice with which people can identify. And it does it in a way that fits comfortably into their lives.

According to the data platform statista.com, 68% of UK podcast listening is currently done on a smartphone. This is a medium that allows you to connect with new audiences where they are: on the phone and on the go.

In the coming years, that move away from screen-based content to audio looks set to increase. One in five UK households now own a smart speaker: a device that is fundamentally changing the way people interact with technology and another channel from which podcasts are easier to access than screen content.

Want to know more? At Message Heard, we make podcasts that help your brand to reach new audiences. Find out what we can do for you. Find out how we can help by reaching out to us here!

Branded Podcasts: 3 Ways To Harness The Power of Pods

In our last two articles, we explored the power of podcasting and the most common mistakes companies make. Today, we lay out the three key ways organisations can utilise podcasts: brand and audience building, targeted sales, internal engagement.  

If you’re on the go, listen to an audio version of the article here:

Whoever you’re looking to engage, podcasts offer an answer. It’s a versatile medium with innate qualities which can be easily adapted to fulfill different organisational goals.

Podcasts create space for storytelling - which lends itself perfectly to achieving marketing objectives around brand and audience building. Remember: they are a property for you to build on.

Podcasts can also be used in a more targeted way: snackable (i.e. short) podcasts make a persuasive sales tool, perfect for bringing exclusive thought-leadership to the ears of those hard to reach budget-holders.

And, increasingly, large or highly distributed organisations are using podcasting to revitalise corporate communications - allowing them to engage with their employees in a direct, personal way.

Building Brand and Audience

Producing your own podcast is an unparalleled opportunity for long-term audience development and brand building. As we explored in the previous articles, more and more big name brands, from across industries, have adopted this tool: McDonalds, Dell, Tinder, General Electric, eBay, LinkedIn, the list goes on.

And it’s not hard to see why - the 2019 Infinite Dial Report showed 70% of listeners don’t do any other activity whilst listening to a podcast. That undivided attention is hard to come by in our distracted world.

As a medium, audio also offers a personal connection between the narrator and the audience - and a direct line to people who have proactively engaged with the content. As Niharika Shah, head of brand marketing and advertising at Prudential put it, “Podcasts are a marketer’s dream when it comes to getting people’s undivided attention… It lends itself well to storytelling, and consumer adoption has been at high levels.” By adopting an advertorial style and working with professional journalists and producers, brands are able to create the personal, emotive style of content that has been proven to hook listeners.

Fast Company even called branded podcasts “the ads people want to listen too”. When you create the content rather than just sponsor it, you become the convener of the conversations happening around your business and in your industry. Listeners have also reported enjoying the absence of ad breaks in branded content which brought a particularly immersive listening experience.

Targeting High Value Sales

In B2B industries the challenge is getting the right people - the budget-holders and decision-makers - to engage with your ideas. These are traditionally some of the hardest people to reach, but podcasting offers an alternative avenue to traditional marketing materials such as white papers and webinars. According to Adobe's vice-president of experience marketing, the podcast version of their white papers receive 6 x the number of downloads compared to the PDF - and cost 10-15% of one of their videos.

At Message Heard, we’ve worked with companies to create podcasts intended to be listened to by only 20 people - the right 20 people - getting the right ideas into the right ears and thus driving high-value sales.

And remember, podcasts reach busy people, who are on the go, in a way that video and written content can’t: 64% of podcast consumers listen in their car, 49% whilst walking, 37% whilst at work and 37% on public transport. Audio consumption fits easily in our modern lives, rather than adding another thing to the to-do list.

Building Internal Engagement

Podcasts are also a promising new tool for companies looking to create a strong culture and reinvigorate their internal communications. According to the Wall Street Journal, one in roughly 30 companies in the S&P 500 produce a podcast that targets either their employees or external audiences, or a combination of the two.

“The facts told us every time we sent an email or a newsletter, no matter how wacky… our colleagues didn’t look at them...”, our client at a global tech services firm told us. “One of our objectives [for our podcasts] was around creating conversations that our colleagues can feel they are part of rather than just being talked at.”

So, what was the feedback from their series, you might be wondering? “A lot of people feel like they are part of the conversation. And when we’ve gone and asked if this is a medium that enriches our communication, the overwhelming response has been yes.”

This is the final instalment of our blog series looking at the power of podcasts for brands and business. You can read parts one and two here.

If you have any questions or are looking for production help please reach out to jake@message-heard.com.