🚀Understanding the Impact of Branded Podcasts on Business Growth

CoHost and Sounds Profitable's branded podcast report examines the dynamic of branded podcasts regarding the challenges, opportunities, and strategic investments such podcasts promise to bring to brands.

Data Variety: The report researched 50 brands across different sizes and industries, and what it found was quite surprising: a large percentage of brands truly valued podcasts, and the satisfaction is really high. Most large corporations invest more than $100,000 every year in podcasts, showing how important podcasts are to such businesses.

Zoom In: Besides that, the report also recommends strategic marketing support, where 42% of the total surveyed brands feel that podcast marketing and competitor research are underserved. This, therefore, means that there is a great avenue for innovative solutions that can help the brand raise challenges while trying to work out the landscape of podcasts. The other challenges identified are operational, where a total of 58% of the respondents said resource needs were some of the major challenges. This is indicative of the need by the brand for careful planning and subsequent resorting to seeking help from external parties.

Zoom Out: Podcasts are great at thought leadership, too. Of the brands surveyed, 76% focus their audio strategies around thought leadership. Podcasts work very effectively in establishing brand authority and expertise, more so than other marketing channels. This report acts like a blueprint for podcasting efforts as one gets real takeaways for audio efforts.

Why it matters: Podcasts have become an important medium for brands to establish credibility and reach out to audiences more effectively by establishing expertise in core areas and building a closer bond with the audience.

The Impact of Branded Podcasts Report analyzes how companies are incorporating podcasts into their marketing, sales, and operational initiatives, and details what specific goals these podcasts are trying to achieve. Drawing on a range of data, this report gives an indication of the practical challenges and opportunities podcasts present. By painting a clear picture of the current state of podcast use by brands, it will help marketers and brand strategists make their own informed decisions regarding their podcasting effort.

Details:

• 22 small businesses (44%)

• 16 mid-sized companies (32%)

• 12 large corporations (24%) Top industries represented: 10 brands in Financial Services, at 19%; 10 in Technology, also 19%; and 8 brands in Science & Healthcare, at 15%. Industries include well-recognized brands: Marriott in hospitality, Tesla in manufacturing, Amazon in retail, Coca-Cola in food & beverage, and so on.

Of these, for production, 28 (56%) use podcast agencies, followed by in-house production by 18 brands (36%), and freelancers by 11 (22%). There is, thus, a high reliance on specialized podcasting expertise within the industry. Operationally, 29 brands or 60% look to the marketing department for oversight, followed by 10 brands or 24% looking to leadership, and finally, communications departments at 7 or 14%.

Though brands are investing resources in podcasts, they still struggle with audience growth. The biggest challenge to podcasting named by the surveyed brands is the great investment of resources-that is, time and personnel-mentioned by 29 (58%) of respondents. Still, a close second, audience growth was a big hurdle for 26 (52%) of the brands surveyed, which suggests effective means of promotion and engagement. The costs of producing a podcast were also a challenge for 21 brands in total, or 42% of those surveyed.

The surveyed brands consider themselves especially underserved regarding competitor research and podcast marketing, with 21 respondents naming these aspects as gaps in their podcasting strategy at 42%, respectively. Another shortcoming to which 19 surveyed brands point is a deficiency in measurement and analytics; this reflects the demand for more substantial data in order to track performances and return on investment. It is a clear opportunity for the podcast platforms and their service providers to develop better support in these key areas such that brands are enabled to effectively compete and measure the success of podcasts.

In fact, the report reveals that 76% of the surveyed brands lead a podcast for thought leadership, establishing authority and expertise in their respective fields. Brand positioning is done to shape public perception at 64%. And lastly, 60% of the brands we spoke with mentioned increasing reach.

Post-launch, 72% of the responding brands identified thought leadership and lead generation as the most valuable outcomes of their podcasting efforts. This represents a swing in perception, as lead generation is an unexpected benefit of podcasting. Podcasts address not only well-anticipated uses for thought leadership, brand positioning, and audience growth but also work as mechanisms for lead nurturing. Brands could use podcasts for a variety of purposes; thus, it may affect not only audience engagement and brand growth but even business development.

The report also highlights a set of value creation that branded podcasts have been able to achieve for brands. 45 surveyed brands, accounting for 90%, show satisfaction with the performance of their podcasts, divided between 52% who are very satisfied and 38% somewhat satisfied. With only a minimal 2 brands at 4% feeling somewhat dissatisfied and no brands being very dissatisfied, these findings tend to strengthen positive value and impact derived from podcasts by the brand.

Also, 92% of the researched brands use social media for the main channel to engage podcast listeners. This stresses efficiency in creating connections and community. Also, 72% of the respondents include their podcast on their website and 64% use newsletters to keep in touch and nurture the relationships of their listeners outside of the podcast. These techniques manifest the best ways of listener engagement with a multi-channel approach.

However, a full 21 of the responding brands still feel underserved in podcast marketing, perhaps due to a lack of tailored strategies or limited understanding of best practices in podcast marketing. Podcast budgets are a key priority for brands of all sizes, and companies of all sizes are feeling the impact coming from podcasts, thus investing consistently.

The Future: 52% of brands budget over $30,000 for podcasts-a sign of an ever-growing commitment to the medium and perhaps a marker toward a much-brighter future for branded podcasts. Podcasts are an important medium for brands; 18% of the surveyed brands invest upwards of $100,000 in them. 64% will keep their podcast budgets the same or bigger, an indication of confidence in the medium. Confidence in the market is high, as only 44% have stopped investing in podcasts. The majority of brands invest in audio, as 44% maintain podcast budgets steady. 12 brands consider podcasts to be an integral part of their marketing mix and plan to increase spending on the format. 8 are refusing, citing rising costs/budget cuts.

Our Podcast Producer Insights: Branded podcasts do seem to prove worthy of investment for brands-most of whom invest significant resources into their podcasting efforts. As this trend continues to grow, it is clear that brands believe in the potential that podcasts have for effectively reaching and engaging with their target audience.

Bottom line: The effectiveness of branded podcasts can't be ignored; brands large and small are investing in the growth of this channel and we will continue to see more companies come to that very same conclusion. The use of branded podcasts for thought leadership purposes is essentially a new influencer marketing option that makes sense for B2B companies.

Full report 👇

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