Thanks to the ever-growing smartphone sales, the digital world has forced businesses to invest in a more effortless and mobile-friendly experience for the sake of their users. A podcast is one of the examples of how users are now shifting to this listening-based content.
Researchers have found staggering information that the number of podcast listeners reaches 68-million in the US alone. That’s a surprising number for this thriving industry.
A Bit History of what is a Podcast
Although podcasting is considerably new to the industry, it’s been around for over decades. So, how did it start?
In 2004, Adam Curry invented the term podcast in an attempt to improve the radio market. He wanted it a gold combination of blogging and audio mixing that would bring more listeners. Hence, he introduced a podcast that years later became a growing industry.
Podcasts are now running in a tight competition. Both personal and organization use them for branding purposes and expanding the audience.
Monetizing Your Podcast
The podcast landscape is still growing and active listeners are increasing steadily. If you have loyal listeners who would stay awake for your content, it’s time to monetize the podcast.
Don’t worry about losing your audience; in fact, there are reasons why people won’t leave your channel quickly even though there are ads on your show.
Loyal Listeners
Most podcast listeners used to listen to the radio before moving onto this type of content. Moreover, active listeners are the one that enjoys companies while doing another activity.
Once you have useful content to offer, they won’t hesitate to return to your channel with every update. They find the content helpful for their problem, thus making them loyal listeners.
An ad or two won’t chase away your listeners if you provide an effective solution on your show. In fact, they listen thoroughly to your episode as it was great news of the day.
Mad Respect to The Host
Your loyal listeners must’ve known you from somewhere else. Truthfully, many podcasts listeners are aware of the host itself that entices them to listen to what they say.
When the host has an excellent reputation, listeners don’t even hesitate to receive all the information from him. A brand or product recommendation, even. It’s all due to the respect the listeners have for the host.
Ways to Find and Appeal to Podcast Advertisers
Now you understand that your listeners won’t leave your channel for the ads. It’s the time to find and appeal your podcast to advertisers that bring you dollars.
1. Understand Your Niche
Since this is an essential element of your podcast, you must deeply understand what your channel is all about. It can be financial stuff, internet marketing, business, or even health and wellness.
If you know your expertise, you can narrow down the possible advertisers out there to sponsor your podcast. It’s quite challenging, but it’s the first step to monetize your channel in a short time.
Many advertisers are happy to invest in your show as it benefits them too. However, not all of them are inclusive of your niche. It won’t be nice if you randomly choose advertisers for the sake of monetizing your channel.
2. Make Stellar Content
Advertisers are like investors. They put money on something that profits them in return. Thus, they tend to invest in a credible place to avoid loss.
The question is: how to make a credible podcast channel? Producing stellar content is the way to achieve this state.
Listeners come for useful content. If you make so-so content, you’ve already lost the battle against your competitors. Again, podcasts are a growing industry, which means many channels will pop up out of nowhere to offer more great content.
Often, useful content can’t really compete against other podcasters, but you’re still able to make it stand out in the crowd. Then, advertisers will look up to your channel as the best investment.
3. Build the Audience
The audience is what the advertisers see first when they come across your channel. The reason why they advertise is to expand their potential customers, and when you have less audience, the lesser chance you can appeal your podcast to sponsors.
Building an audience is a big job, and it takes time to acquire loyal listeners. Take an example from successful YouTubers, they make bombastic content like clickbait videos, explainer videos, manscaped commercial, midroll and promising videos to gain viewers. But uploading content regularly is vital to hold the audience on your channel.
One of the well-known approaches is to bring a guest to your episodes. It attracts more listeners as it grabs the fanbase on both parties: the podcaster and the guest. This collaboration is so common that there are many podcasters who focus on interviewing as their main content.
Alternatively, you can use trending news or hot topics to attract both listeners and advertisers. Specifically, the latter often use trending topics to promote their brands as it is up-to-date to the current situation. Therefore, this approach is literally the embodiment of the mutualism partnership.
Conclusion
A podcast is a growing industry; it transforms the old radio content into a fresh and engaging platform. Unlike radio that focuses on the traditional news providers, the podcast offers a broader topic accessible to listeners around the world.
As the staggering number of listeners increases, advertisers see this platform as a great place to reach a broader audience. Thus, making a viable opportunity for podcasters to earn more by monetizing their channel.
Understanding the advertisers’ needs will change the way podcasters structure the content that is appealing to them. And while not chasing away their loyal listeners.
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