HOW TO USE THE PODCAST IN YOUR BRAND STRATEGY
The podcast is constantly attracting new listeners (mainly young working people). And among this growing audience, 74% affirm that listening to podcasts became a habit.
Even more interesting : 89% of native podcast listeners think that podcasts are a suitable means of expression and communication for brands.
The podcast is a new format that can be used in your company’s content strategy. It allows you to speak into the ears of a receptive audience !
In this way, it reveals a real potential of brand content (example : sharing your storytelling) and of content marketing (example : affirming your positioning).
As a reminder, brand content is “brand centric” content, while content marketing is “consumer centric” content. (source: definition-marketing).
Let’s look together at the different objectives that you can achieve by using the podcast in your brand strategy. However, in practise, the podcast series meets several objectives at the same time !
I – Value Your Expertise
II – Affirm Your Positioning
III – Improve your visibility
IV – Develop your employer brand
V – Create a link with your listeners
🌟 Value Your Expertise
The podcast is a medium that fits perfectly into a content marketing logic. On the condition that it brings real added value to the subject matter.
You will be able to take advantage of your expertise by responding to a problem expressed by your target.
To do this, capitalize on your know-how (and that of your collaborators !), your skills, and your knowledge of your business sector. The voice of your teams is obviously important. Yet, the intervention of experts and influencers in your field can only reinforce the credibility and impact of your content.
Discover also our complete article to enhance your expertise using the podcast format.
CHALLENGES & BENEFITS
Valuing your expertise is a real asset for your brand. Here are the challenges and benefits:
- Show that you are a key player in your sector.
- Give credibility to your brand and show your legitimacy.
- Respond to a problem expressed by your target and position yourself as the ideal solution.
- Generate leads.
- Improve your referencing on strategic requests.
WHAT CAN WE DO ?
- Explain a notion and develop a subject that you master. This way, you will show your company’s expertise while answering a problem of your target. This is similar to the approach you could take with your blog.
Example 1 : Blochain Talks, Mazars France
Example 2 : Le Pouvoir du Son, Getasound - Analyze a news item or a trend in your sector. Presenting an analysis on a specific subject implies that you are conducting a rigorous watch on your activity field. You will then show your expertise.
Example : Le Super Daily, Supernatif
- Offer tutorials and advice. You will be able to answer the problem of your listeners by showing that your company is legitimate in this field. Depending on your activity, it will even be possible to place products/services in the center of these tutorials.
Exemple : Au Fil des Saison, Gamm Vert
- Produce reports. This way, you show the listener that you are involved in your sector, competent in the field, and able to respond to real problems.
Exemple : Hackable ?, McAffee
🥇 Affirm Your Positioning
“Positioning refers to the position a product or brand occupies in the minds of consumers in relation to its competitors on various criteria (price, image, characteristics, etc.).” (source : définition-marketing).
By speaking out, you have the opportunity to assert your values and vision in your industry. You can thus reinforce your positioning and implicitly highlight what differentiates you from other players in your market.
In fact, the podcast is a proximity medium that can help your brand unite listeners around your adventure.
74% of weekly native podcast listeners would be interested in having the brands/companies that love to offer their own podcasts to share their stories, those of their products, their employees, and their commitments. (source: étude Havas/CSA)
CHALLENGES & BENEFITS
- Affirm your vision, your values.
- Give your brand a distinctive personality and stand out from your competitors.
- Acquire a clear position in your target’s mind
- Give meaning to your activity, unite around your mission.
WHAT CAN WE DO ?
- Organize a debate on a topic on which your brand has a distinctive positioning. Focus on a subject specific to your debate, and easily related to your business. The presence of guests outside your company (experts or influencers ) will open the debate and highlight your brand’s positioning on a given subject.
Example : Libre(s), Tinder
- Present a storytelling : tell the origins and the history of your brand. In a narrative way or in the form of a dialogue with the collaborators, tell how your business started, its values, what problems it wishes to address, how it currently presents itself in the market and what its mission is.
Example : Les mousquetaires : 50 ans d’histoire, Les Mousquetaires - Create a fictional podcast : create a fictional story that supports your company’s vision and values. Taking the listener on a journey through your brand universe is a subtle way to show your vision on a theme related to your business. The example below is a very good use case of the fictional podcast by Orange. It’s about supporting the brand’s position on the evolution of technological uses.
Example : Hello Demain, Orange - Get people in your ecosystem to talk. You will be able to highlight your presence in the ecosystem in which you operate and your understanding of the issues and topics that concern your target.
Example 1 : Slack – Variety Pack
Example 2 : Netflix – I’m Obsessed with this
👁️ Improve Your Visibility
The podcast is an effective medium to differentiate yourself from your competitors, who can focus on writing articles or creating visual content. In fact, it is a communication medium that is still not much used by brands, on which you have the opportunity to express yourself !
In addition, this medium presents a real opportunity in terms of referencing.
First of all, on audio streaming services (Apple Podcast, Deezer, Spotify, etc.). On these platforms, it is quite relevant to position yourself on strategic keywords via the shownotes of your podcasts. Thus, when a user searches for a theme on one of these platforms, he can potentially discover your series (see example below).
Then, the podcast is a strategic axis for your SEO. Indeed, Google has announced that it wants to give greater importance to podcasts in the search results, with the objective of doubling the number of worldwide listeners of this format ! A trend that goes in pair with the emergence of voice assistants and the importance of audio results in the long-tail queries.
For this, Google Podcast transcribes the episodes, in order to better reference them. This situation is recent and is just beginning ! We can already observe specific results for podcasts in the SERPs (example below).
CHALLENGES & BENEFITS
- Attract visitors to your website (Inbound marketing strategy)
- Improve your referencing on strategic queries.
- Stand out by communicating on a medium that is rarely used by brands.
WHAT CAN WE DO ?
Here are some ideas of concepts that will allow you to use the podcast to improve the visibility of your brand. In order to be effective in a visibility objective, it will be necessary to add writing of optimized show notes for SEO and especially an approach to promote your podcasts. Even if your show is on every music streaming platform, it doesn’t mean that people will magically listen to you !
- Answer questions through tips and tutorials. From a specific topic, offer practical advice and explanations on subjects that interest your target. It’s a way to showcase your expertise while capturing potential leads. Thus, a person looking for an answer to a specific problem will be able to find yours and at the same time discover your services / products !
Example : Le Profil de l’Emploi, LinkedIn
- Invite influencers. Having a community, influencers will be able to relay the episode in which they intervene via their various social networks. On the other hand, this will contribute to establishing your positioning and your credibility.
Example 1 : Premiers crampons, Orange
Example 2 : #LIPSTORIES, Sephora - Produce a fiction. Fictional podcasts are rarely present in the formats produced today. They are on the one hand qualitative and on the other hand an excellent way to be visible given their scarcity. This is a good way to stand out and have your brand talked about by offering high-added value content. It is however a complex format to produce.
Example : LifeAfter/The Message
👔 Develop Your Employer Brand
The native podcast is an asset to develop your employer brand.
It’s an ideal medium to highlight the human being at the heart of your business and the values that drive your activity. Moreover, using this media as brand content offers the opportunity to express yourself in a freer tone, and to give a warmer image of your organization.
You can therefore use the podcast format to present the backstage of your activity and give an attractive image of your company.
“74% of weekly native podcast listeners would be interested in having the brands/companies they love offer their own podcasts to share their stories, the stories of their products, employees, and commitments” – CSA / Havas 2019 Study
CHALLENGES & BENEFITS
- Enhance your image among your future employees.
- Showcase your employees, their skills, the (obviously pleasant) working conditions, and the dynamism of your brand.
- Build loyalty and motivate your teams with an improved employer brand.
WHAT CAN WE DO ?
If you want to promote your employer brand with the podcast, you should focus on your internal resources and highlight them. To do this, don’t hesitate to be creative and add your personal touch. The idea is above all to make your company’s culture speak for itself.
- Share the journey of your employees. They are the best people to talk about their experience and role within your company. We then find the human side with the direct transmission of the voice of employees and your values. This will create an emotional bond, a relationship of proximity and trust between your brand and the listener.
Example 1 : Bonjour, AXA
Example 2 : La bonne graine, Université Paris-Saclay
- Produce an audio newsletter. It allows you to unite your teams around your news in a fun format. Its advantage is that it is easy to consume (your employees can listen to it while working or on their morning drives, for example), and it leaves room for your brand universe through the tone used and the sonic branding of your podcasts.
Example : Bordeaux City Bond le Podcast, Bordeaux City Bond
- Present your storytelling: get your employees on board and share a common vision. You can highlight your convictions and the values that motivate your activity. Focus on the founders and key collaborators of your adventure!
Example 1 : CHANEL Métier Class, Chanel
Example 2 : Les Mousquetaires : 50 ans d’histoire, Les Mousquetaires
❤️ Create a Link with Your Listeners
The podcast is a medium that is based on the proximity between the listener and the content producer.
n fact, it is listened to on its own in 80% of cases, and among those who listen to it alone, 79% use headphones ! (CSA / Havas).
In other words, this format is intimate and gives you the opportunity to speak directly into the ears of a growing and receptive audience. This is a real opportunity to connect with your target audience.
Moreover, it is a format that is part of the listeners’ habits (for 74% of them). It is therefore an opportunity to build loyalty among your audience by giving them regular audio appointments.
CHALLENGES & BENEFITS
- Generate sympathy for your brand
- Create a sense of anticipation on the part of your listeners.
- Develop the engagement of your subscribers and build their loyalty.
WHAT CAN WE DO ?
- Break the codes and create your own concepts : break out of the “corporate” codes and opt for a tone in line with your brand’s personality. The podcast is a medium that encourages more relaxed communication. This will allow you to talk about your brand with a warmer dimension, and create an emotional connection with your listeners. The example below is a perfect example: the mattress brand Casper invites its listeners to come and tell their dreams, then analyzes them with an expert to understand their meaning.
Exemple : In Your Dreams, Casper
- Invite outside speakers : create a friendly and relaxed exchange with influencers or people your target can identify with. The idea is to give a more human dimension to your brand by showing openness towards the outside world. Moreover, this tip is complementary to the one previously mentioned since it is about inviting typical consumers around an original and entertaining concept.
Example : Casting Call, Squarespace - Tell an entertaining story: from real facts or in a totally imaginative way, tell your listeners an entertaining story related to your brand universe. Don’t forget that the podcast is a medium in its own right. The objective is to attract people to your brand in a subtle way, and it’s not an advertisement in any way. Thus, creating immersive and purely entertaining content is a way to create proximity with your audience !
Example 1 : The Journey, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Example 2 : LifeAfter/The Message
Include the podcast in your brand strategy !
Getapodcast creates adapted formats to your content strategy and delivers high-quality rendering.
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