As of 2020, “68 million Americans are weekly podcast listeners.”
That’s from a study by Edison Research. And to put that number in perspective for you, the comments go on to say, “In 2020, for the first time, a larger percentage of American consumers listened to podcasts weekly than attended church or religious services weekly: 24% to 23%.”
The bottom line here: The podcast medium is exploding.
I suspect a majority of you reading this would consider yourself (at least in some capacity) a podcast listener. But…
Have you thought about whether you could be a podcast host? Or if not you, could someone inside of your organization do it? Because I can promise you this:
As intimidating as it might sound, it’s far less difficult to pull off than you might imagine. And the benefits are immense.
Let’s break ’em down.
6 benefits of podcasting for manufacturers
The following list certainly isn’t exhaustive. But if you take the leap, I can promise you that you’ll reap a majority of the following benefits.
1. You become a thought leader in your niche
Two to four times per month, you’re publishing 20-plus minutes of pure thought leadership content for your target audience.
2. You humanize your brand
A very small percentage of manufacturers are consistently producing genuinely insightful content that creates awareness, builds trust and opens doors to sales conversations. And 90% of those smart enough to do it are using one medium alone – the written word.
Now, I’m certainly not knocking words on a page (heck, I wrote what you’re reading now!). But I will say this:
Podcasts give you a chance to humanize yourself and your brand.
When a listener hears your voice, now you’re a person. Not just a company behind a curtain of words on their screen.
3. You build personal relationships with future customers
One of my favorite books of 2020 was Content Based Networking by James Carbary (more on James below). Here’s the premise:
By interviewing the people in your target market (on your podcast) about their challenges, successes and stories, you’re building personal relationships with future customers. And simultaneously, you’re creating amazing content for their peers (who are also your future customers!).
Consider this:
How many manufacturing CEOs do you think would welcome a cold 30-minute phone call with a marketing guy like me?
But how many, on the other hand, would welcome a 30-minute conversation as a guest on my podcast – where I’m shining a spotlight on their expertise?
You get the idea.
4. You build personal relationships with industry influencers
Same deal as #3, but for influencers in your industry.
My interview on The Manufacturing Executive with Gary Konarska (President of the American Welding Society) reached thousands of manufacturing folks in my target audience.
My interviews with best selling authors Mike Weinberg, Sangram Vajre and Ian Altman reached thousands of people in their exponentially larger follower base.
5. One podcast episode is so much more than one podcast episode
A 30-minute interview can be repurposed into so many things. Case in point below. Notice how we’ve chopped up the original podcast episode (the first link) and turned it a variety of other things too:
- Podcast episode
- Blog post (episode summary with transcript)
- Videogram on LinkedIn (note that we post these organically, but also use them as sponsored content to target the right people from the right companies with the right job titles and the right interests)
- Audiogram on LinkedIn (same note as the videogram above)
- Full interview video on YouTube
- Highlight video on YouTube
We also summarize these episodes and distribute them via email newsletter to our list of 4000-plus manufacturing people every two weeks, use them in follow-up emails after sales calls, share them with our new clients and employees to help them learn, and so on.
6. Your podcast doubles as free market research
When you’re speaking with the types of people your business serves (and they know coming into these conversations that this isn’t a sales call), they naturally let their guard down.
I never try to sell anything to my guests. And as a result, great insights emerge.
Imagine doing this once per week for a year.
All of a sudden, you’ll have collected qualitative human insights from over 50 people in your exact target audience.
You’ll then use those insights to make better decisions related to product development, sales and marketing.
Not convinced?
Dang.
Well, I’ll take one last shot.
In a recent conversation on our podcast (The Manufacturing Executive), I interviewed the previously mentioned James Carbary, Founder of Sweet Fish Media and author of Content Based Networking.
In my interview with James, I asked him to address the stigma that “podcasting isn’t for us as a manufacturing organization.”
Whether you remain skeptical, a little curious or you’re ready to rock, I’m confident that these will be 25 minutes well spent. James runs the best podcasting agency in the country and wrote the book on the subject too. If he can’t convince you, then you win!
Click here to listen: Breaking the stigma on podcasting w/ James Carbary (Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Spotify).
