You’ve been sitting on the idea for…you can’t even remember how long.
You see person after person after person sharing the link to their long awaited podcast and you find yourself fantasizing when it will be your turn.
You listen to podcasts and dissect each episode like it’s your job.
I think it’s time to stop procrastinating, stop wishing, and get to doing.
LAUNCH THAT PODCAST!
Currently, we are in an age where it’s important for, especially, black voices to be amplified if only to increase the amount of representation and diversity. You may think that the market is saturated with thousands of podcasts, but I’m here to tell you, it’s not.
African Americans make up approximately 14% of the American population (around 47.4 million people). African Americans also represent 12% of the podcast listening demographic, that’s 5,688,000 listeners who are also black.
By 2022, the number of the total listening audience will jump to 132 million. There is room for you to start a podcast.
10 Reasons to Start a Podcast
Share your story. Your story is the catalyst to helping someone make the decision to change their life. What you’ve been through, what you’ve experienced, what you’ve learned, and how you impart that knowledge is all a part of your unique story. Share it in a podcast.
Validate your expertise. You spent twelve years going to primary school, four years in undergraduate studies, 2 years getting that masters and now you’re working on your doctorate. Or maybe this sounds like you: you’ve been working and climbing the ladder of your industry for over a dozen years and you want to market your expertise as a paid service. Launch that podcast!
Expose your brand to a wider and diverse audience. You market your business via Facebook and Instagram Ads, pre-Covid you were a staple at all the local networking events, but in the age of Covid connecting to new people authentically isn’t the most convenient. What if you connected with some new people via a podcast that shared tips and tools about your products, your industry, and your expertise?
Connect with your target audience. Say you have an established brand and you want to introduce them to a new side of your business. You can use a podcast to share exclusive insight and details about your business.
You can express your thoughts more clearly. For some, they are most impactful when they express their unfiltered thoughts verbally. Starting a podcast can allow you to share your thoughts, insights, or downloads from the Universe without being concerned with editing, formatting, or spell check.
Enhances your blogging experience if you are a long form writer. Let’s me honest, most people don’t like to read. If you’re the type of writer who is known to write novels on your blog, increase the time people spend on your site by converting your long form written media into a podcast.
You can repurpose previous content in a different way. Say you are a style blogger and want to repurpose your earlier content for a new audience. Consider turning that old blog post into a podcast sharing updates or new knowledge learned. You can even podcast about your experiences as a style blogger.
Easier form of digital content to create than video. I’m not going to lie, I’ve made Youtube Videos before. I usually like to keep them short and to the point because the video editing process can take FOREVER! Having created podcasts, I realize that I can record, edit, and often publish within 2-4 hours versus the 4-6 hours I may have taken me to only edit a video. We’re not even talking about the preparation and actual recording of it.
You can repurpose your podcast content to create multiple media. The first episode of The Soa Inspired podcast is actually a repurposed piece of content I did in a mastermind group. Since then, I’ve repurposed that podcast content to be included on this site as both a page and a post. Think about it! You create a podcast episode sharing ways people can be their best, you then create an IGTV series breaking down each of those bullet points, and then further create graphics or a carousel in your Instagram in-feed that supports what you broke down in your podcast episode. Then you create a Pinterest graphic and pin it to your ‘Podcast’ board so that others can discover it. Lastly, from your blog, you create a “click to tweet” so that when people read or listen to it from your site they can quote you. Just in that example, that’s 7 different forms of media you created with ONE piece of content that will be shared on 6 different platforms. Repurpose that content!
It’s one of the oldest forms of media and marketing. Radio broadcasting of music and talk commercially is over 100 years old. It goes hand in hand with ‘word of mouth’ advertising in which the success of your business getting in front of others is dependent on referrals from clients, customers, supporters, and fans. Broadcasting your business, sharing your story, and expression your expertise contributes to people finding you and sharing your podcast show.
If you’ve made it to the end of this post and you are inspired and motivated to FINALLY get started with launching your podcast, leave me a comment below and share this post with someone you know needs confirmation on starting their podcast!
Check out these podcasting stats!
