At its core, a podcast is an audio track published online for audiences to listen to at their whim. They come in a wide variety of genres. Any podcast online falls under one of these categories: history, comedy, politics, spirituality, science, news, technology, nature, sports, and more.
Reasons More People Have Started Enjoying Podcasts
Radio used to be and continues to be a popular platform that audiences enjoy in consuming live audio content. Podcasts turns this kind of entertainment and information into something that you can listen to podcasts online whenever you have the time.
Other than convenience, podcasts usually have less advertising than commercial broadcast radio, allowing the audience to enjoy the content with fewer interruptions. Podcasts also allow their audiences to pause, play, forward and rewind the content whenever they desire.
Podcasts online have the added advantage of involving a much broader demographic of listeners, including a range of ages, genders, and interests. Listeners have widely listened to podcasts while multitasking from the comfort of their homes or workplaces. Podcasts can be informative, such as news or nature shows, or can be entertaining, comical, or contain sports content.
Informative podcasts include news, politics, and business topics. The best business podcasts are beneficial for both listeners as well as businesses. A podcast hosted or sponsored by a business can push more traffic to the company’s website and informs the audience about their available products and services. Free or highly cheap marketing strategies are intelligently buried under the impressiveness of the best business podcasts in the market.
Companies can have an alternative source of income if the podcasts do well with the audience. In the past, audiences have had to derive a brand’s identity, voice, and tone merely from their advertising posters, images, and videos. Having an audio platform extends their ability to establish their voice and what they stand for among their listeners. It also encourages more employees to work efficiently, as it allows people to listen to their podcasts while simultaneously completing their work or household chores. Business podcasts give an added element to the personification and personalization of a brand.
Choosing Podcast Topics
Before choosing specific podcast topics, it is essential to establish what genre the podcasts will be about. Not sticking to a particular genre can hurt listener traffic and confuse the audience. Once the genre for the podcasts is set, the first thing to do is to define the audience you plan to reach out to and impact with the content.
Do enough research on the topics you are contemplating covering to figure out which ones you think you will be able to speak about best. Choose topics based on what you think your listeners will enjoy but make sure it is something that interests you as well. Not being interested in the content you talk about can often be detected by the audience and can reduce traffic to your page and content. Talk about something that you believe in and speak to your listeners.
If you feel that a particular topic seems too broad to fit into one episode, consider making it a two part or multi-part series or divide it into major subtopics that you can cover over more than one episode. Make sure not to cram too much information into a single podcast episode and help your listeners have a better listening experience with more information that they deserve.
Based on the topic you plan to choose, consider the option of having guests who have expertise in that field or opinions to share on your show to be interviewed or have a conversation with you on each topic.
Benefits of a Podcast
Podcasts have proven to be highly beneficial to their listeners in a variety of ways. Informative podcasts have made easy learning “on-the-go” access to anyone with access to an internet connection. Podcasts are personal in nature and often help the listener feel heard and understood. It also makes the listener feel like the person on the other end of the mic is a genuine friend or trusted expert speaking directly to him or her.
Along with the benefit of being digital, the myriad of freely available streaming platforms in today’s world help podcast listeners cut costs when it comes to content consumption. Some podcasts have also been proven to help people fall asleep more quickly while keeping others company. At the same time, people can actively do other work, while passively engaging in the content of the podcast, making podcasts portable and highly time-efficient. Being an on-demand kind of content provider, podcasts give their listeners more control and influence than standard radio.
