Branded Podcast: everything you need to know
Have you ever listened to a beauty podcast that shares interesting advice on morning self-care routines, make-up hacks, and out-to-go looks? If yes, it’s almost impossible that you didn’t hear a bunch of product promotions, which were so smoothly integrated into the show that you didn’t even notice.
Promotions in podcasts are ordinary, and they are done so naturally that the listeners rarely get annoyed. And that’s exactly why so many brands decide to take advantage of it and start their so-called “branded podcast.”
With so many branded podcasts out there, let’s take a deep dive into the topic, understanding what branded podcasts really are, what they do, and some of their advantages.
We’ll start from the definitions first:
What is a branded podcast?
As the name suggests, the branded podcast is the podcast of a brand. In other words, a business or company decides to open its own podcast where they would discuss the industry topics while referring to their brand from time to time.
To make it clear, let’s take an example. Remember the beauty podcast we were talking about? Now imagine the same podcast, which discusses the same self-care routines and make-up looks, promotes only one brand’s products: itself. That would be a branded podcast.
So if you have your small business and some podcast ideas or good podcast topics in mind, you too can start a branded podcast.
Now, let’s understand why in the world you would want to start a branded podcast:
Why start a branded podcast?
First, because podcasts are getting more and more popular every year. The US families are adopting the podcast listening habit into their routine, and the overall number of podcast listeners is promised to grow during the upcoming years.
So if podcasts are this popular, it is logical that integrating your branded podcast into your marketing strategy would be an excellent idea. By the way, with today’s technologies, podcast making is also super easy.
You don’t even need to have expensive equipment. Instead, you can find a decent podcast recording platform and podcast editing software that would make podcast creation easy as a pie.
Now back to branded podcasts! Not only are they popular and easy to make, but they are also:
Effective!
So many brands choose to start a branded podcast because it brings more customers and more conversions to their company.
NPR discovered that 75% of podcast listeners respond to the sponsored message they listened to in the podcast, including the branded messages. In other words, podcast promotions sound natural, and the customers are willing to act upon them.
All of this is great, but how do you get your podcast out there? How do you make it appear on people’s search results so that your hard work reaches its purpose.
One of the easiest ways is through SEO! Once your podcast is ready, use an AI-powered podcast platform to get an automatic transcription. Our speech-to-text software, for instance, will quickly turn your audio file into text, which you can later post on your website as an accompanying blog post.
The advantage of this is that you will fill your website with relevant keywords and content, which would eventually push your branded podcast higher on the SERPs.
By the way, you could also use the same tool as a text-to-speech converter to add some fun AI voice skins to it.
What are examples of branded podcasts?
Finally, to get you inspired and motivated, let’s skim through the examples of branded podcasts that truly nail it!
TGIM opens up as “Thank God it’s Monday!” and is the podcast of Shopify. Yes, we know hardly any of us would use the phrase on a weekly basis. The opposite is true; most people really don’t want Monday to start.
So the Shopify created a podcast where it interviews the entrepreneurs and the ones who are excited about the start of the week because they know they will have some big work done. This is a motivational podcast to inspire you and make you like Mondays too!
This one is from Sephora, designed to promote its newly launched #Lipstories line of lipsticks. However, the podcast is not really about lipsticks. It is about the influential female creators, leaders, and founders who share their stories of success.
And finally, this one is from Slack, and it is a fun, light podcast about “work, life, and everything in between.” So if you want to listen to some work anecdotes on your way home, it would be a perfect choice!
So if you have your own business, don’t waste a minute and start creating your branded podcasts: we promise, it will double the number of your customers and become a huge success. Of course, if you do it right. 😉