Why You Should Use Podcasts in Your eCommerce Marketing Strategy

Marketers are always looking for new and interesting ways to promote their businesses and products. Apart from using an advanced eCommerce platform, most of them follow trends in modern media to see how they can attract audiences, and that is how podcasting became one of the most popular modern marketing channels.

There are currently over 90,000 podcasting shows and 30 million episodes, and those numbers keep rising every day due to how popular podcasts are. So if you’re looking for a new way to market your eCommerce store and pull people in, starting your own podcast is a great idea.

Here are all the reasons why you should use a podcast as the newest marketing strategy for your eCommerce business.

Cost-effective and easy to create

One of the biggest worries of every marketer is how to stay within their budget while creating their strategies. Unlike most methods used for advertising, creating your own podcast doesn’t require too much money as you don’t have to worry about high production costs or expensive equipment.

When you’re just starting, you need a soundproof room, affordable editing software and recording equipment, editing software, and a platform where your users can access your podcasts. As long as you have a well-written script and are articulate and speak with confidence, your podcast episodes will be interesting and attract new audiences in no time.

Another great thing about podcasts is that they are highly scalable. Even though you can start off with low-quality equipment, you can easily upgrade your equipment as you gain a larger audience. What also helps is implementing podcast plugins on your podcast site in order to reach its full potential. Scaling the costs requires minimum effort and allows you to improve the quality of your podcasts over time. 

Another aspect that you should think about is podcast hosting, which is necessary if you want your podcast to be 100% professional. 

However, finding reliable podcast hosting can be rather tricky due to the following reasons:

• Not all podcast niches are created the same. In other words, your niche may require different podcast hosting services than other niches.
• With the popularity of podcasts increasing, there are more and more hosting providers, not all of which offer good quality of services. Naturally, you want to choose high-quality hosting so your podcast can grow.

With thorough research, you can find many guides and comparisons that will equip you with valuable information about the top-ranked podcast hosting providers. You can educate yourself which they are best and why, what they offer, and based on your needs you can choose the right one.

Very engaging and easy to consume

The two most common digital mediums besides podcasts are visual and written content. While both of those mediums are engaging to a certain degree, both of them have their disadvantages. If we compare both of these with podcasts, we can see why podcasts are superior.

• Written content. This type of content is the least engaging out of the three. Product reviews, blogs, and similar written content require a high level of attention from readers. It takes a lot of effort to read, understand, and then retain the information, which is time-consuming and sometimes frustrating.
• Video content. Videos are easier to consume and more engaging than written content, but they require too much attention from their viewers. If you want to retain all the information from a video, you can’t take your eyes off the screen or else you will miss out on important and valuable information.
• Podcasts. Since podcasts come in an audio format and don’t require too much attention from their listeners, anyone can engage with them while also multitasking at the same time. They are interesting to listen to and easy to consume, so even people with busy schedules can find time for them.

The takeaway here is that the biggest advantage of podcasts is that all audience members still have free eyes and hands, which allows them to consume this medium while doing other activities.

Most podcast listeners are on the move as well, so you have a golden opportunity to reach people during their commute to work, while they’re doing exercise, chores, or any other activity.

The competition is still low

When you think about how your competitors are marketing their businesses, you will notice that most of them are using the same strategies as they did in previous years. That means that they are focusing on things such as SEO, blogging, and social media marketing.

However, very few businesses and eCommerce stores see podcasts as a great marketing opportunity because they don’t see all the benefits. While some of them are using podcasts in their marketing strategy, the competition is much lower than for any other medium.

If you look at the ratio of podcast listeners and creators, you can see that there is a huge audience who are interested in podcasts, and there aren’t too many podcast creators. Approximately 150 million people in the US listen to podcasts monthly, which is a much higher number than the current number of podcast shows.

Keep in mind that not all of these podcasts are related to business, and even those that are business-related probably aren’t your direct competition as they are in various different fields and cater to a variety of listeners. That means that, if you play your cards right and use this to your advantage, you can collect a large audience of loyal listeners.

Attract loyal audiences

One of the best ways to create a loyal community is through a podcast. Unlike different mediums such as written and video content, podcasts don’t attract a casual audience. That means that most podcast listeners that start a podcast episode will also finish it, and probably even listen to future episodes.

If you want to attract a loyal audience, you need to grab their attention in the first few episodes of your podcast, so they will want to come back for more. If you manage to keep your show high-quality and provide your listeners with interesting topics, you will soon be able to build a loyal community.

Here are some ways you can keep your audience satisfied:

• Reward your listeners with special offers and discounts they can use in your eCommerce store.
• Ask for feedback from your listeners that can help you improve your show.
• Encourage audiences to send you voice messages and participate in the show.
• Do a poll on which guest speakers your audience wants to hear and then bring them to your show.

Help you bring traffic to your store and generate sales

The biggest and most obvious benefit of creating your own podcast is bringing more traffic to your store. While you’re creating episodes of your podcast, you can talk about your store and your products, and all the reasons why your listeners need to turn into customers.

However, you won’t need to self-promote too often as your platform will automatically recommend related content to your listeners, so they will have immediate access to your store. With the right amount of self-promotion and hashtags, you will see an increase in the number of website visitors soon enough.

Since your listeners will most likely consist of a loyal audience, this will result in quality traffic and naturally, an increase in sales. Another reason why you will probably see an increase in sales is that podcast listeners consist of a demographic with disposable income.

According to a report from 2016, the average podcast listener earns around $10,000 more than the average U.S. consumer. This is probably because most podcast listeners are college graduates with a high income.

More personal than any other marketing strategy

Human beings love to make personal connections, and it’s always good to form intimate and personal bonds with your clients through marketing. There is no better way to do this than with podcasts, which are a very intimate medium because you speak directly to your listeners and customers.

Your listeners and potential customers can hear your voice and realize that there is a person behind the company you’re promoting. Additionally, because podcast hosts usually have a much more casual and unfiltered way of talking to listeners, you will be able to send your message across in a very authentic way.

Final thoughts

There are many good reasons why podcasts should be an important part of your eCommerce marketing strategy. This medium allows you to build a loyal audience much quicker than any other marketing strategy.

While it is important to follow all digital marketing trends, you shouldn’t miss out on podcasts. Just make sure to act fast before all of your competitors realize how great podcasts are for marketing an eCommerce business.