Have you ever heard?
Listener-friendly content material codecs like podcasts, audiobooks, and sound snippets improve the emotional enchantment of your tales and strengthen advertising efficiency.
Give it some thought. How usually do you get your viewers’s full consideration?
“Throughout your workday, you’re getting pitched and pinged in your units when you’re in ‘deflect and transfer on mode,’” says Jeanniey Walden, CMO of Ceremony Support and host of the favored Liftoff Journeys podcast.
“However when listening to audio, whether or not a podcast or an audiobook, you’re most certainly in a transitionary or relaxed state. At that time, it’s simply you and the content material.”
You’ll must develop a technique to rise above the noise of a crowded content material market and set lifelike expectations of the worth audio can contribute.
Listed below are some professional views and recommendation for constructing content material and advertising methods that embrace podcasting, sonic branding, and sound snippets.
Methods to resolve whether or not to launch a model podcast
Based on EMARKETER’s June 2024 trade forecast, U.S. podcast listeners will tune in for a median of fifty minutes every day.
“People have a tendency to like to multitask, and audio is essentially the most passive solution to be taught and eat content material,” says A. Lee Decide, co-founder and CMO of audio and video manufacturing company Content material Monsta. “You’ll be able to hearken to the podcast whereas strolling or doing every day chores.”
And you may repurpose podcast belongings, which extends your manufacturing funding’s worth. For instance, you possibly can edit a prolonged dialog into brief snippets to be used on social media. Or you possibly can pull verbal testimonials from the present transcript for reuse on web sites and in advertising campaigns.
“The podcast just isn’t the tip product. The podcast is a supply of content material,” Lee says.
Nonetheless, a podcast will not be a super match for each advertising aim.
“When you’ve got an current however passive viewers or a singular premise you want to personal publicly (much like what a ebook can do for you), then you might need to launch a present,” says Jay Acunzo, host of the How Tales Occur podcast and co-founder of Creator Kitchen.
However, a podcast could also be a poor selection if viewers development is your major aim. “The podcast itself doesn’t unfold like different types of content material. The host should exit and promote the present, like an actor with a movie or creator with a ebook,” Jay says.
To create a profitable present, Jay recommends investing in these vital parts:
- A well-developed, perspective-conveying premise
- An irresistible format that will get individuals to stay round by way of the tip of the episode
- Reliable, entertaining expertise
Simply don’t count on to compete with superstar podcasters like Steven Bartlett or Anna Faris.
Lee Decide explains, “If you happen to’re promoting industrial door hinges, your complete market might solely be 100,000 individuals.”
When gauging the advertising impression of your podcasts, don’t rely solely on conventional podcast metrics. For instance, one in all Lee’s purchasers reported a noticeable improve in inbound inquiries, although her podcast analytics information didn’t mirror this profitable end result.
“If she caught with what her podcast analytics indicated, she would have thought the present wasn’t working. However when individuals started telling her, ‘I heard you right here. I heard you there.’ She knew it was working,” Lee says.
If you happen to lack the buy-in or price range to host a present, think about pitching firm thought leaders as potential visitors on different trade podcasts — or sharing your content material as a present sponsor.
Do you have to put money into sonic branding?
When sure sounds or musical triggers make your viewers routinely consider your organization, that’s sonic branding at work.
“Sonic branding is a system of strategically crafted sound that makes individuals really feel one thing a couple of model or expertise,” says John Taite, EVP of worldwide model partnerships at Made Music Studio. “We frequently say that individuals suppose about what they see, however they really feel what they hear.”
There’s actual advertising energy in an immediately recognizable sound.
“It’s a unconscious reminiscence set off that kicks in once you’re making a purchase order determination — be it a automotive or a sweet bar,” John says. “Every bit of branded sound or music makes a long-term impression on a shopper — from promoting to social content material to activations.”
John ought to know: His firm is behind Cricket Wi-fi’s signature beep, Nature Valley’s “name of the crunch” whistle, and the Cinnamon Toast Crunch “Cinnadust!” sound.
Whether or not you’re a B2B or B2C model, massive or small, your group might be making a sound. However except it’s deliberate, it’s simply noise, says Roscoe Williamson, international inventive technique & innovation director at MassiveMusic, which creates music and soundscapes for manufacturers.
“You’ll by no means simply have a random emblem, random sort fonts, or a random visible id, proper? If you happen to’re not fascinated by sound in those self same phrases, you’re lacking out [on potential branding advantages],” Roscoe says.
Roscoe cites his crew’s work with TikTok as one in all his favourite examples of the ability of sonic branding:
“TikTok had an issue with off-site model attribution. When individuals [shared] a TikTok movie to a different website, like Instagram or Reddit, analysis confirmed that individuals weren’t attributing that content material to TikTok as a lot because the model would really like,” he explains.
His crew created the now ubiquitous sonic emblem that seems on any TikTok content material pushed off-site — in different phrases, onto thousands and thousands of movies each week — which is now the signature sound of TikTok.
Sonic branding contains utilizing sound for social media touchpoints, audio promoting, in-person experiences (like commerce reveals or in-store procuring), and the product appears like alerts when a activity is full or an error has been made.
Selecting the best sound palette to your model begins with creating guardrails for what you do and don’t need to sound like.
“[Those decisions] ought to align with what your model stands for — both its values or its tone of voice or promise,” Roscoe says. “Simply having that perspective and being constant will put these manufacturers forward of others [that] don’t even give it some thought.”
However, when sonic branding isn’t taken significantly or finished proper, it will probably harm shoppers’ notion of your model. “Simply ask one of many 15 manufacturers on-air proper now utilizing the sound of a doorbell,” says John Taite of Made Music Studio. “You’ll be able to’t stand out from the litter when you find yourself the litter.”
Add audio to current content material
If podcasts and sonic branding initiatives aren’t strategic matches, different approaches are value exploring. For instance, you should use AI automation to effectively create sound content material or incorporate audio options into your current tales.
Ann Handley, creator, speaker, and the world’s first “Chief Content material Officer,” sees the convenience of working with the newest tech as “a chance to make use of audio to create a fuller, richer buyer expertise and deeper viewers connection.”
Manufacturers may give their Reels, TikTok movies, and text-based content material an audible improve with the assistance of AI-generated audio overlays.
“AI is nice at voicing factual data. If I’ve created a weblog article, it’s helpful to have an AI voice learn it identical to it’s written as a result of my aim is to [help my audience] eat the information on the web page,” Content material Monsta’s Lee Decide says.
Lee says AI generally is a good substitute for human expertise should you lack enough assets. He makes use of this analogy: “AI is sort of a stand-in recording. You’ll be able to get pleasure from watching recorded music movies, nevertheless it isn’t like being on the live performance.”
Even so, AI will help differently.
“AI can translate audio into completely different languages and make it out there to international populations in ways in which it hasn’t been finished earlier than,” Ceremony Support’s Jeanniey Walden factors out.
Let your viewers hear your model voice
As you put together your technique, think about turning up the quantity to ask individuals to assemble round and hear. Podcasts, sonic logos, and including music and sound to current content material belongings assist deepen relationships.
Keep in mind: “Audio is about resonance, not attain,” Jay Acunzo says. “Concentrate on activating current audiences and turning them into superfans.”
A model of this text ran within the August 2024 version of Chief Content material Officer.
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Cowl picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content material Advertising and marketing Institute