Could Podcasting be the Next Big Thing for Inbound Marketers

As a site owner, you know just how important content can be. It’s how you stay connected to your audience, interest them in what you have to offer and how you keep them coming back. It’s all too easy to become hyper-focused on the importance of “written” content and forget that there are other ways of connecting with your audience.

Podcasting is hardly new, it’s been around for some time and used successfully by many bloggers to launch new careers. As it becomes easier to enjoy podcasts on mobile devices, consumers are hungrier for this medium and that spells good news for in-bound marketers. If you haven’t dipped your toes into the waters of podcasting yet, now may be a great time to try.

Podcasting is Content Marketing

At the end of the day, podcasting is simply another form of content marketing, but with the spoken word instead of the written word. It’s also a win-win proposition for site owners. Not everyone processes information the same way. Some people are visual and prefer to watch or read something to learn, while others do better with the spoken word. You’ve already mastered reaching your audience and influencing them with text, and now you have a great opportunity to take it to the next level with podcasting.

If you’ve never taken the time to listen to a podcast, and have no idea how to even go about producing your own, the first step is to start with picking a few and listening to what they have to say. Michael Stelzer, the founder of the SocialMediaExaminer has his own podcast, The Social Media Marketing Podcast (http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/category/podcast-episodes) and this is a great place to start. Listen to how he puts together his show and really pay attention to the content. You’ll get some great ideas that could inspire your own production.

We’ve all become very busy and though we may not like to admit it, we don’t have a lot of free time to read our favorite blogs and stay in touch with the latest trends. Podcasting has become the answer to staying relevant and reaching not only your existing audience, but also expanding your reach. Apple recently made it possible to stream podcasts on all iOS devices, which has helped take this medium to a whole new level of acceptability.

Podcasting Outlook

Will podcasting ever replace written content? No, most likely it won’t. However, it does have its own place and it never hurts to use every available medium at your fingertips to appeal to your audience and give them options. It’s another great tool for a marketer’s arsenal and it’s one that should be given serious attention.

As long as you have a good quality microphone and some basic sound software on your computer, you are literally minutes away from creating your own podcast for your site. It’s easier than ever, thanks to some great web-based tools and you can be up and running in no time. Chances are, the audience you’ve already built up through your content marketing will be more than happy to try out your newest venture.