95: Is Podcasting Worth It?

Written By Britany Felix
 
95 Podcasting for Coaches Britany Felix.png

What’s This Episode About?

Is it too late to start a podcast?

Is the market too saturated?

Is a podcast even an effective marketing tool for a coaching or consulting business?

Don’t people just skip past podcast ads anyway?

In this episode, I use the latest podcasting industry data to answer all of those questions and more. So, whether you’re thinking about starting a podcast or you’re wondering if you should keep your existing podcast going, this episode will give you the information you need to make a decision.

Transcript

Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more. Welcome to Episode 95 of podcasting for coaches. If you click on this episode, it's because you're probably thinking about starting a podcast, or you have one and you're not quite sure if it's worth keeping up with. I'm going to use some of the latest industry data to answer both of those questions for you. Right off the bat, I will tell you, yes. Yes. podcasting in general is worth it. Now obviously, there are specific exceptions. But for right now in terms of podcasting, as an industry, podcasting as a medium, as a content platform, it is absolute fuckin loosely worth it, to put it very bluntly. So let's get into this year, this is going to be a very data statistic number heavy episode for you. So just know that if you're not in a place where you can like really pay attention to these numbers, maybe come back to it a little bit later when you can. Or you can always go to the shownotes on my website, and I'm gonna have links to all of the resources that were used and the different reports and surveys and those sorts of things. You can find the show notes by going to podcasting for coaches.com. Click on the podcast tab in the main menu and then go to Episode 95. All right, so first up, we've got some data from Edison researches, the infinite dial 2020 Edison research is kind of like the gold standard, as far as I'm concerned. And as far as a lot of advertisers and marketers are concerned. They do a survey every year of ages 12 plus in the US, and they talk about all kinds of things. So this report actually has social media statistics, literally all kinds of stuff. Obviously, I'm focused on the podcasting data. So according to their latest report, 212 million people are familiar with the term podcasting, that's 75% of Americans. 155 million people have listened to at least one episode, that's 55%. So over half of all Americans have listened to a podcast episode. Now that means that 57 million people are familiar with them, but have never actually listened to an episode. And these are potential audience members for you. So if you already have a podcast, I want you to go back and listen to Episode 31, where I talk about educating your audience about podcast, because this is the way that you're going to get to those 57 million people who are familiar with podcasting, but have never actually listened. It was recorded back in October 2018. But the data is actually from this same report during that year. And it really has not changed all that much. The specific numbers may change, but the actual information and content of the episode is still accurate today. Now, according to another report from Edison research, the super listeners report. There is a lot of data about advertising specifically on your podcast. Now you as a coach or consultant will be advertising your own things. If you want to have a sponsor, this information is obviously going to be relevant as well. That's just not typically the method that I advise on doing if you have your own business. But if you want to bring on a sponsor, definitely this applies to both situations. Now this information that I'm going to be sharing here is actually from Edison researchers press release, again, the press release and the report will be linked in the show notes along with that infinite dial report if you want to check out the other data that's in it that they talk about as well. Okay, so this survey was actually of Americans aged 18 Plus, who listened to five or more hours of podcast audio every week. Now the first thing I'm going to do is break down their stats on the ages of the super listeners. And as I'm running through these I want you to think about the age of your ideal client. The specific age if you have one or the age range and see where they fall 21% of the super listeners are ages 18 to 24 24% are ages 25 to 34. And remember we're talking about millions of people here 21% are between the ages of 35 and 44 14% are between the ages of four 85 and 54 and 20% are ages 55 plus. So I know your ideal client has to fall somewhere in there, otherwise it probably couldn't afford to pay for you and your services. Alright, so we're gonna go into some statements here about advertising, and ads and those sorts of things. And these respondents stated whether or not they agreed with the statement or disagreed 49% of the super listeners agreed that advertising on a podcast is the best way for a brand to reach them. Remember, we are talking about millions of people. 54% said that hearing an ad on a podcast makes them more likely to purchase a product. 49% agree that their opinion of a company is more positive. When they hear it mentioned on a podcast they regularly listened to 46% agree that when the price and the quality are equal, they prefer to buy products from companies that advertise on podcast they regularly listen to 48% agreed that they pay more attention to advertising on podcasts than on any other form of media. 64% said they appreciate podcasts advertisers for supporting their favorite podcasters. So all of that stats go to prove that there is trust in these podcast ads. People take podcast ads seriously, and they feel that they are legitimate. We're going to go into a lot more data on this here in just a second. But I wanted to kind of hammer that point home right there. This next one, I want you to take to heart as well. 45% said they believe the hosts are actual users of the products or services they mentioned. Now that does mean that 55% of those super listeners do not believe that the host have any experience with the things they're promoting. So if you're promoting your own services, obviously that goes through the roof. But if you do have sponsors, and it is something that you actually use, make sure you really mention that and prove that to them, because it's going to mean a lot more to them. Okay, so you may be saying this is great. There's trust in ads, they believe in ads, they feel like ads work, but don't most people just get past the ads anyways. And I will tell you that. If I'm watching Hulu, yeah, I'm gonna go get myself a coke. I'm gonna go to the bathroom. I'm doing all that stuff during the ads. And occasionally, I will skip ads on a podcast episode. However, let's look at the actual data here. 38% of the super listeners say they skip ads, some of the time 33% of listeners they they very rarely or never skip ads. 17% say they skip ads most of the time, but not always. And only 12% say they always skip the ads. Only 12%. That means the vast majority of your audience is actually listening to your ads. Now let's talk about the type of ads and which one is more likely to get the attention of these super listeners. So 24% said they pay more attention to personalized discussions about the products or services by the host or hosts. 22% say they pay more attention to messages from advertisers that are read live by the hosts during the show 33% say they actually pay equal attention to both of those. So that's 24 and 33, who feel that they pay the most attention to personalized discussions and 22 and 33 who say they pay the most attention to live ad reads by the host. So contrast all of that with only 13% saying they pay more attention to pre recorded ads not read by the host. So what this means is your listeners, they want it to feel organic, which is exactly what I tell all my clients, that's what I've told you on the show, try to build in those mentions of your products and services organically into the conversation. And that is much, much more effective and enjoyable and preferred by the audience. Because they don't feel like they're being pitched to they don't feel like it's an ad they don't feel like you're selling them something, it's organic, you're talking about it, it just goes with the content, it doesn't feel out of place, it doesn't feel like you're wasting their time. So really, really try and do that if you can. And if you do have sponsors and advertisers use this data right here, again, this is the super listeners report that will be linked in the show notes to try to convince them to let you read the ad on your show and not have them give you like a filler commercial that they want you to just plop in there. Alright, so that's a lot of stats about advertising and listener breakdown and those sorts of things. So yes, podcasts can be effective. They can absolutely loosli be worth it. The trust is there, the audience members prefer podcast ads, pretty much any other type of ad. And they say that they're actually more likely to purchase if they've heard about something on a podcast, you really can't ask for more from a type of content platform. Alright, so you might be wondering now, especially if you don't already have a show, isn't there already enough competition? I mean, it feels like everybody on the brother has a damn podcast these days. And I get that I feel you, it does seem like everybody and their brother and their mom and their sisters cousin has a show. But that's actually really not true. It just seems like that because of the people in our bubble. We tend to interact with people who are like us. So yes, the people that you know, might have podcasts because you have a podcast. So naturally, it's something you're interested in, you're probably friends or acquaintances with other coaches or consultants. So yes, they might also have a podcast. But in the grand scheme of things, I'm going to give you some numbers here that will hopefully blow your mind because they certainly did mine. And they have pretty much anytime I've told anybody these numbers. So the following data comes from podcast industry insights comm courtesy of Daniel J. Lewis. There are at the time of recording this at 1:52am. On January 22, Yes, you heard that date, right? The day This goes live. I've said it before, I'll say it 1000 times, I am the biggest procrastinator when it comes to my own things. There are 1,805,824 podcasts on Apple podcasts. So 1.8 million podcasts. I know that seems like a huge number 1.8 million, that is a lot. If I had $1.8 million in my bank account right now, I would be smitten. But that's actually not really the best number to judge podcast by because only 38.9% of those are active, which means that they released an episode in the last 90 days. So that really actually gets boiled down to only 702,000 shows that are active on Apple podcast, which is by far the most popular platform. So 700,000 active shows, that's the number we need to keep in mind. Of those 62% have less than 10 episodes. So if you have more than that, you're good. If you are getting ready to start a show, you're thinking about starting a show, and you're like well, yeah, but I'm gonna have less than 10 episodes too. So what does that matter? If you stick with it, you'll still be ahead of the game, because this number does not really change all that much because of something called pod fade. Most people who start a podcast do not stick with it. pod fade used to be like 10 episodes, then it was eight. Now it's like four episodes, which means they start a show, they don't realize how much work it's going to be. They're not really that into it, they think they're going to have a huge audience on day one, or they're going to get sponsors right away. And when they realize that all of those things are not what they thought they give up. And they just don't continue on. They don't release any more episodes. So if you get past 10 episodes, you're ahead of the game, especially if you stick with it for several months or a year, which is what I tell people, when they're going to start a podcast is to plan on doing it for at least one year. And this is why you will stand out from your competition in air quotes. Okay, so remember that 700,000 number, this is where I'm going to blow your mind. According to tubik comm there are 31 million YouTube channels. So you might be thinking about doing a vlog instead, or starting a YouTube channel instead of a podcast. Your competition is 31 million channels, as opposed to 700,000 podcasts. And people on YouTube with these channels are uploading 500 hours of content every single minute. This data is accurate as of November 12 2020. So actually, it's probably even a little bit more right now because it's growing as well. Of those 31 million YouTube channels. 20 million of them have less than 100 subscribers. You can get your podcast to over 100 subscribers. If you stick with it, and the quality is good and the content is great. I promise you, you can get your podcasts to over 100 subscribers. So you might be thinking okay, well what about a blog wouldn't be to either to just start a blog, I don't got to worry about recording equipment. I want to get a microphone. I don't care about editing. I don't have to pay anyone else to do it. I can just put up a blog post and I'm good. Well, according to first sight guide.com there are 507 million blogs and get this 7 million blog posts are published every single day. That is a fuck ton of competition, no other way to put it. So compare those 507 million blogs and those 31 million YouTube channels with 700,000 podcasts, the market is not too crowded. Alright, that's all the data I have for you all the content I have for you. And I hope that this helped put your mind at ease a little bit as to whether or not podcasting can be effective for your business. And whether or not you should start one or if you're getting into the game too late. Alright, make sure that you come back next week, where I am going to do an episode that I think is going to be really great for you because this is a topic that is largely ignored in the podcasting community, and is actually really intimidating to a lot of people. And that's actually the legal side of podcasting. I've got a fantastic lawyer acquaintance of mine who is going to be on the show, talking about what legal aspects of podcasting you need to be aware of before you started. And after, of course, doesn't matter where you're at in the process. If you've never paid any attention to the legalities of podcasting, you do not want to miss this episode. And before I let you go, if you haven't started a podcast, but you are thinking about it now, I have got you covered, I have multiple options, both working with me one on one, and doing a self paced online course, to help you get your show launched, it takes you from idea to having a show launched on the major platforms. If you work with me, I can hold your hand and guide you through the process. If you're on a budget, I can also do that through the course as well. Just go to the show notes. And there is a work with me section where of course you can find all the ways you can work with me. If you have already started your show, and you want to stay up to date with industry data like this, with news on changes to certain platforms with news on what new platforms are out there that you can submit your show to what cool and exciting resources and tools I have found for you. I do all of the research. So you have to do none of it. And then I disseminated out in a monthly email. So for just $5 a month, you can get that email with everything that I have found that is relevant specifically for you as a podcaster, who is doing this as part of a coaching or consulting business, because let's face it, you honestly have better things to do with your time. Then worry about the latest platform that just came out that you can add your show to or the policy change that Apple made that could get your show removed. So I will do it for you. Again, just go to podcasting for coaches calm and there's actually a banner right at the top of the homepage, where you can sign up for the podcasting insiders club. All right, that's gonna wrap it up for being today. Thank you so much for being here and I will see you back here next week. And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, you can do so on Instagram at podcasting for coaches. If you know it's time to finally get serious about starting your podcast, go to podcasting for coaches comm and click on the work with me tab in the main menu to learn more about my one on one launch consultation packages or my self paced online course. And I look forward to seeing the podcasts that you create and put out into the world.

 
Britany Felix
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94: Clubhouse for Podcasters