Have you ever heard?

Listener-friendly content material codecs like podcasts, audiobooks, and sound snippets improve the emotional attraction of your tales and strengthen advertising and marketing efficiency.

Give it some thought. How typically do you get your viewers’s full consideration?

“Throughout your workday, you’re getting pitched and pinged in your units whilst 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 probably in a transitionary or relaxed state. At that time, it’s simply you and the content material.”

You’ll have to develop a method to rise above the noise of a crowded content material market and set sensible expectations of the worth audio can contribute. 

Listed below are some professional views and recommendation for constructing content material and advertising and marketing methods that embrace podcasting, sonic branding, and sound snippets.

The best way to resolve whether or not to launch a model podcast

In line with EMARKETER’s June 2024 trade forecast, U.S. podcast listeners will tune in for a mean of fifty minutes day by day.  

“People have a tendency to like to multitask, and audio is essentially the most passive solution to be taught and devour content material,” says A. Lee Choose, co-founder and CMO of audio and video manufacturing company Content material Monsta. “You may take heed to the podcast whereas strolling or doing day by day chores.”

And you’ll repurpose podcast belongings, which extends your manufacturing funding’s worth. For instance, you’ll be able to edit a prolonged dialog into quick snippets to be used on social media. Or you’ll be able to pull verbal testimonials from the present transcript for reuse on web sites and in advertising and marketing campaigns.

“The podcast will not be the top product. The podcast is a supply of content material,” Lee says. 

Nonetheless, a podcast will not be an excellent match for each advertising and marketing objective.

“If in case you have an present however passive viewers or a singular premise you want to personal publicly (just like what a e-book can do for you), then you might wish to launch a present,” says Jay Acunzo, host of the How Tales Occur podcast and co-founder of Creator Kitchen.

Then again, a podcast could also be a poor alternative if viewers development is your major objective. “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 writer with a e-book,” Jay says.

To create a profitable present, Jay recommends investing in these essential components:

1. A well-developed, perspective-conveying premise
2. An irresistible format that will get folks to stay round by means of the top of the episode
3. Reliable, entertaining expertise

Simply don’t anticipate to compete with movie star podcasters like Steven Bartlett or Anna Faris.

Lee Choose explains, “If you happen to’re promoting industrial door hinges, your complete market might solely be 100,000 folks.”

When gauging the advertising and marketing influence of your podcasts, don’t rely solely on conventional podcast metrics. For instance, one in all Lee’s purchasers reported a noticeable enhance in inbound inquiries, although her podcast analytics information didn’t mirror this profitable consequence.

“If she caught with what her podcast analytics indicated, she would have thought the present wasn’t working. However when folks 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 folks really feel one thing a few model or expertise,” says John Taite, EVP of worldwide model partnerships at Made Music Studio. “We frequently say that folks assume about what they see, however they really feel what they hear.”

There’s actual advertising and marketing energy in an immediately recognizable sound.

“It’s a unconscious reminiscence set off that kicks in whenever you’re making a purchase order choice — be it a automobile 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 artistic technique & innovation director at MassiveMusic, which creates music and soundscapes for manufacturers.

“You’d by no means simply have a random emblem, random sort fonts, or a random visible identification, proper? If you happen to’re not desirous about sound in those self same phrases, you’re lacking out [on potential branding advantages],” Roscoe says.

Roscoe cites his workforce’s work with TikTok as one in all his favourite examples of the facility of sonic branding:

“TikTok had an issue with off-site model attribution. When folks [shared] a TikTok movie to a different website, like Instagram or Reddit, analysis confirmed that folks weren’t attributing that content material to TikTok as a lot because the model would love,” he explains.

His workforce created the now ubiquitous sonic emblem that seems on any TikTok content material pushed off-site — in different phrases, onto tens of millions of movies each week — which is now the signature sound of TikTok.

Sonic branding consists of utilizing sound for social media touchpoints, audio promoting, in-person experiences (like commerce exhibits or in-store procuring), and the product seems like alerts when a process is full or an error has been made.

Choosing the proper sound palette in your model begins with creating guardrails for what you do and don’t wish 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 viewpoint 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 executed proper, it will possibly 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 may’t stand out from the litter when you find yourself the litter.”

Add audio to present content material

If podcasts and sonic branding initiatives aren’t strategic matches, different approaches are value exploring. For instance, you should utilize AI automation to effectively create sound content material or incorporate audio options into your present tales.

Ann Handley, writer, speaker, and the world’s first “Chief Content material Officer,” sees the benefit 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 also 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 similar to it’s written as a result of my objective is to [help my audience] devour the details on the web page,” Content material Monsta’s Lee Choose says. 

Lee says AI generally is a good substitute for human expertise if you happen to lack adequate sources. He makes use of this analogy: “AI is sort of a stand-in recording. You may get pleasure from watching recorded music movies, but it surely isn’t like being on the live performance.”

Even so, AI might help differently.  

“AI can translate audio into completely different languages and make it accessible to international populations in ways in which it hasn’t been executed 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 amount to ask folks to collect round and pay attention. Podcasts, sonic logos, and including music and sound to present content material belongings assist deepen relationships.

Keep in mind: “Audio is about resonance, not attain,” Jay Acunzo says. “Deal with activating present 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