Perhaps you know marketing professionals suffering from "Hot New Platform Exhaustion." The malady typically affects members of a marketing team who spend endless hours retooling content to fit specific platforms. Just as they begin to get the hang of things, something "hot and new" comes along with an entirely different set of publishing criteria, and they need to pivot... again.
That feeling of frustration is completely understandable. However, the hard reality every marketer must face is that we are living through an ongoing evolution in media consumption. Fueled in large part by new technology, customer lifestyles are changing rapidly, and marketing teams must adapt to keep up.
There is no longer much validity to the idea that we can market to a "captive audience." People listen to preselected content as they jog, drive, or do the dishes. Viewers pick which shows they want to watch and when they want to watch them. They also tend to fiddle with their smartphones or tablets whenever things get dull or predictable; if they don't like what they are seeing or hearing, out pops the smartphone and off they go.
Spending on audio marketing jumped from $1.1 billion in 2016 to $3.09 billion in 2020, according to Statista. That's a nearly threefold increase in four years' time. Clearly, if your company isn't currently producing audio content, it's time to dive in.
The successful marketers will be those who prioritize capturing eardrums while maintaining content for their eyeballs.
The Four Most Popular Audio Content Marketing Platforms
If your company is relatively new to audio content marketing, there are four basic categories that have been gaining significant traction for the past few years.
1. Voice search
If your company has the capacity to invest in only one area of audio content marketing, make it this one. The reason is that the availability of voice search will soon be prioritized on search engine results pages (SERPs) in much the same way that "mobile-first" website design now receives a significant boost in search rankings.
Sometimes referred to as "voice-enabled," voice search allows potential customers to find what you have to offer by phrasing their requests for processing by Google Voice Search, Amazon Echo, Siri, Cortana, and a host of other AI-powered technologies.
There's a noticeable difference between written search strings and what people say out loud, so optimizing your content for voice search is important.
2. Podcasts
The word to keep in mind before you jump into the podcasting craze is episodic. You might decide to release a new episode once a month or twice a day—whatever you can manage—but you must commit up front to a regular schedule of audio production and release.
If you don't have the resources to commit to a consistent schedule, hold off for now.
Successful podcasts feature tips, tricks, and interviews all organized around a shared topic of interest. Ideally, any branded podcast will center on something that plays right into your company's area of expertise.
3. Audiobooks
Don't let the word "book" throw you off. Although audiobooks certainly include published works of fiction or nonfiction spoken aloud in their entirety, the audiobook format is not limited to those. Anything that has been printed or published online—and received enthusiastic attention—has the potential to become an audiobook.
As an example, a popular blog might be retooled to offer an audio version of every published entry. That way, fans are freed up to listen with headphones instead of being glued to a laptop or forced to stare at a smartphone.
4. Audio Ads
Audio ads in the age of the Internet are not so different in form from the types of ads you might hear on a radio station. The difference is that broadcast radio ads are roughly equivalent to taking a "shotgun" approach—you might hit something—whereas audio content ads might be thought of as a sniper zeroing in on a specific target.
Audio ads can be throttled for delivery to specific demographics, geographic areas, or audiences prefiltered into groups most likely to be interested in what the advertiser has to say. The format allows businesses to produce ads that reach the ears of interested listeners, not just whoever might be tuned in.
Think Big, But Start Small
There's really no reason for businesses to shy away from audio content marketing. Chances are good that you're already doing some form of it, whether you know it or not. If you are verbally answering customer questions, that's audio content marketing. Whenever someone consults you for your opinion or expertise, that qualifies, too.