Back in 2015, I saw the potential of podcasting. That was because at that time I was listening to a lot of audiobooks and saw the great benefits of audio content. After all, you can easily consume it during other activities, such as driving, mowing the lawn, running, etc.
And it was also easier to produce at the time and I suspect that was the real reason why I saw the potential of podcasting as a marketing channel. At the time, I had a lot of trouble writing without spelling mistakes and this was regularly pointed out to me by readers.
I don't know exactly why I continued blogging, but I suspect it was because at the time, few of my followers were listening to podcasts and reading blogs. Moreover, at that time I was still making a lot of how-to content. And audio is generally less suitable for that.
So why invest heavily in podcasting now?
A number of things came together that made me realise that podcasting was going to be the next big thing. I will first sum up the 'triggers' for you and then conclude with the substantiation and my personal vision on the future of podcasting.
The triggers: What's happening with podcasting?
It's funny how things like that happen. For a long time I had been seeing things happening around podcasting and then suddenly all that input comes together and forms an 'aha! moment'. In my case, the Corona lockdown and my affiliate earnings were the last pieces of the puzzle needed to come to an understanding.
For quite some time now, I have seen the people I follow online switching to podcasting. The amount of written content was decreasing and they were producing much more audio content. But that was not enough proof for me that podcasting would explode in popularity.
That was when I wanted to interview experienced entrepreneurs on video and the Corona lockdown threw a spanner in the works. Because I had already lined up a number of good names for the video series, I wanted to carry on with the project anyway. As a podcast, if necessary.
And then my affiliate earnings shot through the roof. I once wrote an article about podcast microphones and for every purchase made through my link, I received a commission. For years, that earned me about €30 a month. And now, all of a sudden, it was €300.
I decided to find out why and saw that the trend had been around for a while. And that was enough to spend an evening finding out what was going on with podcasting.
Underpinning the trend
Let me say first of all that at the time I did my research, the trend might as well have slowed down. So even though the evidence I found seems very strong now, there was no certainty at the time that the future of podcasting would develop in this way.
Now podcasting is at a different stage of the trends and I have more strategic information and insights that lead me to believe that podcasting will only grow in the next 10 years. I will come back to that future in my vision of podcasting in the future.
Now I would like to start by reflecting on the information I found when I went looking for information on the podcast trend. Mainly because I wanted to establish for myself that it was not a short-lived boom, but a trend with a future.
The proof: Podcasting is here to stay for the long term
Apple has been active in the podcasting world since 2005, but recently Spotify and Google have also invested heavily in podcasting. For example, there was a lot of attention for the Joe Rogan / Spotify deal which Joe is said to have earned $100,000,000. In addition, Spotify spent about 400 million dollars on acquisitions of companies active in podcasting.
A product manager responsible for the podcast branch at Google gave an interview at the an interview with Geekwire Google will be investing heavily in the coming years in making podcasts easier to find. And also Amazon recently announced that it is going to bet on podcasts.
So Big Tech is all-in.
But that is not the only thing I came across. I also decided to check out Google Trends and there too, the graph very clearly confirmed that podcasting is gaining interest, as you can see below.
In various interviews with psychologists, marketers, entrepreneurs, journalists and even historians, it was always emphasised that listening in order to process information has been particularly well suited to humans for centuries. Much better than reading, for example, which people only started doing much later.
And finally, podcasting fits perfectly in our increasingly busy lives, because you can combine podcasting with other (light) activities, such as driving, housework, walking, cycling, etc.
My vision of the future of podcasting
Podcasting is called the new blogging by many, and although I don't think podcasting will completely replace blogging, I think podcasts will soon take a dominant place in the audio landscape.
Because podcasting has some very big advantages over many other marketing channels, namely;
- The average reading time of a blog is 2 - 3 minutes, while the average listening time of a podcast is around 20 - 30 minutes (based on my own data).
- You can easily consume audio content during other light activities, making it fit better into our busy schedules
- It is an intimate form of communication (in someone's ear), whereby you also get the listener's attention for a relatively long time.
- Because people listen for longer, it lends itself perfectly to long-form content, allowing more complex information to be conveyed in an easily accessible way.
- Your followers are your followers. You don't have to deal with a timeline, because you decide how you share and promote your podcast.
Especially the latter is important for companies and entrepreneurs. Because whereas Google, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn determine who sees your content, with podcasting you have much more control over who sees your content.
You can share your podcast on your blog, via a newsletter, the socials or via your Springcast podcast website.
The latter you can easily link to Google Tag Manager, which also allows you to collect much more data about your target group.
Summary
Podcasting is making a very powerful comeback and nNot only the investments of the big tech companies support this, but also the trend data shows that podcasting is here to stay.
So the future of podcasting looks bright for both the short and long term. Want to get started with podcasting? Check out our posts on the starting a podcast.
