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7 Reasons To Use Podcasts to Market Your Business

This blog was commissioned by and first appeared on Tuesday Media. 

You must have overheard it. People talking in hushed, but excited, tones about S-Town, Serial, Dirty John or the latest podcast that they’ve discovered. One in ten adults in the UK now listen to podcasts every week – spending hours catching up with their favourite audio shows from across the world. And that number is growing.

A podcast is a series of digital audio files downloadable onto your phone, tablet or laptop. To put it another way, it’s a form of radio show which needs no radio station, nor radio set to listen to it. Anyone can record them and publish them. Listeners can search for a topic they want to hear more about, download a podcast on that topic and listen to it. Wherever they want. Whenever they want. For free.

Current research tells us that podcast listeners are young, affluent and keen to learn new things. Starbucks, eBay, Microsoft & NatWest are already doing it, but podcasting is still an underdeveloped marketing tool for businesses. So, here are seven reasons why your business needs to start podcasting.

1 Audio communication has stood the test of time

Reports of the death of the radio star have been greatly exaggerated over the years – Buggles, Video Killed The Radio Star, 1979

Since Guglielmo Marconi started testing the concept out at the turn of the 20th Century, radio has been written off many times. Lord Kelvin – he of the temperature scale – once said “Radio has no future”. In the 1970s, there was even a song about it. In fact, as radio futurologist, James Cridland notes, so many things have “killed the radio star” that you’d be forgiven for thinking audio would be dead and buried by now. Instead, BBC radio is approaching its centenary with nine in ten people in the UK listening to the radio every week.  Meanwhile, Google and Amazon are making audio sexy again with smart speaker technology. Alexa won’t be able to read your blog or play your video but she will be able to play your podcast!

So why has audio survived? Well, it’s a simple, effective and convenient form of communication. What‘s more, done well, radio is your friend. Over the last two decades, I’ve seen first hand how important radio presenters are to people – and how personally they take it when you make changes. A presenter is in a listener’s life day in, day out. Often they spend more with them than they do with their own friends and family. Podcasting offers that same bond but with more of a commitment. After all, podcast listeners have made an active choice to press play and listen to you. They’re interested in what you’ve got to say. They trust you. We know how effective this is for advertisers. US ad agency Midroll polled over 160,000 podcast listeners in 2015 and found that 60% had bought products they’d heard about on a podcast.

2 Podcast listeners are likely to be your dream customers

6.1 million UK adults now listen to podcasts ©Radiocentre

6.1 million adults in the UK listen to podcasts every week. That’s one in ten people who are making an active decision to take control of what they listen to. These people tend to be in their twenties, thirties and forties. And in the US – where podcasts are much more of a part of daily life – Midroll found half the podcast audience are university educated. A fifth earn more than $100,000 a year. Podcast listeners, it seems, are young, well-educated and affluent. These are, for many businesses, dream customers.

3 People spend quality time with you

Your podcast listener is a rarer species of human than, say, your YouTube consumer, or your Facebook user. But no one can match them for their passion or their evangelism. If you’re a podcast listener, you spend most of your listening time listening to podcasts, rather than other forms of audio. And 85% listen to most, if not all, the episodes that they download. That’s extraordinary loyalty when you compare it to the average watch time for a YouTube video. It also adds up to lots of listening time. Think about the way you consume audio at the moment. When you’re driving, for example, or when you’re out for a run, or at home while you’re doing chores. Audio is helping to entertain your conscious while your subconscious cracks on the everyday tasks that take up hours of your day.

4 People want to learn something new every time they listen

For many, podcasts provide a welcome break from radio ads and hearing the same songs over and over again. Podcast listeners are active listeners. Research firm Edison discovered they listen to learn something new every time.

What’s more, the beauty of podcasting is that niche is king. If you  create a podcast discussing different types of pens, you can and will find an audience for it. Saying that, it’s important to remember a podcast doesn’t work if you’re trying a hard sell. Instead, be generous with your knowledge in order to build an audience. You can create the desire around your product but encourage people to visit your website and convert sales there.

5 Be a thought leader in a small pool

eBay Open for Business presenter, John Henry at the Gimlet Creative Studios
©eBay

Many people see video and think why bother with audio. But there are a couple of ways in which podcasting has the edge. For starters, people spend more time with podcasts than with video, which gives you more time to engage potential customers. But also in a podcast world, you can become a big fish in what is still, relatively, a small pond. Although no one has definitive figures, there are around 200,000 active podcast series available today. Compare that with the 300 hours of videos uploaded on YouTube every minute and the 5 billion videos watched every day. Becoming a trusted voice in your field is far harder on YouTube than it is as a podcaster.

6 Great media training opportunity

Every business needs great communicators. Particularly when the going gets tough, people who look and feel comfortable in front of a microphone are worth their weight in gold. With a regular podcast, your team can get used to being on microphone in a live, studio environment. They can hone how to make your company’s key messages appeal to your audience. Podcasting is a great way to get some regular practice at those key media training skills.

7  You’ll be in good company

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and executive producer, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, talk about their Upstanders podcast and video series to Adriana Huffington ©Starbucks

Up to now, podcasts have been the domain of media companies and individuals with a story to tell. But with the help of experienced audio production companies, more and more businesses are getting in on the act. There are three types of branded podcasts, as they‘re known. The first type shows off your area of expertise. So, for example, Tinder has its own dating show and Mumsnet shares baby stories with new parents. The second type is where content aligns to your company’s values. Starbucks has a podcast highlighting ordinary people making a difference in their communities. Meanwhile, eBay provides inspiration for people starting up their own business. The final type of branded podcast is perhaps the most philanthropic – where you lend your name and your money to the creativity of others. The best example of this is audio drama provider, The General Electric Theater – a throwback to the US company’s role as a TV drama sponsor in the 1950s.

This blog first was originally commissioned by Tuesday Media – a new, exciting communications agency which combines storytelling skills with digital expertise to create a full inbound marketing solution for your company. Bengo Media can help you start your podcasting journey by creating powerful audio content for your business. Get in touch to find out more. 

7 Reasons To Use Podcasts to Market Your Business

This blog was commissioned by and first appeared on Tuesday Media. 

You must have overheard it. People talking in hushed, but excited, tones about S-Town, Serial, Dirty John or the latest podcast that they’ve discovered. One in ten adults in the UK now listen to podcasts every week – spending hours catching up with their favourite audio shows from across the world. And that number is growing.

A podcast is a series of digital audio files downloadable onto your phone, tablet or laptop. To put it another way, it’s a form of radio show which needs no radio station, nor radio set to listen to it. Anyone can record them and publish them. Listeners can search for a topic they want to hear more about, download a podcast on that topic and listen to it. Wherever they want. Whenever they want. For free.

Current research tells us that podcast listeners are young, affluent and keen to learn new things. Starbucks, eBay, Microsoft & NatWest are already doing it, but podcasting is still an underdeveloped marketing tool for businesses. So, here are seven reasons why your business needs to start podcasting.

1 Audio communication has stood the test of time

Reports of the death of the radio star have been greatly exaggerated over the years – Buggles, Video Killed The Radio Star, 1979

Since Guglielmo Marconi started testing the concept out at the turn of the 20th Century, radio has been written off many times. Lord Kelvin – he of the temperature scale – once said “Radio has no future”. In the 1970s, there was even a song about it. In fact, as radio futurologist, James Cridland notes, so many things have “killed the radio star” that you’d be forgiven for thinking audio would be dead and buried by now. Instead, BBC radio is approaching its centenary with nine in ten people in the UK listening to the radio every week.  Meanwhile, Google and Amazon are making audio sexy again with smart speaker technology. Alexa won’t be able to read your blog or play your video but she will be able to play your podcast!

So why has audio survived? Well, it’s a simple, effective and convenient form of communication. What‘s more, done well, radio is your friend. Over the last two decades, I’ve seen first hand how important radio presenters are to people – and how personally they take it when you make changes. A presenter is in a listener’s life day in, day out. Often they spend more with them than they do with their own friends and family. Podcasting offers that same bond but with more of a commitment. After all, podcast listeners have made an active choice to press play and listen to you. They’re interested in what you’ve got to say. They trust you. We know how effective this is for advertisers. US ad agency Midroll polled over 160,000 podcast listeners in 2015 and found that 60% had bought products they’d heard about on a podcast.

2 Podcast listeners are likely to be your dream customers

6.1 million UK adults now listen to podcasts ©Radiocentre

6.1 million adults in the UK listen to podcasts every week. That’s one in ten people who are making an active decision to take control of what they listen to. These people tend to be in their twenties, thirties and forties. And in the US – where podcasts are much more of a part of daily life – Midroll found half the podcast audience are university educated. A fifth earn more than $100,000 a year. Podcast listeners, it seems, are young, well-educated and affluent. These are, for many businesses, dream customers.

3 People spend quality time with you

Your podcast listener is a rarer species of human than, say, your YouTube consumer, or your Facebook user. But no one can match them for their passion or their evangelism. If you’re a podcast listener, you spend most of your listening time listening to podcasts, rather than other forms of audio. And 85% listen to most, if not all, the episodes that they download. That’s extraordinary loyalty when you compare it to the average watch time for a YouTube video. It also adds up to lots of listening time. Think about the way you consume audio at the moment. When you’re driving, for example, or when you’re out for a run, or at home while you’re doing chores. Audio is helping to entertain your conscious while your subconscious cracks on the everyday tasks that take up hours of your day.

4 People want to learn something new every time they listen

For many, podcasts provide a welcome break from radio ads and hearing the same songs over and over again. Podcast listeners are active listeners. Research firm Edison discovered they listen to learn something new every time.

What’s more, the beauty of podcasting is that niche is king. If you  create a podcast discussing different types of pens, you can and will find an audience for it. Saying that, it’s important to remember a podcast doesn’t work if you’re trying a hard sell. Instead, be generous with your knowledge in order to build an audience. You can create the desire around your product but encourage people to visit your website and convert sales there.

5 Be a thought leader in a small pool

eBay Open for Business presenter, John Henry at the Gimlet Creative Studios
©eBay

Many people see video and think why bother with audio. But there are a couple of ways in which podcasting has the edge. For starters, people spend more time with podcasts than with video, which gives you more time to engage potential customers. But also in a podcast world, you can become a big fish in what is still, relatively, a small pond. Although no one has definitive figures, there are around 200,000 active podcast series available today. Compare that with the 300 hours of videos uploaded on YouTube every minute and the 5 billion videos watched every day. Becoming a trusted voice in your field is far harder on YouTube than it is as a podcaster.

6 Great media training opportunity

Every business needs great communicators. Particularly when the going gets tough, people who look and feel comfortable in front of a microphone are worth their weight in gold. With a regular podcast, your team can get used to being on microphone in a live, studio environment. They can hone how to make your company’s key messages appeal to your audience. Podcasting is a great way to get some regular practice at those key media training skills.

7  You’ll be in good company

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and executive producer, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, talk about their Upstanders podcast and video series to Adriana Huffington ©Starbucks

Up to now, podcasts have been the domain of media companies and individuals with a story to tell. But with the help of experienced audio production companies, more and more businesses are getting in on the act. There are three types of branded podcasts, as they‘re known. The first type shows off your area of expertise. So, for example, Tinder has its own dating show and Mumsnet shares baby stories with new parents. The second type is where content aligns to your company’s values. Starbucks has a podcast highlighting ordinary people making a difference in their communities. Meanwhile, eBay provides inspiration for people starting up their own business. The final type of branded podcast is perhaps the most philanthropic – where you lend your name and your money to the creativity of others. The best example of this is audio drama provider, The General Electric Theater – a throwback to the US company’s role as a TV drama sponsor in the 1950s.

This blog first was originally commissioned by Tuesday Media – a new, exciting communications agency which combines storytelling skills with digital expertise to create a full inbound marketing solution for your company. Bengo Media can help you start your podcasting journey by creating powerful audio content for your business. Get in touch to find out more. 

Outlined below is guidance on the upload, editing and deleting processes in Manage Your Collections (MYC). If after reading this guidance you still can’t find the answer to your question, please email us with your query.

Upload

What can I upload to Discovery?

You can upload spreadsheets as either .xlsx or .tsv files to Manage Your Collections. This file can be either the MYC template or your own spreadsheets with the fields mapped to Discovery’s.

Uploading with the MYC template

MYC template

The MYC Excel template is ISAD(G) compliant. It has 24 fields but only six are required fields at the fonds level:

• Level of Description
• Title
• Name of Creator
• Scope and Content
• Dates
• Reference Code

At the levels below fonds, there are four required fields:

• Level of Description
• Reference Code
• Title
• Dates

Step one – get the template

Sign in to your Manage Your Collections account and go to the ‘Add a collection’ page where you will be able to upload new catalogue data to Discovery.

Click on ‘template’ and save the blank template to your computer. Then fill in your own catalogue data. Do not delete or hide any columns or fields.

(Please note: we use columns A and B of each template for our own administrative purposes. These columns are hidden when you download a blank template: column C will be the first column in your template).

When you have finished adding data to the template, save it on your computer.

Step two – upload the file

Click on ‘Upload file’. Select the file you wish to upload by clicking on ‘Choose a file’ in the window that appears. Find the file on your computer, and select it. Then click the ‘Open’ button.

Click on ‘Upload’.

Step three – preview and approve

Once the file has uploaded, you’ll be directed to ‘View History’. Once your data has been validated, you will see the ‘Preview and approve’ button. Click on this button to see the catalogue data that you have uploaded. This allows you to see a sample record of the collection on Discovery.

On the preview page, click ‘Approve’ or ‘Reject’ as appropriate. If you approve the collection, the collection will also appear in the ‘Find a Collection’ section.

For further information on validation see the ‘Upload failed’ section below.

Some things to note

• You can either provide a start date and end date or covering dates for a collection. If providing start and end dates these need to be integers expressed as YYYY or YYYYMMDD. The covering date field is a free text field but this means that the dates will not be searchable. Only entries with start and end dates populated will appear in searches where users have selected a date range.
• A file will not validate if too many levels are skipped at once within the tree structure. For example, you cannot go from:
  • Fonds to Item
  • Series to Item
  • However, you can go from Fonds to File
• Clicking on the column header cell will produce a yellow description box that offers help text for that field.
  • Please note that although the help text in Manage Your Collections states Legal Status is a required field at the fonds level, it is optional.
• When formatting your catalogue data using Excel, you can type ALT-Enter or use the | symbol to signify the beginning of a new paragraph. Alternatively, you can use tags to indicate line breaks in your catalogue data. Permitted tags include <p>, <lb> and <ul> and <li> for lists. These are the only kinds of text formatting that are permitted in the template.
• Only one fonds per spreadsheet is allowed. If you want to upload multiple collections, they will need to be in separate spreadsheet files.
• We have some guidance on cataloguing archive collections that summarises the main points of archival cataloguing.
• You can include hyperlinks to your own online catalogue, website or digitsed content in your catalogue you upload to Discovery. You can include hyperlinks in the following fields; Scope and Content, Unpublished Finding Aids and Note. You must include “http://” or “https://” to the beginning of your URL to ensure the link will be live once it’s published to Discovery.

Uploading with the Metadata Mapper

The metadata mapper is another way to upload your collections to Discovery. It allows you to upload your own spreadsheets (either .xlsx or .tsv) and map your metadata fields to Discovery’s.

Mapping process

Once you have uploaded a file of catalogue data to Discovery, you can check the progress of your upload on the ‘View history’ page. Click on the message ‘Map fields in Discovery’ once it appears.

You can choose to create a new mapping, or reuse one that you have created previously. Select one of these options from the drop-down list on the ‘Map your fields to Discovery’ page, and then click on ‘Go’. If you are creating a new mapping, give it a name so it can be saved for future reuse.

Select a field from Discovery, and then select the field in your catalogue data that corresponds to it. (When you click on a Discovery field name, you will see a hint giving more detail about what this field is used for). Once you have selected two corresponding fields, click on ‘Match’.

The metadata mapper on Manage Your Collections

If you wish to undo any field matching, click on ‘Undo’ next to the appropriate entry in your list of matched fields. The fields will be repopulated into their respective columns.

You do not need to map all the Discovery fields to fields in your catalogue data. Only match the ones that correspond to fields that you use. For a mapping to validate, there are five required fields to map and either start date and end date or covering dates.

Once you have matched all the fields in your list to fields in Discovery, give it a name, then click on ‘save this mapping and continue uploading data’.

Some things to note

• If you do save a mapping which you will want to re-use for other collections, ensure that you don’t change (move or rename) columns in the spreadsheet(s) you’re uploading as the saved mapping will not recognise the format. If you do upload a spreadsheet that is different from a saved mapping, you can simply create another mapping for it.

Upload failed

If your catalogue data upload fails, you will see the ‘see error report’ button on the ‘View History’ page (it is also emailed to you). Click on this for the validation report, which shows the reason(s) why your data cannot be published in Discovery.

‘Error’ alerts must be resolved before your catalogue data will upload successfully to Discovery. The error report indicates the row number where the issue occurs, the column name and details of the problem identified.

Resolve the errors in the template. Once you have fixed all the errors, repeat the catalogue data upload process.

Editing

There are two ways to edit collection information – directly in Discovery or by downloading the collection in a spreadsheet, editing and then re-uploading the collection.

Editing in Discovery

Once you have signed in to your Manage Your Collections account, go to the ‘Find a collection’ page. Select or search for the collection you wish to edit.

Click on the ‘Edit fields in Discovery’ link to make changes.

Editing options in Manage Your Collections

You will be taken to the catalogue description page in Discovery, where you will find the ‘edit’ and ‘delete’ buttons are in the top right hand corner of the catalogue description. The ‘Mange your collections’ button will return you to your MYC account.

The edit and delete buttons on the catalogue description

In the ‘Record details’ page, edit or add information in each field as required. You can find help text for each field by clicking on the ‘?’ icon.

When your edits are complete, click on the ‘Publish changes’ button at the bottom of the page.

To return to your MYC account, click on ‘Manage your collections’.

Some things to note

You cannot edit the following fields in Discovery:

• Reference numbers. If you need to change the reference numbers for your collections, you will need to download the collection, edit the references in the spreadsheet and then re-upload.
• Fields that do not appear in the MYC template. A2A legacy collections can have different field names and consequently do not load in the ‘Record details’ page for editing. However, when you download the collection, fields are mapped to the corresponding MYC field name. For example, Related Material is a field commonly used in A2A collections. However, as this field name is not in the MYC template, any data in this field when downloaded is mapped to ‘Related Units of Description’.

Editing via exporting & re-uploading

You can make changes that are more extensive to a collection by downloading it into a spreadsheet, making the changes and then re-uploading to Discovery. This method can be used if you would like to add more content to your catalogue, such as addtional series or item level descriptions.

To download data about the collection from Discovery, click on the ‘Get your collection’ button. You will need to select whether you want to download your data in Excel format or EAD format.

Editing options in Manage Your Collections

Format choices for data export on Manage Your Collections

Once you have selected your collection and the appropriate format, visit the ‘View history’ page. You will see which collections are ready for you to download. Click on the ‘Download collection’ link to retrieve your spreadsheet.

Edit the parts of the collection that you wish to change. Do not hide or delete any columns. If there are columns or fields in the template that are not relevant to your cataloguing schema, leave them empty.

Please note that we use columns A and B of the template for our own administrative purposes. These columns will be hidden when you download your collection information. However, if you are able to see details in columns headed ‘IAID’ and ‘PIAID’, do not edit this information. Making changes in these columns will make it impossible for Discovery to validate your catalogue data.

Once you have made the necessary changes, save the document to your computer. In the ‘Add a collection’ screen or the ‘Collection details’ screen, click the ‘Upload changes’ button. You will see the ‘Upload a file’ window: click ‘Choose a file’ and select the file from the location where you have saved it.

Click the ‘Upload’ button.

Some things to note

If you want to edit legacy A2A collections by downloading them, it is likely they will not have all the information necessary for the template to validate on re-upload. If you do download a legacy A2A collection, as well as making the changes you wish to, ensure you check the following:

• That there is a start and end date or covering dates for each record and that the dates are formatted correctly in the start and end date column expressed as YYYY or YYYYMMDD. Covering dates is a free text field.
• Creator information is filled out at fonds level.

Deleting Collections

Go to the ‘Find a collection’ page. Select or search for the collection you wish to delete.

Once you have selected the collection you wish to delete you will see the ‘Delete this collection’ button: click on it.

Select your reason for deletion in the drop-down menu in the window that appears and select ‘Confirm’.

You should now be able to see the collection awaiting deletion on the ‘View history’ page.

You will have seven days to change your mind before your collection is permanently deleted. To prevent its deletion, visit the ‘View history’ page and click on the appropriate ‘Restore’ button.