This Month’s Marketing CLINIC
MWM 56
Why NOW Is the Best Time to Start a Podcast If you already have a successful, popular podcast, then you already know the power of podcasting to create an audience, to build credibility, to make connections with the movers and shakers in your niche and to sell a lot of product. Think about this: When you have a podcast, you are in your target market’s ears for 20 to 60 minutes. This is intimate, one-onone time with no interruptions or competition for their attention. You can create personal (PERSONAL!) relationships with your audience in a way that the written word can never do. If you want to… • reach an audience • sell products or services • make crucial networking connections • build a business … and you don’t already have a podcast, I’d like to suggest that right now is the ideal time to start one. It’s like that saying, ‘The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the second best time is right now.’ Maybe the best time to start a podcast was a year ago, but today is nearly as good because unlike almost any other medium, there is still tons of room for you in podcasting. Five years from now? You’ll either have hundreds of episodes in your pocket and an audience of several hundred thousand (millions maybe?) or you’ll be kicking yourself HARD because you didn’t start a podcast in 2021. Have you noticed how popular podcasting is becoming? If you had doubts before, surely by now you realize that podcasting is here to stay. • As of May 2021 there are over 2 million podcasts and over 48 million episodes. • 37% of the US population listens to podcasts every month. • Podcast listeners listen to an average of 7 different shows per week • 93% listen to all or most of each episode Maybe you’re waiting to podcast until you ‘feel ready’ whatever that means. But here’s the secret every podcaster knows: Almost no one who ever started a podcast was truly “ready”. In fact, you have the same level of experience as almost every other new podcaster out there. That’s because you know how to TALK, and if you can talk, you can do a podcast.
