Welcome to Pinpoint, a weekly digest for marketers and leaders. In every issue you’ll find timely industry news, perspectives from experts, actionable marketing strategies, and links to other articles and resources worth reading.
In this week’s issue:
- Why DTC brands should be running podcast ads
- Elon Musk now wants to own 100% of Twitter
- A social media marketing tip from one of our experts
Strategy of the Week
“Podcasting,” he said, “is the next generation of radio, and users can now subscribe to over 3,000 free Podcasts and have each new episode automatically delivered over the Internet to their computer and iPod.”
That was a direct quote from the late, great Steve Jobs back in 2005 when Apple announced plans to bring podcasting to iTunes 4.9.
Fast forward to today, and the number of shows Apple hosts has jumped from the initial 3,000 to well over 2 million in just 16 years.
Apple helps listeners find shows they love by organizing and promoting them within channels
In that time, podcasting has grown into one of the most popular ways for people to create and consume content related to a specific niche topic.
There are gardening podcasts, parenting podcasts, business podcasts, TV show podcasts, news podcasts, running podcasts, the list goes on and on.
And Apple isn’t the only one hosting shows anymore. Spotify boasts that its users have access to over 3.2 million shows. Pandora says they have thousands of shows and over 600,000 episodes across a variety of topics that listeners can hear. Stitcher, now owned by Sirius XM has over 400,000 shows.
It’s estimated that a third of the US population, or 90 million people, listen to or watch podcasts at least once a month.
How can businesses tap into this passionate, growing community of listeners?
The answer is podcast advertising.
In May 2021, IAB reported that podcast advertising revenue had climbed to $842 million in 2020, a 19% increase from the previous year. That number is expected to skyrocket into the billions by 2023.
Podcast advertising has come a long way in the past few years. If you haven’t experimented with this channel before, we recommend giving it a try.
To get started, look to one of these options:
- Advertise on Spotify. Spotify has an entire suite of tools that make it incredibly easy for advertisers to build campaigns and measure performance.
- Use a marketplace like AdvertiseCast. AdvertiseCast can help reach over 150M listeners across 2500+ shows.
- Find a small, niche podcast. Find a smaller, lesser-known show that relates to your products or industry and manually reach out to the hosts. Find out if you can become a sponsor or record an ad. These smaller, newer podcasts can have some of the most passionate, active, and engaging listeners.
Want help from an expert? Reply to this email and we’ll connect you with a GrowTal marketing expert who can help you build and launch a podcast advertising campaign for your business.
Links We Love
Each week we ask our team to help us curate five newsworthy articles or events that you might have missed. This week’s top picks:
- Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 billion
- Consumers are getting bored so now chaotic marketing is a thing
- TikTok is testing a dislike button
- YouTube is launching a search insights tool
- Meta will begin testing monetization within Horizon Worlds
Watch Mark Zuckerberg talk about the Metaverse…from within the Metaverse
GrowTal Expert Tip
Are hashtags still useful on social media? Libby Collett, our resident social media strategist, says yes! She’s not alone. A quick Google search will populate thousands of recently publishes articles and guides on how to build an effective hashtag strategy for Instagram and TikTok.
But, if you don’t have time to read through those guides today, focus on this quick tip from Libby:
“To reach audiences in your niche try a small hashtag strategy,” says Libby. “Hashtags are like virtual file folders on social media. Some hashtags have more content filed under them than others. Focus on hashtags with a lower quantity of content under them. Closer to the 10-20K number and you are more likely to find your ideal customers. If you are using hashtags with a million items under them your content will get lost in the ruckus so make sure you choose your hashtags wisely!”
#gold #greatadvice #thankslibby
Until Next Time
As always, let us leave you with a quote from one of the greats:
“Trying to do it all and expecting it all can be done exactly right is a recipe for disappointment. Perfection is the enemy.” ― Sheryl Sandberg
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