Effective storytelling is crucial if you want your marketing to be successful. A big problem for many brands is how to tell stories that engage and resonate with their audience.
As marketers are all too aware, it’s getting more and more difficult to break through the clutter and catch the attention of customers. What brands need to do is get creative in how they communicate with their audience.
This is where storytelling comes in. A captivating story will gain and hold the attention of your audience like no other marketing tactic.
Stories can be told through nearly every content type imaginable. Blogs, white papers, case studies, video, emails, eBooks and social media are some of the most common. However, big brands are now starting to tell their stories in a different way – podcasts.
An article in the Financial Times this week drew our attention to one such brand who has embraced podcasts in their content marketing.
General Electric is considered by many to be well ahead of the curve when it comes to content marketing. An early adopter of emerging platforms like Instagram and Vine, the conglomerate has positioned itself as a true storyteller for the digital age. Podcasts is the latest attempt by the firm to bring their stories to a new audience.
The Message is an 8-part science-fiction series created by General Electric’s marketing department, which centres on the company’s ultrasound technology. The podcast series has achieved great success, with downloads reaching 1m and top spot in the Apple iTunes podcast chart.
Adobe is another example of a brand telling their stories through podcasts. The software giant now turns its white papers into podcasts, appealing to those who don’t fancy reading the often lengthy documents in their original PDF format. According to Adobe’s vice-president of experience marketing, Alex Amado, the podcasts have received 6 times more downloads than the PDFs receive.
Podcasts represent an attractive opportunity to marketers for a number of key reasons. Firstly, they are easier and cheaper to create than some other forms of content, especially videos. This means brands can deliver much more content and tell many more stories to their audience.
Most importantly, podcasts have the power to build a loyal and highly engaged audience over time. Podcast listeners represent a captive audience, often on the move, and on the lookout for entertaining, longer form content to consume. Captivate a listener at the first attempt, and it’s likely that listener will continually turn to your podcasts on their travels or daily commute for example.
It’s likely that we’ll see many more big brands turn to podcasts in an attempt to enhance their storytelling and reach new audiences. The key to success, it seems, is to ensure they are as engaging and entertaining as possible. Get podcasts right and they have the power to leave listeners hanging on your every word.
Have you considered using podcasts in your content marketing? Do you listen to branded podcasts? Let us know in the comment section below.