Podcasting has grown rapidly from being an amateur platform to a sophisticated content marketing medium. B2B podcasts are an appealing combination of both information and entertainment – education and chit-chat. Hospitality tech companies can harness this format to engage with their customers and decision-makers in a more informal way – making it a valuable tool for raising brand awareness.
Verbal storytelling has long been one of the most effective ways of communicating. Remember that ‘show not tell’ is one of the golden rules of writing and public speaking! Consumers are inherently curious and always want to learn about new experiences, products, events or people’s stories in a narrative format So podcasts often take the form of a relaxed chat – more of a conversation than a presentation. Something to be listened to whilst driving, out walking the dog – passive consumption fitted into our fast-paced lives.
74% of podcast listeners say they listen to learn new things and furthermore podcast listeners are more likely to be active on social media across channels and more likely to follow companies and brands. When your tech CEO or founder appears on an industry podcast, they are going to be having an intimate conversation with a highly engaged, motivated audience and one which is likely to respond back with live comments, social media posts or even LinkedIn connections. That’s a valuable platform right there.
Still not convinced? Here are 5 reasons why your proptech or hospitality tech company should be eyeing up podcasts as golden opportunities to raise awareness and connect with your audience:
Accessible medium
Podcasts are a fantastic way to reach your market. Listeners (your potential customers) can easily and flexibly access podcasts whenever and however they like – much less time-consuming than attending a conference or joining a webinar afternoon.
On the production side, podcasts are a cost-effective medium in which to create engaging content. Your CEO or founder needs to dedicate some of their time to recording a podcast episode, but this usually only takes 30 minutes or so plus maybe a pre-call ahead of the event. All of this can be achieved virtually and the result is quality, relevant and engaging content raising the profile of your brand.
Establish expertise
During the pandemic, many companies have pivoted or significantly changed their business models. Going on an industry podcast is a great way to educate your current and future customers about how and why you are developing a new proptech platform or targeting the hot flexible living sector, for example.
In a relaxed chat on a podcast, with an experienced host, you can get across your deep knowledge of your particular short-term rental or real estate market. Effectively, your founder can set out their stall and establish themselves as a leading voice with an opinion, experience and new things to say. Podcasts are thought leadership on turbo charge.
Network with customers and stakeholders
If you choose your podcasts wisely, you can ensure they are sector specific and really targeted to the audience you want to speak to. Often, podcasts are opportunities to grow your business connections – by building relationships with your host, the podcast team and importantly your listeners who may well ask to connect and interact with you on LinkedIn after the show.
Grow your audience
Podcasts can be published on music-streaming platforms, such as Spotify and iTunes, which exposes them to millions of listeners… for free. Often, the content will gain followers organically or if they are well publicised on social media, the audience will grow in this way. Remember, podcast listeners are very loyal and once they have connected with a host/hosts they will keep coming back. Great news if you bag a spot as a guest on a well-established show as your audience will grow alongside the podcast’s audience as listeners follow your social channels.
Interact and connect
By nature, podcasts are really interactive. They are conversations that generate new conversation topics, either on the show or perhaps in the chat rooms or on social media. Some podcasts invite listeners to comment in the chat function throughout the discussion, taking questions from your potential customers at intervals. Others take live polls or calls. All of these features present your podcast guest with opportunities to interact and connect with real people about your tech platform or solution – in an informal way.
Remember the interacting and connecting doesn’t stop when the podcast recording finishes. Podcasts are generally available to listeners for quite some time. Furthermore, your tech company can share, reshare and reshare again the podcast episode on your social media channels to maximise the exposure for your brand.
However you decide to get involved with podcasting – by listening to experts in your sector to widen your knowledge or by taking the plunge and accepting an invite to appear on a show yourself – this medium is full of possibilities for tech companies that want to educate and interact with their customers. So, what are you waiting for? Brush up your chatting skills!
About Helen Wedgewood
Helen is a PR specialist with Abode Worldwide. After a stint living in travel tech-hub Barcelona, she is now fully immersed in the dynamic short-term rental, proptech and hotel tech industries.
If you would like to know more about how working with our team at Abode Worldwide can help elevate your technology brand – go ahead and contact us for an informal chat.
